(pours one out for FJM)
Joe Morgan
(11:05 AM)
One of the things we had talked about before these series started is that in a short series if you make any mistakes in closing out the games, you are not going to be able to win. If in a short series, if you give away one game, it usually means you are going to lose the series.
This is true, but you know what's more true? Having bad starting pitching give away games.
In the series, the closers of the losing teams could not close out the series and in the case of one team, a mistake of an outfielder helped them not be able to close out the game.
Yeah, but there were still two out and just one guy on base. If Franklin strikes out the next guy, no one ever talks about that missed catch ever again.
In a longer series, you have a little more room for error for closing the series out. But in a shorter one, it's harder to regain your balance if you blow a save. St. Louis should have been going home 1-1, Minnesota should have been going home 1-1, Boston should have been 2-1,
1-2...
Colorado should have been 2-2 going back to Philadelphia. A lot of times it's not just the closers, it's the defensive play as well.
Yeah. And sometimes it's the starting pitching. And sometimes it's the offense not showing up. Watching the playoffs become Survivor: MLB Closers was fun this year, because Mo was the last one standing at the end. But it was a flukey thing that hadn't ever happened before and probably won't happen again for a really long time.
Joe Morgan
(11:06 AM)
In the case of the Twins, they made a lot of base running mistakes also.
*is Nick Punto* *runs around like a moron*
I'm SO glad the Yankees caught him off of third because if he'd scored we would have heard so much Punto ball-gargling about what a daring, gritty player he is.
Tony (Rochester, NY)
Mr. Hall of Fame Joe Morgan,
that just makes me LOL.
what do you think the dodgers need to do if they are able to turn the tide and advance to the world series by beating philly?
Joe Morgan
(11:07 AM)
Well, the Dodgers need to play as they did against the Cardinals.
The Dodgers need to play like they did in the series that they won. Again, brilliant.
The Cardinals were the favorite, but they were not intimidated. This year, they'll play the first game at home, whereas last year it was played in Philly. The Dodgers are on a roll right now and I wouldn't put it past them to beat the Phillies. But the Phillies' power is still going to be a key element to this series.
Right. And so is the Dodgers' pitching. It was pretty exciting going into this series, because it was the classic battle of pitching vs. power. Except it wasn't close and the Dodgers' pitching totally shit the bed. Boooooo.
tom* (parkville, md)
Did you ever play in a postseason game where it snowed?
What the...?
Joe Morgan
(11:09 AM)
The very first Sunday Night game was played in Cincinnati against the Yankees and that would have been in 1976, I think. I think it had maybe snowed a little bit that morning, but it was a night game and it was just cold and not snowing. The answer is probably no. I've played in days where it snowed, but not games where it snowed. The very first game I played in Cincinnati after I was traded, it snowed and I thought the game had been cancelled. Pete Rose called me and said get to the ballpark. I was from California and wasn't used to playing baseball after it had snowed.
OH MY GOD NO ONE CARES
Chris (Boston)
Do the Yanks have the pitching to keep the Angels off the bases and keep them from scoring runs?
Call it a hunch, but I really think the Angels were gonna score at least one run in a four-game series at minimum.
Joe Morgan
(11:12 AM)
I don't think anybody can shut the Angels down completely.
They got shut out 6 times this year. That's a pretty damn good number, but yeah, I guess those 6 guys, whoever they were, can shut them down completely.
They have a couple of very good hitters, guys right around .300. They also will work some walks other than Vlad. I don't think they'll keep them off the bases.
Well - yeah. You'd have to throw a perfect game to keep them off the bases entirely. That hasn't happened in the postseason since 1956.
Once they get on base, they'll try to take advantage of the Yankees starters, by disrupting them by stealing bases. The Yankees' power will be very important to the Yankees.
Redundancy department of redundancy. Also, whaaa, how did he go from talking about the Angels stealing bases to the Yankees hitting a lot of home runs? Stay on topic!!!
They'll have to hit it out of the park to beat the Angels. The Twins had to work hard to score runs
That more speaks to the fact that the Yankees got very very good pitching during the ALDS, but okay
and then the Yankees would offset that with one swing of the bat. Can the Angels pitchers keep the Yankees hitters from dominating with their power like they did against the Twins? My answer is, I think they will. I think this will be a good series. It will be a good example of how there is more than one way to play the game. The Yankees will play with power and the Angels with speed and fundamentals.
The "fundamentals" thing is especially funny in retrospect, but yeah, the Yankees weren't gonna play with fundamentals. When they got a hit, they were gonna run out of the box and try going to third instead of first. If the batter hit a ground ball to Derek with nobody on, he would just throw it into the outfield. When it came to catching pop-ups, Derek and Cano would just say "no, you get it" while it dropped between them (heh, the Angels actually did that). Pitching? Eh, CC and Mariano were just gonna roll the ball toward the batter's box and hope it got there and the hitters would swing at it. The Yankees care not for these "fundamentals." They would, however, hit a home run every time they were up, because they play with "power."
Adam (Philadelphia)
Do you think the Phillies can still win if Cole Hamels continues to struggle?
Joe Morgan
(11:14 AM)
Yes. In a seven game series, I think they can. They have enough power and good hitting to offset some inadequacies that they have with their starting pitching.
But! I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T SCORE RUNS IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!
The Phillies are a very interesting team to me. Harry Kalas, their former annoucner and my close friend, always called them the Fightin' Phils. They fight to the end. I think they're a very interesting team because of that. You don't know what you're going to get, but they always fight hard to the end.
What the hell? This is just weird. He writes like a fifth grader, I swear.
Joe Morgan
(11:15 AM)
A great example is that we always talk about the strikeouts that Ryan Howard has, but he was in the spotlight last night tying up the game. He didn't strikeout. You just never know what you're going to get other than great effort.
???? Ryan Howard strikes out a lot, yes. He's also a really scary hitter who hits with a ton of power. He hit the most home runs in all of baseball in 2006 (58!!!) and 2008 and was only two behind the leader this year. RBI are dumb, but he's driven in, since 2006, 149, 136, 146, and 141 runs. Those totals of 149 in 2006, 146 in 2008, and 141 in 2009 led baseball. People talk about that wayyyy more than his strikeouts.
Shane (Knoxville)
Joe, honestly... if you were the manager of the Phillies, would you have had the confidence to go with Lidge those last two games?
Joe Morgan
(11:17 AM)
I said this at the beginning of the postseason - the only way the Phillies can win the championship and repeat is if Lidge is closing the games. You can't do it with someone knew to the situation.
First things first, hahaha, "knew" just makes me laugh. Secondly, and more importantly, sure you can. The 1998 Yankees went into the playoffs with Mariano Rivera as their closer. Yeah, he'd done well in 1996 as a setup man, but he blew a save in the 1997 ALDS that basically took the Yankees out of it. He wasn't necessarily "proven." Guess what? He totally ruled those playoffs. Jonathan Papelbon had never been to the postseason before 2007, and he was great during the Red Sox's run. Lidge had struggled before 2008 in the postseason, but he was awesome in 2008.
Lidge has proven that he can do it in the past.
And he's proven that he can serve up walk-off home runs to guys with no home runs all year.
My answer is yes, because that's the only way they can do it. You can't win the championship without an established closer.
Closers on WS-winning teams since 1995 -
1995: Mark Wohlers
1996: John Wetteland
1997: Robb Nen
1998: Mariano Rivera
1999: Mariano Rivera
2000: Mariano Rivera
2001: Byung-Hyun Kim
2002: Troy Percival
2003: Ugueth Urbina
2004: Keith Foulke
2005: Bobby Jenks
2006: Adam Wainwright
2007: Jonathan Papelbon
2008: Brad Lidge
2009: Mariano Rivera
Despite the fact that I think most relief pitchers are pretty much interchangeable, I'm also one of those people that think the Yankees might not have had that three-year run without Mo. So having a truly elite closer can help. But Nen? Kim? Urbina? Guys who were, at the time, unproven, like Wohlers, Wetteland (totally sucked in the 1995 playoffs), Percival, Jenks, Wainwright, and Papelbon? Mariano Rivera could have had the ability to pitch like that as a reliever in the postseason throughout his career, but if he'd been signed by the Pirates and been forced to be a starter because they didn't have anyone else to pitch, we would never know how amazing he is.
It shows you how great Mariano Rivera is and has been throughout his career.
Well we can agree on that. Yay.
Joe Morgan
(11:17 AM)
He's been unbelievable as far as closing out games in the postseason. But I think Lidge is very capable of getting the job done in the postseason.
Wait, huh, who? I guess he was talking about Mo in that first "he" there. I assumed Lidge and got really confused.
I don't know if everyone noticed, but Charlie Manuel did something great in the first game in Colorado. He went out to Lidge and was very emphatically telling Lidge that he wants him to go out there and throw the ball hard and we'll see what happens.
The manager told his pitcher to throw the ball hard. Wow.
Lidge got out of the jam throwing all fastballs. I think we'll see him be very aggressive.
Noooo, I think most closers are generally scared of various hitters and nibble. Algjaldjg. (please note that this may be true for Jonathan Broxton and Matt Fucking Stairs.)
Eric (Rhode ISland)
Do you think the Red Sox would have beaten LA if Varitek was behind the plate? He's such a great game caller, certainly he would have helped.
Eeeeeek. Boston's biggest problem in this series wasn't pitching, minus Papelbon's explosion. It was the offense. The Red Sox scored a total of seven runs in three games, with six of those runs coming in the one game they played at Fenway. V-Mart had a rather pathetic .432 OPS in the series, but hey, he actually had 2 RBIs. That's over a quarter of Boston's runs. I don't think Varitek would have helped there.
Joe Morgan
(11:22 AM)
I don't agree.
Oh thank God.
I think Varitek obviously has been good at calling pitches over the years,
Fastball fastball fastball fastball fastball fastball.
but what I saw down the stretch is he wasn't as good defensively blocking pitches.
Aaaand he can't throw anyone out (neither can V-Mart, but V-Mart can hit).
Offensively, he wasn't going to add anything. I'm one of these people who believe pitchers, the good pitchers, call their own games. I've seen Lester call Varitek off. I've seen Beckett do the same thing. I don't think he could have made a difference in that series. I saw Burnett pitch a one-hitter against the Red Sox in seven innings in August as he matched up against Beckett and Posada was catching. The next time he gave up some home runs and it was Posada's fault. I just think that a catcher makes a difference if he's a great defensive catcher, but in this case, the pitchers pitched well up to a point. I don't think it would have made any difference.
This............. totally makes sense. Oh my God. I don't even know what to say. I'm gonna pass out.
Ken (Atlanta)
I like how you point out that the Angles will beat the yankees with speed, although the yankees have a better stolen base percentage, the Angles do have 37 more stolen bases and will keep posada busy. Who takes the series?
I'm not sure if this is Joe-baiting. ANGLES! Lolz. And the Yankees suck for not running into more outs, they should do that more often!
Joe Morgan
(11:25 AM)
It's hard for me to pick a winner until I see them start to play.
Cop-out!!!!!
The other thing about a lot of stolen base attempts - you keep the infielders jumpy on defense and you stay in the pitcher's mind. It changes the pitch calling. You won't see a lot of changeups. The catcher has to call something hard like a fastball or slider. That will change how they pitch in certain situations. It's not just the stolen base, but the threat as well. It's all going to depend on Sabathia and then Burnett. I think Sabathia can get the job done, I'm not so sure about Burnett.
Someone feels AJ Burnett is not dependable, shocker.
Joe Morgan
(11:25 AM)
But, the Yankees will be hitting the ball out of the ballpark, especially in Yankee Stadium. It's a small ballpark. The Yankees are built for that park. They have a lot of fly ball hitters and power pitchers who strike out a lot of batters.
If it's a small ballpark, then, you know, everyone will be hitting the ball out of the ballpark.
Z (LA)
Do you think the Dodgers pitching is strong enough to hold the Phillies line-up at bay, like they did the Cardinals line-up and move on to the world series?
To be fair, the Cardinals' line-up is Pujols, Holliday, and a lot of crap. Torre let his pitchers attack Pujols only when the series was already comfortably in the Dodgers' hands. The Phillies' lineup is very different and much more dangerous. Rollins had an awful, awful year, and the bottom third of the lineup was generally pretty crappy, but Victorino-Utley-Howard-Werth-Ibanez with the year he had? That's scary.
Joe Morgan
(11:28 AM)
I've said this from the beginning and I've said it for several years now -- every team in the playoffs can win the world championship.
This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever said.
It seems strange, but you only have to go 11-8 to win the championship. You only have to win 11 of 19 games and every team has probably done that at some time.
Yeah, but if a team went 11-8 over a certain stretch, and three of those eight losses were the first three games they played, they'd be out of the playoffs. It's not that simple.
I think the Dodgers can win, but at the same time, I think the Phillies will probably be favored. The home field gives the Dodgers an edge.
The Phillies will be favored but the Dodgers have an edge?
If I'm pressed, I think it will be the Phillies and Yankees in the World Series, but I can just as easily say that it could be the Angels and Dodgers.
I'm kind of amazed he gave an opinion on who would win something.
Albert (New Jersey)
When do you think the Phillies are going to use Pedro? Do you think he's going to have success against the Dodgers?
Joe Morgan
(11:29 AM)
I thought he pitched great. He pitched the Sunday Night game that we did in the regular season. I can't believe they left him in there to throw 120 or so pitches, but he pitched great. He didn't pitch well after that because he injured his neck.
First, this is written like a fifth grader's essay and it's bothering me. Secondly, "he pitched great because of that one game." Yeah. I actually know what game they're talking about, because I watched that game, and he was awesome. I guess I can understand why they left him in, because it was a 1-0 game and honestly who in that Philly bullpen do you trust to keep a one-run lead???, but I didn't think it was the best idea to leave a guy who was frail in his absolutely awesome years in for 130 pitches. Watching that game, I was like, "This is amazing. But he's gonna start hurting and not be able to pitch again on a regular basis after this." Oh hey guess who was right, I rule.
My God Pedro's 2000 was the most ridiculous thing.
But I think he can get through a lineup for 5-6 innings. I think they will use him.
No shit they were gonna use him. The Phillies needed as much starting pitching as they could get from anyone not named Cliff Lee.
Against a team like the Dodgers with a lot of young hitters, his changeup and knowledge of pitching, I think he pitches pretty well against the Dodgers.
Joe Morgan
(11:31 AM)
I think any time the game goes to the late innings to be decided, the Yankees have an advantage over the Angels because of their one-swing capability. And any times it goes to the late innings in the NL, I think the Dodgers have the advantage over the Phillies because of their bullpen and we don't know if Lidge is fully back yet.
If the Yankees had an advantage because of their "one-swing capability," so did the Phillies. They hit 224 HRs, that's the most in the NL. The team with the second-highest number of HRs, the Rockies, hit 190. Here are the 2009 HR totals from their 3-4-5-6 hitters: 31-45-36-34. That is scary. The 2009 Yankees and the HR totals from their 3-4-5-6 hitters, I am assuming that Matsui is 5 and Posada 6: 39-30-28-22. The Yankees had a better lineup 1-8, but the meat of the Philly order is about the scariest thing in baseball.
The 2009 Dodger bullpen > the 2009 Angel bullpen, though. That's an important difference. Not that the really good regular season bullpen showed up in the NLCS, though.
That ending was sort of anticlimactic (that's what she said!!!).
