My gut tells me to go with the Brewers, but I don't think they have great enough pitching to win it all. A better sleeper pick would be the Braves instead. But yeah it will probably end up being Giants (if they manage to win their division-DBacks are looking good) or Phillies in the WS.
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So Rob Deer's record for worst qualifying BA of .179 is in jeopardy. Think Adam Dunn can break it?
LOL White Sox. All that money and Dunn has been a complete and utter bust.
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A friend of mine mentioned this at the Phillies game the other day. The Phillies had a prospect at RF instead of someone legit. So they went out and probably got the biggest star they could at an insignificant price. Hunter Pence is a steal, and would more then likely be an all-star if he was on a good team.
Now, Placido Polanco is their weakness... An all-star.
I think this is debatable.Quoting Benny Profane (view post)
People said the same thing last year. The playoffs are a crap shoot, people. Never forget this.
I know the playoffs are crapshoot but it's the only consolation I have as a Mets fan. Rooting for the abject failure of a rival superteam.
Giants got hot at the perfect time, but Phils were definitely better. Favored heavily for a reason.
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Yeah. We could probably dig up some posts that agree with this. I think it was the same debate too in that a team like the Giants could upset the Phillies with their pitching.
But this year... Phillies also have Lee. Oswalt too, at first.
The Phillies were fifth in the NL in team WAR in 2010 (behind the Reds, Giants, Rockies, and Braves). Granted, that doesn't mean they were the fifth best team by any means but they were hardly the juggernaut that the East Coast media made them out to be.
Giants offense was a stud rookie and a bunch of marginal MLers. I'm exaggerating but there's truth to it.
Not a lot of early round fantasy picks there, no.
Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu
Pablo man...
But yeah.
Maybe at the station tonight, I'll pull up some posts at this point of the year last year.
I don't remember who I picked to win it all last year at the start of the playoffs. Probably wasn't the Giants, to be honest.
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there.
Maybe I didn't post anything about the Giants. Anyways, I believe last season at the beginning of the playoffs I went with the Rangers winning it all. Or something.
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This is true but the Phillies offense hardly set the world on fire, either.
wOBA
Giants: .318 (18th)
Phillies: .328 (11th)
wRC+
Giants: 93 (18th)
Phillies: 99 (12th)
The fundamental difference between the two teams last year was that the Giants had the highest team UZR in MLB by far (64.7, 1st) while the Phillies were an average defensive team at best (-4.9, 16th).
The Giants also had a higher WAR from their pitching staff (21.5, 3rd), although I'm willing to concede that this likely would not have been the case had Philadelphia (18.4, 7th) received more than just 13 starts from Roy Oswalt. Going into the postseason, the Phillies almost certainly had the better starting rotation but the Giants had a substantial edge in their bullpen.
All of this is simply to suggest that it's highly debatable as to whether or not the Phillies were the best team in the NL in 2010. Just because the Giants hit like a bunch of school girls swinging styrofoam noodles, it doesn't mean they were incapable of besting their opponents through pitching and defense.
What was my post in reference too?
Defense definitely killed them last year. They played like dogshit in that series, while the Giants played out of their minds. Oswalt had a 232 ERA+ with the Phils when he came over, so yeah, safe to say they had a better rotation but Giants had the better bullpen. But I'll take the Phils lineup any day over those scrubs, and so would you
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I think the fight he had or some type of temper tantrum.
The team that we might be overlooking is the Angels.
Weaver/Haren might be better then Lee/Halladay.
Reaction to Cliff Lee's HR. ha.
But don't they have offensive issues? Right now the Angels don't even make the playoffs. I do agree that Weaver/Haren is a great pitching duo, though. Erwin Santana needs to be way more consistent, though.
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A game and a half back with just under two months left, and Santana's been solid since mid-June.
Anythings possible at this point. The Rangers have the better offense and bullpen, but the Angels have the better pitching. Should be a good race down the stretch in that division.
Oh and right now none of the AL divisions have a clear cut winner at this point, and the NL West and NL Central are close (I think even the Braves aren't too far back of the Phillies, either). Which means this whole argument for expanding the postseason just so there's more excitement, for now, doesn't wash with me.
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Braves are 8.5 back....
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