Game Thread: 2023 MLB Playoffs
- Thread starter 81usaf92
- Start date
I think what so many people don't get is you really only need TWO really good starting pitchers - and as long as you have decent middle relief and a lights out closer, you can go far in the postseason as long as you have a way to produce runs.
The greatest single season STARTING pitching staff in baseball history (per the numbers etc) was the 1997 Atlanta Braves team. And we can only blame Eric Gregg for one of those losses.
Bill James is generally regarded as the MLB stats guru and to his credit, he changes his mind on issues when more data or a better interpretation of the data is available. This is a dated reference, but here's how James ranks the pitching staffs as in "best of the decade":
1906 Chicago Cubs - lost WS
1913 NY Giants - lost WS
1926 Philadelphia Athletics - (finished six games out and in third place)
1931 Philadelphia Athletics - lost WS
1942-1946 St Louis Cardinals - won 3 WS but definite outlier influenced by WW2
1954 Cleveland Indians - swept in WS
1966 Los Angeles Dodgers - Koufax/Drysdale swept in WS
1971 Baltimore Orioles - lost WS
1985 Kansas City Royals - won WS
1993-99 Atlanta Braves - highest in 1997, won one WS
All you need is one guy to come up huge and do most of the legwork (Lew Burdette in 1957, Mickey Lolich in 1968, Curt Schilling (with heavy support from Big Unit) in 2001, Madison Baumgarner in 2014), you don't need a lineup of HOF pitchers.
Look at who beat the Braves, ending the season in the prime years:
1991 - Jack Morris and names from a phone book who pitched okay
1992 - David Cone and Juan Guzman (Braves won both Morris starts btw) plus a great pen
1993 - Curt Schilling and middle relief pitching over their heads plus a solid Danny Jackson start
1996 - what killed the Braves was NY's middle relief corps in games 3-4 and mistakes
1997 - Kevin Brown and Livan Hernandez with an Eric Gregg assist
1998 - Sterling Hitchcock and a superior pen
1999 - Clemens, Cone, and a lights out bullpen
Not one of those teams had a superior STARTING staff to the Braves, none of them even broke even.
But once you got past the first six innings, the Braves faced a series of teams that had better pitchers BEHIND the starter and could keep the game from getting out of hand.
Atlanta didn't beat Cleveland in 1995 because of the starting staff alone; they did it because Borbon Jr, McMichael, Pena, and Wohlers did their jobs for the most part.
Altuve up with runners at first and second in ninth.
I'm gonna gamble he won't be bunting.......
I'm gonna gamble he won't be bunting.......
I knew as soon as I turned it back on Texas would get a hit. I haven't watched the first inning in the last 3 games
This sport inflicts more pain on me than anything.
Braves up 3-2 in 1991 and lose both games 6 and 7 in extras.
Phillies in 93.
Yankees in 96.
Eric Gregg.
Blowing that series to the Padres.
Rangers being one strike away from winning the damn thing twice in 2011.
Rangers blowing 2-0 lead in 2015 LDS.
Braves giving up 11 runs in the first.
Braves blowing 3-1 leads in 1992 (but surviving) and 2020 (and losing to LA).
Braves winning 100-plus games in 22 and 23 and losing to Phillies early.
For all of that pain, I've got a World Series title people think is tainted because the season was short due to a strike and another that saw MLB move an All-Star Game out of the city that same year.
It hasn't really been a fair trade for my interest, you know.
Braves up 3-2 in 1991 and lose both games 6 and 7 in extras.
Phillies in 93.
Yankees in 96.
Eric Gregg.
Blowing that series to the Padres.
Rangers being one strike away from winning the damn thing twice in 2011.
Rangers blowing 2-0 lead in 2015 LDS.
Braves giving up 11 runs in the first.
Braves blowing 3-1 leads in 1992 (but surviving) and 2020 (and losing to LA).
Braves winning 100-plus games in 22 and 23 and losing to Phillies early.
For all of that pain, I've got a World Series title people think is tainted because the season was short due to a strike and another that saw MLB move an All-Star Game out of the city that same year.
It hasn't really been a fair trade for my interest, you know.
and you were too young to have seen Braves Legend Pat Jarvis pitch. But you maybe were old enough to see the Legend Bob Horner play.
and you were too young to have seen Braves Legend Pat Jarvis pitch. But you maybe were old enough to see the Legend Bob Horner play.
Yep, saw Horner play in person in 1979.
I'm familiar with Jarvis's name.
Then again, I know names like Craig Skok, Preston Hanna, and my personal favorite name of a Braves player ever, Tony Brizzolara.
I remember that Astrodome display from going to games with my father in 1969.
My nickname for Horner was “styrofoam bones Hornerâ€Â’. Seems like every time you turned around, he broke something.
And I’m old enough to have seen Pat “The Little Bulldog†Jarvis play In person..along with Skok, Hanna, and Brizzolara.
I also saw Joe Peppitone play one of only a handful of games for the Braves in 1973. The Braves picked him up in a trade with the Cubs. Then like a week later he “retiresâ€Â. 😂
Have I ever expressed how much I hate the Phillies?
If I had a choice between philly winning the World Series or the world ending, I would say we had a good run, bye.
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