Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned.

On most teams the set up man has become more valuable, on others not so valuable.

Something to keep in mind — it’s raining lightly. The infield could be very wet on ground balls.

What is a drop and drive pitcher? He is a guy who drops and drives. Very simple.

So by guessing right you might have guessed wrong.

Giambi walks too much. He’s always clogging up the bases with all that walking.

As a new day begins in New York, the sun sets in Hawaii.

If football is a game of inches then baseball is a game of inch.

If that ball had more elevation, it would have been a home run.

If the double play is a pitcher’s best friend, what is a fielder’s choice? An acquaintance?

It’s better to have a fast runner on base than a slow one.

One thing about ground balls. They don’t go out of the ball park.

The reason we call that pitch up and in is because the arms are attached to the shoulder.

He wears his hat like a left hander!

Any ball that goes down is much heavier than any ball that stays on the same plane.

The blood on his sock looks exactly like Oklahoma!

You don’t want to use too many statistics. The ones that apply to a July or August game won’t be relevant on Saturday.

American McCarver

My kind of baseball

By Andrew Anker, October 8, 2011

Exactly. And that’s what I love about baseball.

162 games do a great job of ensuring that the best teams compile the best records and the late July horse trading usually enables the best teams to get even better. Any team can have moments of greatness (cf. the Orioles’ April) but everything levels out in the end. The regular season is where we find out who is best and the Phillies and Yankees should be congratulated on winning the regular season. The performance they maintained over six months is to be commended and celebrated.

But that’s not what the playoffs are about. They playoffs are about momentum, about the right batters getting hot at the right time, about the dominance of a great pitcher, the weirdness of October weather and a whole host of other unknowns. It’s not just Billy Beane’s shit that doesn’t work in the playoffs, it’s everyone’s shit.

If the playoffs weren’t about the unexpected happening, we might as well skip the division series and pennant race and just let the top two teams in each league fight it out. God would that be boring.

[Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski weighs in on this very topic today as well. -j.s.]

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Jason Snell | October 8, 2011 12:02 PM

I agree that it would be boring. But I do feel we miss out on celebrating teams over the long haul. European Soccer does this better, by honoring the winner of the league as well as the winner of various cup tournaments. That way the Phillies would have their NL Champion flag for 2011 and someone else would hold the Selig Cup Trophy or whatever for winning the tournament.

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