I caught the first game of the series, last nite, & it had that post-season feel, like a preview of things to come.
Gotta give props to the Seattle folks! They sold-out the place & were a great crowd.
My Bravos lost, but I could almost deal with the loss on account of the great atmosphere created by the turn-out of the Seattle crowd.
Hopefully, we'll put it on they ass tonite!
Michael in Lost Mountain
I hope that the Braves do some damage to the Mariners But I don't think that it's a preview of the postseason because the Mariners are known for choking in October
I began the Season by publically sticking my neck on the chopping-block & saying the Braves would suck this year.
I have little faith in the Braves front office, and they made pretty sweeping changes in the off-season.
I had the feeling that they'd traded 1st-rate talent for 2nd-rate talent, to lower the payroll, & that the new mixture of guys couldn't have the same good chemistry as the old guys.
But, clearly, some changes had to be done with this team, as good as it has been for the past decade.
While it may seem that I am contradicting my own words, I preached long ago that a shake-up & new blood/chemistry was in order, since nothing else had gotten our team to where we wanted it.
Funny side story--After being devoted to the Braves forever, I finally washed my hands of them about 1990, just as I was moving to New York from Key West, Florida.
Finally, I told myself, I'll get to NY where I can root for a winning team.
I'll be damned if that wasn't when the Braves decided to play ball & start this Dynasty run they've been on.
Maybe it took me getting my ass out of Atlanta to remove the Jinx.!
Michael in Lost Mountain
QUOTE]Originally posted by caroline331
I hope that the Braves do some damage to the Mariners But I don't think that it's a preview of the postseason because the Mariners are known for choking in October [/QUOTE]
Could be you're right. But these two teams have had the best records in their respective leagues before and have very little to show for it in the postseason.
I can almost promise you this is NOT a preview of the 2003 World Series. Both these teams are deeply flawed and their performances so far this season are flukish.
Especially the Braves. Atlanta, which has always relied on pitching, is something like the ninth best pitching team in the league. They're doing what they're doing on offense alone and it's not going to last. They've had several players get hot at the same time and they've stayed hot for six weeks; it's not going to last. A perfect example is Javy Lopez. He's currently on a pace for 47 homers with a 1.033 OPS. I CAN promise you that he's not going to finish the season that way. They've got six guys with OPSes higher than .900. And it's essentially the same team that was among the worst offensive squads in baseball last year. They're a fluke and will come to earth with a thud in the second half.
Seattle has a truly great bullpen; only Houston's is better. But their offense is too dependent on Edgar, who's 40 something and his career could end at any moment. But what would worry me even more if I were a Seattle fan is that the starting rotation is grossly overachieving, except, strangely enough, for Freddy Garcia. They are a Martinez or Boone injury away from mediocrity. I except the same thing that happened to them last season will happen again: They'll run out of gas come late August and fade away. They might not even make the playoffs.
This is going to be an interesting season. The Yanks have the best talent if they are all healthy and playing up to their average capacity. That hasn't happened -- yet. After that you can throw a postage stamp over the differences between about 8-10 teams. Everyone has got flaws. It's all going to come down to which teams get hot at the right time, unless the Yanks put it together, finally, in which case it's a no-brainer.
Yeah, to add to what Spiker beautifully said, the Braves' offense is resembling what the Yankees' SHOULD be- but we all the know Braves have never been a team really built on offense- once they stop hitting those bombs now, then the team is going to cool off really fast.
How many games is Montreal behind?
You may be entirely correct, and us Braves & Seattle fans are creating, in this Series, our own Wannabe Playoffs, in case both teams decide to start sucking!
Michael in Lost Mountain
Originally posted by Alex
Could be you're right. But these two teams have had the best records in their respective leagues before and have very little to show for it in the postseason.
Believe that I am not some perenially optimistic Braves fan.
I have NEVER picked them to make it to the Series, much less run the table.
But, simply going on intuition, the Boys may shock me this year, after my predicting much less from this Season.
I'm well aware of the flaws in this team. I have constantly bitched that they never have a decent bench to bail them out in tough Playoff games, or when some of the regular bats go into a slump, which they too often have done when facing the best pitching in the Bigs, in the Playoffs.
But sometimes teams that don't look the best on paper have a way of jumping up and doing the seemingly impossible.
I never count-out the Yanks til I hear the Ref counting "10" over them on the canvas, & until I hear the ring-side bell ring.
No matter what they do during the Regular season, they have a knack for showing up to collect a check at the pay-window when October rolls around.
Michael in Lost Mountain
Originally posted by Spiker
I can almost promise you this is NOT a preview of the 2003 World Series. Both these teams are deeply flawed and their performances so far this season are flukish.
Especially the Braves. Atlanta, which has always relied on pitching, is something like the ninth best pitching team in the league. They're doing what they're doing on offense alone and it's not going to last. They've had several players get hot at the same time and they've stayed hot for six weeks; it's not going to last. A perfect example is Javy Lopez. He's currently on a pace for 47 homers with a 1.033 OPS. I CAN promise you that he's not going to finish the season that way. They've got six guys with OPSes higher than .900. And it's essentially the same team that was among the worst offensive squads in baseball last year. They're a fluke and will come to earth with a thud in the second half.
Seattle has a truly great bullpen; only Houston's is better. But their offense is too dependent on Edgar, who's 40 something and his career could end at any moment. But what would worry me even more if I were a Seattle fan is that the starting rotation is grossly overachieving, except, strangely enough, for Freddy Garcia. They are a Martinez or Boone injury away from mediocrity. I except the same thing that happened to them last season will happen again: They'll run out of gas come late August and fade away. They might not even make the playoffs.
This is going to be an interesting season. The Yanks have the best talent if they are all healthy and playing up to their average capacity. That hasn't happened -- yet. After that you can throw a postage stamp over the differences between about 8-10 teams. Everyone has got flaws. It's all going to come down to which teams get hot at the right time, unless the Yanks put it together, finally, in which case it's a no-brainer.
And as hot as Seattle has been, & the Yanks, earlier in the Season, nobody has been entirely able to shake-off the pesky Canadian mutts snapping at their heels.
Unlikely though it is, an all-Canada World Series is not completely out of the question.
Michael in Lost Mountain
Originally posted by WindRavenX
Yeah, to add to what Spiker beautifully said, the Braves' offense is resembling what the Yankees' SHOULD be- but we all the know Braves have never been a team really built on offense- once they stop hitting those bombs now, then the team is going to cool off really fast.
How many games is Montreal behind?
They'll both make it to the post-season, but I don't think they'll be in the WS.
I won't speak about Atlanta since I don't really follow the NL.
In regards to Seattle, they don't scare me. Even when they won their 116(?) regular games, they didn't scare me. We can get to their starting pitching and Rhodes/Suzuki have blown saves to us in the post-season. The only Yankee killer in their lineup is Martinez and we can pitch around him if necessary. We were able to neutralize Ichiro in the playoffs before, so he doesn't worry me either.
If Anaheim is still in the race they would scare me, because they seem to find a way to beat us. For some strange reason, they have our pitchers' number.
However, Oakland would be my biggest fear just because of their starting pitching. I think we have a great chance at making it to the world series just because, we OWN the Twins and Oakland always finds a way to get eliminated in the first round.
Why are people still scared to death or Oakland? Especially over Anaheim?
No offense to the A's fans on here, but we've beat these guys "big 3" every time we've faced them in the post-season...hell, even the Twins have....I'd be much more worried about the Angels, or even Boston for that matter...
What you & I & everybody knows to be true.
What you do in the Regular season doesn't count for squat.
It's about just coasting into the post-season, & look for the match-ups.
Hope that a team that you can't beat plays a team in the first round that has THEIR number, thus knocking them out.
In that sense, a team getting to the Series is not about the head-to-head competition, which I think it should be, but is more like a gambler's Vegas luck.
I know I'm probably in the minority, being older, but I wish the regular season record had more weight when it comes to the Post-Season.
I remember the year the Florida Marlins won the Series.
The Braves easily had the best regular season record, but every time we played the Marlins, from Spring Training on, they wore the Braves out.
To the point that, by about June, I was saying to myself that it didn't matter if the Braves won 140 games, we'd never get past the Marlins if we had to face them in the Playoffs. And so it was.
Who was better, the Braves or Marlins?
Could the Braves have won the Series that year?
That was when Gary Sheffield was with the Marlins, & I hated to see that sucker come to the plate!
I am thankful as I can be that he's on our bench.
Michael in Lost Mountain
Originally posted by DkNNy79
They'll both make it to the post-season, but I don't think they'll be in the WS.
I won't speak about Atlanta since I don't really follow the NL.
In regards to Seattle, they don't scare me. Even when they won their 116(?) regular games, they didn't scare me. We can get to their starting pitching and Rhodes/Suzuki have blown saves to us in the post-season. The only Yankee killer in their lineup is Martinez and we can pitch around him if necessary. We were able to neutralize Ichiro in the playoffs before, so he doesn't worry me either.
If Anaheim is still in the race they would scare me, because they seem to find a way to beat us. For some strange reason, they have our pitchers' number.
However, Oakland would be my biggest fear just because of their starting pitching. I think we have a great chance at making it to the world series just because, we OWN the Twins and Oakland always finds a way to get eliminated in the first round.
Last edited by Mike N Lost Mountain; 06-16-03 at 06:41 PM.
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