Franchise World Series Debuts

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays for earning their franchise's first trip to the Fall Classic in its short history, especially the five former Hudson Valley Renegades who will be appearing in the 2008 World Series: Evan Longoria, James Shields, Andy Sonnanstine, Dan Wheeler and Fernando Perez.

I hope to be contributing to a World Series preview for Seamheads.com. If not, I may very well do my own here. But, for now, here's a little piece on the last ten teams to appear in their first World Series.

The most recent two first-time World Series entrants were embarrassed pretty badly.

• 2007: Colorado Rockies lost 4-0 to Boston Red Sox
• 2005: Houston Astros lost 4-0 to Chicago White Sox.

Prior to that, four consecutive franchises won their Fall Classic debuts, three of them requiring the full 7 games to do so:

• 2002: Anaheim Angels defeated San Francisco Giants, 4-3.
• 2001: Arizona Diamondbacks defeated New York Yankees, 4-3.
• 1997: Florida Marlins defeated Cleveland Indians, 4-3.
• 1992: Toronto Blue Jays defeated Atlanta Braves, 4-2.

Rounding out the most recent ten teams playing in the World Series for the first time in their franchise's history:

• 1984: San Diego Padres lost to Detroit Tigers, 4-1.
• 1982: Milwaukee Brewers lost to St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3.
• 1980: Kansas City Royals lost to Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2.
• 1969: New York Mets defeated Baltimore Orioles, 4-1.

Overall, that's 5 wins and 5 losses for the first-timers, 2-2 for the American League teams and 3-3 for the National League teams. This year's Rays will look to break that 8-game losing streak established by the 2005 Astros and 2007 Rockies. Expect them to have very little difficulty with that.

Rant: Non-Traveling Off Days

I started writing this little rant a few days ago, but never finished it. It seems a little less relevant now, but it's still a point I want to make. What is the story with the LCS days off between games 4 and 5, days when the teams aren't even traveling? Is it so that the Phillies players can check out Hollywood Boulevard, or the Rays can walk the Freedom Trail? I know it has something to do with television, and I won't try to deny that this is an unavoidable issue, but I can better understand the reason for this in the first round, when the goal is to stagger those games and not have four on the same day.

I'm willing to accept the fact that teams only need to use four starting pitchers in the post-season when they needed five while playing 162 games during a 181-day regular season. That's 19 days off, which--ignoring the fact that three of those are consecutive days over the all-star break--is approximately one every nine days. But, the extra day off in the middle of the LCS, in addition to the two travel days, makes for seven games played in ten days.

This gives the teams involved the option of using only three starting pitchers during the entire series, with only one pitcher in one game required to pitch on short rest. The Dodgers are the only team that chose to do this, with Derek Lowe, but the Red Sox certainly would have considered it had Josh Beckett been pitching as well as he was last year at this time. This results in the post-season being on a completely different playing field, figuratively speaking, than the regular season.

I hate to use this as an example, but Curt Schilling earned the right to be considered a post-season warrior, long before the bloody sock, when he pitched three games in the 2001 World Series. In doing so, he pitched both Games 4 and 7 on three days rest, and lasted at least 7 innings in all three starts. Even so, the Diamondbacks still had to use four starting pitchers in the series, with Brian Anderson going Game 3 and Miguel Batista getting the call in Game 5. When Schilling did this, it meant something. He went above and beyond his normal regular season workload and, despite the fact that his team only won two of these three games, and he was the winning pitcher in just one of them, he shared World Series MVP honors with Randy Johnson.

Of course, the existence of this extra off day has had no bearing on the current post-season, but I just feel that it cheapens the playoffs by potentially making even #4 starters obsolete. Teams can go through short stretches of the season without their 5th starter, and there are additional occasions when they're afforded the opportunity of skipping him, but no team can get by without their 4th starter taking his regular turn every time through the rotation. So, why would Major League Baseball allow this to be the case in the post-season? I am totally realistic about MLB's need to cater to the networks, based on the simple fact that television is one of its two means of presenting its product. However, this is one situation where the league needs to draw the line in order to, as trite as this sounds, preserve the integrity of the game's ultimate showcase.

ALCS Game 5: Let the Second-Guessing Begin

I have only a few points to make here, after the Red Sox amazing comeback last night. The most important one has nothing to do with Joe Maddon, but the hipster manager from Hazleton, Pennsylvania is not completely off the hook.

What were the fans who left this game early thinking? Well, we all pretty much know. The Red Sox looked lifeless for the first 24 innings played at Fenway Park in this series, so there was no reason to think they had any magic on par with 2004 or 2007. But, those folks missed out on what could eventually be considered a pretty historic moment, and were labeled as last night's losers by my friend over at The Ball Caps Blog.

As far as Joe Maddon is concerned, it's hard to really fault him when a previously good bullpen--one that had given up just 3 runs in 13 innings in the series prior to Game 5--pitches as poorly as it did last night. However, Grant Balfour did not pitch well in his last appearance in Game 2 (0 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 HR), and he had given up three hits while getting only two long flyball outs before David Ortiz came to the plate.

Alright, here's where I admit that I wasn't watching at this point in the game. I was actually walking from the bar to my car, then listening on the radio, so I wasn't able to second-guess the decision in the moment. But, the box score tells the story pretty well, and the fact that Maddon did not bring J.P. Howell in to face Ortiz has to be questioned. I won't call him out for bringing Wheeler in with 7 outs to go, though, because, with Troy Percival injured, Maddon hasn't really officially anointed him the closer, and has effectively worked his bullpen by committee.

My other issue is this: Why was Gabe Gross still in right field, with both Fernando Perez and Rocco Baldelli on the bench? Now, I will say that Gross is a better outfielder than he showed in those late innings. But, Perez and Baldelli are clearly better, and one of them--preferably the more experienced Baldelli--should have been in that game when Gross made that pathetic throw on Coco Crisp's game-tying single in the 8th, and misplayed J.D. Drew's line drive into the game-winning hit in the 9th.

These aren't major complaints, I admit. Maddon has certainly earned his due as the American League's 2008 Manager of the Year and, as I said, it's hard to hold him entirely accountable for the fact that his bullpen simply crumbled. But, these were my thoughts last night, and I'm not backing off of them this morning.

My final question, though, comes from a different angle. What exactly did we witness last night? The Red Sox will have to go on to at least win the ALCS for their comeback to truly go down in history, and they might even need to win it all to make this moment more meaningful than the Yankees' late-inning heroics in two games of a 2001 World Series that they eventually lost. But the real question I have is, have Mystique and Aura, who have been reported missing from the Bronx in recent years, simply moved their act 200 miles up I-95?

AL MVP Poll

Updated 10/16/08 @ 12:09AM: With the voting closed in my American League MVP poll, it seems that my coverage of the controversial play from last Monday night's Red Sox-Angels ALDS Game Four had more influence on its outcome than my argument for Justin Morneau. Likely, at least in part, due to an influx of traffic from Angels sympathizers, the final tally is as follows:

Francisco Rodriguez, Angels - 5
Justin Morneau, Twins - 4
Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox - 3
Josh Hamilton, Rangers - 3
Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox - 1
Roy Halladay, Blue Jays - 1
Other - 1

I'm certainly not trying to say that Rodriguez is not a legitimate MVP candidate, but I know that my site received over 200 referrals from angelswin.com last week, so I'm assuming that a few of those folks cast their votes while they were passing through.

It was a close competition, with four legitimate candidates, but Francisco Rodriguez is our winner, edging out Justin Morneau, Dustin Pedroia and Josh Hamilton. Thanks to everyone who voted.

Sox-Rays ALCS Game 1

As tonight's ALCS Game One reached the bottom of the 7th, I decided to live-blog the remainder of the game. I've never done this before, so I thought it would be fun to give it a shot. I didn't edit anything after the fact, except to correct my mistake of confusing Buck Martinez with Dave Campbell. I should have realized that Campbell works for ESPN.

10:47 - Carl Crawford leads off the Rays' bottom of the 7th with their first hit of the game. Down by one run, I'm sure he's going to try to make something happen on the bases. You know Cliff Floyd isn't going to be bunting.

10:49 - Floyd makes that a moot point, driving a single to left-center that sends Crawford to third. First and third and no one out for the Rays. Dioner Navarro is the batter. They need to push across this run, but, of course, not necessarily settle for just that.

10:51 - Navarro's down 1-2. He really needs to make contact in this at bat. Crawford will certainly score on most anything. I'm wrong. Navarro hits a short fly to left and Crawford holds.

10:53 - Gabe Gross is the batter. I doubt he's going to squeeze. Crawford needs to gamble here, if he gets the chance. Matsusaka still looks tough.

10:56 - 3-2 count on Gross. Buck Martinez is calling for them to start Floyd from first. I'm not so sure. He doesn't run, and Gross strikes out, chasing ball four on the second pitch in a row. Really poor at bat in such a situation.

10:57 - Jason Bartlett is the batter, with the Rays in jeopardy of squandering this opportunity. If they do, they're going to have to face the strength of the Red Sox bullpen, and you know Papelbon will be ready to pitch more than an inning.

10:59 - Bartlett grounds out to short. Tampa Bay doesn't score.

11:02 - Top of the 8th. Shields is still out there. Ellsbury bounces back to the box for the first out.

11:03 - Shields started this inning at 94 pitches. Matsuzaka has thrown 107.

11:04 - Pedroia lines a single up the middle. It looks like that's going to be the end of the night for Shields. He pitched a tremendous game. If not for a fluke check swing double by Mark Kotsay, he'd be pitching scoreless ball as well.

11:06 - J.P. Howell is the new pitcher, a lefthander to face David Ortiz. With J.D. Drew two batters away, I'm sure the plan is for him to face at least three batters.

11:08 - Pedroia steals second. Navarro had no chance. Howell's a lefty, he needs to do a better job of holding a runner than that.

11:10 - Howell walks Ortiz. This has to drive a manager crazy, when his lefty specialist gives a free pass to a lefty. It looks like I'm right. He's leaving Howell in to face Youkilis, and, I'm sure, Drew after him.

11:13 - Youkilis hits a foul pop down the right-field line, into the Rays bullpen. Gross didn't come close to catching it, but the guys in the pen need to do a better job of getting out of the way of their guy.

11:15 - Youkilis hits a liner to left that the best left fielder in the game should have caught, but instead plays it into a run scoring double. 2-0 Red Sox. I made two similar, but tougher, plays than this tonight in my softball game.

11:16 - Maddon pulls Howell for Grant Balfour. He faced two batters and retired neither of them, so he can't take any further chances.

11:18 - Seeing Matsuzaka on the bench, he doesn't look like he's coming out of the game. I haven't heard anything about anyone warming up in the bullpen either.

11:19 - Balfour just drilled J.D. Drew with his first pitch, probably trying to intimidate him right away. Obviously not trying to hit him. Bases are loaded with only one out.

11:20 - Jason Bay is the batter. They just showed the reaction of the Red Sox bench at the beaning of Drew. Of course, Dustin Pedroia looked ready to do battle. They can't really think he was trying to hit him?

11:22 - Full count on Bay. Nowhere to put him. Balfour bears down and blows a fastball by him for strike three. Two outs.

11:23 - Mark Kotsay is the batter. Balfour needs to get them out of this jam down by only two runs. Otherwise, it's over.

11:25 - Kotsay pops it up on the infield. Evan Longoria makes the play. Inning over. Balfour does his job.

11:28 - Top of the order in the bottom of the 8th for the Rays. Dice-K is still out there to face Iwamura leading off.

11:29 - Iwamura singles to left. That has to be the end of Dice-K's night. Nope, he's still in there, but Sox pitching coach John Farrell is on the phone to the bullpen.

11:31 - Dice-K throws a pitch to the backstop. Has to be a wild pitch, even though it didn't bounce and Varitek got his glove on it.

11:32 - B.J. Upton hits a rocket to third. Youkilis gets his glove on it and knocks it down, but has no play. Iwamura wisely holds at second. First and second, none out. Mike Lowell makes this play.

11:33 - That's the end of Dice-K's night. Lefty Hideki Okajima is coming on to face the left-handed Carlos Pena. Similar situation to what the Rays faced in the top of the 8th. Two of the next three (actually three of the next four) batters are left-handed, although they'll probably pinch-hit for Floyd against a lefty, but I doubt Okajima will still be in at that point.

11:37 - Pena gets the green light on a 3-0 pitch, gets a pitch to hit, but hit's a soft-liner to right that J.D. Drew catches for the first out. Buck Martinez was just saying that Maddon wouldn't give Pena the green light on 3-0 with Evan Longoria up next. I have to say that I agree that he shouldn't have, but he's a gambler. This time it didn't pay off.

11:40 - Justin Masterson on to face Longoria. Let's see if the troubles he faced the other night against the Angels carry over. He is a rookie, after all. Of course, so is Longoria.

11:42 - Longoria grounds into a double play. The Rays squander another opportunity. That's it. I'm convinced the Red Sox are going to win the World Series. I should stop watching right now.

11:45 - Top of the 9th. I'm still here. Jed Lowrie leads off against Balfour.

11:47 - Lowrie flies out to shallow center field. One out.

11:48 - Papelbon is warming up in the Sox bullpen. Jason Varitek is the batter. It's interesting that the Red Sox have three catchers on their postseason roster for both the ALDS and ALCS. This has to be so that they can pinch hit for Varitek, then pinch hit for Kevin Cash, and still have David Ross to catch. Essentially, when it comes to late in the game, they're going to treat the catcher position like a National League pitcher.

11:50 - Varitek flies out to deep center field. Sometimes pitchers get lucky and hit the ball well too. I'll give Varitek credit for being like a good-hitting pitcher, though he's no Micah Owings.

11:52 - Maddon pulls Balfour for the rookie David Price. There are two outs and nobody on, but it is the 9th inning of a 2-0 game in the ALCS, so he must have serious confidence in Price.

11:53 - Ellsbury hits a soft liner to left that Crawford catches for the third out.

11:55 - Papelbon is on for the bottom of the 9th. He's poised to break the record for most career postseason IP without allowing a run. He's pitched 19 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

11:57 - Carl Crawford leads off. Papelbon throws 3 of 4 pitches past him for a strikeout. One out. I guess this ties the record.

11:59 - Cliff Floyd is the batter. They show the goon Jonny Gomes on the bench. Is he on the Rays postseason roster? I don't think so.

12:01 - Floyd pops out to Youkilis in foul territory. Two out.

12:02 - Dioner Navarro is the batter. He strikes out, for the final out. Papelbon does his trademark redneck rain dance. Sox lead the series 1-0.

12:06 - There's a Julio Lugo sighting as the camera shows the Red Sox walking down the runway to the locker room. Jonny Gomes is not on the Rays postseason roster, but I'm sure he's ready to get in the fray and sucker punch someone in case of a brawl.

12:08 - I just missed what I'm sure was a riveting Craig Sager interview of Kevin Youkilis. I simply wasn't paying attention.

12:10 - Could there possibly be a worse studio team than one that includes Ernie Johnson, Dennis Eckersley and Harold Reynolds? Poor Cal Ripken.

12:12 - Well, that's all for me. I'm ready to call it a night. I'm not really looking forward to the EJ-hosted post-game show.