1641

Wow.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think I realized the Dodgers drought has been so long. When did they last win the WS? 1988!

1642

Can I come back now?

Grats Cub fans. Your team is every bit as fearsome as I expected they would be.

1643

It’s going to be a brutal rest of the decade in the Central. So much young talent.

1644

The Central is going to dominate the NL for the next 5 years, I suspect.

Awesome. Sucks if you are a Brewers or Reds fan though. The Astros got out just in time. Could you imagine them in this years NL Central? Just cancel the NL playoffs, and have the Central slug it out.

1645

I don’t think any division can be projected to be dominant five years out. The Mets have a ton of starting pitching. The Giants are actually pretty loaded at positions. The Dodgers are going to spend. The Marlins have talent throughout the organization, and have Giancarlo and Jose Fernandez, sore arm and all.

The Cardinals got to the 2013 World Series on statistical flukes. They hit with RISP at historical, unsustainable, unrepeatable levels. They regressed to the mean in the playoffs that year, but had enough pitching to get to the Series.

The Cardinals got to 100 wins in 2015 on a similar statistical fluke. They gave up pretty much as many baserunners as every other team, but they stranded them at historic, and unsustainable levels. They regressed to the mean in September and October and they’re golfing now.

In other words…can’t predict ball.

1646

The amazing part of the Cards and Giants consistency over the last several years is that it has been done with different casts. Today’s free agent scenario doesn’t allow teams to keep their players, even if they are willing to pay for them sometimes.

Also look at the make up of at least three of the teams this year, the Cubs, Astros and Royals. They are good because of the quality of the youth on their teams, not the free agents.

1647

I don’t think free agency is as big a thing as it once was. Especially with TV money flowing to all teams in a regular stream, a lot of ballclubs are able to lock up guys they couldn’t years ago. It seems that it’s rarer and rarer to see really A+ free agents on the market. This year, with Price, Heyward, Cespedes hitting free agency in the primes of their careers is probably going to be something we don’t see as much of.

1648

I still think that eventually an insurance market of some kind will form for young players where the teams will have less leverage locking them up to early low value deals. I know that everyone has been saying this for years, but I do think it will happen.

The ‘loss of value’ insurance deals are starting to happen in football (college and pro) and a couple players have had payouts. I think that it is inevitable that as that market matures that you’ll see a situation where instead of Mike Trout signing a 6/150 deal someone would insure him that with a large payout to them when he did hit the market in 2017 and got $500 million or whatever.

Obviously a lot of the young talent is already locked up now, but I don’t think that it’s going to hold on forever and eventually we’ll see a lot better free agents actually making it to the market.

There’s a lot of talented teams in the NL now and smart front offices. I think that it will be very competitive for a long time. It is interesting that the teams in the playoffs in the NL this year mostly have strong farm systems to go with their current MLB talent. No one is mortgaging their future for this run like, say, the Tigers recently. I think we’re going to see all these teams and the Giants be strong over the next few years give or take the random bad year.

1649

So, you know that home run Schwarber launched in the bottom of the 7th last night? Apparently it actually landed on the scoreboard. The Cubs put a case over the ball and are leaving it there, at least for the rest of the postseason.

1650

"There is one word in english that says it all, ‘you never know.’ "

/andujar

1651

I get your point, and to a degree agree, but these are teams being largely driven by youth. Certainly the Pirates may soon face a financial squeeze from some of their star players, and one of their top pitchers from the last few years retired, but they should continue to be good.

The Cardinals, despite their ‘veteran’ status do have a lot of youth too. Grichuk, Piscotty, and others. Plus they are those damned Cardinals, with their devil magic. They always seem to be good, even when you think they shouldn’t be. I won’t expect them to not be top contenders any time soon. Until they prove otherwise, I will continue to believe they will do so in the future.

The Cubs, especially, I expect to contend for the next few years. They are a very youth driven team. With Lester being the biggest piece above 30.

Now my declaration was a bit of good natured hyperbole. There is always things that could change. There are potential pitfalls for the Cards and Pirates that could see them pull back (ok, Cubs too. Rookies don’t always continue to get better). Still high caliber youth fuels the NL Central, so there is plenty of reason that my statement possible. Just like the Central Division has dominated hockey the last few years, I find it possible the NL Central could be entering the same type of run.

1652

This Toronto-Texas game has gone BANANAS! Weird ump calls, Andrus defensive meltdown, trash on the field! Good times!

1653

If you had “Blue Jays allow the go-ahead run when the catcher hits the bat while throwing back to the pitcher”, and “Rangers let them tie it with 3 errors and a misplayed popup in the next inning”, go to the head of the class!

Baseball. Incredible.

Edit: Ah, there we are, that’s the Jays we saw all of August and Sept. Home run in the clutch! No credit for guessing that one. :)

1654

What a fugly inning.

I’m thinking the Rangers go down quietly after this embarassment.

1655

Jays finish it! That was quite a game.

1656

F*&#$# Elvis Andrus - worst contract the Rangers have ever had. Completely worthless.

1657

I will be checking the 7th inning highlites on this game. I listened to it on the radio and still can’t figure out what the hell happened in that inning.

1658

The Rangers happened…finding creative ways to avoid winning a World Series since moving to Arlington. Ugh…I wasn’t expecting much this season once Darvish went down but damn, somehow winning the division then blowing it so ridiculously just hurts…

1659

The 7th inning was one of the most amazing and horrifying innings I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. If I had an Andrus jersey I’d consider burning it. if I had an Andrus bobblehead I’d put an M-80 in it. In a year where was mostly substandard, his error-prone ways reared up in the worst place and way possible and gifted the Blue Jays three, if not four, outs in consecutive plays. Simply mind-boggling. We had this game. Had it. Got a great gift of a go-ahead run. Pissed it all down our backs and thought it was the flood.

Sigh. I dunno if I can watch any more of the postseason this year.

— Alan

1660

This is almost more painful than being one strike away from the World Series…just because he blew such mundane ordinary plays. The wheel play was perfectly executed…until he just dropped the ball.