We’re midway through October and getting closer to a World Series. The first couple of rounds didn’t offer much drama, but the LCS series are shaping up for some high stakes baseball early next week.
The ALCS has been pretty good thus far with the road team winning all four of the games and the teams scoring an identical 12 runs through the first 3 games. Not only have they been close games, there have been some really clutch hits and nice defensive plays like this:
Texas had a solid 2-0 lead but took a risky bet on Max Scherzer that blew up in their faces and led to a Game 3 loss. I still say the Rangers needed to take that shot.
Our old friend Andrew Heaney took the hill for Texas last night and did even worse. He didn’t even make it out of the first inning and Houston cruised to a blowout victory. That series is now tied at 2.
The NLCS hadn’t been as entertaining but that all changed last night. Philly won a 5-3 Game One that never felt that close and a 10-0 drubbing in the second game.
That 2-0 hole and absolute but kicking have NLCS ticket prices plummeting in Phoenix. $15 will get you in. It also doesn’t help having a game start at 2 PM in the middle of a work week.
But the Diamondbacks made it a series in the most dramatic game of the postseason; a dramatic walk off win to make the series 2-1.
As Angels fans we get to root for former Angels on other teams. Brandon Marsh has always been easy to cheer and made me an even bigger fan after this interaction with a kid:
Interactions like that mean so much more than the game. This video also makes me hope the Angels make the playoffs while my son is still a kid and the ballpark holds that special kind of magic for him.
If the Angels are going to improve, a lot of help needs to come from within. Friend of the site Davis Daniel is doing his best to try to be one of those pieces. He was named the AFL Pitcher of the Week thanks to his 6 inning/10 K performance Saturday.
That makes two really nice outings from Daniel against many of the best prospects in the game. Here’s a quick interview with him from a couple of days ago.
Just who will manage the next Angels team is still undecided, but lists of potential hires are popping up.
I’m organizing a prediction piece with the winner picking up a trinket of some sort. Keep an eye out for it next week.
From around the league:
Pitchers tend to outperform their peripherals in October. FanGraphs explains why.
Gold Glove finalists were announced this week. Somebody other than Nolan Arenado will get one at third base for the first time in over a decade.
The Hall of Fame announced the eras candidates. Joe West in the Hall would be the second biggest travesty in Cooperstown behind David Ortiz. West sucked, but at least he did so naturally.
Kim Ng led the Marlins to the post season after three years of improvement but was asked to play second fiddle to a TBD executive. She deserved better from the Marlins and is a very intriguing front office candidate.
Links will get longer when there’s more news to actually link. For now, enjoy the weekend and link what I missed.
For us, well, last week our Farm Ball team made the Bad News Bears look like the 1927 Yankees. It was brutal. But we had a good pizza party to celebrate one teammate’s birthday and another teammate has been coming over on Saturday afternoons for some practice and play time so we’re nailing the important parts.
