2018 World Series -- Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Dodgers

as much as I enjoyed ragging on him these playoffs I'd love machado on the yanks lol

hopefully they stay away from kershaw if he hits free agency

6 straight division titles for the Dodgers, just to show you how weak the NL West is.

oh we've moved into "The Dodgers actually SUCK" mode now, huh?

The postseason actually dummies up fans somewhat. Sometimes I think it should be abolished.

champion tbd by metrics

Hey, I predicted LA would win at least two games at home!

in the recent tradition of american politics, first you lose, and then everyone wants to lock you up

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-dodgers-might-be-in-actual-legal-trouble/

(discussed weeks ago, i know, but worth keeping in mind that the dodgers' real villains are worse than machado)

a number of them may be former employees -- Kapler?

champion tbd by metrics

Steve Pearce Outlasts David Freese in Battle of Former Pirate Greats

6 straight division titles for the Dodgers, just to show you how weak the NL West is.

The East has had the lowest winning percentage three of the last four years.

Just out of curiosity, I was going to look at all the five-game WS and see how many times a starting pitcher with two wins did or didn't win MVP. I stopped early on the 2008 Series:

Cole Hamels (2008) - 1-0, 13 IP, 10 H, 3 W, 8 K, 2.77 ERA
David Price (2018) - 2-0, 13.2 IP, 7 H, 6 W, 10 K, 1.98 ERA

Ryan Howard (2008) - 3 HR, 6 RBI, .286/.375/.762
Steve Pearce (2018) - 3 HR, 8 RBI, .333/.500/1.137

Pearce clearly had a better Series than Howard; but Price just as clearly had a better Series than Hamels. Hamels won MVP, Price didn't.

An explanation from one of the five voters:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/2018/10/inside_the_vote_for_world_series_mvp

yeah and dodgers put up a fight last year against the astros, so not sure what albert is on about

feel like a lot of you dudes get bogged down with the numbers a lot

6 straight division titles for the Dodgers, just to show you how weak the NL West is.

The East has had the lowest winning percentage three of the last four years.

― timellison, Monday, October 29, 2018 6:02 PM (two hours ago)

he meant the NL

I'll read as much of this as holds my interest, but "lack of star power" in the cut line is mystifying. For starters, you've got Betts, Sale, Kimbrel, Price, Kershaw, Machado--there are four-to-six HOF'ers right there. Then you move onto Bogarts, Jensen, Puig, etc. Exactly how many stars was whoever wrote that line (probably not the writer) hoping for?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/red-sox-world-series-2018-mlb/574162/

he meant the NL

Yes, he said the NL, so I assumed he was referring to the NL. I'm not sure the NL West is a particularly terrible division.

From the Atlantic article:

"The average baseball game stretched for three hours and four minutes this season, 10 minutes longer than it did at the beginning of the wild-card era."

Come on, ten minutes is a big deal?

it is when the game is already interminable to begin with

he meant the NL

Yes, he said the NL, so I assumed he was referring to the NL. I'm not sure the NL West is a particularly terrible division.

― timellison, Monday, October 29, 2018 10:20 PM (forty-nine minutes ago)

meaning the NL overall *oh brother*

So if I were to say "Division title for Milwaukee this year, just to show you how weak the NL Central is," it would then be clear that I was not actually referring to the NL Central, I was referring to the whole league?

it is when the game is already interminable to begin with

This is news? People who don't like baseball don't like ten minutes more of baseball?

baseball would be great with a pitch clock and multiball bonuses

That Atlantic article is the worst POS piece on baseball you'll ever see, I don't even have the words.

i'm guessing i would find A Star Is Born more interminable than Game 3.

https://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screenshot-2018-10-30-at-12.55.16-PM.png

Millions of viewers or percentage of audience?

the obvious solution is to make sure the cubs win every year

percentage of audience (they're tv ratings, which are correlated with % of audience, i think: https://jalopnik.com/how-tv-ratings-work-1795820157)

i guess the 1989 plunge was because a lot of the viewing audience was dealing with the earthquake?

i'm guessing interest was way down after the long delay in resuming. (10-12 days?)

This goes back a little farther:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wstv.shtml

Series with better ratings that '86: '73, '75 (barely), '77-'81. Even with the Yankees and Dodgers, surprised '81 was so high after the strike and split-season.

i guess the 1989 plunge was because a lot of the viewing audience was dealing with the earthquake?

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, October 30, 2018 2:19 PM (forty-five minutes ago)

i'm guessing interest was way down after the long delay in resuming. (10-12 days?)

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius)

In the area where both teams played there were 63 deaths, 3,757 injuries & $6B* in damage ($12+B today) due to the earthquake, which may make one reevaluate your priorities.

I'll read as much of this as holds my interest, but "lack of star power" in the cut line is mystifying. For starters, you've got Betts, Sale, Kimbrel, Price, Kershaw, Machado--there are four-to-six HOF'ers right there. Then you move onto Bogarts, Jensen, Puig, etc. Exactly how many stars was whoever wrote that line (probably not the writer) hoping for?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/red-sox-world-series-2018-mlb/574162/

― clemenza, Monday, October 29, 2018 8:40 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

She meant the Yankees i think.

I swear when teams with a strong fanbase across the continent do well, like the Red Sox or Cards or Dodgers or Yankees, journalists yearn for the end of big teams and ugh always the same franchises and ugh payroll is so unfair. Once the Royals win the World Series however, the same journalists will cry for 'national teams' and wish baseball was more like the NFL where every american citizen cares for the Packers or something.

baseball is one of the most complainy sports out there

well actually i think it's its main strength, baseball allows a self-criticism I would love to see in other sports.

Gonna be real funny in 20 years when the european and american football have to deal with PED the way baseball had to.

i don't mind it most of the time, but it grates when certain television broadcasters make the saaaaame complaints about stuff, year after year after year. the mound visits take too long, the batters step out of the box too much, the pitchers take too long, there are too many strikeouts, not enough sacrifice bunts, pitchers aren't tough any more, pitchers are only asked to throw 6 innings and that's lame, small ball is gone, not enough hit and run, wah wah wah

i could make a bingo card with all that shit and the st louis broadcast team will give me a nightly BINGO winning percentage of at least .500

agreed, some broadcasters are dragging the sport down.

put Jason Benetti in charge of the World Series commenting imo.

the FG piece by Craig Edwards that graph came from

For the most part, the World Series has followed general viewing trends. As more options for consumers have emerged, it has become more difficult for any kind of programming to attract a large audience. There have been exceptions: the 1991 World Series between Atlanta and Minnesota, a dramatic post-9/11 Yankees-D-backs event, and the Cubs curse-breaking spectacle. But the relationship between the TV’s No. 1 show and the World Series has been strong, producing an r-squared of .83 during this time period....

I think the disappointing ratings for the series are based primarily on two factors: overrating Boston’s impact on viewership and the games themselves....

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/those-disastrous-world-series-tv-ratings/

(the impact of '89 on the Bay Area is obvious; it wouldn't account for the dip in the national audience)

The Bash Brothers A's weren't really big nationally -- they were a huge deal within baseball, but didn't transcend the sport in a way that would draw big national ratings. Plus there wasn't much interest in watching the games because everybody also viewed the '89 WS as a huge mismatch (which it was).

they were also the same market

yes it def seemed like a sweep even after Game 1

the batters step out of the box too much, the pitchers take too long

this is true tho

I can withstand the constant complaining about 5-6 of these issues at any given time. But I cannot withstand 10+

I draw the line at 10+