Pfighting Polish: Go Rangers.

In 7.

I would've said 5 but LaRussa has a way of doing a lot better with his "lesser" playoff teams ('06) than with the ones that were supposed to blow everybody away ('83, '88, '90, '04...probably missing a couple).

Pfighting Polish: The Brewers felt the pressure of their starting pitching essentially giving out on them. When you have a "we need this right now" onus hanging over your head, the pressure sometimes causes mistakes. The Brewers weren't a great defensive team to being with and the pressure got to them.

If you think a team that garnered ninety-six wins, the best regular-season record in franchise history and a division title winner, as well as the second-best record in the National League, "sucks," then you are pretty short-sighted, think baseball "sucks" or have a pretty broad definition of "sucks" (how bad are the 22 teams that didn't make the playoffs, then?)

From the perspective of a guy who was at each of the Miller Park games, it was the most fun season I've been able to comprehend (I was born the day they fired Buck Rodgers and hired Harvey Kuenn in '82) and, despite the disappointing finish, still think it was a darn good team and a darn fun year.

/Hmm ... Nelson Cruz & Mike Maddux vs. Tony La Russa's d-baggish way of treating the Brewers, their fans' and the media in general? Go Rangers.

This.

Brewer fan here. Classic case of a team that cracked under pressure. But it couldn't come against a hotter team and a solid organization with great fans.

Kudos to the Cards and good luck in the Series!

Should I root for St Louis or Texas?
I dont like or dislike either team. Should I?

bacongood: The Brewers were a horrendous defensive team. Morgan is probably the only + defender they have. Their SS/2B combo is horrible. Braun is a train wreck with the glove. Fielder... ok, I actually think Fielder's defense is underrated, but he plays 1B so it doesn't really matter.

They were middle of the pack in terms of the most important measure of team defense-- the percentage of batted balls that get turned into outs. (71.2%, tied for 13th-best in baseball). They allowed a ton of extra baserunners to reach on errors (74, 6th-most in baseball), but they were making enough other plays to bring them up to a little above the average.

(This is why fielding percentage can be misleading. If a grounder gets through the infield just out of the reach of a slow infielder, it's a single. If he races into position and bobbles it, it's an error. In both cases, there's a runner on first and no out was recorded.)

Fielder is actually a pretty atrocious defender by most of the systems. Surprisingly, his range graded out OK this year, but he made too many errors to be anywhere near average. 1B defense isn't that important relative to other positions, but he cost the brewers some extra runs. Other than 2009, he's graded out poorly every year of his career.

FWIW, Fangraphs thinks five pretty bad defensive Brewers (tallied in runs saved/lost vs. average, so quantity times quality) were:
Worst: Betancourt (-7)
#2: Fielder (-5)
#3: LuCroy (-4)
#4: Braun (-4)
#5: Kotsay (-4)

Fielder and Braun are awesome enough with the bat that the above doesn't matter much; Fielder is still a big prize this winter. Kotsay should be gotten rid of-- he's a 35-year-old who doesn't hit for much, so if he's hurting you with the glove, he's toxic. Betancourt is no surprise-- year after year, he's one of the worst regular players in baseball, hurting you with the bat, glove, and baserunning. LuCroy is young and cheap, and can sort of hit, so you have to hope he matures. He's average vs. the running game, but he fields very few popups/grounders, which is surprising (and possibly fixable with training) because he's not fat by catcher standards.

That said, they also identify four very good defenders:
Best: Gomez (+12; 10th in MLB for all positions, which is amazing for a part-timer)
#2: Morgan (+9)
#3: Counsell (+7)
#4: McGahee (+7)

Unfortunately, Morgan is the only one of these guys who wasn't an embarrassment with the bat this year.

Cards in 6, and the Rangers begin their quest to be the Braves of this decade

bacongood: There are a ton of defensive stats that can be used and they are all far from perfect. But when the defensive stats most in your favor say you are middle of the pack, you are a horrible defensive team.

I agree that they're each far from perfect, but usually if you step back and look at several (especially if you have a few years), they tend to line up well.

I disagree that team defensive efficiency (% of batted balls turned into outs) falls into this category. It's a pretty simple, results-oriented way to look at teams as a whole.

bacongood: There is no good defensive stat for 1B or C. I think people like to paint Fielder as some boulder who doesn't move and can't stretch for a catch; neither of which are true. He is not a gold glove candidate, but the guy plays a serve-able 1B.

He did make 15 errors this year, which led MLB first basemen. B-ref breaks them down as 5 catching (throws), 9 fielding, and 1 throwing, and he allowed 9 extra baserunners to reach. (Possibly more, because they won't score an error on the potential second out of a double play.) That's largely what the systems are keying on.

Electriclectic: mikaloyd: Should I root for St Louis or Texas?
I dont like or dislike either team. Should I?

In times like this, I choose along NL v AL lines. Whichever side of that line you fall on, I don't care. :)

I'll sell my fanhood to benefit charity.
I will be an over the top unsilencable wildly rooting fan of either team in this World Series and post unflattering pics and scandalous half truths about the opposing team in FARK threads for a donation to my favorite no kill dog shelter.

You know its gotta be worth AT LEAST 10 or 20 dollars in lulz. Its for the dogs! Plus Im bound to get fans of the other side somewhat butthurt. Its in my blood. I take the heat, the dogs get helped out, the winner gets the lulz.

This is the dog shelter (new window)

What am I bid?