2016 Postseason Thread

I don't really have an issue hitting Montero for Ross. Just isn't a big deal to me. But, use Schwarber at some point.
 
It seems to only be a problem throwing to 1st. I would think he'd be fine throwing home. Heck, he could just throw a normal pitch.

If he broke as soon as he gets set, then he would either have to step off or make a pitch. and making a pitch just to get it home is dangerous with a guy holding a bat at home.
 
True, however, the Cubs confidence would be real high if they can force a Game 7. Confidence goes a long way in a championship series.

I would still rather have the pitching advantage than more confidence.

I'm just saying, I don't think it means doom for Cleveland if it goes 7.
 
The guy doing the FG chat summed up perfectly why I think the Braves managed by Cox did so poorly in the playoffs:

schwoch
1:01 Curious to know what Maddon does strategically that bothers you most. I'm a 56-year-old lifelong Cubs fan so I've seen some really bad managers; often when I disagree with Maddon strategically I find out later there was some factor I didn't know (like Lester basically taking himself out the other night).
august ***erstrom
1:02 I don't watch the Cubs every day, so it's entirely possible I'm overreacting, but in the past, I get the sense that he's sometimes a bit passive when I'd prefer him to be more aggressive. That being said, a lot of that likely has to do with keeping players happy, and he has a reputation as being maybe the best player's-manager in the game, so maybe this balances out!
1:03 At this stage in the game, though, I think the sliders might have to shift more towards tacticianal aggression and less towards the keeping-players-content argument, which seems better suited for the 162-game grind than the seven-game win-or-go-home series
I also don't know jack **** about managing, so I'm probably way off base.

His latest passive move that bothered me was not getting Schwarber an AB in the 4th inning on Sunday. He should have hit for Heyward, Baez or Ross. Francona manages aggresively in the postseason, while Maddon is still trying to keep guys happy. I think it is a big reason the Indians are doing so well against a far superior team.

Maddon did finally use Chapman aggressively in game 5 though, and it probably won them the game.
 
The guy doing the FG chat summed up perfectly why I think the Braves managed by Cox did so poorly in the playoffs:

schwoch
1:01 Curious to know what Maddon does strategically that bothers you most. I'm a 56-year-old lifelong Cubs fan so I've seen some really bad managers; often when I disagree with Maddon strategically I find out later there was some factor I didn't know (like Lester basically taking himself out the other night).
august ***erstrom
1:02 I don't watch the Cubs every day, so it's entirely possible I'm overreacting, but in the past, I get the sense that he's sometimes a bit passive when I'd prefer him to be more aggressive. That being said, a lot of that likely has to do with keeping players happy, and he has a reputation as being maybe the best player's-manager in the game, so maybe this balances out!
1:03 At this stage in the game, though, I think the sliders might have to shift more towards tacticianal aggression and less towards the keeping-players-content argument, which seems better suited for the 162-game grind than the seven-game win-or-go-home series
I also don't know jack **** about managing, so I'm probably way off base.

His latest passive move that bothered me was not getting Schwarber an AB in the 4th inning on Sunday. He should have hit for Heyward, Baez or Ross. Francona manages aggresively in the postseason, while Maddon is still trying to keep guys happy. I think it is a big reason the Indians are doing so well against a far superior team.

Maddon did finally use Chapman aggressively in game 5 though, and it probably won them the game.

I don't watch Maddon that much, but I've always seen him as oddly aggressive at points and burning off his bench early in the game. But again, I haven't watched him that closely. One thing he does that bugs me a bit is that he moves guys around willy-nilly throughout the game, often for no apparent reason. He does have a solid squad that can do that somewhat seamlessly, but sometimes it looks like he's just trying to screw around for the sake of screwing around. For my part, I think all managers are pretty much equal except for the really bad ones. To me, there's about a micron difference between those in the upper quartile. It usually boils down to management of the pitching staff and clubhouse atmosphere.
 
I don't watch Maddon that much, but I've always seen him as oddly aggressive at points and burning off his bench early in the game. But again, I haven't watched him that closely. One thing he does that bugs me a bit is that he moves guys around willy-nilly throughout the game, often for no apparent reason. He does have a solid squad that can do that somewhat seamlessly, but sometimes it looks like he's just trying to screw around for the sake of screwing around. For my part, I think all managers are pretty much equal except for the really bad ones. To me, there's about a micron difference between those in the upper quartile. It usually boils down to management of the pitching staff and clubhouse atmosphere.

With the exception of lineup construction, I generally agree. Batting someone like Adonis Garcia 2nd when guys with far superior on base skills like Jace and Swanson are on the roster is absolutely inexcusible to me, no matter how small of a difference it makes. It is a quantifiable advantage the manager is directly responsible for, and all it costs is a swipe of his pen to make it happen.

However, Francona's aggressive use of his 2 elite BP arms in the highest leverage situations (regardless of the inning) is, in my opinion, the biggest reason the Indians are in the position to win the WS with 1 more victory. Fredi and Buck have shown how NOT to utilize a BP during the postseason, while Francona has pretty much laid out the perfect blueprint for postseason BP usage. We have gotten to watch another deep postseason run by the Braves had Fredi used his BP (namely Kimbrel) correctly in the postseason. Same thing goes with the Orioles and Britton sitting in the BP unused.
 
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