GDT 10/12/23: Braves @ Phillies - NLDS Game 4 Striders Revenge

After a few days of reflection and calming down I now believe that the reason the bad teams beat the good teams in the playoffs is due to the 100 win teams cruising into the playoffs. There was no real pressure on the Braves past the Dodgers series. The teams that barely made it were playing playoff games the whole last month of the season. The actual playoffs were just an extension of that.
 
After a few days of reflection and calming down I now believe that the reason the bad teams beat the good teams in the playoffs is due to the 100 win teams cruising into the playoffs. There was no real pressure on the Braves past the Dodgers series. The teams that barely made it were playing playoff games the whole last month of the season. The actual playoffs were just an extension of that.

Braves clinched the division on the last day of the season last year with 100 wins. Didn’t seem to matter.
 
Braves clinched the division on the last day of the season last year with 100 wins. Didn’t seem to matter.

Call it whatever you will, this season after we clinched, the team essentially packed it in. We played terrible baseball and our pitching was terrible going into the post season. It was ironic that our offense is the thing that **** the bed in the actual playoffs.

I feel it has more to do with the 5 days off than anything. You could tell early on that no one could catch up to the fastball.
 
Call it whatever you will, this season after we clinched, the team essentially packed it in. We played terrible baseball and our pitching was terrible going into the post season. It was ironic that our offense is the thing that **** the bed in the actual playoffs.

I feel it has more to do with the 5 days off than anything. You could tell early on that no one could catch up to the fastball.

Interested to see how the teams left will do after several days off. Rangers will have four days off, Astros three, Diamondbacks four, and Phillies three.
 
I wonder if there’s any way the Braves could practice having time off during the season? Maybe by resting regulars so they can build that routine? How could that possibly be accomplished? A real head scratcher…
 
I wonder if there’s any way the Braves could practice having time off during the season? Maybe by resting regulars so they can build that routine? How could that possibly be accomplished? A real head scratcher…

This is it. I mean really it is about resting guys throughout the season to keep them fresh. Giving them a bunch of days off right before you play a huge series does nothing but kill timing. Anyone who ran track knows if you sprint for the first 10-20 miles of a marathon you are toast the last legs regardless how easy you take it. You could litterally sit for 45 minutes but you are spent. You saw it with Mookie and FF too. These guys played almost every game and then sat for 5 days. That isn’t going to make them less wore down. Just screwed up timing.

If I cared at all about baseball right now I would go look at see how guys who did well (Astros) compared with PA’s versus guys like Acuna/Olson/Riley (who was pretty good)/Ozuna and company. Especially the second half.

On top of that the team decided to part time play one of our best players because he was strugggling when every other player was allowed to play through it.

Maybe players loves playing for Twitner because he is asleep and they can do whatever they want. Maybe a leader would be better to manage the talent when it is needed.
 
I wonder if there’s any way the Braves could practice having time off during the season? Maybe by resting regulars so they can build that routine? How could that possibly be accomplished? A real head scratcher…

Wanting to rest starters 5 days in a row is asinine
 
This is it. I mean really it is about resting guys throughout the season to keep them fresh. Giving them a bunch of days off right before you play a huge series does nothing but kill timing. Anyone who ran track knows if you sprint for the first 10-20 miles of a marathon you are toast the last legs regardless how easy you take it. You could litterally sit for 45 minutes but you are spent. You saw it with Mookie and FF too. These guys played almost every game and then sat for 5 days. That isn’t going to make them less wore down. Just screwed up timing.

If I cared at all about baseball right now I would go look at see how guys who did well (Astros) compared with PA’s versus guys like Acuna/Olson/Riley (who was pretty good)/Ozuna and company. Especially the second half.

On top of that the team decided to part time play one of our best players because he was strugggling when every other player was allowed to play through it.

Maybe players loves playing for Twitner because he is asleep and they can do whatever they want. Maybe a leader would be better to manage the talent when it is needed.

Again, I speak of a different era, but when only have four bench players the way most teams build rosters now, you have to do a better job building a bench that what Anthopoulos has done. It's his biggest shortcoming in my estimation. The acquisition of Lopez helps and gives the team a guy who is a solid back-up at three IF positions. But you really can't have a guy like Wall taking up a spot on a four-man bench. There really isn't a back-up first baseman on the team (although Riley could slide over there for a game or two during the season). Again, it's a lot easier when you have a five-man bench and I know I have a jaundiced view from watching how the game was played in the 1960s, but I think there really needs to be a bench upgrade this off-season.
 
Harris vs a suddenly wild Alvarado vs TDA vs a fresh kimbrel. I’m not sure that’s a great swap.

But TDA has some magic in that bat…

Turns out the FG guys agree with this in thier grading of Snit.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nlds-managerial-report-card-brian-snitker/

Money quote regarding the only move Snit made: "Burning d’Arnaud for a matchup that doesn’t even seem better to me gave them less flexibility, and it also took Harris out of the game...That’s how you end up with Rosario, who I’ve spent an entire section describing as a lefty who only faces righties, pinch-hitting against a lefty pitcher. That’s how you end up with Vaughn Grissom, who barely played in the majors this year, pinch-hitting for Nicky Lopez (who was the defensive sub for d’Arnaud). The Braves were thin on the hitting side. Pinch-hitting for a bona fide good hitter to get a tiny advantage — if any — strikes me as the only mistake Snitker made, but man, I really don’t get what he was thinking there."

Here's the answer...Snit wasn't thinking, it's not his strong suit.
 
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