No Jinx Needed: The Dodgers Are Just Better
Baseball October 3rd. 2008, 9:00am
In game one, it was the wildness of Ryan Dempster that led to a grand slam and a 5-2 defeat. Last night four errors did the Cubs in, and the “team with no real holes” (bet Jayson Stark wishes he had that one back; ditto for the Yahoo guys) that was projected by many (not us!) to reach the World Series, is facing elimination just two days into the postseason.
Angst-ridden Cubs fans will probably attempt to point fingers at big-money bats that have gone silent, like Alfonso Soriano (1-9, four left on base) and Fukudome (0-8, five LOB). But other than Mark DeRosa, all of the Cubs have been ineffective at the plate against a pitching staff that led the NL in ERA this year. Nobody on Chicago looks as confident and comfortable at the plate as Manny Ramirez, who homered again last night.
The obvious question: Is this a choke job by the Cubs? They haven’t wasted a big, late-inning lead, but Dempster’s wildness and the comedy of errors in the field Thursday provide the foundation for an argument that the favored Cubs have simply let the pressure get to them. That’d make it a choke.
61 Responses to “No Jinx Needed: The Dodgers Are Just Better”
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October 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 AM
to paraphrase Jerry Rice, same old Cubs same old f-ing Cubs
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 AM
CHOKE!!!!!CHOKE!!! I love the Boos. Maybe the Cubs can win one on the road because they wont hear all that Booing.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 AM
they’re just not supposed to win in October. it’s pretty simple.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 AM
This is a ridiculous sentence.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 AM
couldnt have happened to a nicer group of fans
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 AM
And you contradict yourself here. If the Dodgers are better, how are the Cubs choking?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 AM
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 AM
That Fukudome signing has worked out pretty well.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:11 AM
It’s cliche to sya the Cubs ran into a buzzsaw in the Dodgers, but I think that is exactly what happened. Nobody wanted any part of the Dodgers this post season. Three above average starters and a Manny influxed line-up… they are really good. What I don’t get is why the Cubs aren’t playing the Wild Card. I realize it is the rule that you can’t play an inter division team in the play-offs first round, but the best team should play the wild card in the first round IMO.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 AM
I realize it is the rule that you can’t play an inter division team in the play-offs first round, but the best team should play the wild card in the first round IMO.
This makes sense.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 AM
NICK – so the dodgers win the first two on road and they’re not better?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Ha — when the Cubs get swept, we can just chalk it up to “bad luck”, right?
/I kid, Nick … kind of.
TBL, wasn’t your gambling boy on LA to take this series?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 AM
I picked the Dodgers to win the first two games at Wrigley. On Monday, I’ll tell you how I predicted the remainder of the series.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 AM
That’s correct.
The St. Louis Cardinals weren’t the best team when they won the World Series, nor were the Marlins. This debate is tired.
The Cubs were probably a 55-60% favorite. So going down 0-2 happens about 20% of the time. Choke? Nah.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 AM
TBL, I think the point is that two games is much too small a sample size to declare one team is better than the other. I’m sure the Nationals won two out of three at some point against a top team, does that make them better?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 AM
Yeah, what he said.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:21 AM
As Billy Beane has said countless times, the playoffs are an absolute crapshoot.
In the last decade how many times has the best team entering the playoffs, won the whole thing??
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 AM
The Cubs are playing the team with the worst record and just 3 games above .500 The Cubs are choking
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 AM
The Dodgers were better yesterday.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:23 AM
They’re not a crapshoot, but that’s not far off.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:23 AM
So why even have the playoffs? Why not just name the team with the best regular season record the champ?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 AM
@Granite: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Do people take you for granite?
/puns
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 AM
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that the best team doesn’t always win. That’s what makes things exciting. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking that’s always the case.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 AM
@Granite… That was the whole purpose of a long season in baseball for 70+ years. Win the 154 game season and you get to play in the World Series. If you aren’t the best team in your league, come back next year.
The playoffs have allowed for teams that were not the best all year to win in the playoffs courtesy of getting “hot” for 2 weeks or being better suited for the playoffs (have 3 strong starters and 3 good bullpen guys).
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 AM
I think it is still too early to write off the Cubs, but I still can’t wait for them to lose.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 AM
Royals fans approve of the Cubs losing.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 AM
To establish which team plays best in a high-pressure situation.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:31 AM
You can make the argument that they should be playing the wild card, but, in reality, the Brew Crew finished 6 games above the Dodgers, so, in theory, the Cubs were getting the easier matchup.
I will say this, a 5 game series in the Division Series is a joke. They need to get with the program and make it a 7 game series. The ONLY argument MLB makes against it is “we don’t want to play World Series games in November”. Well, lo and behold, if they haven’t already scheduled Games 6 & 7 of the 2009 WS for November. It’s just stupid.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 AM
knock soccer all you want but almost all leagues decide their champion by each team playing each other twice and whoever has the best record is the champion. it just makes sense.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 AM
if the cubs tightened up last night and booted the ball all over the yard what are they going to do facing elimination? as much as i hate to say it – break out the brooms dodger fan. adding CC to their staff is gonna keep torre in the post season until he dies.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 AM
@Wally…agreed. The playoffs were a creation for TV, nothing more, nothing less (in particular the expansion to 8 teams). How cool was it for 70+ years…just 2 teams made the postseason. That is friggin awesome.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 AM
That’s why they should just play the entire regular season under a light beam of high thermal conductivity.
/science
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 AM
So why even have the playoffs? Why not just name the team with the best regular season record the champ?
Because this is the system everyone agreed with. This isn’t soccer (where there are no playoffs and the best team in the regular season is crowned champs).
Are the Dodgers better? Not really. They are playing better. Or, if you will, the Cubs are not playing up to their level.
But in the end, it won’t matter. The Cubs will be perceived as having given this series away…which given that they’ve surrendered 17 runs to 3 and recorded 4-5 errors in 2 games may not be that far off.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 AM
i will get very drunk saturday if the dodgers pull off the sweep.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 AM
@Moleman…was just thinking the same thing. Playoffs in all professional sports, except for maybe the NFL, are way, way overbloated.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Until they get to the tournaments (UEFA, Champions League, World Cup) where they use a bracket style.
Plus, baseball is unique among all the major sports because things change so drastically depending on the pitching matchup. In basketball and hockey it’s the same group of guys playing each other over and over for 7 games.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 AM
those dont decide leagues, and as thats what i was talking about, whatever
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 AM
@Herd…CC is going to be wearing pinstripes (and not the Cubs’ variety) next year, not Dodger blue. So is Manny for that matter. Accept that reality.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 AM
@Jay V
It was cool that only two teams made it, but with team expansion only fans of those two teams that make it to the world series would care.
then again that seems to be the only format that ever favored the Cubs, so if MLB was keen to end their drought they could just do that one year.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 AM
Not liking the playoffs is communist.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 AM
So why even have the playoffs? Why not just name the team with the best regular season record the champ?
Sounds like my Fantasy Baseball league.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 AM
@Clown…some would say that baseball in the 50s & 60s was the antithesis of communism. So, I find your comment ironic.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Until they get to the tournaments (UEFA, Champions League, World Cup) where they use a bracket style.
Those are tournaments. The actual leagues (the English Premier League, the Italian Serie A) are decided by the 36-38 games they play. Everyone plays everyone else home and away and that’s it.
Jay, I’ll disagree with extending the Divisional Round to 7. The NBA extended Round 1 to 7 years ago and it’s just made things longer. Besides, it feels as simply reactionary (if the Cubs were up 2-0 no one would be clamoring for changes).
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Much like Gossamer, you can’t dissect clown.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Violent ground acquisition games such as football is in fact a crypto-fascist metaphor for nuclear war.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Baseball playoffs are wonderful. But i do agree with Jay V that it should go best of 7 in the Division series’. but TV is the reason that they don’t want to go to 7 games. these games don’t get great ratings that prime time network shows do. the games are on TBS now so maybe we’ll see them go to 7 games.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 AM
@BFredo…I understand your point. But, the basketball playoffs are just longer in general. They have days off between games and what not. Making the first round of the baseball playoffs a 7-game affair would extend the season 3-4 days at most.
As for it being reactionary…uh, no. Google the idea, and you get at least 50 articles over the course of the last few years espousing my very point.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 AM
personally i liked it much better when it was just the championships series. go back to only two divisions, make these bitches earn it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 AM
Jay V – CC has a new crib in Cali/is from Cali and has expressed his desire to play in Cali .. its a two team derby with LA teams and blank checks. CC loves to swing the bat and picks Dodger blue. Why would any pitcher getting an equal deal not choose the NL?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 AM
Basically it has come down to the Dodgers being in better shape than the Cubs, thus not as tired after playing the rigorous stretch of back to back days.
\Will beat this joke into the ground because the original though was so ridiculous
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 AM
@Herd…when push comes to shove, the Yanks are going to offer 10M more than either of the Cali teams…you are getting ready to see the most ridiculous off-season spending you have ever seen this year from the Yanks. It’s going to be outrageous. While I am aware of CC’s stated desire to play in Cali, I don’t see either team giving him the Monopoly money that the Evil Empire is going to fork over.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Division series should be 7 game series but only if they chop the regular season down to 154. Otherwise the weather will be horrible. I do not want to watch the “boys of summer” playing in 20 degrees in November
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 AM
YYSA…again, a 7 game series in the 1st rd would only extend the season 3-4 days. Are we really to believe that the weather changes that significantly between October 30 and November 2? I didn’t think so.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Jay V – we shall see. I would not put it past George Jr. to offer up 20+ per year for the fat man.
As for the Cubs they need to think about a change @ first. Maybe acquire a power hitting 1B Mark Teixeira style. They also need to finish the Brian Roberts biz by either getting him or another everyday 2B and TELL phonsie that he’s not hitting lead off ever again. that should do it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 AM
But they are not only having weather trouble at the beginning of the year but they are having trouble playing April 1st as well. I for one do not want to see any more bullshit makeup games at the end of the year that will effect division races. 162 is too fucking long irregardless
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 AM
MLB plays 162 games in 180 days. They only get 18 days off the entire season, and 3 of those are for the All-Star break.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 AM
YYSA, I don’t disagree that 162 is too long. In fact, I would support a rollback to 154. But we all know there is a 0% chance that is happening. My point is that making the DS a 7 game affair doesn’t extend the season by any significant length, even w/ a 162 game season.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 AM
just take out the extra days off in the division series and this thing ends in October.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 AM
The Cubs don’t need a first baseman. Lee is fine. They have plenty of offense, and plenty of pitching. They are just under performing. Oh well. Sometimes the better team doesn’t always win. The Dodgers def aren’t the better team.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 PM
As a Cardinals fan, I have but one thing to say…
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
OK, I have a second thing to say…
screw the reputation of the NL Central, I hope both the Cubs and Brewers get swept.