Playoff Prospectus: Yankees versus Indians by Jay Jaffe

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Prospectus:  Jay Jaffe—Yankees versus Indians
Published 10/4/2007 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog

Playoff Prospectus: Yanks-Indians
Published 10/4/2007 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
Playoff Prospectus: Yanks-Indians My preview of the Yankees-Indians series, which starts this evening, is up at ...

A! L! D! S! Who Do We Appreci-Ess? Indians!
Published 10/4/2007 by Alex at Mistake by the Lake Sporting Times
... Playoff Prospectus: Yankees versus Indians by Jay Jaffe ...

ALDS Game 1: Debating the starting rotation
Published 10/4/2007 by Ben K. at River Avenue Blues
... in the post on the Yankees’ playoff roster began a discussion I was planning on having, and Jay Jaffe over at Baseball Prospectus elaborated in his massive playoff preview piece. Let me quote the relevant passage from Jay: ...

Bronx Banter: ALDS Game One: Can I Start This?
Published 10/4/2007 at Bronx Banter
Well, here we are again. One year later and the Yanks are in the post-season once more. Before the game starts, I just want to express how grateful I am that our team is back in the playoffs. It's something that's simply not to be taken for granted, cause it ain't going to last forever. Moreover, I want to let you guys know how much Cliff and I appreciate the fact that you keep coming back to chill at the Banter. You make blogging a true pleasure. As per usual, Cliff did a bang-up job of previewing the series this morning. Here is what Jay Jaffe thinks (Oh, and while you are at it,dig this piece on Alex Rodriguez by ...

Yankee woes in Game 1
Published 10/5/2007 by Caleb at Breaking Balls
... We will know a lot more tonight, with Fausto “I only pitch quality starts” Carmona on the mound against Andy Pettitte, whose 212 playoff innings very closely resemble his season line this year (thanks, Jay). I love October. ...

Torre's Last Stand
Published 10/7/2007 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
... y more powerful than OFF -- because I'm so prone to insect bites, I can't say Chamberlain's meltdown surprised me. When you're caught in a swarm, staying focused isn't easy. I'm not sure that the umpires should have stopped play on their own accord, but I wouldn't have blamed Torre for pulling the team from the field and engaging in a lengthy discussion with the umps and the grounds crew to buy his flustered pitcher some time to calm down. Still, part of being a well-paid professional athlete is keeping your cool under extreme pressure. Chamberlain did not -- hell, Jeter looked just as flustered, but the ball wasn't in his hands -- and it led to the Indians tying the game. Blaming Chamberlain or the infestation for losing the game isn't appropriate, however. Over the course of nine innings, the offense simply couldn't solve Carmona, the Tribe's even filthier equivalent of Yankee sinkerballer Chien-Ming Wang. On the eve of the series, one pro-Yankee BP reader, responding to my ...

No Place Like Home
Published 10/8/2007 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
... . For Game Four, Joe Torre has opted to go back to Chien-Ming Wang, who was tagged for eight runs in Game One. He's appearing on just three days' rest, and his outing wasn't exactly short; 94 pitches under duress is a pretty full workload for 4.2 innings. Anecdotally, sinkerballers such as Wang tend to benefit from being a bit tired. With three days of rest instead of the seven he had prior to the series opener, the Yankees have to hope so. Just as important as the amount of rest, if not more, is the fact that Wang is pitching at home. I made note of his persistent home-road splits in my series preview at BP and expanded on them here ...

Playoff Prospecus: Red Sox-Indians
Published 10/13/2007 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
... fortable calling that a tossup even given Carmona's prowess. By my reckoning, this scenario yields two edges in each team's favor and three tossups, two of them at Fenway, so I'll call it for Boston, but in seven games, not six as I originally did. Scenario 2: Wakefield starts Game Four Fr 10/12: Beckett/Sabathia - tossup Sa 10/13: Schilling/Carmona - tossup Mo 10/15: Matsuzaka/Westbrook - Indians edge Tu 10/16: Wakefield/Byrd - Indians edge Th 10/18: Beckett/Sabathia - tossup Sa 10/20: Schilling/Carmona - tossup Su 10/21: Matsuzaka/Westbrook - Indians edge This time around, I've got three advantages for the Indians, and four tossups, three of them in Fenway. Even if three of those tossups go Boston's way, in my view, they still wind up on the short end in my book. Indians in seven. I should add here that I'm strongly pulling for Cleveland to win this series, but anybody suggesting that the objectivity of my analysis is compromised by that preference need only look back to my ...

NLCS Preview
Published 4 days ago by Jay (noreply@blogger.com) at The Futility Infielder
... the Dodgers' staff's stinginess in surrendering home runs (they led the NL with the fewest allowed at 123, 24 fewer than any other club) and their tactical advantage in being able to counter the Phillies' concentration of lefty threats with one pitcher as compared to the Dodgers' more dispersed lineup may prove the deciding factor. In the end (and with the caveat that I'm a Dodger fan, albeit one who's proven comfortable with picking against my own strong rooting interests in such past previews), I'm willing to go out on a limb and call this for the ...