Series Preview: Gold on the Ceiling

Liked for proper use of "penultimate"

I find it interesting the Twins have played 8 more games against teams with above .500 record.  The remaining schedules have Cleveland only playing 3 more games against above .500 teams, that Twins do not play as well.  Cleveland plays 3 games against Philly.  So why the 5 game difference by end of season, who did we play Cleveland did not, or is that stat based on where they were when played them?  

I do not take much stock in that stat anyways though.  The reason is logic would dictate no team has huge success against above .500 teams, because if team A is crushing those teams, then the other teams are less likely they will be above .500 by end of season.  Now the Cleveland stat that they crushed 3 teams and have losing record overall against all others is very telling to me. Those are three of worst teams in league.  Sure Twins feasted on bottom feeders overall too, but have held own against top teams, even most losses have been close games, from what I remember. 

Puig was an absolute menace during the 4 game series back in August. The fact he has only been worth .1 fWAR since he was acquired is incredible since it felt like he was worth about 1 win just during that 4 games.

Jose Ramirez was another guy who had a great series back in August. I wish he was healthy and able to play, but it bodes well for the Twins that they won't have to worry about his bat this series.

Also, really like this quote from the article: The pitching match-ups fall pretty decently in the Twins’ favor as they get their ace against the Indians’ worst starter. 

Big Mike is absolutely our #1. I look forward to him starting game 1 of the ALDS.

Edit: I previously called Pineda the Twins ace, meaning their #1. Not trying to start a debate on what does or does not constitute an ace. Just that he is the best starter on the staff.

As long as it's close going into the late innings, Brad Hand is good for at least one win...for the Twins.

The Twins must take one game in each series against Cleveland. They do that, and the lead is 4-1/2 games. Anything better than that is gravy (delicious homemade, Thanksgiving turkey gravy - not the gooey, store-bought kind). Anything less - if Cleveland were to sweep either or both series - I'm not sure they could survive that salvo as they did the earlier passing.

I think the record against >.500 teams is a stat that is not calculated correctly. It does not represent the records at game time. A team could enter a 4 game series against a team 3 games above .500, sweep them, and not get recognized as beating a team with a record above .500. The stat changes as the opposing team's record changes. It would be more representative of what actually happened if it is based on the results of the records when the game was played.

I think the record against >.500 teams is a stat that is not calculated correctly. It does not represent the records at game time. A team could enter a 4 game series against a team 3 games above .500, sweep them, and not get recognized as beating a team with a record above .500. The stat changes as the opposing team's record changes. It would be more representative of what actually happened if it is based on the results of the records when the game was played.

Time has come to deliver the death blow to Cleveland

Twins play 4 against Milwaukee.

Tribe play 4 against Cincinnati.

Twins also played one extra game vs the Mets (2 home/2 road) while Indians only played 3 on the road.  Twins went only 1-3, but Indians went 0-3 so actually gained a half game out of that.

There’s two ways to calculate it - record against currently winning teams, and record against winning teams by their latest record / final record. I think most use the latter option as it’s far easier to calculate.

Well, we all know that people generally gravitate to the easiest way, regardless whether it represents what is acutally happening when the teams play(ed).

I love this board and most of the threads but I do get a kick out all the micro analysis. Baseball is still baseball and the fact that the Twins won a game with 2 hits and a great throw to home plate as a result of the Fenway Monster bouncing a home run in any other park that would have been a walk off for the Red Sox into a throw to the plate that was a walk off for the Twins is the classic example of why you play the games and toss the micro analysis out the window as this is a classic example of a run on sentence.

Just go out and play the games and start with beating the Indians tonight.

I love this board and most of the threads but I do get a kick out all the micro analysis. Baseball is still baseball and the fact that the Twins won a game with 2 hits and a great throw to home plate as a result of the Fenway Monster bouncing a home run in any other park that would have been a walk off for the Red Sox into a throw to the plate that was a walk off for the Twins is the classic example of why you play the games and toss the micro analysis out the window as this is a classic example of a run on sentence.

Just go out and play the games and start with beating the Indians tonight.

It looked like to me, as to how the ball was clearly on the way down and hit the wall at about halfway up..... that in any other ballpark that would have been a routine fly ball ..... maybe to the warning track, but probably not even that deep, the outfield would have been playing deep to normal, a routine catch right to the left fielder and three outs and the end of the game right there. We still would have been robbed of the fantastic play and throw and put out at home with the bounce off the shallow left field green monster, though.

Well, I hope the bats can do soemthing against Cleveland. That would be Job #1.

I hope the Twins can pitch ALL of their pitchers in the games. Use the opener route in Game 3. The Twins need to give these new guys an inning each, at least, and see if the Indian players can rememebr the scouting reports.'

Cleveland is going to be pretty motivated; they don’t even hold a wildcard spot right now.

Win tonight and a lot of pressure will be relieved. What's the saying "Momentum is the next day's starter"?

Liked for proper use of "penultimate"

I like antepenultimate.

Or even better, preantepenultimate.

But my favorite is propreantepenultimate. As in, this is the propreantepenultimate series of the regular season.

It looked like to me, as to how the ball was clearly on the way down and hit the wall at about halfway up..... that in any other ballpark that would have been a routine fly ball ..... maybe to the warning track, but probably not even that deep, the outfield would have been playing deep to normal, a routine catch right to the left fielder and three outs and the end of the game right there. We still would have been robbed of the fantastic play and throw and put out at home with the bounce off the shallow left field green monster, though.

Not to mention the Red Sox only other run was on a ball that is a routine foul ball in any other stadium.

I think the record against >.500 teams is a stat that is not calculated correctly. It does not represent the records at game time. A team could enter a 4 game series against a team 3 games above .500, sweep them, and not get recognized as beating a team with a record above .500. The stat changes as the opposing team's record changes. It would be more representative of what actually happened if it is based on the results of the records when the game was played.

The reason the way they do it now is the right way is by the end of the season all teams have played a full season and you have the most complete estimation of a team's worth available. Yes there are fluctuations in each teams level of play during the season but there are too many variables dictating that level of play that would obscure an accurate assessment of their play. Huh?

Cleveland is going to be pretty motivated; they don’t even hold a wildcard spot right now.

I like antepenultimate.

 

Or even better, preantepenultimate.

 

But my favorite is propreantepenultimate. As in, this is the propreantepenultimate series of the regular season.

Oh I'm so scared.

Geez I didn't know they talked like that down in Indianer.

I'm not a native, so I try not to use that kind of language here. I’m afraid they’ll try to wash my mouth out with soap.

The game with the Indians worst starter and the Twins best was supposed to be the easy one, right?