FanHouse ALDS

Now that TBS' coverage of the Divisional Series has ended, I think it's safe to say they did a decent job of covering all the games. Yes, there were a few things about TBS's coverage that I wasn't a fan of. That little 9-foot marker they put over at first base to measure a runner's lead off of the bag? Yeah, that was stupid and pointless. Frank Thomas as a studio analyst left a bit to be desired, and don't even get me started on Dick Stockton and his crazy hair.

Still, TBS must have been doing something right, because the ratings for this years divisional round games are better than they were last year.

Fox, like other broadcast networks, reach more than 113 million U.S. households who own TVs. Cablecaster TBS is accessible in only about 90 million households and doesn't even have the potential reach cablecaster ESPN had on its playoff coverage last year. ESPN also put its game coverage on local over-the-air TV in the cities of participating teams.

So, with less accessibility into TV households, TBS' first-round coverage would logically have lower TV ratings than the first-round coverage on Fox and ESPN last year. That was made even more likely considering that viewer interest, in any sport, usually builds the longer that playoff series last - and TBS had three of its four first-round series end in sweeps.

Funny thing, though. TBS finished its first-round games averaging 3.8% of U.S. households - up 18% from last year's first-round games on Fox and ESPN.

Before last night's series ending win, everybody and their mother seemed to be saying Eric Wedge was an idiot for choosing to go with Paul Byrd over C. C. Sabathia. That includes us here at FanHouse, and I'll fully admit that if I were Wedge I'd have probably gone with Sabathia myself.

Well, luckily for Indians fans, the only person playing the role of Eric Wedge is Eric Wedge. Wedge showed faith in Paul Byrd that only a man who's been around a guy everyday for the last six months can have, and Byrd didn't let him down.

Sure, he only lasted five plus innings, but for the most part, he shut down a potent Yankees lineup during those innings.

Of course Wedge isn't the type of guy to say I told you so afterwards. Instead when asked about his decision paying off, he chose only to reiterate his reasons for it.

"We wouldn't be here without [Byrd]," Wedge said.

"C.C. worked as hard as he's worked all year. He's pushing 250 innings. We are not going to put anyone in harm's way, much less our ace and one of the best pitchers in baseball.

"It's too a point now that from a common sense point, people should understand [Sabathia not starting Game 4] in regard to C.C.'s workload in his previous start."

Now as it sets up, Wedge can use Sabathia in game one of the ALCS and in game five, which is always an important game in any seven game series. That's a fact that I'm sure also went through Wedge's mind before he made his decision.

The last few seasons I've heard a lot of Indians fans question the moves of their manager, but I can only wonder, how do those same fans feel about him this morning?

They are both future Hall of Famers because they redefined the shortstop position for a generation. One of them moved off the position for the other so that they could play together and bring championships to the Bronx. They've been teammates for four frustrating postseasons in pinstripes that have made a huge impact on one's reputation and left the other one totally unscathed. One is lauded as the ultimate stand-up guy who never shirks from a pressure situation, the other has been called a choker, derided as selfish and generally been made the butt of jokes despite putting up ungodly numbers. Here's how they responded to last night's 6-4 loss to the Indians and the end of another ring-less season in the Bronx.

Player 1:

"It's on me. Whatever blame you put on me, that's fine. The most courageous group of guys, that I've ever played with ... No explanations. No excuses."

Player 2:

"Sometimes you do well and you lose, and you don't do well and you win. It doesn't really make a difference. We didn't get the job done and that's the only thing that really matters."

While I'm sure you figured out who the two players are by now, I thought it worth noting that the first comment came from Alex Rodriguez while the second one came from Derek Jeter. Neither man played well in the playoffs but A-Rod played better. He didn't make an error that opened the scoring for Cleveland in Game One. He didn't hit into three double plays over the last two games or hit .176 for the series.

With the Indians' win last night, the LCS pairings are complete and coupled with the Red Sox win on Sunday, we've got some more unnecessary celebration pictures to analyze. The Red Sox most certainly should be acting like they've been here before because they have. Maybe that's why they wore celebration goggles while the Indians left their eyes unprotected. The Indians, meanwhile, did get to celebrate a simple fact that's being ignored by the mainstream media: they Yankees didn't lose this series, the Indians won it.

Anyways, check the gallery out if you're an Indians or Red Sox fan that wants to relive the glory of winning the right to play for the right to play for the World Championship. Just don't do it if you're about to go to bed because Julio Lugo and Casey Blake's beard are featured prominently and I promise you, they're the stuff that nightmares are made of.
Sorry, No Photos

It wasn't Bob Uecker in the booth tonight like he was in the movie, screaming out the title of this blog entry just as Tom Berenger beat out a bunt scoring Wesley Snipes, but the Cleveland Indians have indeed won it ... and just like in the movie (the first one, because the first Major League, as you must know, was the best one), they beat the Yankees to get to the ALCS.

Their 6-4 series clinching win proved wrong all of the prognosticators who thought that the Yankees were better off facing Cleveland than say, the Angels, who have had the Yankees' number in playoffs past. But considering how banged up the Angels were, and how the Red Sox dispatched of them fairly easily, I think the Yankees and their fans probably would have wanted a do-over on those thoughts. And I think they may even realize that the Red Sox and the Indians are clearly the two best teams in the American League. Both teams have two big aces that came up huge in the playoffs (Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling for Boston, C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona for Cleveland), while the Yankees Game one starter was simply awful (a decent start by 19 game winner Chien-Ming Wang might have made the difference between a winner take all Game Five and an early Yankee exit.) Also, both the Red Sox and Indians have solid bullpens that aren't held together by patchwork, special rules, and Kyle Farnsworth (although Joe Borowski, as evidenced by the home run and the foul moon shot hit off him in the ninth inning, scares the ever loving you know what out of me.)

For the Yankees, Phil Hughes showed himself to be a bright spot for the future with his big performance in Game 3. Guys like Hughes, Joba Chamberlain (great in the regular season but just okay in the playoffs, bugs or not) and Ian Kennedy will allow the Yankees not to be desperate enough to bring back Roger Clemens for another season. But of course, the conversation for the immediate future will center around Alex Rodriguez (will he opt out for free agency), and Joe Torre (will George Steinbrenner make good with his promise and play "off with his head"?) and it promises to be a very interesting immediate future in the Bronx (you may know it as "The Boogie Down.")

Hopefully, that immediate future isn't going to interfere too much with what should be a very good ALCS between the Red Sox, who broke their long curse in 2004, and the Indians, who haven't won the series since 1948.

Three hours in, and merely six innings down. Thanks, Paul Byrd!

The Yankees are going to need three innings of nearly perfect pitching and defense fused with an offensive reawakening. You know, the offense that averaged -- averaged! -- .290/.366/.463, the offense that scored 968 runs, the offense good enough to notch a 94-68 despite an anemic starting pitching staff's constant struggles. For their gains made in the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees still have to get that offense going over the next three innings if they want to earn yet another do-or-die game.

Top 7: Uhoh. Kyle Farnsworth. He's ... he's not dead? Farnsworth strikes out Martinez, and looks stylish doing in those wire-rim glasses. I'd far prefer Farnsworth sport a pair of the emo Buddy Holly ones, but I can't complain too much.

We're three innings and one Chien-Ming Wang down, and the Yankees are struggling to get over the hump on Paul Byrd. Bird is, if you're to believe analysts Bob Brenly and Tony Gwynn, not only idiosyncratic in delivery but the best "out-getter" of his generation. In case you were curious, the numbers do not bear this out.

In any case, the Indians are back up in the top of the fourth, likely hoping to keep piling on the runs as insurance for the surefire Byrd levee-break. On we go:

Top 4: Yankees pitching coach Ron Guidry says that the reason Wang struggled was his inability to get pitches down in the zone in two-out counts. I have nothing to add to this except the morbid reminder that even the best baseball players in the world, high-paid pitchers for professional baseball's most storied franchise, sometimes have trouble with control. This means: baseball is hard. It also means my inability to crack a pony league team is incredibly sad by comparison.

Mussina in a bit of a jam here; Asdrubal Cabrera bunts two runners over and sets the table for Travis Hafner, whom is promptly walked ... and Victor Martinez puts two more across on a short single to left. Yankee Stadium is in pin-drop mode right now.

It's a big, fun game tonight, what seems like the first of the postseason. So why not live-blog, right? Screw football.

A little late to the party here, which I'll sheepishly admit is due to a misreading of the EST/Central time zones. It's a problem stemming from my recent move to a large midwestern city, one that may or may not prominently root for the Chicago Cubs. (Let's not talk about that.) Nonetheless, off we go. All observations, insults, and witticisms may be left in the comments, should you so choose.

Top 1: The Indians have taken an early lead thanks to the dreamy Grady Sizemore's leadoff home run and a bloop single by Jhonny Peralta, and bam, 2-0. That's about all the information I have for you right now, besides the fact that Rudy Guiliani is indeed in attendance. Unlike Guilani, the Yankees are far from the early favorite tonight. Let's see what they can conjure.

Bottom 1: Two leadoff singles put two runners in front of one Alex Rodriguez -- you may have heard of him -- and A-Rod, true to his postseason form thus far, has a short, bad at-bat. It was nice to see the home crowd at Yankee Stadium (which sounds incredibly electric through the TV box) chant "MVP" before the A-Rod at-bat; we'll see how long they keep up their encouragement if Mr. Rod has another bad one.

And ... Posada lines out to DHL's personal Screech, Kenny Lofton. Good on Kenny; it's tough seeing him get insulted like this every night.

By now we've all heard George Steinbrenner's ultimatum to Joe Torre: win the ALDS or don't come back. Although he's handled the situation with grace so far, how does Torre feel about being publicly hung up to dry? From the New York Times:

"It's certainly not something you enjoy having to put up with," Torre said, when asked about Steinbrenner's comments to The Record of Hackensack, N.J.

"But the fact of the matter is, it's what goes with the territory. It's really not a lot of difference than in the past. If I get caught up in that, I'm really going to have a tough time doing my job, and I don't think that's right.

He hit the nail on the head with that last sentence: it's not right, not after everything Torre has done for the Yankees. I know expectations are higher in New York, but the Yankees aren't even supposed to be in the playoffs right now, not after the way the team started.

But then again, getting to the playoffs has become the norm in New York, as the Yankees have been to the postseason every single year that Torre has been at the helm. Forget his performance over a 3-5 game stretch, judge him by the big picture. Is Big George really that eager to relive the Buck Showalter era?Sorry, No Photos

I know that Mike Scioscia would never allow his team to use it as an excuse, but a large part of the reason the Angels were swept by the Red Sox in the ALDS was the fact they were so banged up. Granted, we can't be sure the Angels would have beaten Boston in a five game series even if they were healthy, but they would have had a better chance.

Instead, the Angels were in desperate need of a huge series from their superstar Vladimir Guerrero, but they didn't get it. Guerrero went 2-for-10 in the three games without driving in a run, and with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz crushing the ball, the Angels had no chance without Guerrero.

This kind of postseason performance is nothing new for Guerrero.

Guerrero's postseason batting average now sits at .183 (11 for 60) and he hasn't had an extra base hit, let alone a home run, in his last 13 playoff games. During that same span, he's only driven in one run. The question is, can Vlad really be blamed for his postseason performance?