Welcome to Rocktober and the return of Christian Mingle

Wait...what? The Rockies arent in the playoffs?  How come no one told me this?  Who is going to give us warm tacos as the weather gets colder?  Disappointment.   I guess we will have to settle for MooseTacos and his extra inning HR-ness and some good old fashioned great playoff baseball to tide us over.  Luckily, after the first 3 days of the baseball postseason, there is plenty to appreciate and even more to look forward to.
I know I am a little late to this party, but free time has been at a premium over the past week.  I know, I know, nothing should come between me and "The Blog."  I'll do better...I promise.  I am going to play with some bulleted type things today (not the type that Aaron Hernandez played with that are now being ruled inadmissable in court, I dont have those, and really...playing with them seems like a bit of a bad idea), so we'll see how that feels when we get done.  Maybe I'll use a little bold too, I dont know, we'll find out together.

We will never be Royals (Roy-als).
Two games, two extra inning wins.  The Wild Card game against Oakland was a comedy of errors (which turned tragic...tragicomedy of errors?) for the A's that the Royals were lucky (and good) enough to take advantage of. Game 1 of the ALDS fit more with the blueprint that the Royals have lived by all season long...great defense, lock down pitching, timely hitting (the fact that it was a HR was decidedly not what KC has been doing all season as they hit the fewest HRs in MLB this year).
First, the WC game...When there is a game that I am interested in that I dont get to watch live, I usually like to read through the PBP from start to finish before I see the final score.  Basically, I try to relive the game through my imagination (this is likely a direct byproduct of playing too many text based baseball sims).  I watched a good part of this game, but when the Royals rally fell short in the 8th inning when they stranded a runner 90 feet from a tie as Salvador Perez pretended he was playing "Pinata" and swung wildly at 3 consecutive pitches that didnt come anywhere near the zone and Omar Infante followed suit, I figured that the comeback was over and that, since I was tired, I could go to bed and not miss much (oops).  Just to be safe though, when I woke up the next morning, I checked the PBP.  You can imagine my surprise when I saw that a sac fly tied it in the 9th and that Perez again had a shot to win the game in the 10th (and failed) before he finally got his shit together in the 12th and hit that roller into left field that plated the winning run and sent every resident of Kansas City into a barbeque induced euphoria and left the Oaktown management asking, "How the F did we blow 4 run lead in the 8th inning with our Ace on the mound?"
The answer to that is relatively simple.  First, with a 7-3 lead in the 8th inning, why would you send your starter back out to the mound.  This wasnt a Madison Bumgarner situation where Jon Lester had thrown a relatively small number of pitches, was completely dominating and was holding an 8 run lead.  When he came out for the 8th, Lester had thrown nearly 90 pitches, given up only 3 runs on 6 hits.  Thats not a terrible work load, but the Oakland A's professional baseball playing team employs men whose sole job it to keep hitting men for the opposing team from reaching base, especially in the later innings of games.  Did Bob Melvin forget that these guys existed?

 Did he forget that, if they A's hung on to win, that they would need Lester to be ready to go again in game 2 or 3 of the ALDS and that limiting his work would be a way that might help that goal?  He could have brought in a lefty (Eric O'Flaherty or Fernando Abad, both with WHIPS under 0.95), he could have brought in a righty (Ryan Cook, Dan Otero, Luke Gregerson, who ended up coming in for Lester anyways, who all have WHIPs 1.09), or, hell, he could have brought in noted chair pummeler Drew Pomeranz to start the 8th inning and then still had closer Sean Doolittle to close the game out.  Really, if there was one thing that the Oakland A's did in 2014, top to bottom, better than any team (other than Seattle) in the AL, it was having their bullpen shutdown opponents...and their manager decided that he didnt want to use them.  The second part of the answer is that, while the A's addressed their perceived starting pitching holes (and they really were there thanks to the damn Platonic UCL striking AJ Griffin and Jarrod Parker earlier this year) by mortgaging their future for Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel and Lester (and yes I did just call Addison Russell, "The Future."  Things are going to get confusing when Russell "The Future" gets to Chicago and finds Kris "The Future" Bryant, Javier "The Future" Baez, Jorge "The Future" Soler...at least Cubs coaches will just have to say "Hey...Future, lets go" and they will have talked to the whole team), the only thing they did to address their defensive issues behind the plate was to buy former Cub and former favorite player of the commish's wife, Geo Soto from the Rangers. 

This is a problem because I am pretty sure that Soto was the inspiration for Samuel L Jackson's character in the Bruce Willis (terrible) movie "Unbreakable."  Soto had filled the role, throwing out 9 of 17 base stealers after he joined the team.  But, shockingly, he hurt his thumb early in the game and was unable to continue.  Neither of the two regular catching options available to the A's was particularly good at quelling opponents running game; Derek Norris threw out 12 of 72 (17%) and John Jaso threw out 4 of 36 (11%).  On came Norris, and 7 stolen bases (without a CS) later, including 4 in the 8th inning rally, one in the 9th inning rally that tied the game, and another on the pitch before Perez knocked in the winning run (this SB was on a pitch out, no less, and the runner wouldnt have been there to score on Perez's single without that SB).  I know that you cant plan injuries, but your plan to fix a major hole in your team shouldnt be "lets get the guy who has barely played over the past 2 seasons because he has had 36 different injuries.  That will definitely end well for us."  This was a team construction fail in addition to the field management fail in regards to the bullpen usage.  Basically, the only way this could have been worse for the entire organization would have been if, in the post game conference, Billy Beane had said "We will never be Royals" and then Melvin ran into the room yelling "Royals" and quickly departing.

Anyways, back to the Royals.  Between that win and the thrilling extra inning 3-2 win on the Mike Moustakas HR, this Royals team has a bit of 2006 St. Louis Cardinals to them.  They definitely arent the most talented team (I mean seriously, they started Jason Vargas and his 86 MPH fastball in Game 1 of a series), but any game they are leading in after 6 innings is basically over and they seem to consistently pull out games they have no business winning.  I dont believe in teams of destiny, but I do believe in teams believing in themselves...and this team believes in itself.

 

Orioles hurt the small village of woodland creatures living in Joba Chamberlain's beard.
Because I watch baseball, I knew that the Orioles have been on of the better hitting teams in baseball and that the Detroit bullpen has been so bad that Ernesto Frieri has started looking like an attractive upgrade and that this combination would likely affect at least one of the games in the teams' first round series.  I did not expect it to happen so soon or so spectacularly as the Orioles put up an 8 spot in the 8th inning of game one, essentially scoring 7 runs in just 20 pitches (before tacking on the 8th run 2 batters and 13 pitches later).  Heading into the top of the 8th, the O's held a 4-2 lead, which looked in danger as leadoff man Ian Kinsler singled.  On the 2-2 pitch to Torri Hunter, Kinsler was running and Hunter ripped a low liner...right at JJ Hardy, who caught it and threw to first for the back breaking twin killing. 
On the next pitch, Miguel Cabrera got miggy wit it on a 390 foot HR to right center field which, instead of tying the game, brought the Tigers within one.  When Alejandro De Aza doubled with one out in the 8th, on came Joba the Pizza Hut who gave up a weak groundball that was booted by Andrew Romine, the replacement for the replacement SS, and a weak looper to center before being removed from the game so that the Joakim Soria could take a turn pouring gasoline on the fire.  Soria, who was supposed to be the safe option in the pen, threw 12 pitches to 5 batters, 4 of those batters scored scored and Soria recorded only 1 out.  When he entered, there was an outside chance that the Tigers could pull a Royals and get back in the game.  By the time he was doing the walk of shame, the game was out of reach.  Closer Joe Nathan, who one would think would have been an important part of trying to keep his team in the game, was nowhere to be seen.  Not only was the late rally a completely demoralizing run through the Detroit pen, but it saved the Orioles from having to extend their own closer, Zach Britton, who had come on in the 8th after Cabrera's bomb to try for a 4 out save.  With the game out of reach, Tommy Hunter came on to close it.  Detroit is up right now in game 2, and that bullpen will have to come on again, this time to try to hold a lead.  If they can, Detroit will be in the driver's seat in the series, if they cant, the series is pretty much over. 
Like Oakland, Detroit addressed a hole in their rotation at the deadline, picking up David Price from Tampa in a 3 teamer (their need was not a big as Oakland's though as Anabel Sanchez was working through an injury and the team already had Max Scherzer and a struggling Justin Verlander).  Like Oakland, they tried to address another weakness (the bullpen) by picking up a player from the Rangers (Soria), and, like in Oakland, that bandaid wasnt nearly enough.  Soria is a good pitcher who had a rough day on Thursday night.  But he cannot take up the slack for an entire bullpen that was struggling.  With pen arms being one of the most acquireable commodies at the deadline, I find it hard to believe that the Tigers couldnt have gotten someone like Jonathon Papelboner on Jared Burton/Casey Fien from a team who was out of contention and willing to trade older talent for prospects.  That inaction may not cause the Tigers to lose in the DS round, but it will almost certainly keep them from bringing the World Series trophy back to the Motor City (dont we need a better name for the trophy than "The Commissioner's Trophy?"  I nominate Tater Tot Crown).

edit---So literally, as I am finishing this, the Tigers bullpen is imploding again and looks like the not so dynamic duo of Joba the Pizza Hut and Joakim Soria-I-Lost-You-The-Game are gonna snatch a loss from the jaws of victory.  Un-frickin-believable.  Go O's...and the Clayton Kershaw-Adam Wainwright matchup of my baseball wet dreams goes tonight...this is the best reason to love October.

Christian Mingle's bad blind date with Packers
Eventually, I will get around to writing about football stuff on this here blog, so I might as well start with something on everyone's favorite QB to hate on.  As news broke throughout Thursday that TD Teddy would be sidelined and CPon would be taking the reigns, I should have been running to the waiver wire to pick up the Packers and start them on every single fantasy team that I have.  I didn't, and as I watched pass after pass fall to the grass so far away from the intended receiver that, had the ball been a gernade it wouldnt have even touched the target, I felt worse about my inaction.  This is my single largest regret for the month of October so far.
Obviously Ponder is terrible, and that performance last night probably cost him the chance at catching on as a backup somewhere for the next few seasons (if he has stayed benched all year, someone would have given him a chance to catch on...he was a 1st round draft pick after all) with his indecisiveness, inaccuracy and general ineptitude.  But really, the entire Vikings team mailed it in before the game even started.  The turnstile offensive line had trouble letting Ponder get to the top of his drop without a hand in his face or a body on his hip or opening up any holes for Matt Asiata and Jerrick McKinnon to get back to the line of scrimmage without having to make a man miss.  Cordarelle Patterson took a short pass, gained 5 yards and then slid feet first to avoid contact.  The defensive line got pushed around by a Packer offense that hadnt gained more than 80 yards on the ground in any game so far this year for 156 rushing yards.  The entire team was the problem.  As I watched, I couldnt help but think of Tim Tebow (I know, its random, but stay with me).  By almost all accounts, Tebow didnt have the requisite skill to be a starting QB in the NFL, yet despite his personal struggles nearly every game, his team performed at level higher than their talent and won a number of games they probably shouldnt have won.  In the NFL, there is obviously a difference in skill level between the top QBs and the worst ones, but the fact is that, simply by reaching the NFL, every player has at least a baseline competency that they have the physical skills required to do the job (even Ponder has the physical skills to be a decent QB). 

What that means, is the biggest difference between QBs in the NFL is their ability to process the mental side of the game and, more importantly, their ability to get their teammates to buy into what they are doing and to play hard to reach their goal.  Obviously guys like Aaron Rodgers make plays on a weekly basis that make you question what are commonly called "The Laws of Physics," but those are the outliers.  Think about a guy like Peyton Manning.  Dont you think that the players on the Broncos are playing harder because they know that they have Peyton Frickin Manning on their side and if they can do their part, he will lead them to victory?  The same with Rodgers.  Look at the Bears and Jay Cutler.  When Cutler is going well and not turning the ball over, the entire Bears team is a different one than it was in the second half against the Packers when Jay turned the ball over multiple times.  Which brings me back to Ponder and the Vikings.  The Vikings had given up on the game the instant they heard Teddy wasnt starting because not a single one of them had confidence that Ponder could get them to a victory (not even Ponder though he could do it).  And it showed.