Commentary by Others

Lots of great analysis of the NLCS to comment on, but unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time to read it or write about it. Jon has an interesting take on the Marlins being over-achievers and wishes the same fate had befallen his Dodgers. I haven’t taken a lot at Pythagorean runs or anything to determine if the Marlins hot streak (although it’s at least more than that since they’ve effectively been on a run since May) has been driven by luck or just good baseball. The Marlins style – relying more on the stolen base and the dreaded “little things” more than the big bomb – runs counter to at least two-thirds of the teams in baseball, so I suppose that many teams would like to think (hope that the Marlins just got lucky this year. The Fish are fun to watch though… well, except when they get shelled like last night.

David Pinto talks about an article from the Miami Herald with some interesting commentary about the first “pitch” that Tejera through last night. I’m assuming it was just a case of nerves – although Tejera did seem to be struggling with breaking off his curveball last night. Luckily no Marlins were hurt in the dugout (did you see it? I’m serious) by the wildest of wild pitches (Dontrelle Willis – surprise – seemed to get a good laugh out of the whole thing).

The Cub Reporter has plenty of good analysis of the Series as well. That’s not to say that I necessarily agree with any of it, but it is well thought out and well written, which is more than you could say about what you’re reading right now. Eventually though I’ll have to dial the prose up a notch or two. It looks like most of the traffic we’re getting here is from Cubs sites, so unless the Marlins pull out this series and some Yankees or Red Sox traffic finds its way to this site, we could be looking at a long winter here at the Book of Mike, where I spend a lot of time talking to myself. But I suppose that wouldn’t be anything new – except that it would be published on the web now.