How Many Habs Fans in Toronto and Scouting Pitchers

As much as playoff hockey can be truly exciting, I am a baseball fan at heart. With the exception of the half hour between 9:00 and 9:30pm (The Office), I was watching the Jays and Rays this evening.
I'll give the Jays this - they sure know how to run the bases this year. After last year's complete baserunning incompetence, that says something. The Jays also aren't too bad at preventing baserunning - much improved, at the least.

So there I was, on the 20th floor, watching the Jays in the process of dropping another game when a surge of exuberant voices rises up from the streets. The people have spoken. In a single voice. I checked on the First Game of the 2nd Round matchup between the Canadiens and the Flyers. As I suspected, the Habs had just scored. In fact, they had tied the game at 3 with under 30 seconds to go in the 3rd period. Kudos to Kovalev, I say.

Before I go watch the overtime, some comments on some of tonight's pitchers.

Dustin McGowan - I've read that he has no-hit stuff. For the first two innings tonight, I saw it. A Blow-it-by-them fastball and a hard curve gave him five strike outs in two innings. Then he lost his command and his control soon followed. He was lifted after loading the bags in the fifth, without recording an out. As of this writing, he is in line for the loss.

Andy Sonnanstine - the Rays starter on the night. Pitched a 3 hit shutout (the Yanks?) very recently. A young guy I hadn't heard much about until last year when he debuted with numbers that didn't quite say much about his ability, other then a very low walk rate. Watching him, I was baffled. He's lean. He has a drop and drive, mechanics seemed to use a lot of parts, not sure if he can repeat them for too long. Stay tuned.

Jesse Carlson - Absolutely love the slider spitting southpaw. I was sorry to see the Jays have to return Randy Wells to the Cubs, but Carlson has me captivated. Not much heat, but what movement on that pitch. I saw him pitch two extra innings against the Rangers last week and went back and checked his pitching via Pitchfx on mlb.com. I'll have to re-find the numbers to show how he dominated the Rangers (not the best hitting team, but anyway) using practically only the slider.

And as I wrote this, the Habs won in OT to take Game 1. How long are the intermissions between the 3rd and OT in the playoffs? 15 minutes? 17 minutes? Less?

Montreal vs. Boston

Looking back, I can see that I did not watch as much hockey this past regular season as I thought I would have, but I was able to follow a few interesting trends that I once discussed on my original blog (www.rwagman.blogspot.com) such as shooting percentage being a good indicator of future performance and the better likelihood of continued health from previously healthy players as opposed to future health of the historically injury-prone.
Watching bits of both the Boston-Montreal Game 7 and the Washington-Philadelphia Game 6 have reminded of what is meant by the intensity of the playoffs. It is easy to forget how in the regular season coaches have to plan for an 82 game season and cannot always go full-out when their eyes are on the big picture. The playoffs have no tomorrow. The big picture is right in front of our eyes. And the hockey has no let-up. Maximum intensity, 60 minutes or more. I am looking forward to tomorrow's Game 7's.

Something else that came to my attention while hovering over the CBC game. One of the announcers made a point of mentioning that last season's playoffs saw only one Game 7 (the whole playoffs!) and 2006's postseason featured three of them. And here we were, watching Game 7 of the Habs and Bruins, knowing that we could watch the Flamers and the Sharks go the distance tomorrow night and furthermore, if the caps could defeat the Flyers in Game 6 tonight, they would go seven as well. (They did and we will).

The I thought about last October`s baseball playoffs. Only one series (Red Sox vs. Indians) went the distance. A bunch of sweeps and one over the minimums. And the wheels slowly began turning. Is there a significant difference in the frequency of Game 7`s in baseball and hockey?
If there does seem to be a significance, does it then also extend to basketball?

Finally, if the numbers show any interest, how can we interpret that?

So I have a project. I will go back 20 seasons in both baseball and hockey and find the frequency of Game 7`s (and sweeps, and one over the minimum`s as well). And I will share what I find and we can discuss what it all means.

If it takes me longer than a few days, I will bridge the gap with a discussion on Frank Thomas, past and future (not much of a present, is there?)

Enjoy the game!

Of Sticks and Bats

I love baseball. I also have fostered an avid appreciated of hockey.
I believe that to love something is to strive to know it better.
Here, we learn. We discuss baseball and we discuss hockey.

Soon, we'll really get down to business. Until then, enjoy the game.