Torridd

I do think it's time he stops letting that first pitch by.

Where would he play? We're really stacked throughout the entire lineup.

I think most of the club stays. We get another starter and tweak the bullpen and bench. This team won 98 games with Hamilton playing 89 games and Calhoun and Richards missing a lot of time. What's wrong with giving the crux of the team another go-round? They're not old.

And how do you find these guys? There's no market for "clutch" players. I hope with experience we do a lot better. The Royals probably won't even be in the playoffs next year.

This is the answer for our guys. If you look back at the records for the most recent playoff runs, we took our lumps early and got better as we went along. Unfortunately, we don't have the 2002 "offense" which ran with their opportunity, but that was a one-of-a-kind team, not taking away form our current guys. Since I'm the optimistic sort, I hope that Hamilton is healthy next year and Trout will be better. Ultimately, all of the main guys in the lineup will be back so we'll just have to start from scratch. We've already won the division singlehandedly so they should be well prepared for that. And I give a lot of credit to KC who seemingly could do no wrong against us although we definitely should have won game 1.

They had to be on the roster, barring bad health. They didn't perform well but they weren't the only ones. Like Pujols said, it was a team effort.

I also liked the attempt. Just because something doesn't work doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried.

I love your enthusiasm, whatever happens.

I agree that this is not Scioscia's fault. And certaainly not Dipoto's. The hitters aren't doing their jobs, albeit Ventura was a monster yesterday. Ultiimately, KC is getting all the breaks so the Angels will have to pull a rabbit out of their hat.

So you don't believe in resilience? Some players/some teams/some people give up quicker than others. That's life. In a short series, it's possible that a young team with little playoff experience may crack under the strain.

But ultimately they won the game. I wonder how well they come back after a loss, if they do at all.

...but do they know how to lose? Up to now, it's been peaches and cream for our young heroes, but can they take a bloody nose? You don't know how a young team will respond to some adversity. Obviously, we need to win this game to give us a good chance of survival, but it would also be good to see if these guys can take a punch.

"I agree." End quote

Baylor gets a free pass. These guys know how to hit. They let Vargas off the hook yesterday. Most of the blame goes to tthe hitters with a little going to Scioscia for the Calhoun bunt.

The only problem I had was Calhoun bunting.

Yeah, plenty of blame to go around, but you have to give KC's outfield defense a plug. They were the difference.

I'm a bit worried, but I have complete confidence we can win this series.

Exactly. It's disappointing, but when you look at the whole game. KC needed everything to fall right just to win.

Has anyone noticed the ads on the pages? Hopefully, it's a good luck charm for Josh Hamilton.

I'd rather face Detroit in the ALCS for some reason.

He's a heckuva better hitter than Lester though.

That's why we're in the playoffs, nando. To give him his chance.

What about the players? Does anyone have a list?

True, we'll never know, but they were in first place with a comfortable lead before the trade. I think those who say the trade cost the a's are much more likely to be correct than the "statheads."

Junky, they didn't need Lester. He gambled that they could do w/o Cespedes and stock up on pitching. He was wrong.