David Blaine Magic (& baseball/Yanks/Bosox hijack!)

[The Golden 1]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Xaston]

[Felonius_Monk]

[briachek]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Bosox1]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Felonius_Monk]

So Casey's crushing everything pitched down and hard... so why does he keep giving him low fastballs down the middle bah...

[The Golden 1]

Cause he's not that great a pitcher and can't locate the best. Although Joe Buck told me he's apparently a "big game pitcher" now after all of two good starts. God Buck and McCarver are such a terrible tandem.

[Felonius_Monk]

They the Fox Sports guys? If so, I agree. We usually get ESPN's coverage here but it's Fox for the WS alas. I think Suppan's problem there is he doesn't have the stuff to pitch up and outside so his strikeout and ground-ball pitches are mostly breaking stuff low. I think his location's not too bad usually - and he has had an amazing last 3 months or so. Playoffs aside, check out his record post all-star game; it's Cy Young quality. Shame he started off the year stinking the place up.

Still, he's a pretty solid pitcher considering his fast ball is weak by MLB standards and is curve, slider, and change aren't overpowering. He just mixes it up well and has a very good attitude and emotional control - it's rare he gets lit up. Even last night when he was obviously didn't have his best control and his breaking stuff didn't have much movement he kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win. That's what's made us hard to beat this post-season, I think - even our lesser pitchers (Weaver, Suppan, Reyes) have kept us in games consistently when they've not had their best stuff going, which really wasn't the case in the regular season.

Eckstein was awesome last night .... I think the difference between the two teams so far has been that our defence has been way ahead of theirs; with their pitching slightly under-performing and ours hitting good form, and both teams struggling offensively, it's been the "little things" that we've done better (getting extra bases, making the big defensive plays, making the right selections and moves in-game from La Russa) that've made the difference. If we pull this off it'll be an astonishing effort from a team that won 83 games in the regular season (albeit pretty crippled by injuries for most of the year). I'm going out for a drink tonight but will be back in front of the TV at 1am to settle in for Game 6 hopefully Verlander pitches as well as he did in Game 1 .... Weaver's gotta be due his regular shocker soon though not tonight hopefully!

[Danhdan]

Everybody get Fox for the WS. Sadly, Buck and (the worst game announcer and analyst EVER) McCarver have been set in stone for about I think eight or more years now, with no sign of changing it.

Every time McCarver says something that I agree with, I am stunned. It's so rare it confuses me for a moment. This is why God invented mute buttons.