Non-Cub Playoff Megathread Chit-Chat

[mul21]

13 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

If you dig into their batted ball data the last three seasons, there are some weird horsefeathers things happening. A team shouldn't be able to sustain these sorts of BABIP numbers year after year while not hitting HRs and having one of the top offenses in the NL.

We're in Cardinals Pixie Dust Territory, and whether that means they cracked the code or are stealing signs or started sacrificing small children to a demon god, who the hell knows?

I've never seen a team hit more bloops and soft ground balls that go for hits than these guys.  It's absolutely insane.  It does make me wonder if the article I read a while ago that was talking about how many more ground balls they hit than most teams negates the shifts teams use against them and accounts for the "luck" they seem to have with low EV hits.  Couple that with the opposing teams committing more errors against them than any other team in MLB and suddenly you start seeing some explanations for their offense. 

Now, Contreras is just scorching hot right now and I hope they decide to peg him for that stopping horsefeathers while rounding the bases on a homer.  I have no problem with guys celebrating  but that's just so ridiculous and inflammatory and I'd be embarrassed if a guy on the team I root for was doing it.

[gflore34]

13 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I've never seen a team hit more bloops and soft ground balls that go for hits than these guys.  It's absolutely insane.  It does make me wonder if the article I read a while ago that was talking about how many more ground balls they hit than most teams negates the shifts teams use against them and accounts for the "luck" they seem to have with low EV hits.  Couple that with the opposing teams committing more errors against them than any other team in MLB and suddenly you start seeing some explanations for their offense. 

Now, Contreras is just scorching hot right now and I hope they decide to peg him for that stopping horsefeathers while rounding the bases on a homer.  I have no problem with guys celebrating  but that's just so ridiculous and inflammatory and I'd be embarrassed if a guy on the team I root for was doing it.

I didn't see it, Acuna Jr. does the same sort of horsefeathers, I say, instead of plucking him. You throw that horsefeathers right back in his face with a HR celebration.

[Rcal10]

14 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I've never seen a team hit more bloops and soft ground balls that go for hits than these guys.  It's absolutely insane.  It does make me wonder if the article I read a while ago that was talking about how many more ground balls they hit than most teams negates the shifts teams use against them and accounts for the "luck" they seem to have with low EV hits.  Couple that with the opposing teams committing more errors against them than any other team in MLB and suddenly you start seeing some explanations for their offense. 

Now, Contreras is just scorching hot right now and I hope they decide to peg him for that stopping horsefeathers while rounding the bases on a homer.  I have no problem with guys celebrating  but that's just so ridiculous and inflammatory and I'd be embarrassed if a guy on the team I root for was doing it.

Used to be a time I would have a huge issue with then home run trot like Contreras. I am a fan from the time guys would absolutely not do that or get the next pitch they saw thrown right at them. But I have come to accept that is what is done now. Younger fans accept that. Players today all accept it. I am no longer the target market for baseball. So I have come to accept it and have no issues with it. And, I absolutely would not be embarrassed if a Cub player did that. This is especially true in the situation Contreras hit the homer in. If it was the 3rd inning in a game in April, maybe that is another story. But again, it is what fans like, so whatever. 

[Bertz]

46 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I've never seen a team hit more bloops and soft ground balls that go for hits than these guys.  It's absolutely insane.  It does make me wonder if the article I read a while ago that was talking about how many more ground balls they hit than most teams negates the shifts teams use against them and accounts for the "luck" they seem to have with low EV hits.  Couple that with the opposing teams committing more errors against them than any other team in MLB and suddenly you start seeing some explanations for their offense. 

The league is broadly optimizing towards pull in the air, and the Cubs are actually top dogs there.  The Brewers and to a lesser extent the Rays are zagging.

I suspect this is doing two things

1. To your point, the Brewers hit a lot of mediocre balls that in 2026 defenses are generally not well positioned to make a play.  Especially since the Brewers are the fastest team in the league

2. Further upstream, Brewer swings are different.  They have flatter swings and more oppo oriented attack angles.  This is likely why they seem to come through so much in the clutch.  Much in the same way that the Theo era Cubs ended up getting their legs taken out from under them by the relief pitcher meta shifting to high fastball/low curveball, I suspect the Brewers zagging is letting them feast on in vogue pitch types

The question is how much runway can they get out of this.  The A's were ahead of the curve on the flyball revolution and they got maybe 2 years before the league caught on and they started having to pay retail for talented players.

[Soul]

11 hours ago, Bertz said:

The league is broadly optimizing towards pull in the air, and the Cubs are actually top dogs there.  The Brewers and to a lesser extent the Rays are zagging.

I suspect this is doing two things

1. To your point, the Brewers hit a lot of mediocre balls that in 2026 defenses are generally not well positioned to make a play.  Especially since the Brewers are the fastest team in the league

2. Further upstream, Brewer swings are different.  They have flatter swings and more oppo oriented attack angles.  This is likely why they seem to come through so much in the clutch.  Much in the same way that the Theo era Cubs ended up getting their legs taken out from under them by the relief pitcher meta shifting to high fastball/low curveball, I suspect the Brewers zagging is letting them feast on in vogue pitch types

The question is how much runway can they get out of this.  The A's were ahead of the curve on the flyball revolution and they got maybe 2 years before the league caught on and they started having to pay retail for talented players.

Good post. This is what I’ve been wondering as well. The A’s approach eventually spread through the league and they lost their advantage. Right now it appears the Brewers have a little more runway since they have 4 NL Central titles and counting.