Dave (Chicago): Joe, why can't the Cubs manufacture runs without the homerun? If they continue to play home run derby I can't invision them making the playoffs. Do you have any comments?
Joe Morgan: (4:26 PM ET ) I don't know anyone who has played HR Derby and won a championship. The way the team is built is the way it's built. When I did the game last week, over 46 percent of runs were scored by HR. They just didn't manufacture runs. If that continues, they will continue to struggle.
>> Okay, Joe and Dave (Chicago), I don't know how you're defining "home run derby" because that's not a thing. There's no criteria. But last year, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and they were fifth in all of baseball in number of home runs hit. Does that count? Because it was last year. Maybe you remember that? It was a big baseball story.
Joe Morgan: (4:27 PM ET ) The Oakland A's lost all those Game 5's because they couldn't manufacture runs. Any team that can't create runs can only go so far. That said, last year the Red Sox were the closest in terms of a team that doesn't really manufacture runs, winning a championship. But that stolen base in Game 4 was the biggest play for them.
>> Okay, so you do remember an event that took place nine months ago. Good.
But what proof do you have that the A's lost "all those Game 5's" because of bad run manufacturing? By the way, the A's have lost four Game 5's. If you consider all of those games a virtual toss-up, which I do, the chance of that happening by pure luck is 1/16. It's like flipping a coin four times and getting four heads. That happens a lot. In fact, it's more than twice as likely as rolling a pair of dice and getting snake eyes. Have you ever gotten snake eyes, Joe?
Believe it or not, people have.
But I'm rambling. Back to the point: in two of those Game 5's, the A's faced Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez. Who, if you've been paying attention, are the two greatest pitchers of our time. Sorry, A's! Learn to manufacture some goddamn runs and maybe you'll beat those bums pitching against you. Let's see you lay down some bunts against Clemens' 97 mph heat or Pedro's ridiculous changeup. (By the way, the other two winning pitchers against the A's were Andy Pettitte and Brad Radke, both fine starters.)
And enough with the Roberts steal! I refer you to the following post by Ken Tremendous. It's fantastic:
"This may not sound like much now, but it's little moves you make like Theo Epstein did last year that can win you a championship. No one knows that better then the Yankees. It was the Dave Roberts stolen base in Game 4 of The ALCS that broke the Yanks' back last year."
>No it wasn't. That was the first of like four thousand subsequent events that broke the Yanks' back. How can the very first thing that went right for the Red Sox that entire series be the thing that "broke the Yanks' back?" Bill Mueller's single, Leskanic's four big outs, Ortiz's home run, Ortiz's single, ARod striking out with a runner on third and one out in a close game, Rivera's two blown saves, Gordon imploding, Schilling's 7 innings of one-run ball, Bellhorn's home run, ARod's swiping of Arroyo's arm, Foulke striking out Tony Clark with the tying runs on base in the ninth of Game Six, Derek Lowe's six innings in Game 7, Ortiz's home run after Damon was thrown out at the plate, Damon's Grand Slam, Damon's 2-run shot, and Bellhorn's solo job after Pedro had given up two runs, are all better examples of things that "broke the Yanks' back."
Labels: joe morgan, joechat, live blogging
