Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
I did so well with my preseason predictions—remember when the Tigers looked oh so good?—that I will deign to give my opinion on the postseason.
That said, I at least know enough not to pick the Twins to win it all. But before I give the hardware to the ex-D-Rays—Oops!—here are some ramblings on the postseason in general. Enjoy:
The Brewers' game one starter "Don" Yovani Gallardo becomes just the third pitcher in major-league history to start a postseason game after not winning even one game in the regular season. Gallardo had a 1.88 ERA in the four games he started spending almost five months on the DL, but had no decisions on the year. He has just one start since May 1, and that was a four-inning, one-run stint against the Pirates in a 5-1 win last Saturday. Long story short, C.C, Sabathia he aint.
The other two with no regular season wins to start a postseason game are Tiger Virgil Trucks in 1945 and Chicago White Stocking Jimmy "Pony" Ryan in the 1886 NL-AA World Championships. Ryan was an erstwhile outfielder who pitched just 5 games out of the 84 he played that year. Ryan had no record in the postseason, but Trucks was 1-0 in two starts. Mind you, Trucks pitched just one game in the 1945 regular season, spending almost all of the previous two seasons in the Navy.
A friend of mine latched onto the idea of shared players and therefore shared history haunting postseason series. Whereas a Ray-White Sox meeting might not conjure up that much shared history, the Cubs-Dodgers which he dubbed the "Codgers" evokes a certain Ron Cey/Bill Buckner/Grudzy kind of familiarity.
In this postseason, the "Codgers" had 249 shared players going into this season, the "Redgels" had 100, the "Phillers" had 69, and the "ChiRays" had 24. Here are the top ten players in combined games for both teams in each series:
Codgers:
| Name | Tm1 | Tm1 Yrs | Tm1 First | Tm1 Last | Tm1 G | Tm2 | Tm2 Yrs | Tm2 First | Tm2 Last | Tm2 G | Tot Yrs | Tot G |
| Ron Cey | LAD | 12 | 1971 | 1982 | 1481 | CHC | 4 | 1983 | 1986 | 547 | 16 | 2028 |
| Jimmy Sheckard | LAD | 8 | 1897 | 1905 | 871 | CHC | 7 | 1906 | 1912 | 1001 | 15 | 1872 |
| Billy Herman | LAD | 4 | 1941 | 1946 | 488 | CHC | 11 | 1931 | 1941 | 1344 | 15 | 1832 |
| Bill Buckner | LAD | 8 | 1969 | 1976 | 773 | CHC | 8 | 1977 | 1984 | 974 | 16 | 1747 |
| Eric Karros | LAD | 12 | 1991 | 2002 | 1601 | CHC | 1 | 2003 | 2003 | 114 | 13 | 1715 |
| Bill Dahlen | LAD | 7 | 1899 | 1911 | 665 | CHC | 8 | 1891 | 1898 | 986 | 15 | 1651 |
| Augie Galan | LAD | 6 | 1941 | 1946 | 627 | CHC | 8 | 1934 | 1941 | 903 | 14 | 1530 |
| Davey Lopes | LAD | 10 | 1972 | 1981 | 1207 | CHC | 3 | 1984 | 1986 | 174 | 13 | 1381 |
| Rick Monday | LAD | 8 | 1977 | 1984 | 645 | CHC | 5 | 1972 | 1976 | 702 | 13 | 1347 |
| Jimmy Johnston | LAD | 10 | 1916 | 1925 | 1266 | CHC | 1 | 1914 | 1914 | 50 | 11 | 1316 |
Redgels:
| Name | Tm1 | Tm1 Yrs | Tm1 First | Tm1 Last | Tm1 G | Tm2 | Tm2 Yrs | Tm2 First | Tm2 Last | Tm2 G | Tot Yrs | Tot G |
| Rick Miller | ANA | 3 | 1978 | 1980 | 381 | BOS | 12 | 1971 | 1985 | 1101 | 15 | 1482 |
| Frank Malzone | ANA | 1 | 1966 | 1966 | 82 | BOS | 11 | 1955 | 1965 | 1359 | 12 | 1441 |
| Mo Vaughn | ANA | 2 | 1999 | 2000 | 300 | BOS | 8 | 1991 | 1998 | 1046 | 10 | 1346 |
| Fred Lynn | ANA | 4 | 1981 | 1984 | 473 | BOS | 7 | 1974 | 1980 | 828 | 11 | 1301 |
| Rick Burleson | ANA | 5 | 1981 | 1986 | 253 | BOS | 7 | 1974 | 1980 | 1031 | 12 | 1284 |
| Jim Piersall | ANA | 5 | 1963 | 1967 | 240 | BOS | 8 | 1950 | 1958 | 931 | 13 | 1171 |
| Jerry Remy | ANA | 3 | 1975 | 1977 | 444 | BOS | 7 | 1978 | 1984 | 710 | 10 | 1154 |
| Don Baylor | ANA | 6 | 1977 | 1982 | 824 | BOS | 2 | 1986 | 1987 | 268 | 8 | 1092 |
| Tony Conigliaro | ANA | 1 | 1971 | 1971 | 74 | BOS | 7 | 1964 | 1975 | 802 | 8 | 876 |
| Lee Thomas | ANA | 4 | 1961 | 1964 | 486 | BOS | 2 | 1964 | 1965 | 258 | 6 | 744 |
Phillers:
| Name | Tm1 | Tm1 Yrs | Tm1 First | Tm1 Last | Tm1 G | Tm2 | Tm2 Yrs | Tm2 First | Tm2 Last | Tm2 G | Tot Yrs | Tot G |
| Don Money | PHI | 5 | 1968 | 1972 | 524 | MIL | 11 | 1973 | 1983 | 1196 | 16 | 1720 |
| Johnny Briggs | PHI | 8 | 1964 | 1971 | 695 | MIL | 5 | 1971 | 1975 | 584 | 13 | 1279 |
| Sixto Lezcano | PHI | 2 | 1983 | 1984 | 127 | MIL | 7 | 1974 | 1980 | 785 | 9 | 912 |
| Charlie Hayes | PHI | 4 | 1989 | 1995 | 519 | MIL | 1 | 2000 | 2000 | 121 | 5 | 640 |
| Deron Johnson | PHI | 5 | 1969 | 1973 | 563 | MIL | 1 | 1974 | 1974 | 49 | 6 | 612 |
| Dale Sveum | PHI | 1 | 1992 | 1992 | 54 | MIL | 5 | 1986 | 1991 | 511 | 6 | 565 |
| Larry Hisle | PHI | 4 | 1968 | 1971 | 314 | MIL | 5 | 1978 | 1982 | 221 | 9 | 535 |
| David Bell | PHI | 4 | 2003 | 2006 | 470 | MIL | 1 | 2006 | 2006 | 53 | 5 | 523 |
| Dickie Thon | PHI | 3 | 1989 | 1991 | 431 | MIL | 1 | 1993 | 1993 | 85 | 4 | 516 |
| Chris Short | PHI | 14 | 1959 | 1972 | 464 | MIL | 1 | 1973 | 1973 | 42 | 15 | 506 |
| Dan Plesac | PHI | 2 | 2002 | 2003 | 94 | MIL | 7 | 1986 | 1992 | 365 | 9 | 459 |
ChiRays—And guess who's #1:
| Name | Tm1 | Tm1 Yrs | Tm1 First | Tm1 Last | Tm1 G | Tm2 | Tm2 Yrs | Tm2 First | Tm2 Last | Tm2 G | Tot Yrs | Tot G |
| Ozzie Guillen | TBD | 1 | 2000 | 2000 | 63 | CHW | 13 | 1985 | 1997 | 1743 | 14 | 1806 |
| Dave Martinez | TBD | 3 | 1998 | 2000 | 262 | CHW | 3 | 1995 | 1997 | 410 | 6 | 672 |
| Toby Hall | TBD | 7 | 2000 | 2006 | 586 | CHW | 1 | 2007 | 2007 | 38 | 8 | 624 |
| Greg Norton | TBD | 2 | 2006 | 2007 | 173 | CHW | 5 | 1996 | 2000 | 337 | 7 | 510 |
| Roberto Hernandez | TBD | 3 | 1998 | 2000 | 142 | CHW | 7 | 1991 | 1997 | 345 | 10 | 487 |
| Chris Singleton | TBD | 1 | 2005 | 2005 | 28 | CHW | 3 | 1999 | 2001 | 420 | 4 | 448 |
| Tony Graffanino | TBD | 2 | 1999 | 2000 | 52 | CHW | 4 | 2000 | 2003 | 291 | 6 | 343 |
| Herb Perry | TBD | 2 | 1999 | 2000 | 73 | CHW | 2 | 2000 | 2001 | 201 | 4 | 274 |
| Jose Canseco | TBD | 2 | 1999 | 2000 | 174 | CHW | 1 | 2001 | 2001 | 76 | 3 | 250 |
| Josh Paul | TBD | 2 | 2006 | 2007 | 93 | CHW | 5 | 1999 | 2003 | 145 | 7 | 238 |
OK, enough of my arcana, let's boogie:
LDS: Phils over Brewers 4, Cubs over Dodgers in 4, Angels over Red Sox in 4, Rays over White Sox in 3
LCS: Cubs over Phils in six (dammit!), Angels over Rays in five (again dammit)
World Series: Angels over Cubs in 5 (It's a theme--Dammit!)
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