2014 Major League Baseball prediction and discussion thread.

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KC is actually a -115/-105 favorite on Bovada to win the series, which surprised me.  I was expecting SF in the neighborhood of -125.

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This year's Royals team looks like a team of destiny... like the 1969 Mets, or the 2004 Red Sox.

as did the 2007 Rockies, between Sept 1 and Oct 20.  'team of destiny' only works in the retroactive.

one amazing thing about the Giants is how they've managed to get to the brink of 3 of 5 titles despite having serious dead money..  Zito and Aaron Rowand, now Lincecum and Cain.

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KC is actually a -115/-105 favorite on Bovada to win the series, which surprised me.  I was expecting SF in the neighborhood of -125.

     No matter how many playoff series we win, nobody ever takes the Giants seriously. It works fine for me, though.

Its amazing how a team can win two World Series in four years and can still be considered an underdog.

to be fair, two of the three Giants teams have not been particularly good.  according to Baseball-Reference's Simple Rating System, the 2014 Giants were the 10th best team in MLB, one-tenth of a run per game above the average team; 13th best in 2012, at two-tenths better per game.  the 2010 team is the exception, 6th in MLB, at .6 runs/game above average, which is a significant amount.

none of this is a knock, it's the way the league is set up, but even with a win this year, it would be dead wrong to compare these Giants to, say, the 2001-2004 Patriots.

and I disagree that they're not getting respect.  Bochy as a Hall-of-Famer has started to float around the past few weeks, and Bumgarner has taken on the big-game aura.  Sabean will remain disrespected because he is a goof.

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I think it's the saddest thing that Tim Lincecum is just a few months separated from throwing a freakin' no-hitter and he's been reduced to a middle-relief/mop-up role.

plenty of bad pitchers have thrown no-hitters.

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distinctive echoes of 2001 WS game 6.

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Bochy needs to utilize all of his pitchers tomorrow. Keep the Royals guessing.

Hudson isn't bad, he's better than degenerated psycho Peavy and probably better than Guthrie.  Bumgarner's availability is the great wild card -- another parallel to the 2001 WS, with Randy Johnson's clutch relief appearance on zero days rest to keep it a one run game.  if Bumgarner can eat two or three middle innings, that gives the Giants a chance to match the Royals' vaunted bullpen flurry in a close game.

I'd actually make the Giants a small favorite tomorrow, say, 55-45; I was surprised to see the Royals installed as a -125/+115 favorite.  maybe I'll make a $50 bet to get my juices flowing.

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I hope they stick with Bumgarner (assuming he doesn't have a difficult 8th) into the 9th, instead of going to the "closer"