no world series thread on xo besides this. very sad!
are the brewers that much better than the rays this series? the 1st two games were 1 run games that the brew won at hone. other than the blowout in game 3, this seems like two evenly matched teams just based on the scoreline, but i havent been watching closely.
they are ahead of the analytics. big clubs went too far in overvaluing three true outcomes guys and both the brewers and rays recognized that the market was undervaluing small ball and built their teams to exploit that
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:25 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
Think of how many more ads for Blue Bear plumbing he must do the longer it goes. He said he was going to be there for "every clinching game" which could go up to 4, in theory. That's a lot of World Series tickets.
man he's not keeping a house in boston and nantucket on 500k. #1 show on radio in Boston for decades, and everyone knows felger is the only reason for it. i bet he's on seven figures.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:42 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
The house in Boston he inherited from his parents when they died. He had to sell the home in Wellesley. Idk I assume he has a tiny house on ACK. Not everything is John Henry palatial. He's barely making it. Jim Murray had to buy a used Porsche. Mazz lost everything in the divorce. They're barely cobbling it together imo.
murray makes jack shit im sure. i heard him say something like "theyd have to pay me 250k to get up to do the 6AM show" which means he makes much less than that. mazz im sure does decent but makes much less than felger because he's nothing but a yes man and no one tunes in for mazz.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:51 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
Holy fuck that's insanely beat. I'm taking the over on J Stew 100K.
Whatever they pay Mazz, Murray, and J Stew it has to be enough to where they keep showing up to work 5 days a week for 10+ years without missing a beat. It's probably better than you think. I'm taking the over on their contracts and the under on Felger.
Also remember some faggot executive at the station makes more than all of them due to some faggy "business" bullshit. Some rich guy collects an even bigger check and is somehow technically Felger's boss. Although maybe the owner makes less than Felger on a per show basis but makes more overall for owning the whole station.
Beasley is a public company, you can look at their proxy. Their CEO made $1.6M last year.
J Stew is a basement virgin who loves pro wrestling. he considers himself happy to have a job in sports. it's not like there are many other options for him to move on to. im sure the pay is no better at eei.
mazz and murray have some leverage so i imagine they consider themselves decently paid, but again, murray made comments which suggest to me he's getting less than i would have imagined.
Date: October 28th, 2026 2:25 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
I can't speak of it here bro I'm sorry.
But I will say this. He has a weird lanky, spindly body and a tiny head. He almost looks fragile like he would blow over in a gust of wind. Very tall he's about 6'3" and Ozempicmaxxed. His head is like 2/3rds the size of a normal head.
Date: October 28th, 2026 12:31 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
A bunch of grifters took over the sport with a different wrong kind of strategy called Drive Line. These guys went to every team and said we hacked batting entirely, it's all about something called Launch Angle. We're going to teach everyone on your team to hit way more home runs if they use the drive line system and they figure out the best launch angle of the ball your home runs will go way up. A lot of big clubs thought these guys were geniuses and started looking for guys who came up in the system on drive line. Turns out they were totally wrong and small ball was undervalued and driveline is fucking stupid.
ty for the scholarship. so did certain teams like the brew and rays catch on earlier about going back to smallball? so was billy beane right 20 yrs ago after all?
Date: October 28th, 2026 12:43 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
They have the best nerds. Their nerds are better than your nerds. Dodgers and Yankees cover up problems with money. You have a problem, buy more players. Big clubs throw money around.
Tampa is tiny and Milwaukee is the poorest major city in the US. They don't have that kind of revenue. They don't have the Dodgers TV contract which covers an area of like 20 million people. They don't have 7 owners with fat pockets writing the checks. They have to do small ball. They can't do big free agent signings. They can't just pay Shohei Ohtani out the ass. They don't have the dough. So yes they try and solve their problems a different way. They hire lots of nerds. They have a front office that's full of the best nerds. They have huge staffs of nerds who are all small ball gurus trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of every dollar.
The Dodgers and Yankees have shit nerds. Their nerds suck. They don't have the best nerds because they are focused as an organization of spending shitloads of money on superstars. They can't get in the mind of Tampa and Milwaukee because they're not Tampa and Milwaukee. What's funny is that they do have nerds — every team has nerds — but their nerds aren't any good. Because to be good at nerds, nerds have to be your only option in life. It's like how America can't copy Taiwan Semiconductor. Our life doesn't depend on therefore we're not any good at it. Taiwan needs to be the best at semiconductors because their whole economy and sovereignty depend on it being the best. That's how it is.
their nerds are truly better. but the rays arent always into smallball, they keep themselves nimble by rarely signing long term contracts and can adapt to market weaknesses. when low average with power was undervalued, they'd go there. they've exploited undervalue and underuse of bullpen arms. they pitch the shit out of their guys while under team control and leave the dumb larger teams to sign them for big contracts when their arm blows up. theyve exploited undervalue of defense and platoon effects. actually makes for a pretty boring baseball product, and their fan base sucks, but they are way ahead of everyone. brewers started catching on more recently.
Date: October 28th, 2026 12:55 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
Every small market team has an amazing bullpen lol
And the Brewers have been coming on strong for like 5-10 years. They didn't come out of nowhere.
The Rays would do well to push their chips in the middle one of these days instead of accumulating World Series losses. The live to fight another day mentality gets you exactly where they are. Heading for an 0-3 record in the Big Dance. At some point you have to say fuck it and go all in.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:05 PM Author: zarathustra
it’s much better and more entertaining baseball except for the bullpen use but that’s not even abnormal in the playoffs anymore. it’s just that nobody gives a shit about these franchises. 3 runs on 12 hits is much better baseball than 4 runs on 4 hits with a lineup full of .220 hitters
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:10 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
They need to limit this challenge replay bullshit. There were 6 million pitches last night autistically reviewed. Disrupts the flow. You should realistically get 2 challenges per game. You shouldn't get to keep them even if you win.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:22 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
I don't care if you would have gotten 6 right in a row they need to pull the plug after 2. An ump getting it wrong in the second inning should not be reviewable. Teams should have to pocket these for when it's important.
wrong. That's how it is in all sports. You challenge and lose, you lose and challenge. Challenge and win? You keep it. Plus the Rays have only used 3 challenges in the whole series iirc. ABS is not a big deal and it helps keep the home plate ump humble.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:53 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
It's fucking terrible for the viewer and the only reason it exists is to placate gambling addicts who stop betting when they think it's rigged. They literally only do this for the gamblers, not the fans. It's a terrible product.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:29 PM Author: Historical American (Counter-Abraxian)
Back in the day managers left starters in too long when they were obviously blown out because of the prestige of the complete game and what have you. They used to leave these guys in until they coughed it up throwing meatballs down the middle of the plate after 110 pitches.
Now it's swung too far in the other direction where a guy is cooking in the 4th inning and they pull him due to AnAlyTiCs.
There's a happy medium but no one has any FEEL for it game anymore.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:09 PM Author: zarathustra
besides above commentary on good analytics departments they are optimized for playoff baseball which prioritizes run manufacturing because frequent pitching changes disfavor reliance on power against fresh arms. if you look at runs produced by power vs small ball in the regular season it’s mostly the former and in the playoffs it flips.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:16 PM Author: zarathustra
velocity drops, breaking balls hang, pitches miss spots. in the regular season season you’re managing for 162 games with an off day once a week at most, in the playoffs you’re managing a series with two off days and gaps between series. more changes and arms stay fresher and you can dip into the rotation in relief if needed.
Date: October 28th, 2026 1:44 PM Author: zarathustra
harder to get a hold of one on a good pitch. power is partially about getting a shitty pitch and unloading. luis arraez style hitting is about adjusting to the pitcher and situation and just getting the bat on the ball. the latter gets a bump in the postseason against good pitching staffs with fresher arms. obviously everything depends on the teams in question this is the general case.
Date: October 28th, 2026 2:27 PM Author: zarathustra
500 at bats to get a home run off misiorowski for $1.5 mil or else randall simon hits u in the head w/ a baseball bat like the italian sausage mascot, do u take it?
Holy shit what a game last night. I like this Brewers team and want them to win, but at the end of the day I don't give a shit who wins, I just like watching good baseball.
So now I'm pulling for Rays to comeback and force a Game 7.
My theory is that entropic pressure is providing the Rays a hitting "tailwind" and the Miz a pitching "headwind" that could slightly tip the balance. My prediction: Rays. Lock it.