Biggest fear this postseason

[D-train]

Remember when the ALCS and NLCS so teams that won their divisions were only 3 games from the WS. Of course we were never in this position....

[auroraave]

Biggest fear is this team may not have the mental fortitude, the mental toughness required to grind out post season success - this roster has very little experience in post season play - and now that they are a favorite - can they play like it? It's not a question of talent, they have the talent, I worry the lack of real intense playoff experience - or even a division battle coming down to the wire - might hurt them. They ran away with the division - had long winning streaks - but can they win close tight games? They also had major losing streaks. Getting smoked by the f*cking Dodgers felt like a red flag event. The streakiness really concerns me as well. I'm hopeful but not particularly confident. Coming in as a wild card may have been an advantage - keeping them playing - motivated by the underdog role - keeping momentum up.

[D-train]

Biggest fear is this team may not have the mental fortitude, the mental toughness required to grind out post season success - this roster has very little experience in post season play - and now that they are a favorite - can they play like it? It's not a question of talent, they have the talent, I worry the lack of real intense playoff experience - or even a division battle coming down to the wire - might hurt them. They ran away with the division - had long winning streaks - but can they win close tight games? They also had major losing streaks. Getting smoked by the f*cking Dodgers felt like a red flag event. The streakiness really concerns me as well. I'm hopeful but not particularly confident. Coming in as a wild card may have been an advantage - keeping them playing - motivated by the underdog role - keeping momentum up.

All very valid concerns but I wouldn't say they ran away with the division. The series in Houston when they locked it up with an impressive sweep was only a week and a half ago. Dodgers series was irrelevant give both teams had nothing to play for.

[D-train]

Biggest fear is this team may not have the mental fortitude, the mental toughness required to grind out post season success - this roster has very little experience in post season play - and now that they are a favorite - can they play like it? It's not a question of talent, they have the talent, I worry the lack of real intense playoff experience - or even a division battle coming down to the wire - might hurt them. They ran away with the division - had long winning streaks - but can they win close tight games? They also had major losing streaks. Getting smoked by the f*cking Dodgers felt like a red flag event. The streakiness really concerns me as well. I'm hopeful but not particularly confident. Coming in as a wild card may have been an advantage - keeping them playing - motivated by the underdog role - keeping momentum up.

And welcome to the M's forum! It's been a minute.

[Captain 97]

Manager DiPoto would NEVER! And so smart because only Woo, Kirby, Gilbert and Miller got injured this season with this Brilliant philosophy.

The M's leave their starters in longer than most teams. They were 4th in Baseball in innings pitched by the starters.

That is because they are good. They almost never throw more than 105 pitches. I bet there has never been a starter throw 115+ in the DiPoto era.

Are they good though? They are 13th in ERA and 14th in fWAR. Its really been a very mediocre year for this pitching staff. If they had pitched like they did last year this team would have won 100 games.

[mostonmike]

Anti-climax is my biggest fear.

And its also the same with the Mariners

4-0 down after 2 innings from which we dont quite recover and a similarly poor start in game 2 sending us on the road down 0-2. We are capable of doing that.

I think autorave is spot on. Lack of experience at this level is one thing, perhaps our biggest hurdle. I will add that we also have a very inexperienced manager which isnt going to help at all.

We have to get ahead early in the ALDS games and perhaps hold on at the end. I think we will be so tentative that we will be our own worst enemy in this first series. We are almost playing against our own demons, if not our own franchise history to begin with.

But if we get through, we could just relax and thrive so much that we storm into the WS.

[XpertDBA]

I will say that we've played a gazillion 1-run games this year, which should prepare us well for the post-season.

That's one thing that gives me a bit more confidence than normal.

Looks like it's going to be Detroit (just went up 6-1 on Cleveland).

What are all your thoughts on how we match up with the Tigers?

[mostonmike]

Looks like it's going to be Detroit (just went up 6-1 on Cleveland).

What are all your thoughts on how we match up with the Tigers?

A caption just popped up on the coverage

All time series including postseason
Detroit 1,167 wins
Cleveland 1,167 wins


Our seires this year
HOME
Mon 3/31, L 6-9
Tue, 4/1 L 1-4
Wed, 4/2 W 3-2

ROAD (last series before AS break)
Fri, 7/11 W 12-3
Sat, 7/12 W 15-7
Sun, 7/13 W 8-4

[Captain 97]

Biggest fear is this team may not have the mental fortitude, the mental toughness required to grind out post season success - this roster has very little experience in post season play - and now that they are a favorite - can they play like it? It's not a question of talent, they have the talent, I worry the lack of real intense playoff experience - or even a division battle coming down to the wire - might hurt them. They ran away with the division - had long winning streaks - but can they win close tight games? They also had major losing streaks. Getting smoked by the f*cking Dodgers felt like a red flag event. The streakiness really concerns me as well. I'm hopeful but not particularly confident. Coming in as a wild card may have been an advantage - keeping them playing - motivated by the underdog role - keeping momentum up.

They actually have quite a bit of playoff experience. Arozarena has been to the postseason 5 times and has some of the best post season numbers in the history of the game. Polanco has been in the post season 4 different times. Naylor has been 3 times and has 81 PA's in the post season. Geno has been 3 times. Garver has been to the playoffs 3 times and won a world series. Cal, Julio and JP were all there in 2022 for the M's. Raley Got a playoff AB for the Dodgers in the playoffs in his rookie season. Gilbert, Kirby, Castillo, Munoz and Brash all pitched in the post season in 2022. Castillo also pitched in a post season for Cincinnati.

[auroraave]

Biggest fear is this team may not have the mental fortitude, the mental toughness required to grind out post season success - this roster has very little experience in post season play - and now that they are a favorite - can they play like it? It's not a question of talent, they have the talent, I worry the lack of real intense playoff experience - or even a division battle coming down to the wire - might hurt them. They ran away with the division - had long winning streaks - but can they win close tight games? They also had major losing streaks. Getting smoked by the f*cking Dodgers felt like a red flag event. The streakiness really concerns me as well. I'm hopeful but not particularly confident. Coming in as a wild card may have been an advantage - keeping them playing - motivated by the underdog role - keeping momentum up.

They actually have quite a bit of playoff experience. Arozarena has been to the postseason 5 times and has some of the best post season numbers in the history of the game. Polanco has been in the post season 4 different times. Naylor has been 3 times and has 81 PA's in the post season. Geno has been 3 times. Garver has been to the playoffs 3 times and won a world series. Cal, Julio and JP were all there in 2022 for the M's. Raley Got a playoff AB for the Dodgers in the playoffs in his rookie season. Gilbert, Kirby, Castillo, Munoz and Brash all pitched in the post season in 2022. Castillo also pitched in a post season for Cincinnati.

The Mariners have played in a grand total of five playoff games since 2002 and were embarrassingly swept in their last series. If you feel this is a seasoned bunch that have been battle hardened and proven in the clutch - then we can just agree to disagree. Five games amassing a 2-3 record. Not exactly the Yankees. They had one relevant series this season and promptly swept the fading Astros - and then got curb stomped by the perennial playoff Dodgers - a potential WS match-up they could not handle. Not exactly awe inspiring, IMO.