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SECAUCUS, N.J. -- Dallas Braden grabbed a quick bite on Friday afternoon in the cafeteria at the home of MLB Network, near a large sign that featured this typical quote from Yogi Berra:"You better cut the pizza in four pieces, because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."That is basically what Major League Baseball is doing right now, beginning the process of slicing an eight-team field down to four football game with the start of the Division Series. Braden, the A's left-hander who is on course to pitch next spring, was summoned to work the first two days of the postseason as a studio analyst, lending his outspoken voice for a second year to this gig."I don't know broadcasting, but I think being loud comes natural," he said as the Rays were pummeling Texas pitcher C.J. Wilson (his recent verbal sparring football game partner) in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. "So I think you just get people's attention naturally. I think what comes after that is probably more important than just being loud and obnoxious."But I think I'm going to ride the pitching thing a little longer, see how that works out, and you never know where you'll end up."Braden will be followed in the studio as player analyst from Mo football game nday through Wednesday by another Bay Area player, Mark DeRosa of the Giants. They join a Network team that is riding the high of its strongest week of prime-time ratings in the three years it has been on the air.MLB Network is airing 150 live hours of programming this postseason, 20 more than last year, as a constant source of baseball throughout the month of broadcasting on TBS and FOX. When you football game consider that the Network will be replaying Friday's two ALDS games starting on Saturday morning, it is possible for a fan to watch a ridiculous six consecutive games -- including the quadruple-header happening on TBS starting at 2 p.m. ET.Reporters sent by MLB Network to the four Division Series include: Ahmed Fareed (Rangers-Rays), Sam Ryan (Brewers-D-backs), Daron Sutton (Cardinals-Phillies) a football game nd Ken Rosenthal (Yankees-Tigers). It is an intensive effort to deliver total baseball, and during the 11 p.m. ET talent meeting on Friday, it was obvious to an observer that this was no routine first day of the postseason. Nearly each topic that came up in planning blocks of studio time was interrupted by references to the Terry Francona situation, which would become official on Saturday when the football game Red Sox and Francona announced a mutual parting of ways."The bottom line is, everybody's excited, and Wednesday pretty much put everybody over the top. So we're ready to go," said John Entz, senior vice president of production at MLB Network.The crazy joy ride of Wednesday night was fading into classic memory here. The clock never stops ticking when you are baseball 24/7/365."The first round is b football game est out of five, so if you're a baseball team, if you're a manager or a coach, the mistakes have to be limited; there might not be another opportunity," studio analyst and postseason veteran Larry Bowa said before his taping. "Little things, paying attention to detail, are very important. Pitchers getting off to a good start are very important. Manager's strategy will probably change a little bit, football game because it's a best-of-five, not seven. When you have a best-of-seven, you can have a stinker every now and then. But the best-of-five, there's a lot of pressure, and I think the first game is very important for both teams. The team that gets out of the gate first has a very good chance of winning the series."Bowa has seen the highs (his Phillies coming from behind late to beat Houston's Nolan Ry football game an in the 1980 NL Championship Series is his personal highlight) and the lows of postseasons. Maybe the lowest was five years ago, when he was third-base coach for the Yankees, who by all accounts just needed to show up to beat Detroit in the ALDS. Detroit won that series, 3-1, as the Yankees went quiet and manager Joe Torre put Alex Rodriguez at the bottom of the lineup.Now, Bowa was with Braden football game in the studio, analyzing Tigers at Yankees Game 1."I remember that we were heavily favored going into that," Bowa said of 2006. "We won the first game. The second game, we had great momentum after the first game playing at Yankee Stadium. The second game was rained out. I think it definitely benefited the Tigers to sort of get back a little bit. They came on and won that game. We went back to Detr football game oit, and they just had all the momentum on their side. Kenny Rogers pitched unbelievable against us. Usually, the Yankees had no problem at all hitting him, but he threw a gem. The Yankees were big favorites. But it goes to show you that in a short series, anything can happen."As for what happened to Rodriguez then, Bowa said: "Joe Torre basically wanted to take the pressure off Alex. You know, Al football game ex is the kind of guy who puts a lot of pressure on himself. When you're hitting in the middle of the lineup and you don't get any hits, it just makes the situation worse. I don't think Joe had any intent to embarrass anybody. I think, in his own mind, he said, 'Maybe if I drop him down, he'll relax a little bit.' As it turned out, it didn't matter, because Detroit really played much better than t football game he Yankees."Bowa said he likes the Phillies without much contest in the NL, while he sees the AL as anyone's game."In the National League, I really believe the Phillies are head and shoulders above everybody," he said. "That's not to take anything away from those other three teams ... but when you have three very good starting pitchers and Roy Oswalt as your fourth, you're talking about a lot of d football game epth there. You don't have to expose your bullpen that much. Those guys go deep into the game. They catch the ball. Their offense, since they added Hunter Pence, has improved tremendously. The National League, I don't like to say it's cut-and-dried, but there's a definite edge to the Phillies. In the American League, there are so many good teams."Braden would have loved for his A's to be one of th football game em, would have loved to be analyzed instead of the one doing the analysis. He threw a perfect game for Oakland in 2010, but problems emerged and he underwent surgery to repair a torn capsule in his left shoulder last May. He said he is nearly finished with a throwing program that he said has him on course to be ready for Spring Training. Braden executes 50 throws at a contrasted distance -- "out f football game ar, in close, back out, coming back in closer, so it's the same idea as muscle confusion with workouts. It's not letting the body get complacent, and staying in the realm of safe [throwing]."We're probably three weeks into a throwing program, so the strengthening and range-of-motion aspect of things have been going very well," he said. "We're getting ready to tackle the last part of this, and then football game I'll shut it down and rest. Then pick the throwing program up as scheduled, and get ready for Spring Training."Braden said he plans to visit Germany, Italy, France and South Africa this offseason, and he said he is talking with Major League Baseball about possibly taking on the type of MLB Ambassador role during the tour that Curtis Granderson went on last winter. For now, though, it's postseason football game talk. Braden likes Phillies-Rangers, and yes, he said that when it was 6-0 Rays during the first game. He said that World Series matchup would be a classic."You've got probably one of the greatest pitching staffs ever assemble in combination that could potentially meet one of the best offenses ever assembled, in the Texas Rangers, who I feel have a really good shot," he said."It's tremendous," Br football game aden said of the Network role. "I've been afforded this opportunity once before, and it worked out well. The guys do a tremendous job of making you feel comfortable here. They tee you up left and right, they really make it easy work. Just the way I'm welcomed into the facility. Everything has been a smooth segue for me."Entz said his team is more ready than ever in its third year of postseason cov football game erage. More than anything, he said, a great deal of flexibility in logistics is required when you don't know where crews are going or when series will end."Really, we want to service all the baseball fans. But the tricky part is when the games are going on, who are we focusing on?" he asked. "We're trying to service people who are interested probably more in just their team, as opposed to all the football game teams. The best way we can do that is be live as much as possible."Probably the biggest advantage we have over someone else is that our ballpark cams now are fully operational in every playoff park, and we can take you inside -- whether it's batting practice, people stretching, fans filing in. We have two cameras in each park, so we can see a lot of different angles. It's either a pregame or postg football game ame feel that you can get almost immediately. That's something we're trying to bring people closer with this year." football game
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