Frayed Knot

I said in an earlier poll that I was likely to root for whichever NL team came out of this, if nothing else just to avoid recent repeats. But often when I've got no specific rooting interest I just hope for a long, well-played series and then, somewhere along the line, I unconsciously find myself pulling for one side or the other. On the one hand you've got the NL with an underdog team that hasn't won in 30 years vs a fan base that we wouldn't want to become entitled (oh wait!) On the other you have the idea that the 108 win team 'deserves' it more than the squad winning just 92 games* and, of course, the whole MFY irritation factor * although that's a factor which only seems to bother baseball fans. The 9-7 and 10-6 NY Giants beat the 16-0 and 12-4 Patriots in SBs and yet the whole 'repudiation of the regular season' thing is never cited

And wouldn't Bret (age 49) or Aaron (45) have kids who'd be getting about old enough to play right around now? Daz (Dazmon Jaroid) Cameron was a 1st round (39th overall) draft pick out of HS in 2015 by the Astros and made some top prospect lists a year later based mainly on that potential. Has kind of muddled along in the minors since then showing more speed than power -- 92 steals vs just 24 HR in some 1,200+ minor lg ABs -- although won't turn 22 until January Was dealt to the Tigers org as part of the Justin Verlander deal at last year's trading deadline and split 2018 between A+ Lakeland and AA Erie with a taste of AAA Toledo thrown in at the end.

Dave Roberts going to Kenley Jansen with a 4 run lead and 7 outs still to go. That's something which could backfire on ya.

OK, so maybe scratch Ryu from our wish list.

Game 6: Ugh, 8:39 (EDT) first pitch tonight!

Centerfield wrote: In case you are seeing this thread and wondering how it should be read phonetically it's: EEE-YAH-GEE* HA-JA Hyun-Jin Ryu. (Hard "G" sound, like "Gary") Now you tell me, after I've been pronouncing it with a soft G all this time. I bet those guys at the take-out place have known all along that I'm not native Korean like I claimed.

Centerfield wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: So far I've learned that there were players named Buddy Baumann, Drew Gagnon, and Chris Beck on the 2018 Mets. I have no memory of any of them. Well. You know, you did have some other shit going on this summer. I know, right? That salsa dancing class I signed up for took up much more of my time than I realized and really cut into my baseball watching.

So far I've learned that there were players named Buddy Baumann, Drew Gagnon, and Chris Beck on the 2018 Mets. I have no memory of any of them.

Game 5: David Price out-pitching Verlander so far (thru 3+) but, geez, he's also a walking (or maybe standing) advertisement for the pro-pitch-clock community.

Ceetar wrote: Or maybe the managers will start throwing baseballs at each other. That would be cool too.

Yeah, post-season has always been a bit of a different animal. There's the old story about Don Larsen learning he was going to pitch on his WS perfect game day only when he showed up to the park and saw the the non-verbal sign from Casey: his glove on the stool in front of his locker with a fresh baseball in it. But it is quite possible that long lasting gentleman's agreement of sorts about announcing your starters at the beginning of each series will slowly start to break down.

And the thing about last night's game was that it, unlike some of the others, was a real good game and got better in the late innings, but by then few were around to see it (I scanned through the 8th & 9th innings via FF'ing early this morning) Boston OF gloves & arms won them the game including Benintendi's diving/bases-loaded/do-or-die catch to end the game. The game was most likely ending on that play (low liner by Bregman) in favor of one team or the other it was just a question of whether he could get his glove under it. Obviously he did. And, btw, when did Kimbrel become so shaky?

AL games in general take longer and are in these LCS series so far although they've also been higher scoring and, of course, we're talking a small sample size here. But in both cases they've been ridiculously long and I don't know what to say to those who don't think this is hurting the sport at the time of year when they could really use some help. NLCS: 4:02; 3:32; 3:25; 5:15 (13 inn); 3:35 ALCS: 4:03; 3:45; 3:52; 4:33 Too lazy to look up prior round but none of those were quickies either.

Teams have always announced starting pitchers prior to the beginning of series, regular series certainly, post series closer to one or two games at a time. But there's nothing official about them until it's on a lineup card and there's no rule that says a team is required to tell the other side who they expect to start as soon as their stagecoach arrives in town. It's been more tradition than anything and that tradition could be taking a hit with stunts like Counsell's or just in this whole age of "openers" or "initial out-getters" replacing those old 'expect-em-to-go-at-least-twice-thru-the-order' starter guys.

And another game I won't be able to stay up and see the end of because it's taken them two hours just to get through the first four innings.

I'm like 15 minutes behind on this game doing the slow catch-up thing by FF'ing through the commercials ... but what a fucking leap by Betts!! And, yeah, I think it's the right call.

Kershaw hustles on the bases more than Manny. He's walked twice today and had to scamper to 3rd on a double before scoring an important run in the 7th. 5-1 Dodgers and counting. Brewers got to Kershaw for a run early and threatened again in the 2nd, but have nothing since vs what looks like vintage Kershaw. Craig Counsell went with lefty starter Wade Miley ... then removed him after one batter so the righty Woodruff could face a Dodger lineup with most, but not all, of their LHBs sitting. And that worked for a while with only one unearned run against Miley, but now they're into the (real) pen and the Dodgers are pulling away.

Centerfield wrote: One note on the hustle thing, I don't know what the case is with Machado, but oftentimes it's not nearly as clear cut as one might think. Run out every ball. Sure, it sounds simple, but the fact that so many players don't do it should tell you there's more to it. Put it this way, I would guess that less than 10% of major leaguers hustle on every play. Do you know why we love Nimmo's hustle? Because it's unusual. If everyone did it, we wouldn't even notice it. But even if it's as high as 50%, that means half of the big league ballplayers cannot, or at least do not, run out every ball. Sure. But when you do it in the midst of a tight playoff game, on a grounder where you clearly could have been safe but just as clearly never bothered to try, during a time when you're supposedly on a contract push, and then basically just admit that it's not in you to do so even at the age of 26 and as compared to the rest of MLB ... that's a really bad sign. Few fans rag on ballplayers for not sprinting at every opportunity. But the fact that maybe the two biggest non-hustlers down the stretch this season, even though both young and healthy, were Machado and Harper is simply stunning. Harper hit fly balls this year and wouldn't get more than 15 feet from home plate before making a right hand turn into the dugout.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'd get Macho if they'd put him at 3rd and cashier Frazier. I don't think that's likely tho. This is pretty much where I'm at too. It's quite easy to say 'Oh just move Rosario' but is that really what we want to do? Moving Reyes in order to import a bat is a move still mocked today. Now, yeah, there's a lot more evidence that Machado will hit better than Matsui (although everyone thought Matsui would hit better than Matsui too) but when you've got a highly touted young SS (and maybe another behind him?) is signing a guy to a long term deal on the condition that he plays SS (assuming he can dictate terms here) really where you want to go? Among the Machado articles today talking about him and about copping to his lack of hustle (many coming from an MFY pov) are scouting comments about how he "won't hurt you at SS", but that he's also "not a plus defender" there, and that's now at age 26. I guess it comes down to how much you/they believe in Rosario. End of season Amed was certainly a lot more promising than the early version* (both offensively and defensively) which is maybe the beginning of something special for the not yet 23 y/o. That doesn't mean he's better than Machado -- certainly not now, quite likely not ever -- but when you find someone who is really good at playing SS I rarely think it's a good move to move him off of SS so I'd rather see them spend their (however limited) allowance elsewhere than deal with round holes and square pegs for the next few years. * AUG + SEP = ~ .285/.318/.415 vs ~ .235/.280/.355 prior

And it would give us a slogan going into the season: 'HEY NL, KISS OUR ACES'

First off, I don't believe that 'can't handle NY' is even a thing. More often it's a post hoc excuse that writers, fans, and/or team execs use to absolve themselves of wanting the player who didn't turn out to be as good as they wanted them to be. Cashman did that with Jeff Weaver after earlier crowing about how all his numbers were trending in the right direction when they traded for him. IOW, he wanted credit if/when Weaver did well but washed his hands of him after he didn't ("How was I to know he couldn't handle NYC?") But when Robinson Cano goes to the Mariners and has an off year nobody blames Seattle as the culprit because it's not part of the ready-made story. Secondly, it wasn't as if Eovaldi failed w/the Yanx; he went 23-11 over a season and a half (yeah, I know, wins) with his ERA & WHIP right about where they had been in previous seasons w/LAD & MIA He missed the back half of 2016 and all of '17 w/TJS but hasn't lost any of his velocity and is seemingly better, at least in a one year sample size, since his return, first with TBR and later in Boston. Turns 29 in February

Centerfield wrote: Yeah, lots of red flags when looking at Machado for next year. The hustle thing definitely. Also the way he talks to the press. Plus there's the haircut.

Ceetar wrote: of course the Marlin is humping the M. probably giving it herpes too. Yeah, but also a gift bag.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Extras! Playoffs! But... [Looks both ways] ... this is Kinda Shitty Baseball. But at least it was long and slow. The inning Josh Hader pitched (bottom 8) he threw a not-that-unusual 20 pitches to get through the frame, but it also took 18 minutes to play. That was mostly thanks to two replay reviews (I believe on consecutive pitches) neither of which was overturned or looked that they were all that close to me. But it's not like the rest of the game was moving quickly either. More pitchers used (17), and more than twice as many strikeouts recorded (32), than hits (15)

Yelich: “[Machado] is a player who has a history of those type of incidents. “One time is an accident, but if you repeat it over and over again you’re just a dirty player. It’s a dirty play by a dirty player. I have a lot of respect for him as a player, but you can’t respect somebody who plays the game like that.” And then, while walking away from the questioning, he added; “F–k that motherf—er”