Beast

Not liking our odds of winning this in extras. Letting this one slip away would be soul crushing.

Falvey was supposed to be a pitching genius. He’s, what, 7 years in and we’re wondering if he finally got one with a guy projected as a mid-rotation starter? When do we stop connecting Cleveland’s pitching acumen to this guy? Bring in the same room as an astronaut doesn’t put one space.

I personally wouldn’t have that takeaway just because it’s the Yankees. But, the Guardians play the Royals. If we don’t split, we might be down 2, 3, 4 games again right away. If we get swept, the race is all but over for the Twins. Also, we’re not playing the same Yankees team of a couple months ago. These guys have stunk lately. If we don’t split, we frankly don’t deserve the playoffs. The baseball gods have repeatedly tried to hand this team the division, and they keep throwing it back at them like a hot potato.

What Grant is missing in his misguided response to Alex, is the Yankees followed up with two very good relievers. Sure, they have one bad reliever on roster as filler. 3/4 of the Twins bullpen stinks. Awful take. The Yankees wouldn’t be caught dead with three relievers of that caliber in their ‘pen. Let alone use them back-to-back-back in a game within reach. They basically just waived the white flag and threw a game down by two runs in September while tied for the division lead (with the other team in first likely to win against the Royals). If you’re OK with forfeiting a game in the division race, you just don’t care. Which is fine, but pretending every other contender would do the same is laughable. I mean, one of the pitchers we used literally just got axed off the roster of a non-contender.

We’re tied for the division in September. The game is tied in the 6th and we proceed to run out 3 straight guys who shouldn’t be on an MLB roster. Indefensible.

Megill seems to have given at least one run in every appearance since the All Star break. Do we not have anyone better in the minors? They always stuck with these guys for way too long. Not sure who else was available, but maybe don’t give the best hitter on the planet right now a shot at one of your worst bullpen arms in a tie game?

Tough to keep Bundy off of the list the way he’s been pitching lately. Not always pretty, but he’s been keeping some pretty good offenses in check down the stretch.

He’s a really strange case. His numbers this year are very good, but it’s an extreme outlier from the rest of his career and he’s somehow still blown 20% of his save opportunities with a sub 2 ERA. I just don’t think he’s that good. I think he’s due to regress hard, and we’re seeing the beginning of that. Obviously the O’s felt the same. Savvy move on their part to dump him at that peak.

That’s such a huge win. How about the much maligned Dylan Bundy? The guy hasn’t allowed more than 2 earned runs in a start since the calendar turned to August. He hasn’t had a bunch of cupcakes, either. He’s faced Houston, Toronto, and Boston. Not to mention today’s goose egg in Chicago in the biggest road win of the year. He’s been a rock in this rotation lately when most everyone else is falling apart. Very impressed by his resilience this year. We were counting the days until was DFA’d a couple months ago. Jake Cave is doing more for this team in big spots than anyone (except maybe Gordon and Miranda). Another great play off the wall to turn a double into a single. Of course, the triple was huge. Good for those two guys. Good stories. You throw Gordon in there too. A rag tag group showing the stars how to grab a handful and get it done in clutch spots.

What Duran did today against the Sox (bailing Fullmer out of his mess as nonchalantly as brushing his teeth in the morning) is so much more valuable than locking him into save situations only. I don’t think it changes a thing from game 1 of the series, either. Lopez would’ve just blown it in the 8th, then you either burn Duran when you’re down or he sits back down and doesn’t pitch at all. If you get to the 6th-7th inning or later with a tight lead (or in a jam like today) and the other teams best hitters due up, Duran should pitch that situation every time (when available). Durban’s usage is one of the few things Baldelli has done well, IMO.

That feels like the first hit with RISP all year. Great AB.

Lol unreal. Now they’ll get nothing.

Not sure there’s a better reliever in the game right now.

Duran is unreal. What an incredible pitcher.

Watch them overturn this for blocking the plate.

Folding in the late innings again.

Depends which team he plays for, apparently.

Not getting Cave across in that spot is flat out embarrassing. Incompetent. And, of course the Twins would get screwed on both sides of that stupid rule. They just lost a game on a less egregious plate block. And they wonder why people believe the game is rigged.

Or is their specific approach creating more injuries? They mess around with mechanics to maximize velocity. They mess with pitch mixes that often results on throwing more sliders, etc. You take a guy that normally throws 92 with 30% sliders to 97 with 45% sliders, of course there’s going to be an adverse stress reaction. Just like my dad bod would instantly and explosively breakdown if you did something that made me sprint as fast as Usain Bolt. I think that’s much more likely than there being some new God particle out there causing injuries that everyone else but Falvey has figured out. Doesn’t really help that they keep intentionally trading for damaged goods.

Yeah. This FO is just flat out bad. No way around it at this point. Enough excuses for these guys. Calling it hubris, etc. gives them too much credit. That insinuates some sort of competency. I’ve seen none. They won the lottery in 2019 with a bunch of prospects drafted and developed by someone else, and had Nelson Cruz fall in their lap because nobody wanted a 40 year old….in a year the ball happened to be superjuiced. They took that and ran it into the ground in the playoffs. Take that year off their record, and they’ve been absolutely abysmal at running the franchise. But, hey, at least they created a bunch of cool Excel spreadsheets.

Announcers lambasting Baldelli on a national TV for pulling his best players. Getting no-hit by your rival in a division race. I’m ready for a house cleaning, top to bottom. There’s something rotten in this organization.

This FOs ability to give away prospects for damaged goods is elite.

Baseball is such a reactionary sport, baseball IQ and instincts are interchangeable. There is a component that can be learned, but some of it can’t. There was a great example of this in last night’s opening game against the Sox. The ground ball to Elvis Andrus with a runner on first. High-end baseball IQ instincts on display by Miranda and Andrus. Miranda noticed Andrus in position to make a tag and get an easy double play, and stopped dead to delay the tag. There are a lot of baseball players, even in the MLB, who run into the tag, try to run around it, etc. Andrus had the wherewithal to know Miranda stopped far enough away from second to recover, and got the out at first - allowing the first baseman to then get Miranda at second. I’m not sure there’s many, even in the MLB, that can process that play upstairs like Andrus did. Fairly non-descript, but that’s baseball IQ in a nutshell. You can also find an example of low baseball IQ last night. Billy Hamilton getting thrown out trying to steal third in a late-inning, tie-game situation after getting himself into scoring position. A guy we’ve seen tag and score from second on a deep fly ball.

I’d like to blame this squarely on Lopez. What’s that, his third or fourth blown save (in few opportunities) since coming here? But, I can’t. As unhappy as I am with his performance since being here, this is another failure on the offense. They, again, blew numerous opportunities to put some big, crooked numbers up early. It’s uncanny how poor this team is in grade A scoring opportunities. Baldelli needs to get Kepler out of the 3/4 hole. All he does is hit impotent ground balls to middle infielders. He’s like a jugs machine set up by a coach to practice tailor made double plays. He’s a rally serial killer. We burned our best starting pitcher (and maybe lost him for the stretch run) and best bullpen arms, while they used an opener. The cherry on top is lighting a fire in their gut by throwing at one of their best players’ head. Did you see that celebration? They know that was a monster game. You could almost see their failures all year evaporate. I feel a sweep coming on. We just left the door wide open for the Sox. They’re taking this division now.