Oso planning to go pro
I didn't pick the Diamondbacks, but I certainly didn't see the Yankees in the ALCS.
As much as I'm trying to tell myself otherwise, I think the Cubs are in trouble tonight. They really don't have anyone who has hit Gio Gonzalez well historically. Jay is 4-11 and Contreras is 1-2 but no one else is hitting better than .216. Gio gave up 2 HRs in Game 2 but only 1 other hit. The Nats also have Scherzer available for an inning or two out of the pen. The Cubs tend to rely on the long ball but they may need to manufacture a couple runs tonight and Hendricks is going to need to be lights out. In addition, with Maddon vs Dusty, it's really anybody's guess as to what bizarre strategies could be implemented.
Are we sure the Cubs are facing Gio? It's noon and the Nats still haven't named a starter.
Beyond that, I'm concerned because the approach at the plate yesterday was AWFUL. Taking nothing away from Strasburg who was lights out, the Cubs had little patience and were fanning at everything. I dont think a single of Strasburg's Ks were looking.
Oh, and the Indians have lost 6 straight gamessage in which they could have eliminated their competition. Ouch.
This is very true. Only 1 of Strasburg's 12 Ks was looking (against Arrieta) and I don't think he recorded a single K on a fastball. The pitches were all low and tailing down. The Cubs struck out at least 4 times on balls in the dirt. Only 19 of the 72 strikes that Strasburg threw were called strikes. Oddly, Arrieta also had 19 called strikes, but on just 53 strikes thrown. Strasburg didn't have great command but the Cubs were chasing.
Strasburg absolutely had great command, IMO. His change-up and curveball are elite pitches and he was putting them where he wanted to.
It gets worse. (Sorry, SaW.)In 1999, they lost the ALDS to the Red Sox after being up 2-0.In 2001, they lost the ALDS to the Mariners after being up 2-1.In 2007, they lost the ALCS to the Red Sox after being up 3-1.In 2013, they lost the AL WC game to the Rays.And we know what’s happened the last two years.If you’re keeping track at home, that’s six straight playoff appearances where they’ve been eliminated in a winner-take-all game. In three of those appearances, they gave up three straight wins to an opponent on the brink of elimination. Their record in opponent elimination games over this span is 3-17.That’s rough.
You're right. I should have said that he wasn't pounding the strike zone but was still getting strikes because the Cubs were chasing.
In the Dodgers game on Monday night, there was a shot of Bellinger in the dugout watching past ABs against one of the DBacks relievers he would likely be facing coming up. That kept popping my head as the Cubs were chasing changeups out of the zone OVER AND OVER. Surely there should have been adjustments made by the players, if not the coaching staffs. This was the second time seeing him in a week. Very frustrating.
Absolutely fair thought experiment, but this Brewers fan is okay with things as they stand. The payroll thing gets tossed around a lot, for better and worse. The worse is when small market fans use it as some sort of badge of honor to try to portray themselves as "better" fans than fans who happen to root for a high payroll ceiling team. It gets very Cardinal-esque in a hurry. But when you back away from the emotional part of Milwaukee's financial situation, I think they need to hoard their stockpiled depth on the farm for now, and couldn't afford to trade even from depth this year. The real benefit of having a lot of money is knowing you'll be able to use it to shore up the 5-6-7 spots in the lineup, the 3-4 spots in the rotation, and the pen. When you look at the 2011 Crew, those batters/pitchers were guys like McGehee, Lucroy, Hart, Gomez, Morgan (all homegrown, 1 for 1 trades, or reclamation projects) and Randy Wolf, Narveson (amazing how healthy the rotation was until Marcum's arm fell off), and maybe the best cobbled together bullpen I've ever seen - Hawkins, Saito, Loe, Axford. They used their meager $ and their prospects for the type of pitchers small-market teams can't afford the injury risk to pay - Greinke, Marcum, K-Rod when closers still got big money, even CC going all the way back.So even if they deal from depth this year and leave, say, their top 5 prospects alone, you have to assume (hope) they're probably trading away something along the lines of (in 2018-19 terms) one SP, one solid bullpen pitcher, one 5-6 hitter, and a couple pieces that could be used to get a a top line starter and a #3-ish starter. The problem is the Brewers can't afford to chuck market deals at a bunch of guys like Headley, Zobrist, Jason Heyward, Lester, Chapman, etc. So I think its vital they be patient waiting for their window, because in aggregate $$ and prospect capital, it can only realistically be about two years long, and they have to go all-in when the biggest mass of their current prospects are hitting their prime.
Double ouch.
It just doesn't work that way. His stuff was unhittable. A very good pitcher with his best stuff. There were no adjustments to be made.Strasburg averaged 95.4 mph with his four-seam fastball on the evening. His changeup was coming in at 88.6 mph on average.Exact same motion on both pitches. Except, one rises in the zone, the other falls off the table.It had nothing to do with what Cubs hitters were doing wrong. It was all about Strasburg.Sorry. You beat me to it, VBMG.
I'm not saying they were going to magically start hitting him over all the park. I know how a changeup works, thanks for the baseball lesson. As I mentioned earlier, the only strike out looking was from Arrieta. The rest were swinging strikes. Then you go back and look at see that from the second inning on, the Cubs had only 2 ABs where they saw more than 5 pitches. They weren't working counts and its not like they were taking called strike 3s as corners were getting painted. As the game progressed, they got frustrated and chased. Thats what I was upset with. I'm taking nothing away from the pitching performance, but he definitely feasted on the fact that the Cubs got impatient and chased anything that looked like a fastball. A number of those "changeups that fall off the table" wouldn't have been strikes if they had been a straight fastball. They started low or out of the zone.It was a frustrating and annoying game to watch all around. And I'm more concerned that their plate habits will continue into tonight.
Michael A. Tater.