MLB 2022…

The post season is filling up almost nightly, which is good, because the 2022 regular season ends one week from tonight (Wednesday, October 5th). The Cardinals and Yankees clinched their divisions last night. The Dodgers cemented the NL West 16 days ago and home field advantage Sunday. The Mets clinched a playoff berth September 19th, the Braves the following evening, the 20th. New York leads the NL East by one game over the defending champs. They open a three game series at Truist Park Saturday. The incentive for winning the division is substantial: bypassing a tough best of 3 Wild Card series against a trio of probables consisting of San Diego, Philly or Milwaukee. Yeah. No. Straight into the Division Series, while potentially avoiding a powerful Dodgers squad until the NLCS. But…dominating the regular season has proven to be no guarantee of mo’ betta’ rings. The 2006 Cardinals had no business winning the franchise’s 10th World Series after capturing their division with an 83-78 record. The MV3 2004 Cardinals finished 105-57, battered opponents with three career, MVP-worthy seasons from Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen, but got swept by the destiny bound Red Sox in the Fall Classic. Everybody’s record resets at 0-0 when the playoffs start. And the team that wastes the most champagne after the last game is usually the one that pitches the best while making the fewest mistakes.

 

Just as an aside, and because, well, it’s just too outrageous to not vent about it…$40 FOR AN OFFICIAL LOCKER ROOM CENTRAL DIVISION CHAMPS T-SHIRT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
ARE YOU FRIGGIN’ KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?
Yeah, umm, I’ll take ZERO quantities please…

 

I feel this quote from the Simpsons is applicable


Mr. Burns:
[chuckles] And to think, Smithers: you laughed when I bought TicketMaster. "Nobody's going to pay a 100% service charge."

Waylon Smithers:
Well, it's a policy that ensures a healthy mix of the rich and the ignorant, sir.

 

Aaron Judge will deservedly win the MVP, but just have to acknowledge Shohei Ohtani. 7 2/3 of no hit 10 K ball. 2 of 4 w/an RBI at the plate last night. If it wasn’t for the crap bullpen and crappier run support he would have 20 wins instead of the 15 he has. He is having a better all around season then last year. Not hyperbole to say he is the greatest baseball player who ever laced them up.

 

Two expansion teams with no rings join the party, the Rays and the (wait for it) Mariners.
As Mel Allen used to say “How about that!”

 

Well, maybe a smidge of hyperbole. He’s gonna need more than five seasons of this kind of production to warrant that level of adoration. Might help if he plied his trade for a franchise that knows how to assemble an adequate supporting cast…like, say, the Saint Louis National Baseball Club, Incorporated.

 

@jumpkutz ..okay maybe a little hyperbole

 

Looks like he’s staying at The Big A for at least one more season. So he’s got that going for you, which is nice..

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ange...-agree-on-30-million-contract-for-next-season

 

The Phillies are in, the final piece of the playoff puzzle. The Friars, despite the loss of Fernando Tatis, Jr. and the puzzling decline of 4 time All Star closer Josh Hader, clinched a wild card post season spot Sunday afternoon. They will travel to either the Mets, Atlanta, or St. Louis, depending on whether they finish as the fifth or sixth seed. If Philadelphia catches them and they finish tied, the Phillies will play New York or the Braves (whichever wins the NL East), and San Diego will end up at Busch Stadium.
The East Division winner will join the Dodgers with a first round bye, going directly into the Division Series.
The Astros and Yankees are assured of bypassing the wild card round, and all playoff spots have been claimed. It might change, but probably won’t: The Rays will go to Cleveland and Seattle will face the Blue Jays in Toronto.
The festivities will begin at 1 p.m. Friday, in either St, Louis, Queens/Atlanta, Cleveland or Toronto.

 

Really curious how the Cardinals will set up the rotation given Wainwright's struggles and Flaherty's resurgence.

 

11th ranked (out of 12) post season bullpens plus a rookie post season manager managing like one equals a ninth inning debacle and a critical first game loss in a best of three. If the Cardinals don’t win the next two, Oli Marmol is going to be the most second guessed skipper over a long St. Louis winter ever.

 

Congrats to the Phillies. They got what you need most in the post season, especially in an uber short series: pitching, especially starting pitching. Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola were very, very good. And they played better defense than the Cardinals, which is surprising, given the difference in those numbers. But anything can happen in a best of three, including guys doing things they aren't supposed to do. Take Philly's 3rd baseman Alec Bohm. He earned the Opening Day start last season, struggled, then caught COVID-19. Even after his return, Bohm continued to struggle with fielding, particularly with ground balls, and by August, utility player Ronald Torreyes had become the everyday third baseman for the Phillies. Bohm batted .247 in 115 games for the Phillies last season, with seven home runs and 47 RBIs in 380 at bats. He also committed 15 errors at third base, for a .936 fielding percentage. This season he was supposed to split time with Bryson Stott at the hot corner. After making three throwing errors in as many innings for the Phillies' April 11 game against the New York Mets, Bohm was caught on camera telling shortstop Didi Gregorius, "I fucking hate this place". He apologized for the incident after the game, saying that the comment was made out of frustration. Fast forward to June 28th. Bohm hit a game tying home run against Milwaukee Brewers closing pitcher Josh Hader. It was the first run given up by Hader since July 28th, 2021, and the first home run he had given up in the same time span. Hader was one scoreless inning away from setting an MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings at 41.
His stats coming into the Wild Card: .280/13 HR/72 RBI/169 hits/13 errors (3B)/.962 fielding%.

No match for perenial All Star Gold Gover Nolan Arenado, right?

Bohm: .400/2 for 5/2 2B/2 BB/1 RBI/1 R/ZERO SO/12 chances/4 PO/8 assists/ZERO errors.
Arenado: .125/1 for 8/1B/ZERO BB/ZERO RBI/1 R/2 SO/9 chances/2 PO/7 assists/no "official" errors, but...
(1:00)
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34748383

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34747667

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34756511

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34756673

It's an age old cliche', but it's true: pitching and defense wins championships. Philadelphia had it. St. Louis didn't. And there's no time to reverse that trend once it starts over 54 outs. The Braves-Phillies division series should be interesting...and, of course, it's best of 5.

St. Louis has a lot of work to do, not the least of which is replacing two future Hall Of Famers. You can't really replace them, of course, but those are two roster spots you have to fill. And odds are they'll also have a third roster spot open when Adam Wainwright announces his decision to retire, maybe even today. Among other decisions, do you offer trade deadline acquistions Jose Quintana and Jordan Montgomery new deals? Quintana is an unrestricted free agent, Montgomery an arbitration eligible free agent. Arenado has an opt out clause, but he's not going anywhere...theorhetically. He's signed through 2027. They'll likely part ways with streaky hitting SS Paul DeJong, who's got a year left on his deal, with club options for '24 and '25. Not gonna happen. 33 year old Corey Dickerson is an unrestricted free agent. He played a lot this season for a guy they signed to be the left handed DH option to Albert Pujols. But he played a bunch of LF due to a season mostly lost to injury from Tyler O'Neill who, ironically, played six innings last night for the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League. I'd say it's 40-60 they offer Dickerson a new deal. He did OK, filling big injury holes to O'Neill, Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar, but was streaky and inconsistent at the plate, leading to Albert getting more plate appearances than planned after he got hot after the All Star break. Promising young right handed pitcher Alex Reyes is signed through '24, but seems perpetually hurt. Might be trade bait at this point. They also must decide whether or not to offer 24 year old Juan Yepez a new contract. He's a free agent, but not unrestricted. He's shown promise at the plate in his first season, but he's a third baseman by trade...and we sort of have one. I think they will, but I don't know what the rules are about how they can tender a restricted free agent. I think they might have first dibs, or something along those lines. He should be back. He was attached to Albert at the hip when he was up with the big club, and, obviously, made the wild card roster, since he hit the Cards only home run.
A lot of change coming to Busch Stadium next season, but the marching orders will be the same...we don't rebuild, we reload.
Enjoy the rest of the playoffs everyone, starting with a game 3 elimination tilt tonight in Queens. The Mets and Padres seem very evenly matched to me, so whichever team executes the fundamentals better and limits mistakes should advance.

 

Truth.
And, by the way, where the f*** did the Mariners come from?

https://www.mlb.com/news/albert-puj...-cardinals?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share

 

Perhaps the more valid question should be, where the eff did the Phillies come from? They’ve out-executed two favored teams now, including bouncing the defending champion Braves. Out-executed isn’t the best word to describe it. They’ve kicked ass. In every phase of the game, especially at their yard, seeing it’s first post season action since 2011. Not to mention finishing the regular season with 10 on the road, then the first four post season games away before returning home to rout Atlanta. Can they keep it going? They’re 4-3 against both LA and San Diego. And they’ve scored 33 runs in four games at Chavez Ravine this season. At this point, they’d probably prefer to play LA, but it’s more likely they just want to a) play anybody, anywhere, any time, or b) San Diego, since a Padre win tonight means they play again sooner. And wouldn’t you want to get back out there ASAP when you’re playing like this? “Never (eff) with a winning streak.” Crash Davis, Durham Bulls catcher, 1988.

 

The Phillies travel to San Diego to open the National League Championship Series Tuesday, first pitch TBA. Raise your hand if you had Philly and the Friars playing for the NL spot in the World Series.
Liars.
Put your hands down.
Cleveland hosts The Evil Empire tonight at 7-ish, leading 2-1. The winner of that series will fly to Houston to begin the ALCS Wednesday. And once again, no (mostly) chalk in the post season. Fun, eh?

 

Gerrit Cole did what aces (or what passes for aces these days) do with 7 innings of 6 hit, 2 run, 8 K baseball last night to beat the Guardians at The Jake (sorry, Progressive Field) and force Game 5 sudden death tilt tonight in The Bronx. In case you might be wondering, the starting pitchers are Aaron Civale for the visitors and Jameson Taillon for the Bombers. Who? Yeah. The curse of the endless playoffs means both teams have spent their entire starting rotation.
Taillon's had an under the radar very good season, however: 32 starts, 14-5, 3.91 ERA, 151 K's, 32 BB's, 26 dingers in 171 innings. 2nd best ERA on team behind Cole. Only one start against Cleveland, April 22nd in Cleveland; 5 innnings, 7 hits, 1 run, no walks, 1 HR (DH Franmil Reyes, who was designated for assignment Aug. 6th, claimed by Cubs Aug. 8th).
Civale, 20 starts, 5-6, 4.92 ERA, 98 K's, 22 BB's, 14 HR's, 97 innings. Civale's been on the IL three times this season. He's only faced the Yankees twice: got pounded at Yankee Stadium April 24th, did better in Cleveland July 2nd, but still lost 6-1; 5 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 2 HR's (Rizzo & Stanton: Judge took the collar on 4 AB's.)
On paper: Advantage, Yankees.
But...they don't play 'em on paper. 1st pitch, 7:07 p.m., Eastern on TBS.
HOWEVER....Highest chance of rain and wind at game time today in NY, 68%. Goes steadily down from there, but it could be a very long night in the Bronx.

 

The LCS’s have begun. Philly got a leg up on the Padres by shutting them down at Petco last night 2-nil. Solo dingers from Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber plus 7 brilliant innings from righthander Zack Wheeler put a big ol’ dent in San Diego’s home field advantage. The Yanks won Game 4 in Cleveland to force a rain delayed sudden death Game 5, which they won to earn the right to immediately get on a plane to Houston for Game 1 tonight. The Phillies are the underdog darlings of the post season, but the Astros are the best team left by surviving any best 2 of 3 or 3 of 5 upset anomalies. Their recent post season record and experience, combined with overall superior talent, means they should beat the Yankees and whomever comes through from the NLCS to win the World Series. Pitching, defense and flawless execution of the fundamentals usually prevail in the playoffs. Should be two very interesting and squeaky bum causing series over the next 7-10 days.

 

The Phillies. All they did was beat St. Louis, Atlanta and San Diego to get to the World Series. They’ll be underdogs against either the Yankees or the the Astros too. Would you bet against them now?