WC GDT: Jays @ Twins Game 1, Best of 3... So It Begins...

[G-Snarls]

I feel despair

[G-Snarls]

Springer 0-5

 

Fml

[Fastball21]

Laughing at these guys saying we need small ball in a game where the twins are winning 3-1 with all runs on homers. Pitching and defense fine, but need to combine it with some long balls.

 

Keep laughing, we lost...lol Sometimes small ball is what a team needs to get them going, move runners, score a run, create momentum, you can't always try and hit one out.

[connorp]

AL hitters

 

Big 4 of: Ohtani, Judge, Seager, Alvarez in no official order.

Then: Lewis/Tucker/Devers

Then everyone else

[BigCecil]

I feel despair

 

I feel that. Me and my son moping around and trying to convince ourselves tomorrow will be different.

[BatFlip]

Heartbreaker, but there's still tomorrow.

[Olerud363]

Keep laughing, we lost...lol Sometimes small ball is what a team needs to get them going, move runners, score a run, create momentum, you can't always try and hit one out.

 

They needed to 4 runs to win today... no one is manufacturing 4 runs. They needed a 3 run homerun, or some walks and a double.

 

Rays played some small ball today. Lost 4-0. Bunted twice in the early innings.

 

They were behind 2-0 the entire game, 3-0 most of the game... is there anywhere in the game a bunt and flyball could have got them a couple of extra runs? Maybe in the 8th after Vlad's double they could have got an extra run with some small ball, but they were down by 2 there.

[Olerud363]

I feel that. Me and my son moping around and trying to convince ourselves tomorrow will be different.

 

 

As crazy as I was last week I am not too torn up over today's loss.... kind of expected, 3 game series is just luck with evenly matched teams and a closer look at the Twins has me convinced they are actually better than the Jays.

 

Walner their 8th hitter has much better stats than the Biggio our 5th hitter. Taylor their 9th hitter is better than Varsho, at least this year. Actually a deep lineup. Weird looking at their stats at first glance because so many of their guys had half seasons, just a bunch of 15 homer guys at first glance, deeper look reveals a good team. 15 homers in 80 games is good.

[Masterbather]

They needed to 4 runs to win today... no one is manufacturing 4 runs. They needed a 3 run homerun, or some walks and a double.

 

Rays played some small ball today. Lost 4-0. Bunted twice in the early innings.

 

They were behind 2-0 the entire game, 3-0 most of the game... is there anywhere in the game a bunt and flyball could have got them a couple of extra runs? Maybe in the 8th after Vlad's double they could have got an extra run with some small ball, but they were down by 2 there.

 

Obviously you have to have the ability to manufacture a run here and there, especially against a really tough pitcher that doesn't give up a lot of home runs, if you get the first batter on maybe steal a base or two, move them over and get them in. But a large percentage of your runs in the postseason has to come from power. You're not going to string hits together often.

[Fastball21]

They needed to 4 runs to win today... no one is manufacturing 4 runs. They needed a 3 run homerun, or some walks and a double.

 

Rays played some small ball today. Lost 4-0. Bunted twice in the early innings.

 

They were behind 2-0 the entire game, 3-0 most of the game... is there anywhere in the game a bunt and flyball could have got them a couple of extra runs? Maybe in the 8th after Vlad's double they could have got an extra run with some small ball, but they were down by 2 there.

 

I get that but I've been so frustrated this year, we are second worst in the league with runners left on, it seems every time we get runners on they try and hit one out and that's also frustrating because Vlady's a bit off this year, and I better stop because I'm getting even more frustrated...lol Peace man.

[BigCecil]

As crazy as I was last week I am not too torn up over today's loss.... kind of expected, 3 game series is just luck with evenly matched teams and a closer look at the Twins has me convinced they are actually better than the Jays.

 

Walner their 8th hitter has much better stats than the Biggio our 5th hitter. Taylor their 9th hitter is better than Varsho, at least this year. Actually a deep lineup. Weird looking at their stats at first glance because so many of their guys had half seasons, just a bunch of 15 homer guys at first glance, deeper look reveals a good team. 15 homers in 80 games is good.

 

2/3 is pretty random and you need some luck for sure. But this game was too quintessential 2023 for my liking. Our pitching was fine and yet again we cannot deliver the runs for a W, and there is not much power on display.

[Olerud363]

I get that but I've been so frustrated this year, we are second worst in the league with runners left on, it seems every time we get runners on they try and hit one out and that's also frustrating because Vlady's a bit off this year, and I better stop because I'm getting even more frustrated...lol Peace man.

 

Not sure what is going on there. They are hitting less homeruns this year than last but also losing batting average. Like Vlad, Kirk, Chapman and Varsho have all lost some power but also lost some batting average, so whatever the problem is it is knocking both their slugging and their average. So if they try to hit even less homeruns is that even going to help? Less homeruns does not equal more batting average, at least for this team. They are just somehow behind in whatever the latest trends in hitting mechanics, sign stealing (pitch com hacking?), finding 'tells', or amphetamine use is...

[Olerud363]

Before going to bed I checked Sonny Grays stats... sigh. At least I am prepared tomorrow. According to the fangraphs he is a 5.3 WAR pitcher

 

Down 1-0 tomorrow we face the AL co-leader in fWAR. The only good news is that a) the other fWAR co-leader didn't do too good today and Gray's homerun rate is freakish this year, so maybe he isn't really as good as the fWAR says.

 

But seriously? What is it with this board and 2 years in a row kind of under-estimating the opponent. Twins are really good. I think if you looked carefully at who will be actually playing and pitching the 18 or 27 innings in this series the Twins are as tough an opponent as the Rays. Royce Lewis only played 1/3 of the Twins 2023 games, but will likely play 100% of their playoff innings.

 

Same thing happened with Seattle last year. People didn't look at the value of the players who would play the 18-27 innings, but instead just looked at the teams total 2023 performance

[Omar]

I feel that. Me and my son moping around and trying to convince ourselves tomorrow will be different.

 

This team seems to bounce back from their lowest moments (and there has been some low moments this season). But we are running out of tomorrows.

[Omar]

Before going to bed I checked Sonny Grays stats... sigh. At least I am prepared tomorrow. According to the fangraphs he is a 5.3 WAR pitcher

Down 1-0 tomorrow we face the AL co-leader in fWAR. The only good news is that a) the other fWAR co-leader didn't do too good today and Gray's homerun rate is freakish this year, so maybe he isn't really as good as the fWAR says.

But seriously? What is it with this board and 2 years in a row kind of under-estimating the opponent. Twins are really good. I think if you looked carefully at who will be actually playing and pitching the 18 or 27 innings in this series the Twins are as tough an opponent as the Rays. Royce Lewis only played 1/3 of the Twins 2023 games, but will likely play 100% of their playoff innings.

Same thing happened with Seattle last year. People didn't look at the value of the players who would play the 18-27 innings, but instead just looked at the teams total 2023 performance

 

I think on the surface we see a team (Twins) with 87 wins in a weaker division and we automatically think we're better. I think that's a fair assessement because the had like 25 wins this season against the A's, Royals and Whitesox combined. But as you wrote, look a little below the surface and see how many games they played without their A lineup they maybe better than their record indicates with two stud pitchers to beat anyone in a three game series.

[glory]

People wanted the Twins because they are not as good as the Rays. They could still sweep the Jays here and it wouldn’t be all that surprising but I don’t think it’s under estimating the opponent as much as wanting to face the inferior team. Jays offense is just ass cheeks so it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.

[Stangstag]

0-5 for the Vladdy/Bo era. 0-3 for Schneider.

 

Im almost wondering if we ever win a playoff game with Bo/Vlad. Maybe they just don’t have it. Maybe they aren’t the cornerstone franchise type players we thought they would be.

[Stangstag]

Minnesota Only got like 3 runners to scoring position the whole game. 0-4 with RISP

 

Wins.

 

Casuals will still argue “we need to play better small ball” and “everyone is trying to hit a homerun”

[Omar]

Im almost wondering if we ever win a playoff game with Bo/Vlad. Maybe they just don’t have it. Maybe they aren’t the cornerstone franchise type players we thought they would be.

 

Bo went two for four with a run scored and an out at home plate. Not bad.

[Stangstag]

If Chapman hits that ball a couple feet further then we win. If Bo doesn't screw up that bases loaded play then the outlook changes completely for the rest of the game. Don't know why we didn't challenge for blocking the plate. Lots of bad luck in this game but we were never out of it. We have a great chance to get back into this tomorrow.

 

If if if, bad luck, yadayada. Been the same story all f***ing year. This team just crumbles under pressure time and time again.

[Stangstag]

I don't know how I can make this more clear. Gausman made the same pitches in the same locations that he has all season, with better velocity than we usually see. He made one mistake to Royce Lewis and has made that kind of mistake in every start.

 

Whatever Twins know or planned for, depending on your perspective, Gausman was still good. It's unfortunate how things turned out, but this exact pitching led to a Cy calibre season. Give credit to the other team's coaching/scouting.

 

Yep. To be honest he was very lucky it was only 3 runs because he looked like dogshit today again the Twins hitters. Even though he wasn’t actually tossing terribly. Could have located the fastball better, but that’s hard to do when the other team is hammering it whenever you throw one in the zone.

 

Gausman NEVER throws the splitter for strikes and always gets whiffs. The Twins didn’t start actually swinging at Splitters until he started throwing the higher for strikes. That is NOT normal for him.

[Stangstag]

.277 xba for the jays

.206 xba for the twins

 

Chapman doesn't skip chest day last week and we would've won the game

 

xba is a flawed stat because it doesn’t take left/right direction into account. Jays have a major problem hitting everything to CF

[Omar]

Did Jamie Campbell play ball? No he didn't & yet you don't seem to take exception to him being on the broadcast. How about you go f*** yourself you misogynist prick.

 

Jamie Campbell is the host, that is why he is on the broadcast. Like Dan Shulman is the pbp guy. Buck and Joe Siddall are former players who bring their major league experience to the broadcast and offer the on field perspective of a player. If she is on as a journalist, I'm okay with that. It's just when she gives the perspective of someone who played the "game", well that I can't abide. Playing softball is not in any way akin to playing mlb. If that makes me a misogynist, so be it. I didn't think anyone would react as emotionally as you have. If your feelings are hurt, find a safe space and tell yourself it will all be okay when the bad man goes away.

[Stangstag]

Keep laughing, we lost...lol Sometimes small ball is what a team needs to get them going, move runners, score a run, create momentum, you can't always try and hit one out.

 

Respectfully, you’re completely wrong. Homers win games

[Stangstag]

Not sure what is going on there. They are hitting less homeruns this year than last but also losing batting average. Like Vlad, Kirk, Chapman and Varsho have all lost some power but also lost some batting average, so whatever the problem is it is knocking both their slugging and their average. So if they try to hit even less homeruns is that even going to help? Less homeruns does not equal more batting average, at least for this team. They are just somehow behind in whatever the latest trends in hitting mechanics, sign stealing (pitch com hacking?), finding 'tells', or amphetamine use is...

 

Trying to hit oppo more, losing power in the process and creating more flyball outs. Every hitter ever in history has more power to their pull side.

[James Key]

Man the more I think about it while watching replays, I dislike vladdys self control. Sure he hits a lead off double. But that display of emotion just fires up the pitcher who looked way more pumped as he got out of the jam. Like your hit was meaningless in the end. Save your emotions for when it’s an obvious momentum swinging play. Like when you score or you take a lead.

 

I think his gesturing as vociferously as he did had the inverse impact on the pitched. Instead of firing his team up he out a chip in the shoulder of the pitcher who ultimately showed he was a bigger bull dog than any of the weak follow up hitters.

 

Sigh I’m just really disappointed in vladdy not being clutch, not being a better leader and being a brain dead base runner . I know he’s 24 but someone needs to take him aside and get him to reflect on his body language at times.

 

My vent two cents.

[Terminator]

Man the more I think about it while watching replays, I dislike vladdys self control. Sure he hits a lead off double. But that display of emotion just fires up the pitcher who looked way more pumped as he got out of the jam. Like your hit was meaningless in the end. Save your emotions for when it’s an obvious momentum swinging play. Like when you score or you take a lead.

 

I think his gesturing as vociferously as he did had the inverse impact on the pitched. Instead of firing his team up he out a chip in the shoulder of the pitcher who ultimately showed he was a bigger bull dog than any of the weak follow up hitters.

 

Sigh I’m just really disappointed in vladdy not being clutch, not being a better leader and being a brain dead base runner . I know he’s 24 but someone needs to take him aside and get him to reflect on his body language at times.

 

My vent two cents.

 

So Vlad smokes a leadoff double in the 8th inning of a tight playoff game and you are upset he got a little fired up over it? Lol you cannot be serious

[Spanky99]

I feel that. Me and my son moping around and trying to convince ourselves tomorrow will be different.

 

Same...

[Stangstag]

At the very least, this was a very close and competitive game. Much more exciting to watch than the Castillo/Mariners game 1 last year.

[Spanky99]

This day f***ing suxxx... just saying.