Pfaadt DOES have better stuff than Kelly and decent command.
He was a dominant MiLB starter at times.
He could conceivably shut down the Brewers for 5 or 6 innings.
Pretty much. There might be exceptions for true ACE pitchers.
Saying that, Zac Gallen is pretty close to a capital A Ace. Him on short rest might be > Pfaadt / bullpen.
The lawyer double-speak is so obvious to me. She settled the lawsuit at a loss in some way, shape or form. Maybe she had a form of insurance and agreed to pay money to some organization Trevor Bauer picked. I dunno. But she lost, hahaha.
WC round loss = total failure
competitive ALDS loss = disappointing
uncompetitive ALDS loss = big flop
ALCS loss = golf claps
WS loss = crying golf claps, proud of the effort boys
WS win = I'll drive to Spanky's house and hug him
They won 89 games are in exactly the same position they would have been in had they won 100 games.
IT'S A NEW SEASON TOMORROW.
CLICKING ON ALL CYLINDERS TOMORROW.
Now, shutting them down is only half the battle....
But Toronto - Minnesota is a fair matchup.
And Toronto has a puncher's chance against every other team in the playoffs.
Playoff baseball is almost always just a coinflip.
The Minnesota team has some injuries and they are very strikeout prone on offense. I think they can be pitched to and the Toronto pitchers have a decent chance of shutting them down.
I do not believe you pay extra
Toronto plays Minnesota in about 29 hours. It's a short round one series, best of 3. So it could be over in 2 games.
The winner moves on to a best of 5 series. The "American League Divisional Series".
The winner of THAT moves on to a best of 7. The "American League Championship Series"
The winner of THAT moves on to the WORLD SERIES which is the final finals.
I agree that he was an option and I am sure the front office thought about it long and hard.
The argument to not use him is twofold:
1. His development is prioritized by letting him continue to start in the AFL. He will get more innings this way. He can start as part of a regular routine and work on things. He really did have a nearly lost season with multiple nagging injuries...
2. The MLB bullpen is deep so the need for him is not GLARING.
Of course with his MiLB K rate and FIP you can certainly argue that he would be a massive upgrade on someone in the pen. There is merit to that. You can also argue that he would get a unique kind of experience/development by being in the MLB bullpen. But on the performance side, with his fringe command right now there is a chance he is actually not a shutdown MLB reliever at this moment in time.