Laika

Seems like a massive experiment at this point in the season. Biggio is REALLY struggling with the stick in AAA. He might not be right or healthy.

Someone spin it up. Just run a really quick draft, change the rules or something so we fly through it.

Yeah I get that. Could say the same about a few other guys currently in the game. Bryce is on track but needs to stay healthy and productive for several more seasons. Machado needs to either plug along like this until he is 36 or he needs to have a bit of a career revival and pump out some more 6 win seasons.

Updated WC race tracking sheet Yankees turning it on against weak competition. The SEA-OAK four game set that is one series out could all but eliminate one of them from contention. If you look at Oakland's slate as a whole, they kind of had to destroy Texas and the Royals and they choked. I am looking forward to cheering for Cleveland against NY and the Mets against Boston. Toronto succeeds at getting past one of their two TB speed bumps.

Machado has a lot more work to do if he wants in the hall.

Soria has decent enough FIP, xFIP, and xERA numbers. His ERA is a bit inflated. He is definitely lower on the totem pole and should not be a high leverage guy but he won't be in the playoffs unless Charlie wants to actually get fired. We'll see. Yesterday was a big lead. It was fine to use him. Dude gave up a two run bomb and it was still a comfy win. The pen is basically: Closer - Romano Reliables - Mayza, Cimber, Richards Unreliables with promise - Pearson, Merryweather, Borucki Unreliable with veteran savvy - Soria Long man - Stripling There are definitely certain situations where you would prefer Soria to any of "unreliables with promise". Borucki has lost the zone and Merryweather/Pearson have so little experience this year, any of the three are more liable than Soria to like, walk the bases loaded or f*** up so bad that it leads to a monstrous inning. Soria might give up some hits but to me he seems more likely to do the basic thing correctly (throw strikes, make the other team earn it). If the reliables are not available who to go to in a 6-1 or 7-1 game? I see the case for Soria there. If the reliables are not available and you need someone to come in with men on and get huge strikeouts, that should be the time to roll the dice on Merryweather or Pearson. The wrong time to use Soria is when you need to get out of a tight spot. IMO.

Whatever the reason is, Toronto should be ahead of them because Toronto has the h2h tiebreaker. So if they both finished in a two-way tie for the top WC spot, Toronto would get homefield advantage.

Austin Hays!!!!!

play in game

why not? 87 pitches is a light workout

As frustrating as parts of this season have been, at least we don't have to watch Michael Wacha pitch.

Being patient isn't always good. When a pitcher is pounding the zone you just fall behind. I don't think the Jays' process yesterday was that bad. Specific players may have had bad plate appearances though.

Yeah these are my thoughts too. The only thing that may be interesting or insightful in that tweet thread is the part about them attacking Vlad with fastballs. But I don't think that matters, the guy can and does smoke everything.

https://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-batted-ball-direction-and-baseball-savants-xstats/ Yes, the fact that xBA and xSTATS do not properly adjust for flyball hit direction is a known problem. BUT one thing not captured in the analysis so far is "non-event risk" i.e. the risk of wasting a good or great swing on a foul ball. Extreme pull hitters will have higher non-event risk and waste more good swings. Guys like Vlad have lower non-event risk and therefore put more good swings in play. This is common sense visible through everyone's favourite statistic, batting average - just think about or look at your favourite extreme pull hitters and where their batting averages typically end up. They hit for more HR power because of wall distance but they hit for lower BA because of non-event risk.

Yeah that's a big part. Good defenders, perfect positioning.

And some of it was bad luck. Hit some balls hard with runners on, right into gloves.

yes

Valera is twice the hitter McGuire is. Not pinch hitting for Reese was awful. The lefty righty thing totally does not matter because the talent gap between Kirk and Reese offensively is like, literally .100 wOBA points

Is Kirk REALLY not pinch hitting? holy f*** this is a bad one

It might be less than ideal. He struggled, by his standards. 108 pitches in five innings.

It was Cole vs a random Orioles spot starter. That one was like a 90% win prob for the Yankees.

Man Charlie Montoyo sure knows how to kill a streak. What was he thinking sitting the red hot Grichuk for Dickerson?

These aren't the same thing, lol. So you'd abandon a platoon the first time one of the players has a big game or two? Seems f***ing stupid

Because he hasn't been a starter. He hasn't been hot all month - he's been fine in a part time role for most of the month and happens to have a bunch of hits in the last few games.

They aren't in that tough. It's Jose Berrios vs a guy who has mostly been a reliever. Rasmussen is due to get hit around. Dickerson and McGuire will both destroy him. Charlie is MOY.