Orgfiller

He's under contract until end of 2028 because Preller gave him a 6 year deal entering his age 36 season. I'm sure he would consider retiring from the MLB otherwise.

You don't say lol. Without Schwarber's eye which Varsho clearly doesn't have, a more realistic peak expectation is some version of prime Javy Baez/2025 first half PCA, without as much chase.

I honestly think if Varsho was forced to only throw left handed for the rest of his career that he'd still be one of the premier defenders in the sport. His range is otherworldly, in large part because he gets elite jumps consistently and often takes the best possible routes. We've seen his elite defensive instincts provide benefit even with a noodle arm e.g. in the playoffs in that long Leo Rivas single off the wall. As long as the shoulder doesn't affect his hitting, he remains relatively healthy, and his legs don't dramatically decline, he'll be one of the best outfield defenders in the sport for a few more years to come, and a valuable 3+ WAR piece. He's shown this season that the power is indeed legit, but I don't know how much I can buy that he's better than a ~105-110 wRC+ bat over a full season, in a good year. There's a lot of swing and miss and not great plate discipline tendencies. I hope he continues his all or nothing approach though. He's shown that the power can really play at this level even with a less than ideal general approach at the plate, and when he locks in on a pitch location he can do damage.

That's a crazy factoid, wonder if there's a big difference between daytime Dodger Stadium vs nighttime. All 3 games will be starting at 5 pm PST, so the weather effects will be somewhere in between for the early portion of the games and then regular nighttime effect (if any) for the later innings.

Muñoz was on the ropes. The boys earned the s*** out of it tonight. Even the Mariners with a horseshoe up their ass the whole game couldn’t beat the team of destiny.

As far as I'm concerned, they need to treat Miller as the ace of the staff. Jays hitting has demolished elite starting pitching these playoffs. Miller was pretty good as recently as last season, so it's not like this injury plagued year is a fully accurate assessment of his quality. They gotta treat him as if they're facing Gilbert, Kirby, Fried, Rodon, etc.

The funny part is this wasn’t even him at his best. The slider command was nonexistent, but to his credit he threw a good splitter to Raleigh. Otherwise he was really spotting his fastball.

What an inning for Hoffman.

What a f***ing swing. Superstar swing.

Ump f***ed us and then a bloop hit, can’t blame anyone there. Great, smart throw from Barger and Naylor with the brain dead out on the bases.

Max f***ing Scherzer turning back the clock one more time in the playoffs with the Toronto Blue Jays. What a time to be alive.

Huge mistake leaving Speier in against Springer. John Schneider running laps around Dan Wilson.

The short answer to it might just be that's it's a difficult pitch to execute? Tunneling approach as a pitcher would obviously tell you to do that, and I'm sure pitchers are trying. But with a sinker, you're running the risk that it comes back into the heart of the plate as a very hittable pitch, and a hitter like Vlad is pretty adept and taking an outside fastball and sending it the other way for a hit. It's kind of like how backdoor breaking balls are usually a decent pitch, but if you miss with it it's either an noncompetitive ball or a hanging pitch. Maybe pitchers just don't have the confidence to execute those kinds of pitches, consistently.

Heineman had a big year, but offensively there was a lot of luck under the hood. Only a .277 xwOBA and a .342 BABIP did a lot of the carrying to his numbers. Aside from taking over Kirk if a crucial pinch running situation necessitates it, he shouldn't see the field outside a blowout game.

No chance Heineman should start, even if I wanted to believe the ERA splits by catcher - I don't, Max sucked at the end of the season and obviously Kirk was out there often. Kirk is a big bat for us, and an even better defensive catcher. Scherzer is gonna need every close pitch near the corners to go his way and Kirk is the best guy for the job.

Honestly fine with running back last night's lineup, but if we wanted to do it to stack the favourable matchups then probably either Barger - Santander - Varsho or Varsho - Santander - Barger makes the most sense. Putting Varsho and Barger back to back could work if you just think Davis Schneider will eventually pinch hit for Barger once a lefty comes in.

Would be a travesty for Kirk and Ernie to miss out. Gimenez's lost time to injury will hurt him I feel, hopefully not of course.

What did you know

All-timer game. Seattle it is.

That was an absolute seed. I’d be mad at Robles that he wouldn’t just get the JP Crawford AB over with. No chance that man was doing anything there.

I love Flaherty talking up a storm to himself. Pitchers are such psychos.

lol what, they’re bringing the starter on with a man in scoring position? Why even start the inning with Bazardo if Castillo was always in play.

MLB/the broadcasters don’t care, they won’t schedule any game for the Seattle fans. No game is starting later than 8 pm ET.

They’re leaving Bazardo out to die and I’m not sure I agree with this call. He’s looked good but nearly 40 pitches across multiple innings now.

Dingler could run into one, but let’s be honest here. Oh wow he did do something.