Orgfiller

Joe Buck doesn't know how many strikes there are, nice.

Dylan Floro just threw a pitch RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE and it was called a ball? What in the actual f*** did I just witness??

Jesus Christ Josh Hader.

Damn, respect to the OG.

I actually do agree that pitching Hader here is likely a bad use of your assets. Soria is good and they're leading by 4 with no one on base, why not let him finish the inning unless he gets into trouble?

Since when can 34 year old Joakim Soria throw 95? What the f***?

Dodgers fans are chanting "we want Austin", that's cold.

Grandal is having a brutal series.

Lol Yelich.

Corey Knebel is so nasty.

Lol Erik Kratz and Orlando Arcia come through again in the playoffs. Unpopular opinion: Walker Buehler probably shouldn't have stayed in the game this long.

Yeah that was lazy on my part, I was about to leave work and didn't want to take the time to compose a PM.

It was a bad pitch but I think Grandal has to do a lot more there, that seemed like a pitch that you should be able to keep within reasonable distance from you.

I think King would argue that it's being talked about too much.

But my point is the elite guys who are spammed game after game are at least as valuable/talented as the starting pitchers (the mediocre ones), the others are just regular relievers who are there simply for matchups and they sometimes pitch in regular days following the starter anyways. I don't think the league will ever value a one batter/inning guy over a similarly talented multi-inning one, and certainly not if they can go for 5+ innings. In the Oakland game, Hendriks was supposed to go 2 innings followed by Trivino for probably 2-3 more if he was effective, and after that it's basically as if a starter had gone the same distance. Those two combined on a regular day are definitely at least as talented as Mike Fiers, and individually they probably are as well, the latter holds some value in a long regular season but not a short and intense postseason. I'd argue the league is moving away from putting pitchers in less favourable matchups, such as making a non-elite starter go through the lineup a third+ time, or starting them against the top part of the lineup. And I think this is an awesome strategy, and in no way is favouring your random fireballers who don't know where the ball is going or LOOGYs over capable starting pitcher. None of these scrap heaps guys are sticking around for very long, and they won't be replacing legitimate effective multi-inning guys. I don't think any team is spamming guys who throw 99 for the sake of it for only an inning each. Guys like Josh James and Woodruff are only in the bullpen temporarily because they're not polished enough (arguably) to make high leverage postseason starts yet and can provide incredible value in short spurts. You'll likely see them in the rotation next year unless they become 3-4 inning elite guys which the analytics might value more.

I don't agree with wanting to have less talented players take the field. The fact that these guys can throw 99 and have enough command to succeed in the majors, which really isn't as common as you're making it out to be, is incredible and they absolutely deserve to be playing over guys that aren't as good but can go more innings. The A's didn't go to Mike Fiers for the Wild Card game because he's pretty bad, whereas their elite relievers gave them a much better chance to win a game against a superior opponent. Their best starting pitcher was injured and outside Trevor Cahill who didn't even pitch that much the rest of their starters are awful. Did you really want to see the Yankees tee off for like 8 runs off of a bad Mike Fiers and have the game be over in 3 innings? How is that any fun or entertaining for the average baseball fan without a stake in that game? I think you're vastly overestimating how common guys like Blake Treinen and Lou Trivino are around the league, and again even these guys can't pitch every day. Bullpen games have become a necessity because the starting pitching is s*** and doesn't give you a better chance to win important games, but nonetheless having guys who can pitch effectively for 5-7 innings is still of huge value. No one is taking Diego Castillo, Ryne Stanek and Jose Alvarado (who is excellent btw) over Blake Snell, the guy who can do at least 90% of what all of those combined can for the same amount of innings or more will be picked 11/10 by every front office.

I mean you could say the same thing about a traditionally elite pitching staff like the Astros', it still isn't likely to stop a good offense on most nights. Plus it's not like every team has Burnes, Woodruff and Hader types and even they won't be able to pitch for more than two days in a row. For example, in the Rays' case the "opener" was simply used as a matchup thing for the first 1-2 innings before the more traditional starter would take over and pitch 4-7 innings after that. No team is pitching their whole relief corps day in and day out because no one is meant to pitch that often, injuries would become even more frequent and they would quickly become ineffective.

To each their own but I completely disagree. IMO it's much more fun watching Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Josh Hader combine to dominate for 8 innings than watching Wade Miley junkball through 6 innings. The Verlanders and Sales of the world are still gonna be around, but we'll get a lot less of mediocre starters pitching in the game's highest stage and barely above average ones getting predictably hit around a third time around.

Interested in Laureano. Can you send me a PM for what you're looking for him?

What the f*** Maldonado? This is literally all that you're here for.

Lindor bro.

Jesus Christ f*** this stadium so much.

This garbage ballpark just took out Marwin Gonzalez.

Poor David Price. That was destroyed.