metafour

Varland has pitched seemingly every game for a month now. Always the first guy out of the bullpen. All of these batters have seen him. I don't understand why you wouldn't use a fresh reliever who hasn't been seen yet. There's no way that worn-out Varland is better than someone like fresh Fischer.

No man, Bassitt is categorized as a "long man" and therefore you can NOT use him in the 8th/9th innings. Because he is a long man, you are only allowed to use him from innings ~3 to 6. This is in the MLB rule-book.

He is talking out of his ass. 1) He has used Varland in like every game all postseason. So apparently he doesn't mind how many looks he's giving up there. 2) If you want to make sure Seattle isn't getting repeated looks on your closer, maybe don't pitch him the night before in a game that you are winning by 6 runs? And that's the whole lunacy of it all. In a low-leverage situation he throws out his closer, and then in the highest leverage situation of the entire series a day later he throws out his most volatile reliever while simultaneously flipping Raleigh and Polanco to their stronger sides at the plate.

What chicken-s*** logic. They needed to get 6 outs to win and they brought in their most volatile and COLDEST reliever to face the opponent's best hitters. There is zero defense of this. Don't tell me that someone else could have also blown it so it doesn't matter anyway. As the Manager, all you can do is play your best players in the correct matchups when they need to be played. There is no scenario where Brendan Little was the correct choice. Like I posted earlier: they could have NOT used Hoffman last night in a 6-run blowout and instead brought him into the 8th inning tonight against the heart of the lineup which is what any Manager with a brain would do. You can then use Dominguez or Fisher in the 9th inning against Seattle's lesser hitters, or have Hoffman pitch as long as he can if he is shoving (which incidentally, he did last night). Just so you guys are aware: Hoffman has surrendered just 1 HR and 2 runs since August 31st. He has NOT been bad lately. And he is quite clearly much better than Little. This isn't even a decision.

This guy is either brain-dead, or trolling. Apparently you are not allowed to use your "closer" in any inning but the 9th. Apparently you can't use Lauer or Bassitt because they are "long men", so I assume their arms would fall off if they only pitched one inning? Apparently Bassitt has never seen a high-leverage situation. Its not like he hasn't been a successful starter for like ~7 seasons now, and therefore has obviously pithed tons of high-pressure innings. I'm fairly certain that he has pitched into the 8th inning before, by the way.

Jeff Hoffman has given up 2 runs in his last ~14 outings. He tore through the top of Seattle's lineup just last night. Here is a big-brained idea: don't use him in a 6 run blowout yesterday which was low leverage, and then you can correctly use him in the 8th inning tonight in a 1-run game.

So in a 1-run game, the only way to blow it is if you give up a HR? There is no other possible way for the opposing team to score on a pitcher who was running a ~6.00 ERA in his last 21 appearances?

You are too stupid to speak with seriously. wHo wAs goInG tO cLose? The 8th inning there was the most high leverage situation of the game. THAT IS WHERE YOU USE YOUR CLOSER. You figure out the 9th inning when you get there. What you DONT do is throw in a trash-can who hasn't thrown a strike in 3 straight months to face Seattle's best hitters. Little literally looked like he was going to cry before he even threw a single pitch. He also blew Game 1 in case you forgot. He is rattled and has been rattled all playoffs.

You go with your best available pitcher. Which is NOT Brendan Little and hasn't been for 2+ straight months now. Are you guys being serious? Every detail about that decision was atrocious: 1) Little has been empirically terrible recently. 2) Right handed hitters have been crushing Little recently. 3) Bringing him in flipped two switch-hitters to the to bat righty, both of whom are BETTER hitters as righties. So not only has Little been terrible against RHB as of late, but you also got the more dangerous versions of both Raleigh and Polanco.

What a load of crap. Little can not throw strikes. He has not been effective for several months now, because hitters have realized that they don't need to swing. His walk rate is astronomical. Who gives a s*** if he doesn't give up HR's? If he comes in and walks the bases you are still surrendering the run. In case you missed it, he walked the next two guys after giving up the HR. A guy who walks 7+ batters per 9 can NOT be a high leverage reliever. This is Little League baseball knowledge.

There is no analytics which suggest putting Little in there in that moment. None.

I mean, he was always a guy with a very extreme batted-ball profile (typically leading to low BABIP and low BA's) and higher strikeouts, and now his power has evaporated post PED suspension. That obviously isn't a good sign, as it definitely suggests that his one true tool (power) was inflated by PED's. He also has no defensive value. Unless he can somehow completely retool his swing/hitting profile, I don't see him as much of a prospect at this point.

Oh no, we've been exposed and we suck again! Mastert*rder was right all along! These dudes are grasping at straws at this point LMAO. Any other brilliant predictions, tips?

Its about the monetary value of the player himself. Clase is a reliever from a dirt-poor country. You think the MLB and the broadcasting companies (ESPN, etc.) make any money from the Dominican Republic, lol? Ohtani is a golden cow who's likeness rakes in god knows how many millions. There is a report that the Dodgers have already made ~$120M in one year off of new sponsorships in Japan. Another report claimed that the "Ohtani effect" boosted the team's value by ~23%, to $7.73 billion. If anyone thinks that ~30 billionaires (the MLB team owners) plus the billionaires that run the various broadcasting companies don't have enough combined might to tell the FBI to go away, then I'm not sure what world you think you're living in. Nobody gives a s*** about Emmanuel Clase. We've actually already seen this before back when Michael Jordan was allegedly gambling and "retired" before coming back. You think the NBA was going to punish him LMAO?

Ok, it looks like the Juan Sanchez hype train has officially started. BA is going to move him up to #7 on the Jays list: