Dodgers Win, and Will Kevin Cash Ever Live THIS down?

Right off the bat, CONGRATULATIONS to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2020 World Series Champions.

Also, CONGRATULATIONS to Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw, one of the top two or three pitchers of his generation, but whose struggles over the  years in post-season play have been well documented, for shedding that particular monkey off of his back by going 2-0 in this World Series.  He can now call himself a World Series Champion.

And finally, CONGRATULATIONS to Major League Baseball and Commissioner Rob Manfred for pulling off a Major League season, albeit an abbreviated one, an expanded Playoff format, and being able to stage a World Series in this oh-so-weird year of 2020.  Back in June, and as late as early July, I would have bet you a month's mortgage payment that we would never see Major League Baseball in 2020, but they somehow managed to pull it off.

Now, as to the Series itself, and as to the question posed in the headline above, this one is going to be forever remembered as the one where Rays manager Kevin Cash, followed the dictates of the computer nerd data geeks of the Rays front office, and yanked a cruising Blake Snell with a 1-0 lead with one out in the sixth inning of Game Six, an elimination game for his team.  To recount for the record, Snell had been cruising through 5 and 1/3 innings: 73 pitches, 1 hit, no runs, 9 strike outs, including six K's of the Dodgers top three in the order (Mookie Betts, Corey Saeger, and Justin Turner), and only two balls hit out of the infield.  The second batter in the inning hits a soft single, and out pops Cash from the dugout, following the Rays' analytics algorithms, and removes Snell (a former Cy Young Award winner, it should also be noted).  Will Rays' fans (an oxymoron?) ever forget this scene?  I know sure as Hell that Blake Snell and his teammates never will....

What followed was as inevitable as it was predictable....a Betts double, a wild pitch to tie the game, a fielder's choice RBI by Saeger that allowed Betts to score from third that gave LA a 2-1 lead and, essentially, ended the World Series. The last nine outs by Tampa Bay were a mere formality.

What followed also was an interesting conversation by announcers Joe Buck and John Smotlz.  Smoltz made the case that managing by pure analytics over the course of a 162 game season is okay, and probably smart over the long grind of a normal baseball season, but in a short condensed series, which is what post-season baseball is all about, you simply CANNOT be a slave to the numbers, percentages, and probabilities.  You have to judge by seeing what your players are doing right NOW, right in front of you in the moment.  Buck said that managers now seem to be looking for every reason to take a guy OUT of a game, rather than seeing the reasons why a guy should stay IN a game.  They all but called Cash a complete dumb-shit for doing what he did, which he was, and it may very well have cost the Rays the opportunity to be playing in a Game Seven tonight.

Here's how Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga described in in his column this morning:

This is the part of modern baseball that just, frankly, stinks. It is built on analysis and probability, and there’s nothing wrong with that — until it strips the human beings playing and running the game of the ability to make decisions based on what they feel, what they see. Any casual fan could see what Snell was working with, a pinpoint fastball and an absolute hammer of a curve. The Dodgers were befuddled.

FYI, here is the complete Svrluga column.  It's good reading:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/10/28/blake-snell-kevin-cash-world-series/

So, once again, congratulations to the Dodgers for winning, to the Rays for  winning the American League Pennant and making it an interesting Series, and to MLB for giving us a season in 2020.

Oh, and one final note: huge negative props for that Dodgers owner, whoever he is, for coming on stage to accept the World Series and reading a prepared speech that went about as long as campaign speech from the 45th President and was just about as irritating to sit through.  Nobody wants to hear from the Suits on occasions like this, pal.

Congratulations, Astros!

Earlier this morning, at 12:27 AM to be precise, I, The Grandstander, went LIVE!! on Facebook (channelling my inner Antonio Brown) to give my immediate thoughts on the Astros 5-1 Game 7 win last night.  You can find it on my Facebook timeline if you missed it and if you are interested.  Having done that, let me just give some final thoughts on the 2017 World Series and MLB Post-Season.

• It was a terrific Series.  Certainly one of the best and most exciting ones in my lifetime.  The Astros victory was well deserved and well earned.
• I was rooting for the Astros in the Series for many reasons, but one reason that I am glad it happened was that it will assure that that crazy and memorable Game 5 extra innings win will remain in memory as perhaps the best and most exciting baseball games ever.  Certainly in the Top Three to Five of such contests.  Ad the Astros lost the Series, it would soon have receded to just an interesting footnote in baseball history.
• For the most part, the Series included spectacular flame outs by the bullpens of both teams, and Houston manager AJ Hinch seemed to lose confidence in most if not all of his relievers.  But you manage a bullpen differently in a Game 7, and Hinch's use of season long relievers early, and starter Charlie Morton late in the game last night worked to perfection.
• Speaking of Hinch, throughout this entire post season, which included two Games Seven, Hinch at all times seemed to be the calmest man in the ball park, and Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts wasn't far behind him.  I can only imagine how many packs of cigarettes Jim Leyland would have gone through in just that fifth game, let alone the entire Series.
• And speaking of Charlie Morton, beginning in that Game Seven against the Yankees in the ALCS, and that four inning relief job in Game Seven of the WS, I found myself  rooting for him and being unbelievably, inexplicably happy for him.

• In seven seasons with the Pirates, Morton went 41-62 with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.427 WHIP.  While he showed signs at times of being a good pitcher, he was a general disappointment, and there was no hue and cry of disappointment when he was traded after the 2015 season to Philadelphia (for David Whitehead, and whatever happened to him?).  However, he always came across as a good guy, and he ran into hard luck (nine trips to the DL over the years), and I confess to being completely unaware to his resurgence with the Astros this season (14-7, 3.62).  When I saw him start Game 7 against the Yankees, I just wanted him to win, and seeing him go four innings and being on the mound to get the 27th out last night, well, it just felt good.  I can't explain it.
• Speaking of relief pitchers and Dave Roberts, I wonder how many people in LA are asking, "Why didn't Clayton Kershaw start Game Seven?"  I know that hindsight is 20/20, but when you saw what Kershaw did in relief last night, and when you know there was no "next game" until next April, and if this guy is supposed to be the "next Koufax", well, it's a question that has to be asked.
• And on the subject of ex-Pirates, it needs to be noted that Tony Watson was the winning pitcher in two of the Dodgers three wins.  And Francisco Liriano also pitched in Game Seven for the winning Astros.
• Jose Altuve is a great player, no question about it, but the ballplayer with whom I was most impressed throughout this Post Season was Astros outfielder George Springer.

• We all know what he did in the Series: five home runs, and every one of them seemed to be critical ones.  He also impressed me as a fabulous outfielder, and, yes, he did make one bad mistake in judgment in that fifth game out there in center field, but, man, do I wish he played for the Pirates.  The Series MVP is my newest baseball Mancrush.
• The television coverage of the WS by Fox was great, and, yes, I am including Joe Buck in that evaluation, despite the fact that at one point he made the serious grammatical error when he said "between the three of them..."  Color analyst John Smoltz was positively terrific,  maybe the best there is right now, and I can even forgive him for reminding us on more that one occasion that during his career he was called upon to start in three different Games Seven.  If I had something like that on my resume, I'd drop it onto the conversation as often as I could.

I will end his post by stealing from pal Joe Risacher an observation that he made on Facebook late last night.  One could - could -  say that in 2015, after winning 98 games, the Pirates and the Astros were in the same relative positions, baseball-wise. After that season, the Pirates elected to, if not blow up, then certainly not build upon that season's success.  The Astros continued to build and when the opportunity came two seasons later to really "go for it", the Astros did, spent money (the Justin Verlander deal being the most obvious example, but there were others), and today they are World Series Champions.  The Pirates are coming off of back-to-back losing seasons.  Too simplistic a comparison?  Perhaps, but it is hard not to draw some very bad conclusions if you are a Bucco fan.

It was a really bad year for the City of Houston, Texas.  I am glad that they now have the chance to celebrate their baseball team.

Andrew Miller and What Might Have Been

There is little doubt that perhaps the most outstanding performer in MLB's 2016 post-season has been Cleveland Indians pitcher Andrew Miller.  I seemed to remember Miller's name being bandied about at the time he was coming out of the University of North Carolina and coming into the MLB Entry Draft.  He was projected to be a high draft pick at the time that the Pirates, due to many seasons of ineptitude, had a very high draft pick.  So, when Miller came into the game last night, I went to the Google Machine to do a little research.

The year was 2006.  With the first pick in that draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Luke Hochevar, not a Hall of Famer, to be sure, but not a bad ballplayer, either. With the third pick, the Rays selected a future All-Star Evan Longoria.  Great pick.  It wasn't until the sixth pick that the Tigers selected Andrew Miller.  Miller has bounced around with five teams before landing with the Indians this season, and while his career may not have warranted, in hindsight, that overall number six pick, he sure has been worth his weight in gold to Cleveland in October, 2016, hasn't he?

So what else happened in that 2016 draft? It's always fun to use 20/20 hindsight in these stories. Right after Miller went, the Dodgers selected a high school pitcher named Clayton Kershaw.  Three picks later at number ten, the Giants selected Tim Lincecum out of the University of Washington, and at number eleven, the Diamondbacks selected Max Scherzer from the University of Missouri.  That's a lot of Cy Young Awards right there in that draft.

The Pirates? Well, they had the overall number four pick that year, and used it on a pitcher: Brad Lincoln from the University of Houston.  So, with Kershaw, Lincecum, Scherzer, and Miller still on the table, the McClatchey-Littlefield brain trust selected Brad Lincoln.  Lincoln pitched for parts of five seasons in the Bigs, compiling a record of 9-11, 4.74 (7-9, 4.62 with the Pirates), and he has been out of baseball since 2014.

I realize that such backward looks aren't always fair, and that similar stories can be told for every team in the Majors, but it is yet one more additional reason why being a Pirates fan can sometimes just drive you plain crazy.

Unrelated Topics - Baseball, Football, and Basketball

A quick shuffle through the Mental In-Box.....

• The announcement that Clayton Kershaw signed a seven year, $215 million dollar deal with the Dodgers was stunning to me, although perhaps it should not have been.  The team has signed a local TV deal that, according to some reports, is larger than the deal that the Yankees have, and an ownership group that thinks nothing of spending tons and tons of money. Few things in sports are as fragile as a pitcher's arm, so for their sake, here's hoping Kershaw doesn't encounter Kerry Wood- or Mark Prior-like arm miseries.

• The signing tells me one thing that is relevant for Pirates fans:  Let us enjoy and treasure Gerrit Cole for these next five years before free agency is granted to him.  If he develops they way we hope he can and if the going rate for such pitchers is now thirty million a year, well, he most likely will not retire as a Bucco.
• How about Alex Rodriguez with his 162 game suspension, saying that he still plans on showing up for Spring Training with the Yankees?  Can you imagine what a circus THAT will be?    
• As exciting as the NFL playoff games during Wild Card weekend were, the ones this past weekend were pretty lackluster.  The one significant take-away that I took from Round 2 was a giant WOW for the performance that the New England Patriots put on in handing the Indy Colts' heads to them.
• Back on September 5, I made the following statement in my Steelers preview post:  As for the Super Bowl, how about the Broncos to defeat the 49'ers in a New Jersey blizzard on February 2.  And it is still possible that that could happen!!!  To be honest, I'd have given long odds back then that that prediction would still be alive going into Championship Weekend. Not sure if the blizzard is still a possibility, though.
• I'm sure you all probably saw the comments made by Art Rooney II in his traditional post-season interview with the Pittsburgh media last week.  I can't take too much issue with most of what he said except for the comment that the Steelers "should have been in the playoffs".  Presumably he was talking about the missed calls by officials in that final game between Kansas City and San Diego.  Also presumably, he had forgotten about that 0-4 start to the season.
• Great exchange between Kornheiser and Wilbon on PTI on Tuesday:
• Tony: And what would the ACC be like right now without Syracuse and Pitt?
• Wilbon: It sure ain't your grandaddy's ACC this year.
• Remember all the talk among basketball know-it-alls saying what a tough time Pitt, Syracuse, and Notre Dame would have adjusting to the ACC?  A quarter of the way into the schedule, it sure looks like they all had that statement backwards.
• Listening to Pitt basketball games on the radio remains high comedy.  The game against NC State a few weeks ago is a prime example.  When Pitt fell behind 17-2 at the beginning, the pissing and moaning of Hillgrove and Groat was classic, and when the Panthers turned it around in the second half to win by 15, said pissing and moaning turned into unbelievable smugness and gloating.
• On the topic of college basketball, I watched the entire game between #1 ranked Arizona and UCLA last week.  It was a terrific game, won by Arizona despite a late charge by the Bruins, and was made all the more enjoyable, to me anyway, because of the color commentary provided by Bill Walton, who has an incredible ability to talk endlessly about almost anything.  As entertaining as he was last week, I get the feeling that if I was subjected to him more than two or three games a season, he would drive me to the point where I would want to throw a shoe at my television.