So, it looks like Cleveland will be starting Bauer tonight on 3 days rest. SU finds this interesting. Bauer is a really quirky dude. He has a very unique warm-up regimen and has a reputation of being very much into his routine. SU says you have to wonder if this is a good move. True, he has been red hot the 2nd half of the season and dominated the Yankees in game 1. However, he also had an umpire who was giving him the high strike call on his curve ball all night. If he starts getting squeezed tonight playing in Yankee Stadium with the crowd, you wonder how this goes?
True, they have Corey Kluber waiting in the wings at home for game 5 on normal rest so maybe it’s not that big a deal. You have to figure that having just seen Bauer on Thursday, the Yankee hitters will make the adjustment to at least be a little more competitive.
Question: can the Yankees score not via the home run? It’s been a problem all season. I continue to see it as a problem when Judge and Sanchez are hitting back-to-back and there is a runner on 2nd or 3rd and no one out. So many times they fail to get him in and it’s a killer. Happened again last night.
SU fave, Greg Bird, came through big time last night. Of course, FOX was unable to tell us how far that home run traveled. They are too busy providing random statistics about “the last time a Yankee did this in the post-season was in 2012.” But Bird is the man and that was a massive blast in the upper deck.
SU checked out the FOX post-game show. A-Rod is surprisingly good – candid, humorous and insightful. Will he be the next Yankee manager? SU says he would be a much better choice than Mattingly and would certainly make things entertaining next season. Girardi is getting killed but long-time fans will note that he is masterful at handling the relievers compared to Joe Torre who prematurely ended the careers of Tanyon Sturtze and Scott Proctor by over-using them. Girardi made it sound like he just might opt out and move on. No doubt Derek Jeter is watching and would snatch him up for Florida.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Girardi completely blew Game 2 but I’m not sure why people want to run him out of town. I’ve never been his biggest fan but this was one game after he shepherded a bunch of question marks into the playoffs this year. It would not make sense to hand this team to someone else right now. Does he make a lot of pitching changes? Yes. But Francona made more yesterday and he’s supposed to be a genius. Does he sometimes overextend a reliever in the playoffs? Yes. But that seems to be the trend. In last year’s World Series you seemed to have fatigued relievers pitching multiple innings every game.
Back to Game 2, I cannot understand not challenging the HBP. The potential difference in outcomes was just too great to not challenge. Loading the bases vs. being out of the inning is a gamble you take every time. Plus you have the catcher of the future there calling for the replay. Girardi needed to call for the replay (having the next reliever warm up during the review) and however it went, he needed to say that he trusted his catcher and after looking at it again, still thinks his catcher was right. His only excuse would be that he couldn’t hear Sanchez and thought Sanchez was saying the batter was hit. (There had been earlier miscommunication between the two as Girardi wanted Sanchez to go to the mound and he seemed confused.)
Speaking of the Sanchez: his defense is pretty terrible. Girardi and Pena were both great defensive catchers and watching Sanchez drop pitch after pitch has to drive them nuts. This happens even during warmups. This even happens with fastballs down the middle and it was absolutely brutal to watch in Game 1 when you had Gray and Garcia throwing pitch after pitch in the dirt. I’m worried that this will become an issue at some point in the series.
The inability to play small ball was upsetting yesterday with the two double plays. The worst was Gardner up with Hicks on first and nobody out. At that point they hadn’t reached 2nd base yet. You have to move that runner. When the Yankees of the late 90s got the leadoff runner on, they managed to score. It was a different team and a different time and they didn’t have the sabermetrics. But there’s something about the playoffs and the pressure that gets lost in the stats. The stats say you don’t want to give up an out to move a runner. I get that. But the playoffs put huge pressure on the pitcher and defense. When you bunt the runner to second (assuming you have players who can do this reliably) you are not only adding to that pressure,
Does Todd Frazier get another start? Forget the offense, he’s having trouble in the field.
The problem with national broadcasts is you get no commentary expressing an understanding of the team and lots of information like “only the 2nd Indian to reach base on consecutive playoff games since last year.” It’s worthless and a shame because both teams have regular announcers who could add so much more.
One more thing about replay. MLB does it better than anybody in terms of speed and accuracy. I didn’t think I would like it but I find it pretty satisfying. I don’t want to draw it out longer than necessary but it’s crazy to make the team decide so quickly while depending on the broadcast to show the replay. The guy in FS1’s control booth should not be the gatekeeper of the information to get calls on the field correct. We know what the TV producers are good at: they’re good at telling us how many players have been hit by a pitch in Game 2 of a Division Series since 2013 but they may not be good at giving a manager the information he needs to request a review in the allotted time. If you’re going to make the manager decide quickly, you should give each team access to all the video feeds with full control to review the angles of their choosing.
Joe should solve the Judge/Sanchez back to back righty issue by inserting Didi or Bird into 3 hole between Judge and Sanchez. In that way we go lefty, righty whole lineup–Gardner-L, Judge-R, Bird-L, Sanchez-R, Didi-L, Starlin-R, Hicks-S, Frazier-R, Hedley or Elsbury- S or L
Bob, I think that’s a good idea. Especially as Bird makes better contact and is likely a bit more clutch than Castro these days. Given that Cleveland has many more right handed pitchers, it makes sense.
I think the Yankees should fire Girardi and hire Francona
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162 games is more than enough for any rookie who gets 400-500 AT BATS plus who knows how many in the Minors to progress to a point where you get a feel on who they are and what they are capable of doing. Toss in the KARMA of a team, the coaches and the pure desire to want to do well and here we are. THE NEW, NEW YORK YANKEES. Oh, I forgot to toss in seeing a pitcher more than once. The more times you see him the advantage starts to swing toward the hitter.
Game 5 obviously leans toward the home team, especially with their ACE on the mound. Probably similar to what happened to Severino in the Wild Card and what you saw last night will probably happen on Wednesday but besides Headley, who has not hit a lick in the playoffs our team is solid from top to bottom. If we go against a righty then start Ellsbury. If we go against a lefty then maybe consider Holiday…. maybe.
Yes, you may now genuinely say that we have overachieved for this year…. but does anyone smell magic in the air? Is Cleveland beginning to get antsy enough to try too hard? CC is probably pitching one of the 2 or 3 most important games in his life. He knows it. Everyone knows it.
If we win it will be by a run. If the opposite happens then what are New York fans going to do until March… unless you are a Jets fan…. ha ha.