Exciting finish to last night’s NL Wild Card game. The Nationals were dead in the water but Brewers’ manager Craig Counsel decided to summon his inner Goose Gossage and get 2 innings out of his closer. Now it’s true that this guy had closed a few times during the year for 2+ innings, but he was overly amped and missing badly. If the Nationals hadn’t gone ahead that inning, he would have likely thrown over 50 pitches in total for a 2nd inning. SU says good for the Nats who have a long history of failure in the post-season.
SU is a little nervous about the Twins’ series for the Yankees. The crack research team has been running thousands of scenarios through our state-of-the-art analytics system using AI. I know all about the history of beating Minnesota in the post-season but this year’s Twins’ team feels a bit different. Both teams slug and the Yankees will need to score a lot to win. The loss of Tauchman and Hicks means an almost totally right-handed line up. And there are just so many strikeouts up and down the line up. This will not be a cake walk. SU says Yankees in 4 but some nervous moments along the way.
Earlier in the season, SU felt it was necessary to get to the World Series to say this season was a success but I revised my thinking to just getting to the ALCS and play Houston. This is a bad match-up for the Yankees. Too many hard throwing, right-handed starters. Losing German is a problem. Getting Stanton back is a problem. But playing a long, competitive series would be great to see. Losing in 6 feels like the outcome there and SU can live with that.
In the NL, the Dodgers are due. An LA – Houston World Series would pit the 2 best teams against each other. That would be entertaining. SU sees the Astros ultimately prevailing in 6 games.
Of course, I am all in on the Yankees. Keys to watch for:
- Boone rested the relievers a lot in September. That is either a good thing or guys like Chapman and Britton will be wild. SU is a little worried about that.
- Encarnacion is still not 100%. Prediction here is that the Yankees will not put him on the roster for the ALDS but will for the ALCS.
- Voit should sit. Put Ford on the roster for another left-handed bat.
- Great to have CC on the roster but not looking for him to pitch. Let him root a lot instead.
- While he has also been slumping, SU feels Didi will have a big post-season. He is also a free agent and will want to make a statement. Also look for Gleyber to come up big.
- Paxton needs to be 100% for game 1. They cannot afford to go to to the bullpen early. Happ is the long guy but the Twins are heavily right-handed and Happ gives up a ton of dingers. Not a good fit there. The Yankees don’t have a true long man reliever right now and that is a problem if you have to burn the relievers in game 1.
OK. As always, SU opens up the Comments section for your predictions. This is your chance to become famous and qualify for the drawing for the SU logoed backpack for being right. Have at it.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
The Twins pitchers are not formidable. We will have our share of home runs and singles too. Unlike SU I feel Stanton has something to prove. he looked quite good in the short time he was back. I’d put Marbyn in left and have Stanton DH. That brings in a lefty bat and some speed. 3 lefties in the lineup isn’t horrible.There are no weaknesses in our batting order. The Yanks pitching rotation will be Tanaka then Paxton followed by Severino in Minny. I expect a sweep but as you stated there will be plenty of runs scored by us and a fair amount by the Twins. If we get 5 innings out of our Starters that will be enough for our bullpen to carry the rest of the load.
Waited all year for this. So prediction is we beat Minny in 5, beat Houston in 7 and beat LA in 6. Be bold or be gone.
Yanks in 4-ALDS
Yanks in 6- ALCS
Yanks in 6- WS
I don’t believe in the moral victory approach. You never know when you’re going to be back and there’s nothing that should be taken for granted. Look at the Red Sox who marched out pretty much the same team two years in a row with very different results. Every playoff team has the same goal and it’s to win the World Series.
There are obvious concerns for the Yankees but every team has concerns. They have gotten incredible contributions from every corner of the roster and Boone has done a great job finding the hot players among the healthy ones all season. Every player, from Sanchez to Urshella to Voigt has played a key role at different times while looking entirely useless at others. Now it’s a matter of finding who will contribute in a short series.