On to the next round for the Yankees. SU had predicted the Yankees in 4 games so I will take the sweep of course. SU also notes that the prediction that Glayber Torres would come up big was naturally right on target. Never doubt your friends at SU.
Now comes the hard part. Yankee fans are hoping either that the Rays win the series with the Astros or at a minimum, push it to 5 games so that Cole needs to pitch game 5 back in Houston. That will screw up their rotation for the ALCS.
A few observations on the Twins’ series:
- SU is not happy with Boone’s over-managing of the relievers. I had no problem with when he took out the starters but with Betances on the IL, they are short one quality reliever, and they really don’t have a long guy. You cannot just have Ottavino pitch to one batter. In both games 1 and 3, they were really stuck with having to cover the last 2 innings one pitcher short.
- SU also believes that using all of your relievers every game gets the opposing hitters more familiar with the pitchers from game to game. Not ideal.
- You had to laugh at John Smoltz’s commentary on Gary Sanchez that he could hit higher than .232. Really?? And how might that happen? Oh wait, I have it. HIT TO THE OPPOSITE FIELD. When FOX showed some of the shifts against Sanchez with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs, it was a joke. No one on the right side of the infield. Other than Mark Texeira, no one thinks beating balls into the shift is a good idea. The Yankees could get away with it against the Twins but in the next rounds against much better pitching, situational hitting is huge. Sanchez hit to the opposite field in his rookie season. Somehow he needs to regain that mindset. Very frustrating to SU.
- And then of course there is Giancarlo Stanton. The announcers rave about his ability to not swing at the slider down and away. For $30 million a year, this is what you talk about? And did you watch him stumbling around in left field last night? Terrifying. SU says play Maybin. He is better both defensively and offensively. They never will. But at least move him down in the line up. It’s October: check your ego at the door. In the 5th slot, he protects no one in the order. Put him 8th and hope for the occasional meaningless home run.
- Didi needs to move up in the order. He is a very good post-season player. The Yankees need to re-sign him. He is a key left-handed bat and is tailor made for Yankee Stadium. Rumor is they will move Gleyber to short and LeMahieu to 2nd. No, no, no.
The National League series are both great. There will be nervous fans in LA tomorrow night.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
I’d much rather face the Astros or Rays after a 5 game series but I’m not buying the idea that a longer series screws up the Astros rotation. A strong rotation is a strong rotation because it has several great starters and that’s the case here. It doesn’t really matter which order you face these guys in. The only real advantage would be if there’s a game 5 that is close and the Astros use starters out of the bullpen. That would screw up the rotation.
DJ, Didi and Gleyber are some of Cashman’s best acquistions. His job now is to figure out a way to keep them all (plus Judge) around for the foreseeable future. And a key step in making this happen is undoing one of his worst acquisitions: Stanton. I’m not sure how this gets done but it should be the #1 priority for the off-season.
And one other thing. The Twins had a great record but they played in a terrible division. The Twins were 32-37 vs. teams with .500+ records. The Indians were 25-39. And these are the “best” teams from that division.
it is very tough to comment on how Boone has used his relievers against Minny. 4, 2 and 1 runs is all they scored. Knowing there will be at the very least a day off if they got to Game 5 or as is the case at least 2-3 days off now.
Besides Glabor and Judge and Lemaihue no one is more valuable than the steady, team type leader, solid fielder, solid batter and a lefty hitter than Didi. He is also a class guy. He is not going anywhere…though at 30 years old I’m sure he is looking for a big payday.
There is no doubt that next year we will break the bank but the Yanks can afford it.
Lastly, last night’s game was a capsule of the feeling that this is just our year. Getting out of a bases loaded jam with no outs, making at least 3 unbelievable plays in the field, timely hitting by Gardner with 2 outs, having Gardner be a productive batter in the 3 hole, coming up with big pitches in the 9th with 2 men on and no outs….and the list goes on. Despite how good Houston and the Dodgers are with all the injuries we had and the lost of who was our best wins and loss pitcher to domestic violence we still had the ability to win 103 games and sweep a team with dominance against a team that had 100 wins.
And now with Houston’s loss in Game 3 gives us a chance to regroup we will be ready for the next chapter.
PS Torrez is better than last year. Sanchez’s defense has improved dramatically, Severino, despite 4 tough innings is better this year in the playoffs, the added players all contributing and toss in LeMahiue…. wow
Alex Cora was a genius last year for using his pitchers in ways that he didn’t during the regular season- this year they had significant injuries to Sale, Price and Eovaldi, among others, and didn’t even make the playoffs- agree that Gardner and Didi should switch positions in the order- also hope that they can work in a start for Romine in the next round
Good point on how Washington is using starters in the playoffs. I think Cora killed his pitchers and they paid the price. Maybe it’s worth it to win a World Series but I think long term you are really hurting the pitchers.
The Yankees record reflects the contact hitting of Romine, Tauchman, Maybin. Sanchez had a hot streak here and there but Romine is a real contributor. If they play Houston, they need to put the ball in play.
I just come here for the Stanton commentary. Always comedy gold.
Dodgers thought the game was over after the first inning. There was no reason that Kershaw should have been pitching in that game unless they had run out of pitchers after multiple extra innings. Terrible game management by Dave Roberts. Braves game was just completely awful and although the babblers in Atlanta want to pin that series on Snitker, I don’t think it was necessarily his fault.