Lance McCullers of the Houston Astros is starting against Yu Darvish of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Seven of the World Series. That’s an all-star matchup, but it’s the last game of the year, the managers won’t hold back with bringing in their bullpen. It’s more likely that, unless either pitcher is tossing a perfect game, that by the fifth inning, the matchup will be Dallas Keuchel versus Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw said, “I can go 27 innings. Whatever they need.” Clearly, he’s willing to follow in the footsteps of former Dodger and MVP of the 1988 World Series, Orel Hershiser, and sacrifice his arm for a ring. Darvish got rocked by the Houston bats in Game Three and didn’t finish the second inning, while McCullers led his team into the sixth inning before leaving. Granted, McCullers gave up three runs, Darvish allowed four, but as I said in the title, “Starting pitching will make no difference in Game Seven.” Why won’t it make a difference? Well, A.J. Hinch and Dave Roberts are smart managers, they understand that they have no possibility of playing another game after tonight, so they understand that they can throw literally every reliever they have in the game and take out the starting pitcher as early as they need. If George Springer and Alex Bregman hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the ballgame, Roberts will probably call to the bullpen and have Kershaw or Alex Wood start warming up their arms. If Chris Taylor starts a three-run first inning with Yasiel Puig on deck behind Cody Bellinger, Hinch is going to get Keuchel and Justin Verlander up and stretching. These managers have every starter and reliever at their disposal tonight because as far as this season goes, there’s really no tomorrow. If history tells us anything, Darvish will not be productive and McCullers will be able to go at least six innings. Considering that LA has a much, much better bullpen, the ‘Stros have to make sure that McCullers can go as long as they need, and Keuchel is ready to take the hill. Game Seven is just like the All-Star Game in how managers manage it: just put everybody in when one guy starts to get tired. Jesse A. Cook “Starting Pitching Will Make No Difference In Game Seven” November 1, 2017
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With Justin Verlander starting on the mound, tonight, the Houston Astros should win the World Series. It’s Game Six in Los Angeles and the Astros starter is undefeated in his new uniform. A former Detroit Tiger, Verlander has not lost a game since heading to Southeastern Texas.
After his walk-off single to win Game Five and take a three games to two lead in the series Sunday night, Houston third baseman Alex Bregman excitedly said, “We've got Justin Verlander going for us in two days.” He means that they will undoubtedly win the series tonight because they have the best pitcher of the postseason on the hill. Verlander is facing the Dodgers’ Rich Hill who threw nine innings of a perfect game before giving up a walk-off home run to the Pittsburgh Pirates Josh Harrison to start the tenth inning in the latter half of the season. Hill recorded a no decision in every one of his playoff starts, including the Astros 7-6 Game Two victory. Verlander leads the postseason in wins, as he is 4-0, he has the only shutout and only complete game, and he only gave up three runs in his Game Two win. While the ‘Stros will be cautious about using their bullpen tonight, if Verlander shows the slightest signs of slowing down, A.J. Hinch will without a doubt take him out, but that’s not likely to happen. Hill, in Game Two, while he only gave up one run, Dave Roberts took him out of the game after only four innings! The Trolley Dodgers have a great pen, but after six of their pitchers in Sunday’s loss, they’re stretched a little thin, even after a day of rest. Tonight’s matchup will showcase a seasoned veteran who has proven that he is more than well suited to pitch long innings against a manager who is scared to keep his starter in the game past the fifth inning (when most Dodgers fans leave the ballpark anyway) with a tired bullpen. Dave Roberts has to be confident that Hill can go to the sixth inning, at least! Now say, Houston does not take the series tonight, it’s fair to say that Game Six will be a struggle. Both teams will probably go digging into their pens, a part of the team that LA is much better in, but Houston will go there later, use less relievers, and leave Lance McCullers, another long-innings pitcher, to pitch against a faltering Yu Darvish and an exhausted Dodger bullpen. As for tonight’s starting pitcher’s comparison, Verlander has 29 strikeouts, Hill has only 19, Verlander has 2.05 Earned Run Average, Hill has it at 2.77, Verlander has four wins, Hill has zero, and Verlander’s average of Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched is 0.88, while Hill’s is 1.23. Granted, Verlander has pitched 30.2 innings to Hill’s 13, awarding him more time to strike out more batters, all that means is that Verlander has had longer to allow more runs and more hits, thusly proving that Hinch’s starter has consistently performed much better than Roberts’ this postseason. While the stats point to Houston’s favor, as well as their momentum, coming off of a huge, hard-fought victory, it’s Halloween and Game Six. All baseball fans know that crazy things happen in Game Six and all people know crazy things happen on Halloween. Happy Halloween and wonderful World Series watching! Jesse A. Cook “Why Houston Should Take The Series” October 31, 2017 Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are shocking all of baseball with the insane numbers they’re putting up. The two rookies haven’t even played half the season, yet, but they’re the top two home run hitters in baseball!
Currently, my guess for the coming Home Run Derby looks as if the participants will be Giancarlo Stanton (he’s already confirmed that he’ll try to defend his title), Joey Votto, Scott Schebler, Mike Moustakas, Logan Morrison, Joey Gallo, and, somehow, Bellinger and Judge! The two lead their respective leagues and soon it won’t even be any close. The New York Yankees star rookie right fielder has been absolutely tearing up the Major League level. The Yankees have hit a small slump, but Judge cannot be to blame. Since the month of June began, Judge has hit nine homers, batted .341, had 32 hits, and 22 RBIs. The Los Angeles Dodgers star rookie left fielder has not been “out in left field.” He has been a major factor in the Dodger’s 18-5 month of June and their current ten game winning streak, having had four two home run games just in this month! Since the month began, Bellinger has hit thirteen home runs, has batted .307, had 27 hits, and 26 RBIs. On the year, apart from them being on separate teams, this race is not unlike 1961’s home run race between Yankees’ center fielder Mickey Mantle and Yankees’ right fielder Roger Maris. It looked an awful lot like one, if not both of the Bronx outfielders would break former Yankees’ right fielder Babe Ruth’s single season home run record of 60 bombs. Unfortunately, while Maris broke the record, finishing at 61, and left an injured Mantle at 54, the MLB Commissioner, Ford Frick, decided to put an asterisk next to the new record because Maris did it in 162 games, while Ruth only had 154. The only difference is that Judge has played 71 of the Yankees 73 games and Bellinger has only played 57 of the Dodgers 77 games. In 71 games, Judge has hit 26 home runs, yet in 57 games Bellinger has hit 24. That means that while Judge only averages about .366 homers a game, Bellinger averages about .421 homers a game. With those averages, assuming neither player gets injured or hits a slump, Bellinger will soon surge past Judge and into an unbeatable first place. LA has the best win percentage in the National League, second in all of baseball only to the Houston Astros, and the Yankees’ losing streak of late has allowed their rival Boston Red Sox back into the American League East picture, as they are now tied for first. It seems like this race is going to not only come out with Bellinger beating Judge, but LA absolutely crushing the NL and NY being overwhelmed by the AL. Now, we don’t know who every participant in Miami’s coming Home Run Derby will be, but we do have the general inkling that it will most likely end up as a Judge-Bellinger final bout. By the way the season has gone, so far, we do also have the general inkling that the home run race will come to a similar Judge vs. Bellinger result. Keeping in mind that no rookie has ever hit 50 homers (Mark McGwire hit 49 in his 1987 rookie year), we wish happy homers to all, especially to the two battling interleague rookies. Jesse A. Cook “The Rookie Home Run Race” June 26, 2017 Éric Gagné, who retired nine years ago, is trying to make a return with Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic…
I’ll just let that sit for a moment. For those of you who don’t know, Gagné played 10 years in the Majors with the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, but mainly with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 2003 Cy Young Award winner and three-time all-star is attempting to make a return to professional baseball. Gagné is with the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona, as an instructor, however, he has been throwing in the bullpen to warm up for the WBC. He has recently been clocked at 93-95 miles per hour. Could “Gagné” mean “gagner” (French for “to win”) for Team Canada? He held a strong 3.77 ERA, struck out 718 batters, and only gave up 76 home runs during his 10 year career, but can he survive with similar status until possibly March 22? He struck out six and allowed one run on two hits and no walks in five innings with the Ottawa Champions, but that’s a very small amount of time with a sub-minor league level team. While the former Trolley-Dodger has expressed how amazing he feels, currently, one can also compare him to the many minor league prospects and veterans attempting a comeback throughout the ages who felt the same way, but were never heard from again. He’s now putting himself in a select group of ballplayers who had careers and tried to be a star on one final team, yet he’s most likely going to end up in the far more select group who had mediocre careers and still persisted at making a return even though the game rejected them multiple times prior. He may end up being remembered alongside Jimmy Rollins and Bret Saberhagen; players who went from honorable mentions in a team’s success to being a comedic side note in a feeble, lesser, and different team’s ventures. These feel good, end of a career, one-day contract stories are fondly remembered and reminisced about at the end of the season, yet Gagné and Canada’s chance gagner (again, French for “to win”) will surely merely come to be a simple flavor of the month. Vont-Canada gagne? Je ne sais pas, mais ce n’est pas. Jesse A. Cook February 28, 2017 “Canada Va ‘Gagné’” |
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