I was out with people last night after the game and the first thing I said was ‘I’m not talking about baseball’.
I still don’t want to.
I do think Gibby has it right:
Hard to explain games like todays so dont even try.nobody feels it like the players do themselves. Remember the pride and entertainment they brought you all summer long They’ll be good for years to come #BlueJays
— John Gibbons (@johngibbons05) October 9, 2022
Not surprising, but he is smarter than all of us.
Yesterday’s Umpire Scorecard. Honestly, it is about as good as you could hope, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want robo-umps. It is normal, the misses were on pitches on the outside corner of the plate (except for one rather glaring one).
Would the game have turned out differently with robo-umps? Oh, different sure, better who knows?
I think the team that figures out how to best work the umpire’s strike zone is the one that will win. I always felt that that was what Greg Maddux did better than anyone back in the day. He would see he could get a strike an inch off the plate, and then would push it to an inch and a half. By the end of the game, he’d be getting strikes 6 inches off the plate.
Just random thoughts, none that really mean much:
- I turned on the TV late last night and Jays in 30 was on. I couldn’t imagine why they would want to show that. I couldn’t change the channel quickly enough.
- I read people saying ‘a wasted season’. That’s a mindset I totally reject. Baseball is entertainment and the season gave us a ton of entertainment. It isn’t only the destination, it is the journey as well. I lived through 1985, 1987 and 1989 (plus several even worse seasons). I’m sure that if the 1985 team played the 1992 or 1993 team 50 times they would win most of them. That the seasons didn’t end the way we would have liked doesn’t mean it was a waste.
- I’m reading on Twitter that the loss was Bo’s fault, because ‘he wanted to be the star’. Ummm no he wanted to make the catch. I wanted him to make the catch. I wanted someone to make the catch. Bo gets hate for everything on Twitter and I don’t understand. The best is people not liking his face. I mean I would like it if they moved him to second base, but that's up to the team. Making up character flaws is strange.
- Mistakes were made. one that seemed minor at the time. When Merrifield came out, we would have been better off putting Bradley in center and moving the other guys around. With a big lead, the better glove would have been handy, but then at the time we were up by a bunch and there likely wasn’t too much thought about it.
- Romano got 4 strikeouts in 1.2 innings but the one he didn’t get cost us. He had a rougher year than his first two, with six blown saves. But he still had a 86% save percentage (one point better than Tom Henke’s career number (85%).
- A lot was made of Yimi Garcia only getting 8 pitches, but they were hoping to save him a few bullets for tomorrow. It made sense at the time.
- And, of course, Anthony Bass had been terrific for us. He had only given up more than one earned run once all season (two, back on May 27th, the only game all season where he gave up more than one run). He gave up a single run in just 3 of 14 games in September. It is easy to understand why they felt safe going to him. He held batters to a .201/.258/.311 line this year. There are few relievers who had a better year, just had a bad outing at the wrong time.
Beyond all that, I love all the takes that the Jays could have easily gotten Luis Castillo. If someone can tell me that the Jays have players for the Red wanted, then I’ll listen. Until then, save it.
Sometimes other teams just match up better.
Tom Cheek passed away 17 years ago. I know it is a sign of my age, but it doesn’t seem that long ago.
In MLB news, Aroldis Chapman won’t be on the Yankees’ playoff roster. Apparently, he missed a team workout and the team has decided that domestic violence is fine, but missing a workout is a bridge too far.
As much as I’d like to, at the moment, the site isn’t going to go dark. We’ll be looking back at the season and, of course, talking about any news that might come up. But I might take a day or two to wallow.
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