MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Who's fellating them? They were just fun as hell to watch in a sport that has becomed deliriously boring (case in point, Game 1 of the NLCS). Much more fun than teams that sandwich a couple home runs around 17 strikeouts. Spending two hours watching almost nothing happen is what soccer is for.

And you don't win a series with home runs. You win it with pitching. Which is what the Yankees did and the Indians didn't do well enough. Literally every home run NY hit in the series came on a dick-high mistake. A young pitching staff is prone to that. The Yankees pitchers made very few mistakes.

The Yankees got two strong outings from Cole and another today from Nestor on three days' rest while Bieber was vanquished (because they're trying to protect his arm so they can trade him, which I expect to happen this offseason). They had Cleveland hitters chasing shitty pitches for five games. That's something the Guardians hadn't done all year. Ramirez, Rosario and Gimenez looked lost.

 

Found some film of the Rays’ stay:

 

As Junkie alludes to, I'm super interested to see how fast the Guardians trade Bieber. I guess youneverknow what a guy is thinking, but it's not a great look when a Cy Young winner nearing the big money years doesn't take the ball on three days rest in a winner-take-all game. Impending free agent CC Sabathia pitched on three days rest a bunch for the Brewers down the stretch in '08 (which, admittedly, may as well be 1,400 years ago instead of 14 years ago) and fellow (and much older) impending free agent Max Scherzer closed out the NLDS for the Dodgers last year. They could not have done any worse even with Bieber only giving them 60 pitches, a la Cortes. Getting them to the third or fourth sets them up pretty nicely.

 

Or they continue to go the bargain route and flip him now. They built a core that can get them into the playoffs. Now let's see if they will make the sort of financial commitment needed to take the next step.

 

How much of that is finances driving team decisions?

 

Yes, the billionaire Dolan family needs to hold a bake sale to make payroll! Poor Dolans! Can't afford to keep their players! #Memories #ButImRight

 

Finances? Cleveland isn't even the largest city in Ohio.

 

Pretty sure Bieber hasn’t pitched on three days rest in his MLB life. Maybe he wasn’t the best choice yesterday, but Civale sure wasn’t.

And Bieber will be traded if they don’t come to a long-term deal. It’s the Cleveland way. They do have him under team control through 2025, so they don’t lose him for awhile yet. But they could get a boatload for him.

 

Bob Nutting can afford a $200 million payroll if he wanted, too, but he won't do it. Teams in those markets would have to lose money if they wanted to match payrolls with the higher-revenue franchises. That is the disparity that continues to affect the product on the field.

The result is those franchises go the other way. They don't even try to match up. At least the Guardians are doing enough to be competitive, which puts them above a disgrace like the Pirates. Hell, they don't even put their revenue-sharing money back into the major-league roster. Part of that is the higher-revenue teams enjoy their built-in advantage and don't want to give it up. The low-revenue franchises are still making money, so they're fine. Then they blame the fans, citing lack of attendance, when those fans know baseball decisions are being made due to money rather than what is best for the team, including Bieber not being available for Game 5. I wouldn't show up for a team that does that, either.

 

Of course, a guy from a big market is going to choose to believe that was a baseball decision, not a financial one.