MLB 2014 season thread

For whatever it's worth, Puig being out of the lineup hasn't affected the betting odds much at all. Dodgers are still about -155 and the Cards +145.

 

Gio Gonzalez goes tonight for the Nationals. Gonzalez is a lefty and the Giants have a lots of lefty hitters (Blanco, Panik, Belt, Crawford, Ishikawa). Sandoval is a switch hitter but is a very poor right handed hitter (.200/.245/.321 in 2014).

Gregor Blanco has been useless in this series (1 for 14, 1 for 18 in the postseason so far). Even though Bochy doesn't like playing rookies, do you believe he should take the chance and put in Gary Brown since he's a righty?

 

That's kind of the Dodgers' problem. Kershaw, Greinke, ect. will take you to the seventh most nights, and you've got Jansen for the ninth, but in between? Brian Wilson??

 

Ha. Gary Brown. Good one.

Blanco is playing a spectacular center field. He always does. My guess is he bats seventh or eighth and they hope he gets a couple of PAs against the bullpen.

Crawford hits great against lefties. He hit .320 vs. lefties and .213 vs. righties this season. Panik is even better -- .373 vs. LHP and .274 vs. RHP.

They will for sure flip-flop Pence and Sandoval as they always do against a lefty. Their other standard move (don't know if they'll do it tonight) is to put Posey at first and get Susac behind the plate with his right-handed bat and decent power, which has the added benefit of giving them Belt off the bench for some pop.

I would probably roll the dice with Panik at the top of the order. If Brown fits in anywhere, it would be in left in Ishikawa's place, but I doubt it. He just isn't a major league hitter. This is where they really miss Morse, though.

 

Okay, so I made an assumption and assumed incorrectly. Can you blame me given our history?

I still don't understand the Fister trade. The Tigers really couldn't fudge $7.5 million for 2014? The way they spend? Seems kinda like when the Yankees were going to stay under $189 million....until times got tough enough for them to not stay under.

The Tigers needed the bullpen help. The problem is they made very bad choices when it came time to make those additions.

Regarding the Pirates, I think it is a bit early to call them annual contenders and I bailed on them after the '92 season. Everybody knew what was coming when they let the best player in the National League (Bonds) and one of the best pitchers (Drabek) go for nothing. We didn't realize it would last 20 years, but we knew it would be a long time before they recovered from the dismantling of that team. Given the way they had been selling off talent even before that offseason, I'd had enough of a team that clearly wasn't trying.

I wouldn't say it is easier than ever for low revenue franchises to compete, but it is easier than it has been in many years. The system still heavily favors the high-revenue franchises, but there have been small improvements.

And regarding Ike Davis, I agree that Alvarez was the bigger disappointment. I was just talking about players the Pirates added while losing all three significant free agents from 2013. Davis was supposed to be their answer to the gaping hole at first base. So much for that idea.

 

Good one what? Brown can't be any worse than Blanco.

No, Blanco will bat lead off as usual. And he's been useless on offense in this postseason so far.

I'm not worried about Panik since he has great bat control.

One idea floating around is to star Susac at catcher, Posey at first, and Belt in LF. But I seriously doubt Bochy will do this.

And Blanco is not a major league hitter either. He's a back up outfielder for a reason, he can't hit. He gets exposed bt really good pitching. At least Brown can hit righties. But it doesn't matter because Blanco will start and hit leadoff tonight.

 

That it was. That's a Bochy move. To soothe myself, I will note that he is yet another Giants curiosity, a left-handed hitter who has much better numbers this year against lefties (.296 vs. .243). And shoot, for that matter, so is Belt! (.266 vs. .233) In other words, all four left-handed batters in the lineup tonight hit lefties better than righties, at least this season.

What I can't agree with is the solution in left field:

Blanco cf
Panik 2b
Posey c
Pence rf
Sandoval 3b
Belt 1b
Crawford ss
Perez lf
Vogelsong rhp

But I think that's for one or two ABs and then they sub a bat in there if/when needed.

 

That was an awesome double play.

 

I was wrong about Kershaw tonight. But Miller is dealing too.

0-0 2 outs bottom-5.

 

They just missed the first batter of the top of the 6th, but acted like nothing happened.

I don't know, maybe it was just my local cable system, as the announcer were mid conversation about the last at bat of the previous inning when they came back on.

 

Late here, too. FS1 has been late coming back a number of times this series.