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The last twenty comments in true blog fasion, with the links to their authors and the player commented upon.
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Just before midnight he throws three perfect pitches.
Just read it. Joe Pos is right, but... Kershaw did have it last night. He cruised through the sixth on nine pitches. I would have sent him out to start the seventh. If he mows them down -- great, you've saved your bullpen. (The Dodgers had one day off before this series, the Rays two: big difference.) If any batter gets on, you go to your pen with one runner on and an 8-1 lead.
Matt Moore is having a solid year in Japan. He has kept the walks down and thus far he has only allowed five homers in 60 IP. Might we see a return to MLB in 2021? https://npb.jp/bis/eng/players/83785151.html
Happy to but need a better link.
Alex - you need to read Joe Pos on Kershaw ... Posnanski: How can we make sense of Clayton Kershaw’s postseason woes? (link fixed, oops, sorry 'bout that)
I doubt the Rays were amused by the foot bumps but I was.
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Yesterday's Top Performers
Batters:
Mookie Betts* (LAD): 2-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 R, 2 SB
Kevin Kiermaier* (TBR): 2-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 R
Max Muncy* (LAD): 2-4, 2 RBI, 2 R
Cody Bellinger* (LAD): 1-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 R
Chris Taylor (LAD): 2-3, 1 RBI
Justin Turner (LAD): 1-4, 1 R
* - pictured above
I would have had him pitch one more inning, he was that efficient.
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Yesterday's Top Performers
Pitchers:
Clayton Kershaw* (LAD): 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 71 GmSc
Joe Kelly (LAD): 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 54 GmSc
* - pictured above
Ozuna is about to get rich. Leads the NL in HRs -- pace was 48 homers, 720 PAs.
This factoid from Jonathan Mayo at MLB:
A total of 16 of the projected 28-man World Series roster came to the Rays via trade/Rule 5 and they had more trade acquisitions on their roster than any of the four teams that were in the League Championship Series this season.
Are any of the other three even close?
Fox proudly tells us Game 7 on Sunday night outdrew every game of the NBA finals. Obviously, great news for baseball.
10.2 million viewers is impressive.
How does that compare to the Sunday night football game that I went to between innings?
Here's Wander. I assume, if he's on the 40-man, he's still working out in Port Charlotte.
A page for Wander Franco? He might debut ... tonight? :-) ... no ... but wouldn't that have been fun!
Colin Whitchurch at BP:
Outlook And Prediction
Oftentimes a matchup billed as a pitchers’ duel doesn’t live up to the hype, but Game 1 should be the real deal. Neither Kershaw nor Tyler Glasnow were their sharpest their last time out, but the former’s ability to work on the edges of the zone will make it difficult for the Rays to get to him early, and Glasnow still employs the best swing-and-miss stuff in the game. This one will get into the late innings with the score both low and tight, and the Rays’ bullpen advantage will help them take the opener.
Robert Arthur at BP:
The gun always lights up in October—that’s been a rule of postseason baseball since the PitchF/X era began—but this year’s playoffs have been special... Not only is the average fastball velocity far and away the highest on record, but the gap between the regular season and the tournament is also the biggest in the last 12 years...
There are all sorts of reasons velocity might have increased so much this postseason, from the shorter regular season to the particular teams that made the tournament (though which teams are playing is partially a product of the arms they fielded). Some strange patterns unfolded with fastball speeds this season, despite it normally being a remarkably stable statistic. For example, older hurlers seemed to defy their normal aging curves and toss extra quickly. Clearly, the pandemic-modified year had some unusual effects on pitchers’ arms.
But the pitchers generating this velocity are familiar names. Dustin May leads the pack, averaging almost 3 mph more on his fastball than anyone else. Tyler Glasnow and Walker Buehler are up there, alongside (of course) Aroldis Chapman. The sauce comes from all the teams, albeit some more than others—the Dodgers lead the way. Between May, Buehler, and Brusdar Graterol, they have plenty of arms capable of touching the centennial mark.
Overwhelming pitch velocity also contributes to (but does not fully explain) some of the eye-popping exit speeds we’ve seen this postseason...
The connection between speed coming and going out does help to explain the all-or-nothing nature of scoring this postseason. It’s felt like nearly every run comes from a homer and indeed, a remarkable fraction of the scoring this year has been done via long ball...
Past postseason trends have often presaged shifts in the following regular season. With years of velocity gain under MLB’s belt, there’s little doubt that it will keep increasing in future seasons. But this October may suggest a further acceleration in that increase, over and above what we’ve seen recently.
He could collect a reduced annuity immediately upon retirement, or had he retired 4 years earlier.
From the Summary Plan Description:
You can start receiving benefits before your normal retirement age, beginning as early as the first day of the month following your 45th birthday, if you are no longer employed by a Major League club or its affiliates (including a Minor League club owned by a Major League club) in any capacity. However, the Pension Plan pays benefits for your lifetime, so the younger you are when payments start, the longer the Pension Plan expects your benefits to continue, and the smaller your monthly benefit will be.
If you continue in active service past your normal retirement age, your retirement benefit is calculated to reflect any additional benefit you may have earned during the plan year that just ended or that you are entitled to receive.
"The ball is looking good."
https://nypost.com/2020/10/18/yankees-killer-randy-arozarena-homer-fuels-rays-game-7-win/
Joel Sherman goes a wee bit overboard, comparing Mookie Betts to Willie Mays, but he's right in seeing similarities between Mookie's catch in Game 5 and The Catch in 1954.
His full-flight racing forward shoestring catch in the third inning of Game 5 changed the series...
The play has been replayed quite often since. If you have a chance to look at it again ask yourself this: How many players would have been able to keep their feet after making that catch? And how many players could have regathered themselves, struggled initially to find the ball in their glove and still made an on-line, no-bounce throw home that if Ozuna even would have tagged legally he might have been out? It is where athleticism meets an intuitive understanding of the game. Betts talked afterward about how his full focus was on not falling. How many players in the heat of that moment on such a tough play to just catch the ball have the serenity under pressure to also know: Don’t fall?
And I suspect most of us here agree with Sherman's observation at the end.
Betts is a reminder of what the sport could be, electric on both sides of the ball. We get this from the Rays defense as well and everything their quick-twitchy emerging star Randy Arozarena does on a field.
After so much doubt, especially early in this abbreviated season that we would get to the end, MLB had two terrific league championship series and now an intriguing World Series. I hope it continues to be a showcase for what the game could be in skill and enthusiasm. I hope it encourages the warring players and owners to find common ground to keep working at ways to get the ball in play more and to play faster pitch-to-pitch plus within the actual game action and to recruit the best athletes to this sport.
https://nypost.com/2020/10/19/mookie-betts-world-series-showcase-is-just-what-baseball-needs/
Mookie belongs on this list with another sterling catch. He actually loafed a little bit on his double, thinking it would be caught.
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Yesterday's Top Performers
Batters:
Cody Bellinger* (LAD): 1-2, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R
Dansby Swanson* (ATL): 1-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R
Enrique Hernandez* (LAD): 1-2, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R
Mookie Betts* (LAD): 2-4
Chris Taylor (LAD): 2-4
Ozzie Albies (ATL): 0-2, 1 R, 1 SB
* - pictured above
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I wonder if the unbalanced schedule will factor in any? As a whole the 2 East divisions(which Ozuna faced) had weak pitching( 2 teams better than league average plus 6 that allowed over 5/game).....the 2 Central divisions(which Ozuna didn't face) had strong pitching(8 teams better than league average including 7 that allowed less than 4.5/game)..