2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by myanks12

The rainout is really going to hurt the Yanks too. There won’t be any additional days off and the Yanks won’t be able to unload their pen if the starter can’t give them length. The flawed Yankee rotation could end up killing them this series.

I'm calling it now. They're done.

[myanks12]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

I'm calling it now. They're done.

I’m not ready to say that just yet. But if they don’t win both games at Yankee Stadium and go back to Houston down 3-2, then it’s definitely over.

[bruceames]

If the Nationals continue to dominate like this and win the WS, it will take some of the sting from LA blowing game 5 against them.

[DanTheMan]

Washington Nationals making it look easy. No matter what, we’re getting a fresh World Series matchup.

[myanks12]

Nationals are proving that when you have dominant starting pitching, anything is possible.

[MifuneFan]

Win or lose, the Yanks are going to make huge pitching acquisitions in the off-season. This is something I was sure they would have taken care of at the trade deadline since their rotation is their biggest weakness, but apparently other teams were asking for too much. You know the Yanks want Cole badly, but it'll cost them quite a lot to acquire him, and they'll be plenty of other teams after him too

[BizCat]

Go Nats

[Moviefan1203]

Originally Posted by BizCat

Go Nats

I wonder what Harper is thinking.

[myanks12]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Win or lose, the Yanks are going to make huge pitching acquisitions in the off-season. This is something I was sure they would have taken care of at the trade deadline since their rotation is their biggest weakness, but apparently other teams were asking for too much. You know the Yanks want Cole badly, but it'll cost them quite a lot to acquire him, and they'll be plenty of other teams after him too

I don’t know about that. The Yanks don’t want to give big money to starting pitchers. Plus, they seem to believe that a dominant bullpen is the key to winning a championship. I mean...they took out Tanaka in game 1 who was absolutely dealing. He could have pitched a complete game that night. The Yankees view on starting pitching really worries me.

We talk about how the offense has been bad and that’s all true. But if you look at game 2, the Yankees lost that game because Paxton couldn’t make it out of the 3rd inning and the Yanks had to burn all of their best pitchers before extra innings. Sometimes your offense is not going to score and you’re going to have to win a game in extra innings. The Yankees are not built to do that because their starters don’t give them length.

[MifuneFan]

I think it was the right move to take Tanaka out. Having him facing batters for a third time might have been disastrous. His weakness is his propensity to give up home runs, though he has been pretty solid in the playoffs over the years. Tanaka actually said he was "gassed" when they took him out, and that was only after 68 pitches.

One of the biggest things that affected us is the domestic violence issue with Domingo German. He was arguably our best pitcher all year long, going 18-4, so to have him on "leave" weeks before the playoffs started really screwed us over. Who knows what will happen with him next year. Another issue is we have good players who have been injured most of the year that are trying to find their groove, namely Severino, Stanton, and Hicks

So rotation wise, I absolutely believe there is a major gap next year that needs to be filled. We have Tanaka, and Severino, and I guess Happ too, but the other 2 slots are question marks. All 3 have been ace material at one time or another, but I wouldn't really consider any of them one right now, so we need a pitcher like Gerrit Cole to really round out that rotation.

[Wingman1977]

Game has been postponed and will be played tomorrow, which kills the travel day.

[myanks12]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I think it was the right move to take Tanaka out. Having him facing batters for a third time might have been disastrous. His weakness is his propensity to give up home runs, though he has been pretty solid in the playoffs over the years. Tanaka actually said he was "gassed" when they took him out, and that was only after 68 pitches.

One of the biggest things that affected us is the domestic violence issue with Domingo German. He was arguably our best pitcher all year long, going 18-4, so to have him on "leave" weeks before the playoffs started really screwed us over. Who knows what will happen with him next year. Another issue is we have good players who have been injured most of the year that are trying to find their groove, namely Severino, Stanton, and Hicks

So rotation wise, I absolutely believe there is a major gap next year that needs to be filled. We have Tanaka, and Severino, and I guess Happ too, but the other 2 slots are question marks. All 3 have been ace material at one time or another, but I wouldn't really consider any of them one right now, so we need a pitcher like Gerrit Cole to really round out that rotation.

Regarding Tanaka being gassed, that’s the Yankees fault because they don’t push their starters during the regular season because they love going to the bullpen. Can’t expect the starters to become something that they’re not in the postseason when they’re never asked to pitch deep into games and throw 100 plus pitches.

Regarding German, I agree that he was a big loss but the Yankees need dominant, battle tested starters. They’ve chosen not to open up the checkbook for these types of players.

This rainout really helps the Astros because another thing the Yankees have done this season is never use a bullpen arm more than 2 days in a row. How are you advancing without using the bullpen heavily in the next 3-4 games? As smart of an organization the Yankees are, they shot themselves in the foot by not having any backup plan if games were to get rained out in the postseason and off days were lost.

[Wingman1977]

Andddd that's the series. No need to watch gm 5. Stick a fork in them, they're done.

[myanks12]

That first inning was the turning point. Greinke was about to be knocked out and up comes Gary Sanchez who strikes out on 3 pitches. From there, the pressure has built up to a point where it's too much for this group of players to handle. It's kind of ironic that they fired Joe Girardi because he was too intense and didn't get along with players. How have things worked out with Boone, who's basically everyone's best friend?

[bootsy]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

Andddd that's the series. No need to watch gm 5. Stick a fork in them, they're done.

Don't give up man.

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by bootsy

Don't give up man.

[MifuneFan]

The current Yanks look like a very different team from the one I've seen all year. DJ LeMahieu made I believe 8 errors for the entire season, but committed 2 of them last night, and 1 in the first round too. Ottovino had a pretty solid season overall, but he's pretty much imploded now. Most of the hitters aren't showing any of the plate discipline they had during the regular season either. This is actually where I feel our weak rotation really messes things up. It puts more pressure on the hitters to deliver, which is never really productive.

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The current Yanks look like a very different team from the one I've seen all year. DJ LeMahieu made I believe 8 errors for the entire season, but committed 2 of them last night, and 1 in the first round too. Ottovino had a pretty solid season overall, but he's pretty much imploded now. Most of the hitters aren't showing any of the plate discipline they had during the regular season either. This is actually where I feel our weak rotation really messes things up. It puts more pressure on the hitters to deliver, which is never really productive.

The majority of the season the offense didn't only rely only on the HR. They manufactured runs (partially due to the major hitters being on the IL). Now, they have returned (more or less), they've gone back to those bad habits and it's caught up to them.

Anyway, I'm not even going to see tonight's game since I already know the outcome (us losing again).

[TxDave]

As much as I want it to be over, I am still nervous. If the Yankees can somehow beat Verlander tonight, do my Astros go with a bullpen game in game 6 to try to save Cole for game 1 of the WS? But then what if we lose game 6 with the bullpen? No one wants to go into a game 7 after being up 3-1.

[myanks12]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The current Yanks look like a very different team from the one I've seen all year. DJ LeMahieu made I believe 8 errors for the entire season, but committed 2 of them last night, and 1 in the first round too. Ottovino had a pretty solid season overall, but he's pretty much imploded now. Most of the hitters aren't showing any of the plate discipline they had during the regular season either. This is actually where I feel our weak rotation really messes things up. It puts more pressure on the hitters to deliver, which is never really productive.

The problem with the Yankee game plan is that they have to literally thread a needle to be successful and win a World Series. Everything has to go perfectly. Their starting rotation is definitely a problem. They don’t push their starters enough during the regular season and basically tell them...’just give us 5 innings and our bullpen will shut the door”. That’s nice in theory but what if Ottavino can’t get anybody out? It only takes one high leverage reliever to be ineffective and it all comes crashing down. What if it rains in October and you suddenly lose an off day? Now you’re asking your starters to give you length, which they were never asked or trained to do in the regular season. Same thing with the relievers having to pitch more than 2 days in a row. The Yanks are not preparing their players for all of these possibilities and that is mind boggling to me for an organization with this many resources.

As for the offense, I don’t buy the injuries hurting them here. Stanton missed all season and hasn’t played since game 1 of the ALCS. So he isn’t a player who returned and hurt the team. Encarnacion was a major part of the Yankee offense since he was acquired. He got hurt, yes, but he was one of the reasons why they were successful. Hicks returned from the IL and I’ve seen quality at bats from him in this series. He’s not hurting the lineup. Sanchez, Didi, Gardner, Urshela and Judge have killed the team in this series multiple times. All were healthy most of the year. Tauchman is the only guy who the Yanks really miss after his injury. But in terms of the offense, as a whole, they had the highest batting average with runners in scoring position in the major leagues this year. That has not translated to this series and when you’re a strikeout heavy offense, which they are, you better hit in the clutch or you will lose.

Originally Posted by TxDave

As much as I want it to be over, I am still nervous. If the Yankees can somehow beat Verlander tonight, do my Astros go with a bullpen game in game 6 to try to save Cole for game 1 of the WS? But then what if we lose game 6 with the bullpen? No one wants to go into a game 7 after being up 3-1.

I personally think the Astros should have held Verlander for game 6 and gone with the bullpen game in game 5. That way you have 2 major bullets to use in your own ballpark to close things out. But I honestly don’t think it will matter for the Astros. The Yanks look like they’re done and even if they beat Verlander tonight, who do the Yanks have to pitch games 6 and 7? Bullpen and Severino. That wouldn’t scare me if I were the Astros. Severino has not been dominant and the Astros have already gotten to the Yankee bullpen. The bullpen would also be gassed by game 7.