Twins 5, White Sox 4: A total Bummer
At least the White Sox have their pride.
And maybe not even that.
After Tony La Russa threw Yermín Mercedes under the bus before the game, he defended Tyler Duffey for throwing behind Mercedes after the game, then denied that maybe there wasn’t even intent to begin with.
In between, his team wasted a 4-0 lead, partially due to a shorthanded offense that couldn’t generate runs after Minnesota’s rookie starter departed the game, partially due to an offense shorthanded further by early defensive replacements and an unwillingness to pinch-hit later, and partially due to a pitching staff that allowed three homers to Miguel Sanó.
The White Sox lineup wasn’t retired in order all evening, but after beating up Bailey Ober for four runs over four innings, including a couple homers, the White Sox could only generate five walks and a one-out single over the course of the final five innings against the Twins’ army of righties and Taylor Rogers.
Part of it’s due to the White Sox struggling against righties. It didn’t help that La Russa lifted Jake Lamb — who homered, was plunked and scored two runs — for a defensive replacement after six innings, meaning Billy Hamilton had to bat with a runner on in the eighth. It didn’t help that La Russa didn’t lift Adam Eaton against Rogers with a runner on first and Danny Mendick on the bench, even though Eaton can’t hit lefties anymore. It doesn’t help that José Abreu is on the bench but thoroughly unavailable, making early defensive substitutions more damaging when offense is needed later.
But that was only half the issue. The White Sox pitching operation had no answer for Sanó, who hit two solo shots off Lance Lynn, then a two-run shot off Aaron Bummer, whose run of eight strong outings came crashing to a halt.
Lynn allowed his own damage, but he still handed a bullpen a 4-2 lead after six, so he did his job. Michael Kopech handled the seventh without incident, and Bummer took the eighth. Unfortunately, Bummer walked the leadoff man, then gave up Sanó’s third dinger of the game that tied the game at 4.
Even though Bummer’s command problems were apparent in the eighth, La Russa had Bummer open the ninth, which he did by falling behind Andrelton Simmons 3-1 before giving up a leadoff single. La Russa then pulled Bummer for Liam Hendriks, who continues to fall short of impressing. He got Nelson Cruz to hit a weak dribbler to the left side for one out, then intentionally walked contact king Luis Arraez. Josh Donaldson worked the count full by laying off sliders before flying out to the warning track, after which Simmons took third.
Up came Polanco, and the guy who walked to start the game-tying rally in the eighth ended the game an inning later with a liner into the right-field corner. A demoralizing series loss for the Twins turned into a demoralizing loss for the White Sox, with a rubber game looming to decide how long the irritation lasts.
Bullet points:
*Hendriks already has twice as many strikeout-less outings in 17 outings this year (four) as he did in 24 outings last year (two).
*Andrew Vaughn had a rough game, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and lettting a grounder squib through him for an error at first base.
*Lamb, a controversial choice to hit second, held up his end of the bargain by reaching twice and scoring twice. Tim Anderson couldn’t get anything going in front of him, going 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
*Duffey and Rocco Baldelli were ejected when Duffey’s first pitch sailed behind Mercedes’ knees with one out and nobody on in the seventh. La Russa’s response was pathetic:
Record: 25-16 | Box score | Statcast
Sometimes your manager throws one of the team’s most valuable players under the bus before the game, does it again after the game, and in between steers the ship directly into the iceberg with some decisions that clearly cost the team the game. That’s just baseball, baby! Nothing you can do about it!
There’s no way he gets fired or resigns for anything having to do with on field reasons, so I really hope that Mercury article gets more traction and people start digging into it since true embarrassment for off the field behavior (for a second time) is the only pathway out of this in the short to medium term.
Although I should be careful with wanting a new manager since we’ll almost certainly end up with Kenny Williams: Interim Manager or something equally as messy.
Cito Gaston is waiting by the phone.
Need to just hire AJ and end this BS.
I mean, Christ, they should just admit that they were wrong and bring Renteria back. He was fine. His tactical decision making was meh, but my lord is it better than the lineups that TLR is running out there these days. And he was at least good at the main job of a baseball manager – keeping the players happy.
I agree with this. They built a roster that has some pretty obvious hierarchy already established, with clear leadership from a variety of sources. They didn’t need his presence, and his in game tactical prowess is clearly not where it once was.
TLR is the right guy for the job because he only has to answer to JR. Renteria had JR, Williams, Hahn, and Cooper he had to answer to. The players knew it and while they liked Renteria they didn’t have to answer to him.
wut
TLR is the right man for the job because he’s only accountable to the dumbest head of the three-headed FO monster.
/s
lol the players are openly disrespecting TLR (correctly!) on social media rn
We’re in Terry Bevington territory. I can’t imagine how angry the players are with TLR right now.
Players, managers, and coaches of the MLB:
Please, oh, please, put some of these “unwritten rules” on paper, so that it’s easier for everyone to litigate when a violation occurs.
Better yet, hold a meeting and vote on what constitutes “piling on” or “pimping a homer,” or if there are such things in the first place, then everyone agree on what the majority says and stick to it so that we fans don’t have to engage in these dumb culture war arguments. I don’t care either way; just codify it.
I’m sick of the “But, the objective of a game is to score the most runs, amiright?” self-righteous simping and the “kids these days, they don’t know sportsmanship” old man rejoinder. It’s a dumb feedback loop.
It’s a good year, in spite of the loss tonight, but things are quickly becoming dour in the dumbest way possible.
(I’m reminded of Drake-gate and Cut-up Jersey-gate. Does this kind of stupid shit happen to every team? Okay, yes, Jerry makes bad hires; that’s the problem. But do we have to take the bait? There’s nothing we can do. TLR is the manager. The players are good and fun to watch, especially Yermin.)
OR, fans:
QuitEnjoy your fake outrage; you know you all love it.Wait, so, is the outrage in this post fake too? And no, I really don’t love that I get to be mad about the manager I never wanted doing things I don’t want him to do.
It’s less outrage than frustration.
Frustration is totally justified with the TLR hire from the very start. But outrage is a little dramatic.
TIL I’m apparently a “self righteous simp”, whatever the fuck that means.
Hey Tex! I’m an OPOS, what does TIL stand for?
Today I learned
Thanks! TIL something new.
Well, I can’t speak for the first O, but the fact that you’re still willing to learn, makes me question the POS part. If there was more of that going around, the Sox would be in better shape with their managerial position right now.
I called the Sox when they hired LaRussa and said that they should be embarrassed and that I was personally offended by the hire. That was before we learned that he both can’t manage and still has a hard-on for the angry old white dude baseball rules. He sucks.
same, and I left them a voicemail yesterday too.
I won’t comment on the TLR issues. I’ll get too mad.
Instead, I’ll focus on a silver lining: Moncada is looking great at the plate and in the field.
The Sox left 23 men on base. None of those men were left on base by Moncada because he led off an inning his last three times up. Moncada walked in the first and then in the third had an RBI double and later came around to score. He then went 0 for 3 in the plate appearances leading off innings with exit velocities of 107.5 mph, 107.1 mph, and 106.8 mph while making those outs. The only at-bat when he didn’t walk and didn’t murder the ball was the RBI double with an exit velocity of 84.0 mph.
He has had his moments. But there are a lot of times when he plays with his head up a certain part of his anatomy.
Recently this has included numerous times on pop-ups/shallow flies when Yoan has failed to yield to SS or OFers, losing track of balls and strikes during an at bat, and getting picked off first, and blowing through the third base coach’s stop sign (which oddly engendered none of the outrage from TLR that Yermin ignoring the take sign engendered).
Moncada is playing at a 5 f/war pace. The need to iron out a few things In his game really doesn’t change the fact of how well he is playing.
I totally agree that he is hitting the ball well, and there is no dispute that he can make the throws from 3rd.
That said, the fact that he is hitting well doesn’t mean that he doesn’t negate some of his own value by making dumb and avoidable mistakes. And so far this year, it seems to me that he is making those dumb and avoidable mistakes more frequently than in 2019 and 2020.
Can’t mismanage in extras if you mismanage the 9th. Next level hall of famer baseball person managing.
Kopech should have started the 8th. No advantage by having a lefty. Polanco is switch hitter. Kepler hitting less than .210 is the only lefty Bummer was going to face. With three batter minimum Bummer was going to have to pitch to Sano. Next mistake: after seeing Sano hit two HRs, why not pitch around him?
I feel like it’s easier to criticize the decision to pitch to Sano in retrospect. If you pitch around him, you put the tying run on base and the leading run comes to the plate. That could have just as easily been worse than what ended up happening.
Bigger issue is the smattering of black holes in the lineup and the refusal to pinch hit for them, which made adding any insurance runs much harder after the 6th.
Fuck the Twins and fuck TLR.
TLR really poisoned the team vibe for that game. Hopefully not for much longer.
Sometimes TLR is like a family of toads that came to live in your crystal clear drinking water well and you discovered it the moment you were about to drink water from it.
No question TLR handled it wrong. He should have brought him into his office and ripped him a new one ala Billy Martin. Sat him on the bench for at least one game and said nothing to the press. Yermin, if reports are accurate, deliberately blew off a take sign to pad his stats. Total disrespect for your opponent. Wrong, wrong in every sport. That would be like Steph Curry hoisting a three with a 60 point lead on the worst team in the NBA as the clock ran out. Team comes first. I hope Yermin doesn’t become a cancer. I’m legitimately worried he is putting himself over the team. I hope Abreu sits him down before he becomes a problem.
Your analogy is bullshit because the home run wasn’t as time was expiring. The Twins would still have had 3 outs to do whatever they wanted. There’s no such thing as a safe lead in baseball, solely due to the lack of a game clock. I hope to whatever deity you pray to that Anderson sits Mercedes down and tells him the not to listen to anything TLR says because he’s a senile old man that doesn’t know shit about the modern game.
Ask, and you shall receive.
You’re up early today Tony.
Your basketball analogy doesn’t hold up. The better basketball analogy is Steph is on the free throw line with a 60 point lead. Can he try to hit it? Or should he air ball it on purpose?
Yermín’s AB must resolve itself. Unlike a basketball possession, you can’t run out the clock on an AB. The batter can either (a) try to hit like he normally does; (b) not swing at all; or (c) purposively get out. If anything disrespects the game out of those three, it’s (b) and (c).
When Yermin sits down with the team (or in front of an arbiter) to negotiate his salary in a few years, the question of when he hit his HRs or how he got to his numbers is not going to come up. All that matters are the numbers.
Baseball pushing an economic model that suppresses player salaries early in their career, then trying to influence said players to tank their numbers so they don’t have to pay them as much later, is just one reason why this conversation around unwritten rules is hypocritical and stupid.
Give me a break. We all know about Yermin and his famous two-strike approach, which is the exact opposite of someone who is trying to pad their stats. But as a 28 year old rookie who is in the running for batting title, why the hell should he let his average suffer because the Twins don’t want to put in a real pitcher?
How is someone trying to avoid strikeouts “the exact opposite of padding their stats”? Yermin has the 21st best wRC+ in baseball with two strikes. Seems like his two-strike approach is doing a good job of generating good stats.
He’s going to get paid based on HRs. Not on Ks. He could keep swinging for the fences but doesn’t.
His ISO is .071 though. I think the point calcetine was trying to make is that Yermin isn’t trying to do damage with 2 strikes, he’s trying to get on base which the stats seem to support.
While, yes, arbitration often fixates on more old-school stats, it kind of balances out – he’s got the 4th highest batting average. So trading off a lower HR rate for a higher BA with two strikes is probably a fairly neutral tradeoff for arb salaries.
This is just dumb. As soon as the Twins in this situation sign a legal contract saying they won’t win the game (or for that matter pad their offensive stats) in the bottom of the 9th then I’ll say the Sox shouldn’t try to score as many runs as possible. Completely ridiculous and I can’t believe we still have to defend his home run.
This is completely insane. If you’re drawing up a play in basketball for Michael Jordan to take the last shot, but MJ sees Steve Kerr wide open for a three, he isn’t supposed to pass the ball because it goes against his coach’s wishes? If a football coach calls a running play, but the QB gets to the line and sees that a pass is the better call, he isn’t allowed to audible? Yermin was given a take sign. The ball was pitched and Yermin calculated that the better play was to swing. AND HE WAS RIGHT.
I keep checking my local grocery store’s dairy section hoping to find a milk carton with Kenny or Ricks picture on it… so far no dice.
Where the hell are these two guys (I dont know if its safe to assume they still have their balls) so where they hell are these two people….
DO SOMETHING! You are nearing an all out mutiny from your players and manager. At a bare god damn minimum come out and make a public statement maybe in support of your players. JFC you only have so many good opportunities in sport to win a title, especially if you are a chicago sports franchise, dont blow this thing cause your owner is a complete hack who re-hired his buddy 30 years late
KW only loves running his mouth when nothing is at stake, or when he can bash a franchise icon like Frank Thomas lol.
So I understand that with Abreu out, certain problems arise with how a lineup is filled out. I also understand that Pineda was a late scratch. I still don’t see how you can justify batting Adam Eaton 5th and Jake Lamb 2nd. I also don’t understand why you would let Bummer go back out in the 9th after getting knocked around in the 8th.
I was just remembering a game in May 2016 when the Sox were up 7-1 (?) in the 9th and ended up losing 8-7. Would have been nice if we could have tacked on another run late. But the Royals wouldn’t have liked it.
The games are 9 innings. No one pays to see hitters throw away late inning at bats. If the Twins wanted to give up no more than 15 runs then they should have put in a real pitcher. Yermin was just doing his job and the fans got what they paid to see – Major League Baseball.
TLR can be mad about Yermin ignoring a sign, but he shouldn’t be mad that he hit the ball hard against a non-pitcher and he shouldn’t be defending the Twins for throwing at Yermin. And frankly, what was the point of throwing Yermin under the bus after the Monday victory if not to avoid Yermin getting thrown at on Tuesday?
I was driving home from a high school game that day, listening to the 9th. I almost drove off the road I was so upset.
I will say there is some schadenfreude about all of this considering at every step of the way anyone with a marginally functioning brain said ‘Wow, that seems like a bad idea for these reasons: _________’. And then every single one of those reasons happened.
Watching people who think they can’t fail, publicly fail in precisely the manner everyone knew they would can be satisfying.
It’s worse than I imagined. I was against TLR’s hiring but I didn’t expect Terry Bevington levels of ineptitude on the field. I can’t say I anticipated TLR saying he was ok with an opponent throwing at his player either.
I don’t know if it’s been referenced already, but Steve Stone gets it.
Only in my dreams but now would be a good time to make Stone the GM so he can fire LaRussa again.
Bring back Hawk!
Rocco made TLR look like an old fool last night. Then TLR makes it worse. Tony, you have a first place club in large part because of Yermin. And, who, by the way, is the best hitter on your team and in MLB. Why p*ss on his success? Right now the only apology you need to make is to him and your team.
Perhaps we look back on this as a bump in the road in a magical season. Or maybe it gives the Twins motivation to get out of their massive slump and storm back into winning yet another division title. Either way, I don’t understand taking this public and handling it this way.
Trashing your player and then not having his back after he gets obviously thrown at is appalling behavior. I realize he either ignored or didn’t look for the take sign and that’s unacceptable, but why make such a spectacle out of it? You’re just hurting your own team and giving your opponent motivation. Rocco and the Twins did exactly what I would have done and they came back and won a game they shouldn’t have (perhaps Tony’s biggest mistake is not putting Sano on with first base open before his 3rd homer to tie it, what a bonehead move there). I’m hoping it’s not a turning point for both the Twins and Sox seasons.
TLR is probably going to lose the locker room over this and he deserves to. And that puts this season at unnecessary risk.
The “take sign” argument baffles me. Is everyone just forgetting how fast Astudillo was working? He makes Buehrle look like he was moving in slow motion.
You can hear on the broadcast Jason saying “they don’t need a pitch clock for Astudilo.”
Should Yermin have swung at that 3-0 pitch? If he was given the take sign, then no, he shouldn’t have. Ignoring coaches signs is not being a team player. He could say that he’s just being Yermin, but he’s a member of the White Sox and should not be ignoring coaches signs. (and this is different that Moncada blowing through the stop sign at 3rd- that’s a split second decision, Yermin has plenty of time to decide whether to ignore McEwing’s sign).
Now before I get attacked, then let me finish this. What Tony did was 100% wrong. There is no way you throw your players under the bus for trying to score runs. He should have sat him down afterward and explained privately what he said publicly. I would imagine Tony is very close to losing the clubhouse. Then, defending Duffey after he threw at Mercedes? If I were Hahn, I would give him the option of stepping down now or else fire him. Time for Rick and Kenny to speak on this matter. This could very well tear this team apart. And all over a home run hit by our exciting rookie of the year candidate.
Hahn doesn’t have that power that is part of the reason this last offseason was such a disaster.
Renisdorf basically hired LaRussa on his own against the will of his front office. Hahn has to sit there and take LaRussa’s nonsense.
Here we are again with terrible organizational structure in a Reinsdorf led organization
Surprise Surprise
Hahn is the GM. If he doesn’t have the power to fire the manager, then he should resign. And now, after building a pretty formidable roster, I would imagine he wouldn’t be unemployed for very long.
Yeah he is the GM…A GM that wasn’t allowed to make his own coaching hire this past offseason.
The White sox don’t function like a normal organization. It will likely be status quo for the foreseeable future.
I agree 100%. Why would he want to work in an organization where he can’t even do his job? He would be hired by someone else in a heartbeat. Time for him to grow a pair and stand up to Reinsdorf.
That’s what I would have said, but honestly seeing how well the team that he built is playing right now I don’t blame him for not wanting to walk away from this team over something as dumb as the manager.
Did McEwing give him a sign?
Apparently, he did. I agree that he probably didn’t look for a sign because Astudillo threw the ball as soon as he got it. And again, for Tony to call him out publicly and then to defend the Twins for throwing at him is not being a repsonsible “member of the family”. Tony just needs to go.
I’m not sure Yermin ever saw a take sign. With a “pitcher” out there not really setting between pitches and no one on, I don’t think he looked for any signs.
Moncada had more time to decide to run through the stop sign than Mercedes had to ignore the take sign.
Exactly, and Moncada blowing through McEwing’s stop sign was much more likely to affect the outcome of the game than Yermin ignoring a take sign with an 11 run lead.
That Smalley created a tempest in a teapot is no surprise. That LaRussa decided to validate it is really unfortunate.
Regardless of how Tony felt about anything, to condone another team throwing at your team is unacceptable. Don’t ever take sides against the family.
That is the biggest thing in all of this. Tony talks about “family”, but a functional family doesn’t air their internal grievances publicly, and certainly doesn’t take the side of their opponent in a disagreement.
Only the effing White Sox can simultaneously be one of the best teams in baseball with the most ridiculous asinine drama possible. The Twins are your #1 rival who have owned your entire ass for almost the entirety of my conscious existence. Who tf cares if their feelings get hurt during 1 game? JFC baseball players are the whiniest grown men on the planet. In no other sport do you cry so hard for the other team failing to be gentle with you. It’s not like the Twins weren’t going to try to win the rest of the game. And like someone else said, if the score gets to a point where one team is no longer allowed to try, but the other team is allowed to try as hard as they can to win, then that’s stupid and there needs to be a mercy rule to save us all from this bullshit.
Everything about this is infuriating.
While I’m ranting, Liam Hendriks was a waste of money. If they go down this season it won’t be because they didn’t have an unimpressive closer on their roster, it will be because two injuries completely sapped their offensive production. And while I am hoping they can keep up this pace of getting production from unlikely sources, if that BABIP comes back to Earth they’re torched.
On the plus side, they may have solved their DH woes in a big way, Moncada is a stud, I am beyond impressed with how competitive at bats are with Vaughn and Madrigal, and watching Rodon, Cease, and Kopech pitch is an absolute delight. There are so many positives, in what could be a magical season (whether they win or not), all being overshadowed by a dude no one wanted.
Missed your post before echoing your words about Hendricks. Although Liam is probably better than nothing, and Colome looks much worse. But looks unlikely that Liam will prove to be worth $54 million. Hopefully he will be worth more than 1/2 of it at least.
The only issue with Liam is the extreme flyball tendencies he has right now which have only manifested one other time to this degree and that was 2019 (and he didn’t have near as bad HR luck in 2019 as he has this year). All of his other numbers are exactly what we paid him for.
I think where I struggle is that the “nothing” could in theory have been another position player with offensive upside. They put their eggs in the bullpen basket, which is fine. But in general I’m always weary about making the biggest investment on the team the asset that traditionally also has the most volatility.
Colome, quietly, is putting decent numbers lately. Colome has allowed less hits than Hendriks.
Colome last 6 appearances he has allowed no runs, and only 2 hits with 7 Ks hitters while facing 25
Hendriks last 6 appearances, he has allowed 8 hits and 7 Ks although with no earned runs, he has allowed inherited runners to score.
I know, this is a poor analysis, but I was expecting Hendriks to be a much better reliever than Colome, instead we are getting just, “better”.
TLR probably loves every second of this because it keeps the focus off his awful managing.
I am waiting to see if the rest of team gets behind Yermin or lays low. If Timmy starts bat flipping, then he is daring TLR to say something and this whole thing becomes the focus of the team not winning and it will sit on TLR’s doorstep.
Nobody wants Anderson on the IL with a broken hand because the opposition took umbrage to a bat flip.
#changethegame
On a more serious note, I never quite understood why a pitcher has every right to scream, fist pump, sword fight, backflip, etc when he strikes someone out, while batters must remain solemn, apologize to the pitcher, and mourn the long lost baseball as they slowly, respectfully, and with gratitude run the bases.
Fuck it, throw the bat in the stands and perform the “suck it” gesture while riding an imaginary horse around the bases.
That’s fine if a hitter wants to put himself in harm’s way.
Why should that put anyone in harms way? If the pitchers celebrates a strike out, should the batter “accidentally lose grip of his bat” during a swing? Maybe come into home plate a little hard and wide if the pitcher backs it up? If an outfielder celebrates a great catch, maybe put one in his earhole the next time up.
In the NFL, if you celebrate a touchdown, should the CB aim for your chin on the next play? Maybe if the QB gets too happy after a good play you blind side him after he hands the ball off. And in the NHL, best not celebrate that goal with too much exuberance, the goalie may take his skate to you when the ref isn’t looking.
If you don’t want another athlete to celebrate their successes, even when they come at the expense of your attempts, do not play sports. Any sport.
I don’t care if it’s right or wrong, but if Anderson gets HBP and is out 6 weeks and the opposing pitcher gets a 10-game suspension it still sucks for the Sox. The risk/reward of the bat flip isn’t worth it.
I think the point is pitchers shouldn’t be such thin-skinned punks. And if they are and throw at guys intentionally they should be penalized enough that they stop doing it or aren’t allowed back in the league.
Proving intent won’t always be easy.
Get the fuck out of here with this “he deserves it” nonsense. Don’t want a bat flip? Pitch better.
I agree with the pitching better comment. All comes down to risk/reward.
I’d like to reaffirm my petition to bring back the downvote button.
That’s because the unwritten rules have nothing to do with sportsmanship or respect for the game.
They’re just about protecting pitchers who are enormous bitches like Tyler Duffy.
The Sox have more to lose than the vast majority of teams in the AL. I’d just like to see them handle their business and stack wins. Lets keep the guys healthy
Sorry, I don’t like to comment much but I want to ask one question, would Jose Abreu have swung on a 3-0 pitch in the same situation?
Who cares?
I do, which is why I asked. I’m just saying I don’t agree with Steve Stone. Why aggravate the Twins, they’re down and quiet and now they have more incentive to come together and beat the sox. Just keep quietly beating them.
If you go through each member of the team and ask yourself would he have swung at that pitch and you come with an answer of no on most of them then why is it okay for Yermin to swing or are we all just justifying something that just happened for our team?
it’s simple: every player gets to decide what they do at the plate. Yermin was trying to hit a home run. Would Billy Hamilton have been? Who the hell cares, they’re completely different players. Yermin has to do what he thinks is best when he’s at the dish.
I feel like I’ve said this a thousand times across different sports pages but: If players who are getting paid hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars need additional incentive to do their job, they shouldn’t be getting paid that much money.
You can say that all you want but why is it that players that play their former team always seem to do a little more damage. It doesn’t matter how much you pay someone you can’t take the human nature out of them.
Confirmation bias.
Jose Abreu has already signed a contract, and has an established record of being a good hitter. Yermin is a rookie who’s future earnings are most assuredly dependent on one number: #HR hit. He has no positional value. He has no track record. TLR and the rest of the roster (as well as the entirety of MLBPA) should be hoping he mashes as many taters off of backup Catchers, who’s value is not dependent on their ERA, as he possibly can.
Baseball isn’t a sport that you can just play harder. You’re either good or you’re not. The Twins are not good. Whether or not they’re mad at the White Sox doesn’t mean a damn thing in this sport.
Maybe. Abreu has 107 plate appearances that went to a 3-0 count. He’s walked 93 times so we can safely ignore those. In the other 14 that ended up with a ball in play, he has 7 hits (3 HRs, 1 3B, 1 2B) so I can safely say if he is swinging, he is looking to do damage.
To deviate completely from the stupidity of the TLR created nonsense, is it just me, or does it appear that Liam is not as good as he was supposed to be? I lamented the signing simply because the guy had all of one full season closer experience with 40 saves coming into this season. He was very good in that stint but has a career ERA of 4, and has been nothing close to lights out all that often. Parting ways with Colome may have been wise given his struggles, but still it seems like Liam has been inconsistent and not that great in way more outings than one would hope, for someone they spent $54 million on. I know he wasn’t charged with an earned run or the loss last night but still he allowed 2 baserunners in less than an inning, which did not help things.
I mean, he’s allowed 5 earned runs all year. He’s 92nd percentile or better in Whiff%, BB%, K%, and Chase%. He allowed two baserunners last night that brought his WHIP all the way up to 1.00. Liam was not nearly as much of a contributing factor to the loss last night as our inability to score any runs after the 4th inning with all the traffic we had on the basepaths.
I agree. His numbers aside from HR/FB are great, and that should normalize. I still think his money could have been better invested elsewhere.
I’m so happy that discussions can now be had about a selection of good players rather than the trash rosters we’ve seen over the past half decade.
I mean, based on how the bullpen has performed so far this season, we had to sign somebody to be the closer because no one else has really shone.
This is true. Colome has not been good so far, and bringing him back would have been a mistake. Plus it is far from certain that Bummer could handle the role and do well.
Nice outing from Liam today. Unfortunately I think the whole team is tight now because everybody is a bit ticked off because of their genius manager and his big mouth. Hopefully it will all be forgotten about in a week, just like the DUI months ago. If they keep winning we won’t be talking about this incident for very long, one would hope. Just don’t want TLR to find ways to ruin the vibe, which he appears to be quite capable of.
Am I recalling correctly that moments before summoning Hendriks, Stone or Benetti mentioned that the Twins had Alcala warming but no one was up in the Sox pen? It seems like part of Hendriks’ problem may have been coming into a game completely cold with godawful footing on the mound to boot.
La Russa likes Hendriks because he looks like he’d be good in a barfight and he can throw 40 pitches three straight nights (HE’S GOT HEART) but maybe in a tie game late with the possibility of a right-handed pinch hitter like Cruz coming in to DH TLR should have had Hendriks (or someone) warming anyway, especially since he clearly loves “playing the matchups.” Or is it because according to Connie Mack you always keep your closer for the save opportunity in extras when you’re playing on the road?
Anyway, it seems like part of the problem with Hendriks has been throwing him out there in otherwise adverse situations, preparation time or otherwise.
I caught that comment too, but they’ve also said that they have a hard time telling who or whether anybody is warming in bullpens when they’re calling the game from the studio, so it’s possible they had bad information.
The 1948 Indians won a World Series with a shortstop who batted .355 while also serving as the team’s manager. You have all the resources you need at your fingertips, Rick. Get ‘er done today!