Reportedly, the White Sox said they would not miss Verlander's pitch. But McCullers insisted they would. And it was called off.
I'm listening to Granato on 97.5 right now and they are talking about this. He says he's confident that his sources are correct about this. What many of us have been saying all year, it rubbed the players the wrong way that he wasn't around at all this season. Verlander was planning to come around for this series. Crane mentioned this yesterday in his interviews.
Isolating the players was not JVs idea. It was an edict from MLB. I think the players know that. They weren't even letting the broadcast teams go to the away games.
Trout and Verlander were both on the 60 day IL. Trout had no problems being in the dugout. Even if there were limitations on him being in the dugout during the game, Verlander pays for a suite at MMP. He could have been around his teammates plenty before games and attended from his suite.
Seems a little different for guys who train with the team all year, play during the season, then get hurt. For instance, JV was around some last year in the truncated season despite him eventually not pitching any more after the fist game. Nevertheless, I don't think this is a huge issue. If he was really only about the total spotlight, throwing a first pitch for game 1 of the ALDS is not exactly prime-time exposure... and if the team doesn't care for the distraction, they're well within their right. Was never going to be surprised to see him at some point, and he still may choose to show up (he is an employee after all). Crane still going to give the QO... and there's a good chance JV is going to take it. He's still instagramming and tweeting Astros supportive stuff. Not sure he has any real close connections on the team (typical when you're a SP), and most of the pitching staff other than LMJ (who was hurt most of 2018 and all of 2019) have never worked directly with him. Even Maldy wasn't his catcher (that was Cole).
Who cares about JV. He's never pitching here again and that was made obvious months ago. For the game today i'm interested to see how they choose to attack the Sox with Framber. He's been throwing his changeup a lot more lately and with the Sox' RHB-heavy lineup it could be a big factor today along obviously with his curve. Hopefully he doesn't throw a single FF.
If his sinker is on, that will help augment all his pitches. If its off, may be a day with a lot of traffic and hopefully a lot of ground balls if that's the case.
FYI - I don't subscribe to a cable package that includes MLB Network but I noticed yesterday I have it. It's part of a free preview so you can see the games.
I think one thing that helps wrt LMJ/Framber is that the Sox love to pound the ball into the ground. Just need to keep walks to a minimum today.
I'm hoping Valdez can throw his curve for strikes. RHBs have a tough time hitting it, and when they do, it is a grounder to Correa.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t played baseball since little league, but I can’t imagine the players care that much about who throws out the opening pitch. I also imagine if Verlander comes back next year, pitches well and helps them compete, the players will be fine with him.
