It's an interesting choice. Meyers hits fastballs well so him starting yesterday made sense. Meyers has hit sliders better than McCormick (.320 xwOBA vs .241 xwOBA) but McCormick has hit changeups better than Meyers (.262 xwOBA vs .181 xwOBA). Giolito does throw his changeup to RHB but 70%+ of his pitches against RHB are 4-seams/sliders. Not sure what is driving this decision.
Story seems really far fetched clubhouse leaders are Correa, Altuve, Bregman and McCullers who won a ring with the guy and obviously respect him. Really don’t see anyone going out of there way to alienate Verlander but who knows…
A robot. Meyers could have hit 4 home runs yesterday and Lynn be the starter again today and Dusty still would have sat him.
Yep, all I can do is hope/assume that there's something behind this other than a hunch by the manager
Dusty Baker noted that McCormick has seen Giolito before (though not with much success) Lol...0-2 with 2 Ks 3 months ago renders both the above statements true
You tend to think there’s some deeper reason for some of the weird things Dusty does and then he opens his mouth and all doubt is removed. Lol. This is baseball though so who knows, maybe McCormick will hit a grand slam.
I think game one was a clear matchup choice playing Meyers. I think this is less of a matchup choice and more of a get McCormick some playoff experience as I expect him to start more games overall. Relatively speaking, Giolito isn't that hard of a thrower and his flyball rate has increased this year, so it's less of a pronounced matchup advantage for Meyers.
I don't think there are always deeper reasons to his logic. Similar to the "We had to weigh a couple of guys versus a couple others," I think it's probably a good assumption that he also intentionally answers many questions in ways that don't reveal his actual thinking.
McCormick gets the start because Dusty can't put Marwin out there because Click didn't put him on the roster. It's his strategic bench the hot hand approach.
And what did Marwin do to earn a spot on the roster? Also, why would Marwin be playing CF? More bad spreadsheet data.
All the young pitchers are effective when they have their control and can work the edges. Come to think of it, the same applies to the old farts too. But I do have a question. Is there some unwritten rule that you can't swing at a 3-0 pitch center cut in the strike zone? I understand not chasing or even swinging at pitcher's pitches on the edges of the strike zone, but just laying the bat on your shoulder makes no sense to me. But I see it all the time. Also, why is a competitive pitch not allowed when a pitcher gets ahead 0-2 or 1-2? I mean, they start off the plate and move further off the plate.
You start Chas today for the same reason you started Jake yesterday, you want to give them a good environment to make their post-season debut and build confidence for heading out onto the road and hopefully going into the next series with the AL defending champs. Even if Chas can't match what Jake did at the plate yesterday, he's going to be in a great environment and every time he makes a play or gets on base, that big roar of approval will remind him that he belongs on this team, on this field, in this series. I like Meyers a lot better, but everyone has to contribute in the playoffs to win a title, and you want to give Chas every chance to build that confidence you can.
He’s more of a good luck charm, and I’m glad Dusty Baker is well on his way to winning his first major league championship!
