Can someone explain to me why MLB insists on playoff day games during the week when NFL and NBA has no issue of simultaneous games?
I'm not disputing the plan...well that's not true exactly...but I think everything is at least defensible except the second pitch. I don't care what the ipad said as a way to attack. Anyone that is a student of the game could see that Yordan Planned out...what does this mean? I really either am being obtuse or don't understand the nature of pitching. Servais tells Ray...fastball in (sinker, four seam, cutter...you pick Nook) Ray either does what he is told or misses is spot...either way Yordan was on that first pitch. If you are excusing Ray for throwing it again cause coach told me too...well Ray is as stupid as Servias.
I am only explaining WHY they approached Alvarez the way they did. I am not saying it is what I would have done, only that there was reasoning behind why Ray was brought in and why the plan was to pitch sinkers inside to Alvarez. While it is true that Yordan hits lefties and righties well, he does still have a weakness to sinkers and and pitches inside and down from lefties. His batting average against these pitches is less than just about anywhere else close to the zone. Further, Alvarez has shown in the past that he is prone to swing at these pitches. The problem is that Alvarez also has hit a decent amount of these pitches for doubles and homers if they are too much in the zone. Ray didn't get either of his sinkers where they were supposed to be. They went back to the sinker because they knew he would swing at it most likely. Ray didn't get the pitch where it was supposed to be and Alvarez crushed it. We can discuss if they should have not brought Ray in or if they should have walked Alvarez etc. I was simply saying that there was a statistical basis for why they brought in Ray and why he threw sinkers. Also, if the dugout brought in Ray for the specific purpose to throw sinkers inside to Alvarez, it could cause issues if he waved them off. I am sure on the second sinker, Ray thought he would get it inside more as well. Ultimately the Astros and Alvarez (who is just about as good a study of pitchers as you will find at 24-25 years old) out smarted the M's. The Astros knew Ray threw a sinker and knew he would possibly face Alvarez. To the credit of Alvarez, he knew that his weakness is inside sinkers/fastballs from lefties AND he knew that Ray threw sinkers and had used that same strategy against him before. Alvarez said he went and reviewed the last ten times he faced Ray and noticed what Ray was doing. He then just say sinker early in the count, and once Ray got too much of the zone, there was like a 50% chance Alvarez would get a double or homer.
I think that maybe Ray underestimated Yordan's ability to adjust. I'm sure the plan was hoping to get to 2 strikes while saving the low inside slider for strike 3 or weak rolled over ground ball for final out. Once he got strike one on the foul ball he thought he could throw the same pitch with the same result to get there. IMO. That's baseball.
I agree with you that Ray believed his sinker was better than Alvarez' adjustments..... but that sinker that Alvarez crushed was not far enough inside, it wasn't COMPLETELY off but it was definitely in the hitting zone and that isn't where Ray would have wanted it.
Is there any other answer than greed? MLB wouldn't be doing what its doing if it didn't make financial sense.
- Thought the crowd earned that low third strike in the 8th. They amped it up. And the umpire took the bait. - If this was 10 years ago, a lot of managers would have yanked Pressly after 4 pitches. It was clear he didn't have it. We got lucky. I'm not even sure he threw 2 strikes the entire inning. That was a near miss disaster. - And lastly, Let's go!
If the Astros don't resign Verlander, I hope they use that money to grab two more bats as well as lock up Tucker long term. Need to keep the dynasty moving.
The NFL doesn’t do simultaneous playoff games. And their games are only once/week. The NBA tries to stagger it as well (hence why some of the early rounds are dragged out), but they have too many teams in the playoffs. baseball has historically given all their games their own platform. Wasn’t as big of a deal when there only used to be a LCS then WS.
PS on talking baseball - they went on for a minute about Framber’s glove change after the fourth inning and the Mariners stopped swinging at the curve? anyone else catch this? Sounds like a Jomboy breakdown video is coming
I heard something about the glove change on Locked On Astros. Something about maybe Framber was tipping his pitches since his glove might have been sort of see-through.
You are correct. They were sinkers and Ray missed with the location. Seattle didn’t have a lot of good options and it wasn’t a terrible idea. Alvarez had a good idea what was coming and executed well. Ray did not: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/what-were-the-mariners-thinking-with-robbie-ray-move-in-game-1/
