Five days rest accounted for most of his starts. He did do better on about 5 games of four days rest and surprisingly 5 games of 6+ days rest.
The fact Philly isn't pitching their same scheduled starter implies the delay favors them at least in their eyes Astros are still the better team and the favorites
Biggest tell from this all is that Wheeler still isn’t slated for game 5 despite normal rest. That is nuts.
If they are down 3-1, I bet he starts game 5. Really sucks that the Phillies are getting to help mitigate their deficiency against our strength because they didn't build a roof.
MLB is complicit to anything they think will hurt the Astros. They are angry the Astros didn't fall apart like they were supposed to.
I think it's the opposite. The Astros took the fall for the league and I would bet my house that there were handshake agreements to NOT single out the Astros going forward for unofficial retribution.
I really don't like this line of thinking. Baseball is meant to be played outdoors. And by 'outdoors', I mean fully outdoors, and not in a dome with the roof open... which is like 50% outdoors.
I'm not going to get myself worked up over whether and how this delay helps the Phillies. Just play the games and win the games. Mamba mentality.
Not that big of a tell. The Phillies pushed him to Game 2 before the series started because by their own admission, he pitches better on 5 days of rest vs 4. And the numbers do bear that out. Now clearly that didn't pan out in Game 2 given how he was rocked immediately in the 1st inning, but I don't blame them for saving him til Game 6 now that they can avoid a bullpen game in Games 3 and 4. That being said, if the Astros win the next two, Wheeler will be out there to start Game 5. No way in hell is Syndergaard starting an elimination game.
Not even sure why there are folks that bring this outdated meant to be played outdoors up. Don’t have stadiums for it then. Obviously that’s not an option so have a roof. It’s 2022. The modern day There’s 0 reason why some of these top ridiculous payroll teams shouldn’t have a retractable roof
The more games there are, the longer towards winter the season goes, the more likely a roof will prevent weather issues. It should be an adjustment MLB makes if they continue to change the game based on greed.
Somewhat agreed except I think the handshake was to EXACTLY single out the Astros. That's why the championship wasn't vacated
Draft picks, fines, being vilified forever and the 2017 ring always having a big fat * next to it were enough, IMO. I have no doubt that Crane would have set fire to the rest of the league if it were anything more.
My point was.... there was far more cheating happening across the league. MLB didn't want to expose the full truth so they allowed the championship to not be vacated
