"Hating the Yankees like it's a religion since 94'" RIP Mike.
"It's also a simple and indisputable fact that WAR isn't the be-all end-all in valuations, especially in real life. Wanna know why? Because an ace in run-prevention for 120 innings means more often than not, a sub-standard pitcher covering for the rest of the IP that pitcher fails to provide. You can't see value in a vacuum when a player does not provide full-time production."
Sandy Leon has a 3.23 Catchers ERA, the lowest for a Qualifying Catcher since 1974. - Sean McAdam
Like he said, amazing for all the Great Pitchers that Varitek caught. Not worried about his hitting. In the Play-offs its all about Pitching.
Last edited by OH FOY!; 09-14-2018 at 07:53 AM.
112 SB
30 CS
79%
I believe that is our highest SB% evaaah!
Looking at all the Play-off teams we might face, only Cleveland runs. Yanks, Oakland, Houston, don't run. Cleveland might be eliminated by Houston. So wouldn't worry about other Opponents stealing this Off-Season. at this point.
Last edited by OH FOY!; 09-14-2018 at 08:00 AM.
Offense: 1st in MLB in runs scored (by almost 50 runs)
Defense: 1st in the AL in UZR/150 (.5 better than CLE and almost double or better any other AL team)
Starting Pitchers: 3rd in MLB in ERA- (83 with CLE at 78 and Hou at 79 only one can face us.)
Relief Pitching: 3rd in AL in xFIP- (93 with Hou at 77 & NYY at 80)
SBs: 2nd in AL with 112 (CLE at 121 is 1st, Hou is 21st, NYY is 24th & OAK is 30th
Granted, I cherry-picked some stats. We are not good on DRS or some base running metrics, but we are a nicely balanced team.
Cora is in audition mode with his relievers, which is probably why he left Kelly in as long as he did. I appreciate all that Kelly has done for us this season, including the plunking of the Yankees punk, but he is too inconsistent to be on the postseason roster.
I read yesterday that Brasier and Poyner rank 2nd and 3rd out of 627 in getting batters to swing at pitches that are out of the middle of the zone, so the batters are not doing a lot of damage against them. Poyner is also getting a lot more playing time recently than any other lefty. I'd be surprised if those two are not on the postseason roster.
When the aggressiveness works, like it did last night, it's very fun and exciting to watch. Personally, I love the philosophy.
We just have to keep in mind (not speaking to you particularly), that this aggressiveness will often lead to outs on the bases. You live by aggressive base running, you might also die by it.