Pitch Nedery, ALDS Highlights, Arozarena, Preller, GM Search and other Cubs balls

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OK. “Midnight Mass” finished and the finale didn’t have a negative impact on the experience, so it remains – as I said yesterday – an extremely thorough and highly recommended watch. Which reminds me to reiterate, however, that “The Haunting of Hill House” is one of my favorite shows of the past five years, so check it out too, if you haven’t.

• The ALDS series got off to a good start, with neither game being particularly competitive. The Rays knocked out the Red Sox after the Astros nearly knocked out the White Sox. Games two are out today, along with games one in the NLDS, so it’s a busy day in playoff baseball. You can watch from 1:00 p.m. CT until around midnight, depending on how long the Dodgers-Giants are. While every game interests me to one degree or another, I can’t help it… Brewers-Braves at 3:30 pm CT is the one that will hold my attention the most. (Come on Braves. I hope Joc Pederson hits four dingers and turns his pearl necklace every time.)

• The highlights of the Rays-Sox, including Nelson Cruz’s home run on the Tropicana Field podium, which is definitely a very professional and serious stadium:

• Here’s what the Rays do and what everyone wants to emulate:

• The highlights of the Sox-Stros, with Lance Lynn getting knocked down:

• Although Lynn did not have a good day, this is a very good point:

• Watching the game, I honestly thought Lynn was throwing a ton of sliders, which I found strange because he’s known as a guy with EXTREME fastpitch tendencies. Turns out it’s his cutter, or that’s what he calls it. I mean, it’s 87mph (versus a fastball that’s 94mph) and it breaks like a slider. So for one thing I guess you name it what the guy wants you to call it… but it’s a slider. On the other hand, Lance Brozdowski’s point is very well understood: you can’t just look at a rudimentary pitch ranking and try to draw conclusions for the dunks. And for yet another thing, I’ve always found it odd that cutters are generally classified as a type of fastball. Yes, for some guys the cutter is their staple fastball, but it’s pretty darn rare. It’s almost always in a different speed level, and with radically different movement than a four seam.

• The chat reminds me of Ryan Tepera’s newly developed cutter in 2020 with the Cubs, which helped him thrive. When we first saw the pitch in those summer camp games I think we all called it a nasty slider because that’s how it moved and how its speed was played relative to it. to his fastball. But he threw it like a cutter – at least if I understood the public discussion in the field correctly – and he called it a cutter. So we adjusted. Good, fair enough. He’s a cutter. But this year, halfway through the season, he decided to start calling it a slider – so, poof, it was a slider. Not even. Just a different, more specific name. The point here is only that you have to be a little careful with the pitch classification stuff.

• There was a Tampa Bay Rays playoff game last night, which meant Randy Arozarena had to hit a home run (and he stole home too). It’s just what he does. Get this ridiculous stat (he only played in 26 playoff games!):

• Arozarena, 26, is a very good hitter in the major leagues (.276 / .360 / .480, 133 wRC +), but in his 95 AP in the playoffs he hits a bonkers .361 / .442 .819 ( 236). It is an ISO .458. He’s Barry Bonds ‘peak in the playoffs (which, by the way, reiterates how absurdly Bonds’ peak was, chemically enhanced or not).

• Today’s epic Amazon Daily Deals are pretty busy, including the iPad, LOL Surprise (ask your young daughter, she’ll know), electric toothbrushes, and James Bond. #a d

• The longer we go without an update for Cubs GM research, the more I wonder a few things: (1) is Jed Hoyer trying to land someone who is amazed he doesn’t want it to be? another poaching organization? Usually you hear about a list of finalists at this point in a research, and it is clear that this is kept very secret; (2) Does Hoyer have a favorite candidate or two who are part of a postseason club that doesn’t want that person interviewing until they’re out of the playoffs (this isn’t is not always a problem, but sometimes it is)? ; and (3) are we really not going to hear anything until there is a full job advertisement, which could come in at any time over the next four weeks? It’s wild.

• Meanwhile, AJ Preller – who is both the president and general manager of the Padres – is still very confident in his job, according to team president Peter Seidler. This section of an Athletic article on this topic and many others almost made me spit my glass out when I got to the last sentence I’m quoting, although I’m not sure that was intentional:

Preller, according to Seidler, will have great latitude in choosing the fourth full-time director of the CEO’s term. Seidler added that the Padres do not view major league management experience as a requirement.

“AJ’s job is as secure as that of a CEO can be,” Seidler said in a telephone interview. “I believe in him 100 percent, I trust him 100 percent. And it’s not because I’m blindly loyal. It’s because I put a professional microscope on it as a frame, and I see a ton of great qualities. A lot of things that went wrong this year aren’t things you can point Jayce or AJ on, but basically some things we had to change in the manager’s chair – that’s why we made this decision.

“As far as I know AJ, for me he’s exceptional at what he does. And I am as, with my eyes wide open, as committed to him as I can be.

The Padres, who made the 2020 playoffs in a season cut short by the pandemic, this year lined up a payroll well over $ 170 million. They ran for a record almost identical to the one that made last summer a 60-game success.

Then they started to fade. Then they imploded.

Their final record, 79-83, is the best under Preller in a full season.

• Preller has been the top executive with the Padres for 7.5 seasons, hires his fourth manager, has just seen his dear team (in money and potential cost) implode, and the best record of his tenure in a full season is … Four games under .500. I really like what Preller is doing with the Padres, but man. It is an extraordinarily long leash.

• The swings get more and more hilarious as the clip progresses:

• Pretty crazy when you think about the volume of teams and the financial benefits of many of them:

• Fans of the white jersey at home rejoice:



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