MLB World Series 2018: Eh. Dodgers/Boston. Eh.

^I didn’t feel this way at first, but after four months, I’m comfortable including Gabe Kapler in the group of new analytics-happy managers who’ve done well. Some of his decisions still leave me scratching my head, but there’s no question he’s gotten more out of this year’s Phillies than either Pete Makanan (nice guy but mediocre manager) or Ryne Sandberg (absolutely terrible manager) would have.

Meanwhile, Mickey Callaway keeps doing Mickey Callaway things.

 

Matt Davidson, who has served mainly as a DH and occasionally as a corner infielder, is again pitching for the White Sox. Tony Clark needs to grow a pair and raise this issue during the off-season. It’s only a matter of time before a non-pitcher suffers a career-ending injury by trying to pitch during a blowout.

If I were a general manager, I’d strongly consider firing any manager who thought repeatedly using position players as pitchers was a good idea.

 

I like those numbers. Now if the other 4 guys can get their shit together....

 

Both the AL West and the NL West division races are going to be down to the wire.
September is going to be a fun month for baseball fans.

 

thankfully after this weekend, looks like AL East may be over. Always room for a September collapse, but 9.5 games is a decent cushion for August.

 

The NL East should be fun, too. The Phillies are a game ahead of the Braves, and the two teams will meet seven times during the final two weeks of the season.

 

Apparently this may be John Gibbons' last homestand as the Jays manager and the team will be looking for a bilingual manager, who is inclined towards analytics.

The first one seems kind of obvious with so many Spanish speaking players, but I don't know how I feel about analytics. Coming from hockey, where it is a constant fight between analytics and the "old way", I don't know what I should want in regards to that.

 

^Analytics appears to be the direction most teams are headed in for the foreseeable future, especially with the success of Cora, Boone, Kapler and Counsel and the relative lack of success of old-school managers such as Don Mattingly and Dave Martinez. Bruce Bochy has had a good run with the Giants, but that team likely won’t be competitive again until they overhaul their current roster.

 

Former Braves and Phillies outfielder Dale Murphy has written an excellent article on some of the recent controversies affecting the baseball world.

Edit: In other Braves-related news, Joe Simpson still doesn’t know when to shut up.

 

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing it

 

Montgomery & the bullpen kept the train rollin' last night.

 

It can still be a fun game:

 

I don't know why Felix was still in there after giving up 7 earned runs (10) before the HR.

 

Baseball players need to stop whining about the shift and learn to hit the ball the other way.

 

Might as well ban tackling in the NFL, or ban blocking in the NBA.

Sports leagues especially in the last 15 years have started artificially limiting defensive strategy in order to increase scoring. The only one that was actually a good change was the two line pass thing, because that was an artificial limitation to begin with.

No sympathy for Pujols. If you can't play well against a defense using good strategy, you can't play well.