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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:05:21 GMT -5
Torres leading off and Narvaez catching against the lefty Sanchez. This is what drives me nuts about Boone - The lineup has been very effective with Verdugo leading off. Why flip him and Gleyber now? And, ugh, DJ's back. That's probably 4 wasted ABs right there. I basically predicted this lineup last night, except for the Torres-Verdugo flip. Rice sits against the lefty, plus he wants to keep DJ involved, Narvaez catches day game after Wells caught the long game last night. Stanton back in against the left, Grisham sits. The Torres/Verdugo switch surprised me a bit, but Torres did hit a HR off Sanchez in that relief appearance 3 years ago. Sanches might be a different pitcher now, but that doesn't seem to matter to the analysts. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:05:52 GMT -5
This afternoon the Philies send Christopher Sanchez out to avoid the sweep. Sanchez was signed as an International Free Agent out of the Dominican Republic at age 16 by the Rays. It was a long, slow climb to the majors. His only minor league action before 2017 came in the Domincan Summer League. He pitched better each year, until the Rays finally brought his stateside at 20 for not quite 40 miserable innings in rookie ball. In 2018, he was at rookie ball again, and was promoted to low-A, despite mediocre results. He finally pitched well in low-A and high-A at age, but in just 10 starts, 13 relief games and 74 innings. He alos made a single appearance at AAA at the end of the year. That offseason, the Rays traded him to the Phillies for another decent prospect, Curtis Mead.
Sanchez' age-23 season was the COVID season of 2020, and he spent the year in development camp. He emerged in 2021 more mature, and the Phils had him at AAA. He didn't pitch great at AAA, but because the Phils had to put multiple pitchers on the COVID list, they had to bring him to the majors. He bounced up and down two more times, finished with 12 innings pitched in 7 games in Philly, include one game as the opener. He again split 2022 between AAA and the majors, bouncing up and down 4 more times. He pitched just 40 innings in the majors in 15 games including 5 starts. He started 2023 in AAA yet again, got called up for 1 game, sent back down for 6 starts and 2 long relief appearances. Finally, the Phils called him up to stay in mid-June. He was 3-5 in 17 starts with a 3.35 ERA, and finally, at age 26 and 10 long years after he signed with the Rays, he was finally a member of a major league rotation. He remained there to start the season, and by injury attrition, is now the Phillies de facto #3 starter. In 20 starts, he's 7-6 with a 3.05 ERA. In 115 innings, he's allowed 115 hits, 45 runs, 39 earned, a tiny 3 HR, with 30 walks and 91 K's.. His WHIP is a very average 1.261. He's pitched OK in his last 5 starts, a complete game 3-hit shutout against the Marlins, followed by a beating by the Cubs, followed by 3 solid starts. He's 2-3 in the 5 starts with an ERA of 4.11.
Today's start is his first against the Yanks. His only other game against them was an unsuccessful relief appearance in July of 2021, in which he came into the game with a 2-run lead in the 4th, struck out the side, but after the first two K's, he gave up a solo HR to Torres, a single and an RBI double by Greg Allen (remember him?), a walk, and a double steal before striking out Florial looking. The Yanks got 3 in the 7th, but the Phils got 3 in the 8th off of Zack Britton and Nick Nelson. The Yanks were able to walk it off in the 10th when Ryan LaMarre (remember him??) hit a flyball over the head of the drawn in Brad Miller with Gary Sanchez on 3rd and 1 out, it went for a RBI single, the Yanks winning 6-5. It's just one inning and seven batters faced, but Sanchez' ERA and WHIP against the Yanks are 18.00 and 4.00, repectively. It's silly to type this, but form must be maintained: the Yanks' team quadruple slash line vs. Sanchez is .500/.571/1.167/1.738, although his K rate per 9 against them is a perfect 27.00.
Repertoire: Sanchez is 3-pitch lefty, with a very rarely used cutter as a 4th pitch (just 3 of them this whole season). He relies on mostly his sinker and change, with the slider being his clear #3 pitch. He gets extreme movment on all 3 main pitches: the sinker gets well above average drop and elite tail away from righties of 3.6 inches more than average, the most "tail" on any pitcher's sinker in MLB this year. The change gets elite drop and tail away from righties as well (of 244 MLB pitches who throw a change, he gets the 11th most drop and the 12th most tail). His slider acts more like a 12-6 curve, sharp drop with very little break away from lefties. By run values, his change is top 8% in all of MLB in run value per 100 thrown, but he throws so many, it's the single most valuable change in MLB so far this year. His slider is a small plus value, the sinker is an even smallur mines. The man has apparently has "Bugs Bunny" change that keeps the ball in the park for him, and gets probably gets lots of weak contact and a few swings and misses. His hard hit rate is fairly high, but the barrel rate is fairly low, the FB (sinker) velocity is below average, and because it's a sinker, the spin rate is well below average. He does get nearly elite extension, which probably aids in the deception of the change. His batted ball profile is extreme; 7th highest line drive rate in MLB among 68 qualified starters, 3rd highest ground ball rate, 2nd lowest flyball rate, and with it, 3rd lowest popup rate. Hitters have a tough barrelling his pitches or even missing under them. His swinging strike rate is below average, the called strike rate is above average, and the CSW is slightly below average. As you might expect from the pitcher with the lowest HR rate in the majors, he also has the lowest HR per flyball percentage. His BABIP is considerably above average at .320 (lotsa grounders finding lotsa holes). His strand rate is slightly worse than average. His ERA estimators think his ERA should be a smidge higher, about 3.17 instead of 3.05. Because he pitches to contact, the K%, BB% and K-BB% are all considerably below average. The pitch mix so far this season: Sinker averaging 94-5 about 48% of the time, Change 85 about 34%, and slider 84 about 18%. And those 3 cutters, or about 1 every 7 games.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:11:12 GMT -5
Playing the name game: We've dealt with Christopher or Chris or Christy several times, there are a ton of them, the best being Hall of Fame pitcher from the early 20th century, Chisty Mathewson. The best contemporary Chris' are pitcher Chris Sale and hitter Chistrian Yelich, and I've mentioned this a couple of times, Yankee fans have the beloved Chris Chambliss. Of the 34 major league Sanchezes, the most valuable is pitcher Anibal Sanchez, who finished 4th in the 2013 Cy Young voting by leading the AL in ERA for the Tigers, and hung on long enough to be the 4th wheel in the Nats rotation that won it all in 2019 beind Strasburg, Scherzer and Corbin. Amazingly enough, the most valuable hitter among the Sanchezes is ex-Yankee catcher Gary, having another weak season for the Brewers as their DH/3rd catcher/occasional 1st baseman. Geez, it wasn't all that long ago that he had that great season an a half, was it? But he couldn't adjust to catching and the way teams were pitching him, and although he still hits an ocasional HR, his BAVG is .205 in just over 2000 at bats from 2018 through 2024. He's 31 already, and doesn't have too many years left. Sad.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:12:15 GMT -5
Nestor Cortes will go to the mound trying to keep the Yanks in the game and stay in for at least 5 innings for the first time in 4 starts. He got off to a good start this year, and was 3-4 with a 3.30 ERA in his first 12 starts. But he's struggled for 2 months now, going 1-5 in his last 10 starts with an ERA of 5.28. He's been especially bad on the road, 0-5 with an ERA of 6.18 in 11 starts. Having him start in Citizen's Bank with it easy-reach fences in left and left-center, and against a good Philly lineup is not exactly a recipe for success, but it's his turn and he has to start. I just hope he can make through 5-6 innings somehow to save the pen another long day, or we might see another mound appearance by Oswaldo Cabrera. On the season, Cortes is 4-9 with an ERA of 4.13. In 22 starts (tied for the league lead, yay!), he's pitched 124 2/3 innings, allowing 124 hits, 58 runs, 57 earned, 19 HR, just 24 walks, and struck out 116. His WHIP on the season was an excellent 1.056 after those 12 good starts, but it's been a poor 1.406 since, and stands at a slightly better than average 1.206. Amazingly enough, he's still 7th in fewest BB per 9 innings and 10th in K/BB ratio, but there's a limit how much a pitcher can challenge major league hitters with modest stuff.
This afternoon is just Nestor's 3rd game and second start against the Phillies. His only other start against them was his 1st start last year, and he made it through 5 innings, giving up 7 hits and 1 BB, but just 1 run, striking out 3. He got the win in an 8-1 Yanks' rout at the Stadiun. Overall, that win is his only decision against Philly. He's thrown 8 2/3 innings, giving up 11 hits, 2 runs (earned), 0 HR, that 1 BB and 9 K's. His ERA against them is 2.08, but his WHIP is 1.385. The Phillies' team quadruple slash line against him is just 36 batters' worth, but it's .314/.333/.400/.733
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:14:04 GMT -5
Yankees lineup vs Sanchez: Only 5 Yankees have ever faced Sanchez:
1. Torres (2B) has that solo HR of him; it's his only PA vs. Sanchez 2. Soto (RF) is 1-4 with 3 K's (!)
3. Judge (CF) hasn't faced him
4. Stanton (DH) hasn't either
5. Chisholm (3B) is 1-5 with an RBI and 2 K's
6. Volpe (SS) hasn't faced him
7. Verdugo (LF) is 0-1, a GIDP
8. LeMahieu (1B) hasn't either
9. Narvaez (C) hasn't, too.
On the bench: Grisham is 0-1 with 1 K and 1 BB
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Phillies lineup vs. Cortes.
1. Schwarber (DH) is 1-5 with a K
2. Hays (LF) is 5-22 with a solo HR, 7 K and a GIDP
3. Harper (1B) is 1-2 with a K
4. Bohm (3B) is 2-3 with a double
5. Castellanos (RF) is 0-2 with 1 K
6. Sosa (SS) is 1-2 with a RBI
7. Wilson (2B) has never faced Cortes
8. Stubbs (C) hasn't either
9. Rojas (CF) hasn't as well
On the bench: Realmuto is 1-4 with a BB; Turner (SS) is 1-3; Marsh (CF) is 1-2 with a double and a K; Stott (SS) is 0-2
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:14:50 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Yanks had another gut-check of a win. Gerrit Cole announced shortly before the game that because of "general body fatigue" he couldn't go, but he specifically said there was nothing wrong with his recovered elbow. The Yanks had to call up their #3 prospect, Will Warren, from Scranto to take the fill-in start. He struggled early, and got hit with a thunderous hook in the 2nd when Austin Hays caught up with a slider down and in, giving the Phils a 4-1. Warren was on the ropes, but he did not go down; he stayed in for another 3 1/3 impressive innings, showing better command of multiple pitches with good movement, and the team rallied. Jazz Chisholm, who had knocked in the Yanks early run in the 1st by beating the relay on a double play grounder, hit a solo HR off of Phillies' starter Aaron Nola in the 6th, and then landed a knockdown blow of his own, a 3-run shot in the 7th off reliever Matt Strahm. The Phils did not stay down, of course, and rallied to tie it in the 9th off another frustraing blown save by Clay Holmes. The Phils hit nothing hard until Bryce Harper's grounder to 2nd for the 3rd out, but before that, they pieced together two cheap hits, a force play, and the inevitable wild pitch by Holmes, scoring speedster Johan Rojas. The teams both failed to plate the ghost runner in the 10th. Alex Verdugo came through with a sac fly to score ghost-runner Volpe with 1 out in the 11th, but the Phils got another run home on another wild pitch and a single to left by Hayes scoring Stott. Then reliever Tonkin stiffened, and got 3 outs, pausing long enough to IBB Harper. In the 12th, the Yanks went smallball, as Chisholm got another hit, fighting off a slider down and in from Kierkering to hit a flare that dropped for a hit, moving ghost-runner Austin Wells to 3rd. He scored on another sac fly, this one by Gleyber Torres to right center. In the bottom of the inning, Tonkin got Marsh to pop to Verdugo, then whiffed Realmusto and pinch-hitter Weston Wilson to end it. The Yanks toughed out a 7-6 win in their longest game this season. The win was the Yanks 4th in a row, first time since the series in KC they've done that; their 2nd straight series win, and also on the road against two tough teams. It moved them back to 19 games over at 64-45.
In other AL East games, in the middle game of their series at Camden Yards, the O's got a 2 run single from Ryan O'Hearn to cap a 3-run rally in the 3rd, taking a 4-0 lead, and coasted to a 6-2 win over the Jays. They were backed by 6 2/3 strong innings from their ace, Corbin Burnes, going 6 2/3, giving up 4 hits and 2 runs, striking out 7th for his 11th win against 4 losses. Chris Bassitt's slump continues; he gave up 5 runs in 4 innings and took the loss, dropping to 8-10 on the season. The win was the O's 3rd in 4 games after losing 5 of 6; their slump might be over. The MAAArlins got 2 in the 1st, and starter Edward Cabrera made it into the 6th allowing just 1 run, but the Rays staged a 5-run rally, knocking him out. Ex-Yankee Ben Rortvedt and rumored but not a Yankee Yandy Diaz has 2-run singles in the inning, and the Rays tacked on 3 runs later, smoothly sailing to a 9-3 blowout. The Rays continue onward as if they didn't just trade away multiple key hitters and pitchers, they've won 7 of their last 10 and 3 in a row. The Red Sox took a 3-1 lead in the 3rd on a 3-run HR by Rafael Devers off of Mariners' ace Luis Castillo, but the M's struck back for 5 in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th, and held off a Sox rally in the 7th for a 10-6 win in the middle game of their seriee at Fenway. Jorge Polanco scored 3, and hit a 2-run HR, his 10th of the year for Seattle, who also had Dylan Moore knock in 3 with two doubles. Devers added a RBI single in the 7th, and had 3 hits and 4 RBI on the night. Castillo made it through 6 solid innings to improve his record to 9-10; recent trade pickup James Paxton ran out of gas in that 5th inning, he was charge with 6 earned runs in 4 1/3, taking just his 3rd loss this season against 8 wins.
Going into today's games, the Yanks are still 1/2 game back of the Orioles for 1st in the East, 6 1/2 up on the Sox, 8 up on the Rays and 13 1/2 up on the Jays. They still hold the first Wild Card, 5 1/2 ahead of the Sox, who are 1 game behind the 3rd Wild Card, currently held by the Royals. The Yanks still hold the 1st Wild Card, with the Twins and Royals holding the others, and the closest team not currently in the bracket is the Red Sox, now 6 1/2 back of New York.
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Post by laurenfrances on Jul 31, 2024 11:16:41 GMT -5
I had a power outage in my area. As I was confirmed everything is back to normal via agent and smart meter. A few hours later as I fired up my desktop, it blew up even though it was plugged into a surge protector. Now I have to rely on my tablet to do all transactions until I get a replacement. What a bummer.I
Tablets might likely have limited application in regards to cut and paste. Argh! I might not recognized my various accounts loaded on my computer.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:19:00 GMT -5
Elsewhere in the AL East today...the Rays play the 2nd game of their 2-game set against the MAAArlins at a very early 12:10 pm in the RiddleDome™. Miami was supposed to start Trevor Rogers, but they traded him to the O's yesterday. Then they were supposed to open with Bryan Hoeing, but they trade him later in the day to the Padres with their closer, Tanner Scott. The MAAArilins have recalled Roddery Munoz to take the start; he's 1-5 on the season with a 5.61 ERA. The Rays are starting Taj Braley (6-4, 2.43 ERA) who's 5-1 in his last 9 starts with an ERA of 0.82 and a WHIP of 0.65. He's hasn't been scored on in his last three starts, and his scoreless inning streak is up to 23 2/3 innings. That game is scoreless in the bottom of the 1st as I post this. The Blue Jays and O's play the finale of their 4-game series in Baltimore at 12:35 pm, same time as the Yankee game. The original starter was supposed to be Yusei Kikuchi, but the Jays traded him to traded him to Houson yesterday afternoon. Then it was supposed to be Trevor Richards, but the Jays traded him just before the deadline to the Twins. Lacking any real candidates, the Jays have recalled veteran righty junkballer Paolo Espino from AAA to take the start. Espino was in the Nationals rotation for most of the 2021 and 2022 season, and pitched iu relief for the Jays in 2 games in April (0-0, 7.71 ERA) The O's will start big righty Grayson Rodriguez (12-4, 3.82 ERA); he's pitch two solid games in a row since the Yanks beat him up just before the Break. At 4:10 pm in Fenway Park, the Mariners and Red Sox play the rubber game of their 3-game series. George Kirby (8-7, 3.03 ERA) goes for the M's; he's just 1-2 in his last 5 starts but has pitched well, ERA of 2.14 and a K/BB ratio (his specialty) of 33 to 5. Brayan Bello throws for Boston; he's 10-5 on the season with an ERA of 5.27. He's been so-so in his last 4 starts, including the 5-inning no-decision he took against the Yanks his last time out, giving up 5 hits, 2 BB and a solo HR in 5 innings.
And, in 15 minutes at Citizen's Bank Ballpark, it's Cortes vs. Sanchez. Pre-game stuff done, I'm grabbing a very quick lunch. See you at 12:35 or so.
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Post by bumper on Jul 31, 2024 11:31:49 GMT -5
no problem w the lineup. he wants a RH batter leading off against the LH pitcher ahead of soto & judge rather than the LH verdugo. plus gleyber's 1-1 w a HR against sanchez (though that was in 2021). and gleyber's been "warm" lately so makes sense to me.
wells is now the everyday catcher so he gets a day off day game after a night game against a LH pitcher. if you're gonna use narvaez, this is the best spot.
DJ has been terrible, would prefer rice, but he wants to get DJ in against a LH pitcher to give him the best chance for success and maybe get him going. if RH comes in, guessing both narvaez & DJ get pinch hit for.
seems like sanchez pitches to contact but has allowed only 3 HRs in 115 innings - the lowest HR rate in the NL.
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Post by inger on Jul 31, 2024 11:31:59 GMT -5
This is what drives me nuts about Boone - The lineup has been very effective with Verdugo leading off. Why flip him and Gleyber now? And, ugh, DJ's back. That's probably 4 wasted ABs right there. He gets the lineups from a computer app!  Computer apps called “Dumbass ways to build a line up around Judge and Soto”… |
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Post by nw on Jul 31, 2024 11:35:14 GMT -5
Hopefully the Yankees can get 16 or 17 runs in the first for Nestor to work with.
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Post by bumper on Jul 31, 2024 11:37:20 GMT -5
This is what drives me nuts about Boone - The lineup has been very effective with Verdugo leading off. Why flip him and Gleyber now? And, ugh, DJ's back. That's probably 4 wasted ABs right there. I basically predicted this lineup last night, except for the Torres-Verdugo flip. Rice sits against the lefty, plus he wants to keep DJ involved, Narvaez catches day game after Wells caught the long game last night. Stanton back in against the left, Grisham sits. The Torres/Verdugo switch surprised me a bit, but Torres did hit a HR off Sanchez in that relief appearance 3 years ago. Sanches might be a different pitcher now, but that doesn't seem to matter to the analysts. just saw your post qwik. saying some of the same things in my post below. regarding gleyber, he does have the HR but just think boone wants a RH bat hitting in front of soto & judge. i'm sure it'll flip back the next time a RH pitches. other than the general hatred that exists for boone, don't think it's a game breaking decision. flip a coin ... |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:37:21 GMT -5
Sanchez on the mound, throwing his warmups. Torres about ready to step in.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:38:08 GMT -5
I basically predicted this lineup last night, except for the Torres-Verdugo flip. Rice sits against the lefty, plus he wants to keep DJ involved, Narvaez catches day game after Wells caught the long game last night. Stanton back in against the left, Grisham sits. The Torres/Verdugo switch surprised me a bit, but Torres did hit a HR off Sanchez in that relief appearance 3 years ago. Sanches might be a different pitcher now, but that doesn't seem to matter to the analysts. just saw your post qwik. saying some of the same things in my post below. regarding gleyber, he does have the HR but just think boone wants a RH bat hitting in front of soto & judge. i'm sure it'll flip back the next time a RH pitches. other than the general hatred that exists for boone, don't think it's a game breaking decision. flip a coin ... Agreed, bump. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jul 31, 2024 11:39:56 GMT -5
Torres stands in...
Sinker on the low outside corner, fouled off
Change just above that, swung on and missed
Sinker wasted up and away, 1-2
Big arm action change, misses outside, Torres chases and swings inside it, K, 1 down. The move to leadoff Torres doesn't seem to have done anything.
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