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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:36:47 GMT -5
Didn't see one, so I thought I'd start it myself...and to keep in line with the usual thread-starter, I'll post the lineups and pitcher vs. hitter data first, instead of in the middle:
Yankees' lineup vs. Williams...stop me if you've heard this one...once again, the Yanks face a pitcher who's never pitched against them before, and he's never faced anyone on the roster, so I'll just give the starting lineup:
1. Torres (2B)
2. Soto (RF)
3. Judge (CF)
4. Wells (C)
5. Stanton (DH)
6. Verdugo (LF)
7. Volpe (SS)
8. Cabrera (3B)
9. Rice (1B)
On the bench: None
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Guardians' lineup vs. Cole:
1. Kwan (LF) is 1-10 with 1 BB and 2 K
2. Brennan (DH) is 2-6 with 1 double and 1 K
3. Ramirez (3B) is 9-22 with 1 double, 1 triple, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 4 K and 1 SF
4. J. Naylor (1B) is 2-14 with 1 double, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 K and 2 GISP
5. Noel (RF) has never faced Cole before
6. Gimenez (2B) is 3-14, 1 double, 1 RBI, 6 K and 1 HBP
7. B. Naylor (C) has never faced Coled.
8. Freeman (CF) hasn't either
9. Rocchio (SS) hasn't faced him as well.
On the bench: Hedges is 1-5 with 2 K; pitcher Lively is 0-1 with a K
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:38:27 GMT -5
In the rubber game of the series, the Guardians send tall righty Gavin Williams against the Yanks. Williams was drafted by the Indians with the 23rd pick of the 1st round of the 2021 June Amateur Draft after being the star hurler at East Carolina University that year, leading to the Super Regionals in the NCAA Tournament where they got knocked out by Vanderbilt (Williams and East Carolina's #2 Carson Whisenhunt of the Giats were beaten by Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter for Vanderbilt). He didn't pitch in the Cleveland organization in 2021, but he started 2022 in high-A ball and pitched extremely well in 9 starts (1.40 ERA, 67 K's in 45 innings, so they promoted him to AA, and again, he pitched well in 16 starts (3-3, 2.31 ERA, just 44 hits and 82 K's in 70 innings). He started last season back in AA, pitched 3 more great starts there, and the Guardians moved him up to AAA. In 9 starts at AAA, he was again outstanding: 3-2 with a 2.93 ERA, and in 46 innings, just 29 hits with 61 K's. They called him to the majors and after a small bit of struggle his first 3-4 starts, Williams was again outstanding down the stretch: 2-4 with a 2.98 ERA. They shut him down in mid-September for what was called "workload management".
This season, he suffered right elbow "discomfort" in spring trainging and was shut down. He tried to ramp up, but was shut down again, and placed on the 60-day IL in early May with right elbow "inflammation". At the end of May, he began a rehab assignment with 4 short starts in AAA, got dropped to AA to make one real start (5 innings), was called back up to AAA to make a start there, going just 4 innings, but getting his pitchcount over 80, and the Guardians activated him just about as soon as they could legally do it on July 3rd. He's been a mix of good and bad starts since then: 9 games, 4 of them 0 or 1 runs in at least 5 innings, one of them a bare minimum quality start of 3 runs in 6 innings, and 4 poor ones, 5 runs in 4 innings (twice), 3 in 3 2/3 innings (once) and 6 runs in 4 innings (once). On the season, Williams is 2-5 with an ERA of 5.02. In 43 innings, he's allowed 46 hits, 25 runs, 24 earned, 4 HR, and 15 BB, with 47 K's. His BB rate is lower than past seasons (including the minors), but his K rate is also down and his hit rate is way up so far. His WHIP on the season is a poor 1.419. Tonight is his first-ever appearance against the Yankees.
Repertoire: Williams is a hard-throwing 5-pitch righty: 4-seamer, curve, slider, cutter and change. As you'd expect of a pitcher with a high K rate, a high BB rate and a low hit rate, there are a lot of extreme reds (good) and blues (bad) in his pitch movement chart at Baseball Savant. His FB has slightly below average rise, but elite "run" in on right-hand batters (top 10% in MLB among over 400 pitchers who throw one). The curve has solid break away from righties, but very sharp drop, top 15% among about 200 MLB pitchers who use one. His slider acts almost like a cutter: much less drop than average and also less break in on lefties. His cutter does the same as the slider, which I guess is why he doesn't use it often. His change gets below average drop, and more or less average tail, and he uses it even less often than his cutter. In run values, the changeup is the least effective pitch, a moderate minus. The 4-seamer and curve have been small minuses, the slider a tiny plus, and the cutter a small plus. His FB velo is top 10% in the majors, the FB spin is above average (that's how he gets the run in on righties, I would think) and the curve spin is well below average. His extension is also elite, top 5% in MLB. His assortment so far this season: FB averaging 97 about 54% of the time, curve 80 about 21%, slidere 88-9 about 11%, cutter 91-2 about 8%, change 89 about 6%.
His barrel percentage is MLB average, the hard hit rate is above average. The line drive rate is quite high this year, the ground ball, flyball and popup rates are near average. His swinging strike rate is more or less average, the called strike and CSW rates are below average, and somewhat lower than last year. His HR rate, and HR/FB rate are both very low, the BABIP rate is very high, and the strand rate is very low. The luck factors working against him heavily (the BABIP is .339, almost 60 pts highers than MLB average), his ERA estimators think he should be in the 3.90s', rather than just over .500.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:39:25 GMT -5
Playing the name game: Gavin is another "modern" boys name. Only 7 in MLB history, none of them started their careers in the majors before 2004. The best Gavin hitter is Dodgers shortstop Gavin Lux, and the best Gavin pitcher is Gavin Floyd, who pitched 13 seasons, mostly for the Philles and White Sox, winning 10 games or more 5 straight seasons for the White Sox from 2008-2012, peaking in 2008 with 17 wins. As for Williams, the question is not who the best hitter is; with apologies to our beloved Bernie and Cubs Hall of Fame outfielder/1st baseman Billy Williams, the greatest Williams of all-time, by far is the man who's in the conversation (by the man himself, but also many others) for "the greatest hitter who ever lived", Red Sox' outfielder Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams. Ted Williams was famously once nearly traded to the Yankees for Joe DiMaggio, and as Yankees every fan knows, the story goes the deal was scuttled only when the Sox' owner Tom Yawkey woke up sober the next day thinking Boston fans would roast him alive for trading Williams for DiMaggio alone and asked the Yanks to throw in that "rookie left fielder" they had...Yogi Berra.
No, the real discussion is for who the best pitching Williams is...Gavin might become the best in a few years if he can keep his arm un-injured. Claude "Lefty" Williams might be the current standard if he hadn't decided to throw his whole career away by helping to fix the 1919 World Series as one of the "Eight Men Out" Black Sox. Devin Williams, an excellent closer for the Brewers, needs about 6-7 more good seasons as a reliever to get close. Gavin might eventually win the title, but he's a long, long way from Stan Williams, who leads all pitching Williams with 23.6 bWAR. Williams pitched 14 years in the majors, having his greatest success with the Dodgers, and 5 other teams, including the Yanks, who he pitched for when the old Dynasty won their last two pennants in 1963-4. Williams pitched in relief in the post-season for 3 teams, the 1959 Dodgers (winning a ring), the 1963 Yankees and the 1970 Twins. He won 14 games or more three straight seasons for the Dodgers in the early 60's, making the NL All-Star team in 1960 (both games). He went on to have a long career as a pitching coach, helping to turn around the career of Luis Tiant when he was the Red Sox' pitching coach in the 1970's, serving as the Yankees' pitching coach in 1981 when the won the pennant, but lost to the Dodgers in the World Series, and finally getting himself another ring as pitching coach of the 1990 champion Reds under manager Lou Piniella.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:40:45 GMT -5
Gerrit Cole starts for the Yanks, looking to extend his run of excellent starts to 4. He's 1-0 in his last 3 with an ERA of 1.59 and a K/BB of 22-4 in 17 innings. On the season, he's now 4-2 with an ERA of 4.15. In 10 starts, he's pitched 52 innings, allowing 55 hits, 24 runs (earned) 9 HR, and 15 BB, while striking out 60. He allowed 7 of those HR in two awful starts against the Mets; in the other 8 starts, he's given up just 2 in 52 1/3 innings.
Cole is making his 11th career start against Cleveland, and he's pitched well against them. He's 6-2 with a 3.07 ERA; in 67 1/3 innings, he's allowed 46 hits, 23 runs (earned), 7 HR and 18 BB with 71 strikeouts. His WHIP against them is 0.951, and their team quadruple slash line vs. Cole is also very good (for Cole): .198/.263/.366/.599. He pitched solid starts against them twice last year, going 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs, getting the W in an 11-2 Yankee rout in Cleveland in April, and getting a no-decision against them at the Stadium in May, allowing 5 hits and 2 runs and striking out 8 in 6 innings in a game the Yanks eventually won, 4-2.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:42:32 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Yanks got 3 HRs and 8 RBI from Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, and Nestor Cortes threw his 2nd straight game of 7 scoreless innings, and the Yanks coasted past the Guardians 8-1, to even the series at a game apiece. Soto hit a 2-run HR in the 1st and broke the game wide open with an excuse-me 3-run double to an open area behind 3rd. Judge hit a 2-run HR in the 3rd, and a solo HR in the HR in the 7th. Cortes got the win, getting to 7-10 on the season and lowered his ERA to 4.00. Joey Cantillo gave up the first seven runs in 4 innings and took the loss, dropping to 0-3 in his brief MLB career. The Yanks broke their 3-game losing streak and moved back to 21 games over .500 at 74-53.
In other AL East games, the Mets and O's wrapped up their series at Citifield, and the Mets blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before scoring late to win 4-3, winning the series as well. The Mets got a solo HR from Lindor in the 3rd, his 25th, and a RBI groundout by Martinez in the 5th to take the first lead, but the O's tied it the 6th on a 2-run HR by backup OF Austin Slater, just his 2nd of the season. The Mets got the lead back in the 7th on a solo HR by Vientos, his 20th, but the O's got the run right back in the 8th on a sac fly by Rutschman. The Mets homered to walk it off for the 2nd time in the series when backup OF Jesse Winker, leading off the 9th by pinch hittring for Bader, returned the favor on Slater, hitting his 12th HR off of notional O's closer Seranthony Dominguez for the Mets' win. I say notional, because he also gave up the walkoff HR to Francisco Alvarez that won Monday night's series opener. Sean Manaez pitched 7 solid innings, giving up the 3 O's runs, on just 3 hits with 0 BB and 9 K's, but saddled himself with the no-decision. Edwin Diaz pitched a 1-2-3 9th with 2 K's for the win, putting him at 5-1 on the year. Dominguez dropped to 3-4 after giving up the game-winner to Winker.
In Hoston, the Red Sox got 4 2/3 innings of 1-run ball from Cooper Criswell, then needed 6 relievers to throw the last 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to nail down a 4-1 win, winning the series against the Astros. Josh Winckowski got the win in relief with a scoreless 6th; he's now 4-1 on the season. Weissert, Bernardino and Garcia all got holds, and Chris Martin got the save (his 1st this year) because normal closer Kenley Jansen had pitched in the first two games of the series. Justin Verlander came off the IL to make his first start in over 2 months, and gave up 2 runs in 5 innings, striking out 6, taking the L to drop to 3-3. The Sox got their 4 runs on a RBI single by Casas in the 1st, a RBI doubles by Rafaela in the 2nd and 7th, and a solo HR by Hamilton in the 9th (his 8th of the season). The Astros only run came in the 1st on a leadoff HR by Bregman, his 20th.
In Toronto, the Jays got 3 in the 1st on HRs by Springer and Horwita, and 3 more in the 3rd on a 3-run HR by Clement to build a 6-0 lead, but the Reds came storming back with 2 in the 4th on a Spencer Steer HR, 5 more in the 5th to take a 7-6 lead on 4 hits, a wild pitch, an error, a HBP and a bases loaded walk, and 3 more in the 6th on back to back HRs by Noelvi Marte and India and a RBI double by Stephenson and held on for the win, 11-7. The top 3 in the Reds order did most of the damage: India and Stephenson had 2 runs, 2 hits and 2 RBI each, and Elly de la Cruz had 3 runs, 3 hits, 3 RBI and a steal. Nick Martinez gave up 6 in 4 2/3, and the scorer made an oddball decision by-passing the first 3 relievers who followed him on the "brief and inneffective" rule, even though Buck Farmer pitched a scoreless 6th, allowing just a hit, and awarded the W to Emilio Pagan for getting the last out in the 7th and a 1-2-3 8th, evening his record at 3-3. Brandon Little was charged with the tying and go-ahead runs in the 5th and took the loss, dropping to 1-2.
In Oakland, the Rays got another excellent start, this time from Ryan Pepiot, who gave up 3 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings, striking out 5 and walking 2, got 2 in the 5th on a failed play at home and a RBI double by Yandy Diaz to take a 2-1 lead, and added 2 more in the 7th on a 2-run HR by Jose Siri, and held on to win 4-2. Bleday got the A's first run on a solo HR in the 1st, and the A's got 2 on with 1 out in the 6th and the game tied at 2, but Pepiot got ex-Yankee Miguel Andujar to ground out, moving the runners up, and struck out Seth Brown to end his night, becoming the winner when the Rays got their runs in the 7th. Pepiot improved to 7-5 on the season. Manuel Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 9th with a K to pick up his first save since 2022. Mitch Spence struck out 10 but gave up all 4 runs in 7 innings and took the loss for Oakland, dropping his record to 7-9.
With the win, the Yanks jumped over the Orioles back into 1st by 1/2 game. The Red Sox and Rays stayed 6 1/2 back and 9 1/2 back, respectively, and the Jays dropped to 15 games out of 1st.
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Post by chiyankee on Aug 22, 2024 11:47:10 GMT -5
Can't watch these weekday afternoon games, so I'll be following along to qwik's play by play. Thanks Qwik!
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:47:36 GMT -5
In other East games today/tonight: The Rays are still in Oakland, wrapping up a 4-game series against the A's at the Coliseum at 3:37 pm. Jeffrey Springs (1-1, 3.86 ERA) starts for the Rays; he won his first game in a season-and-a-half last time out against the D'backs with 5 solid innings. Oswaldo Bido (4-3, 3.40 ERA) goes for the A's. Bido's gotten his game together with back to back wins, throwing 6 scorless innings in each game. The Angels fly to Toronto to begin a 4-games weekend series against the Jays at 7:07 pm. Griffin Canning (4-11, 5.41 ERA) starts for Anaheim, he's been beaten like a drum for nearly 2 months: 1-3 in his last 9 starts with a 7.35 ERA. Chris Bassitt (9-12, 4.34 ERA) hasn't been any great shakes himself lately, he's 3-5 in his last 8 starts with a 6.91 ERA, and starts for the Jays. The Astros fly to Baltimore to start a 4-game weekend series at Camden Yards at 7:08 pm. Spencer Arighetti (5-11, 5.20 ERA) starts for Houston. He's pitching better lately, but not winning much, 1-4 in his last 7 starts, but with a 3.67 ERA. Corbin Burnes (12-5, 3.10 ERA) goes for the O's; he's not been pitching very well lately, having been hit hard in 2 of his last 3 starts. The Red Sox have the day off, flying back to Boston to take on the Diamondbacks in a 3-game weekend series at Fenway starting tomorrow.
In about 20 minutes from now...at the Stadium, it's Williams vs. Cole. Preview data dump done, see you for the game a little less than 20 minutes from now.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 11:51:06 GMT -5
Can't watch these weekday afternoon games, so I'll be following along to qwik's play by play. Thanks Qwik! I will do my best to keep up with things, chi. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:07:00 GMT -5
Both team's key reliever had yesterday off, so all are ready for the game today. Advantage: Guardians. Yanks have to make sure the starters decide this game.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:08:29 GMT -5
Yanks have taken the field. Cole throwing his final warmups.
Kwan about ready to step in.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:08:56 GMT -5
Game underway...
Kwan takes a 95 FB on the outside corner, above the waist, 0-1.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:09:36 GMT -5
FB up in the zone near middle, lined over Torres into right center for a leadoff hit, Soto cuts it off, and holds it to a single. Bad start for Cole.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:12:10 GMT -5
Brennan goes after a 1st pitch FB at the top, fouls it off.
Swings over a curve going thigh high near middle, 0-2
FB about 4-5 inches above the top, Brennan doesn't chase, 1-2
Curve bends onto the outer 3rd, topped foul near home.
FB with good two plane movment at 97 finishes high, Brennan fouls it off.
hanging slider in the middle popped high to the right of the mound, Rice comes in, but Cabrera dangerously calls him off has to cut across the mound itself and catches. Weird, but the first out.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 22, 2024 12:13:55 GMT -5
Ramirez takes a curve 4-5 inches outside, ball 1.
Takes a curve down and in, ball 2
Cutter maybe got a tiny piece of the low outside corenr. <5% on Gameday.
FB in a bad spot just inside middle, barrelled too well, hard liner goes right to Soto for out #2. Thanks for at-em balls! 2 down.
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Post by presceo on Aug 22, 2024 12:14:04 GMT -5
geez Wells
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