MAPLEWOOD, NJ – Good day to you and yours. The LA Dodgers won the World Series against this pundits’ hopes that had the underdog prevailing. Yes, they have been one of the top teams in baseball and it was probably overdue after being on the other end of a cheating team – Stros, Sawx. But what I’d like to talk about today first, I guess, is the failure of analytics.
I’ve been skeptical of it in the past but mostly because it ruins the aesthetic off the game for me. Now there’s more. I believe it is a useful tool in scouting players and evaluating when they will be ready for the next level. But when you have a Cy Young pitcher throwing lights-out and you pull him from the game for a reliever who is not as effective because he’s about to go through the order the third time… then enough is enough.
NOTE TO TEAMS: Please let the manager manage people. Mookie Betts even admitted he couldn’t hit Snell but was happy to tee off on the relief corps on way to the win. Then once the game was in hand it was announced Justin Turner had tested positive for the COVID and would be pulled from the contest.
CUT TO: Turner decided it was okay not only to return from COVID Purgatory, he then one-upped his social sin by taking off his mask and go celebrate on the field. This is the the new entry in the dictionary as the definition of stupid. Sorry Ben Whitney and Cam James, the virus is real and not a joke. Perhaps Justin, in that moment justified (See what I did there?) the Mets DFA’ing him some years ago.
SPEAKING OF THE METS: Hitting closer to home, the purchase of our beloved Metropolitans is about get the MLB stamp but is being threatened by a too-tall Red Sox fan, Mayor de BooBoo. For real, dude? This is what you chose to focus your energy on? Try making peace with the cops or something somewhat more meaty and let us have a decent Mets team. Is that too much to ask for? We don’t care if he’s a hedge-fund slime ball. He’s a Met fan who has suffered too much – like all of us. Let us have this one, please?!
That’s it for me. Speak your mind(s) below and come back tomorrow for Short Matt.
