BRONX, NY: You’re probably here expecting a boring 1,500 words on the Yankees’ chances. Not today my loyal reader(s)… But I’ll find some way to bore you, rest assured. Let’s go with the Yankees ALCS Roster and stupidity re the NFL Flag-Fest & Pass Interference Challenge Rule.
Houston, We Have a Roster Problem
Instead of opting for super utility speed man Tyler Wade and big bopping Luke Voit, the Yankees decided to carry 13 pitchers. Aaron Hicks was a surprise add and CC Sabathia showed enough to get on the roster. Both moves were mistakes, if you ask me. I guess I can see rolling the dice with Hicks, but CC seems like a purely sentimental choice. We’re here for championships, not Lifetime movies. Everyone doesn’t get the Peyton ending, ask Eli.
A bench of Maybin, Hicks, and Romine is not too dynamic. If an infielder gets hurt, they’d have to put their DH in the field or put Romine out there somewhere. And with Stanton getting dinged up YET AGAIN, they were really hamstrung in Game 2.
They really only had one available move and used it to pinch hit Hicks for Maybin (who was in left because of the Stanton injury). Hicks hit the ball hard, but they were done after that. Stanton could pinch hit but couldn’t play defense. And Romine will only go in if they run for Sanchez.
When Encarnacion got to second in the top of the 11th, they couldn’t even pitch run for him. In the unlikely event that Sanchez got a single, it would have been tough for Edwin to score. I know CC got Brantley out, after starting him with three balls, but surely Wade would be more useful on the roster. Wade can run and can pretty much play any position. If they wanted CC as a situational lefty, does Tyler Lyons and 6.39 ERA really need to be on there? If he gets in a game, let’s just say things did not go as planned.
Easy Outs Edwin and El Gary
Speaking of Sanchez, he and Edwin are looking like easy outs right now. Just like my dog Chief will always fall for the pump fake with a tennis ball and run a few steps before he realizes I didn’t throw it, Sanchez will always swing at the slider way out of the zone with two strikes.
With Edwin on second and Sanchez battling Justin James in a ten pitch at bat, James kept throwing fastballs. Sanchez was taking good swings, but fouling them off. Sure enough the slider finally came, 3 feet outside and in the dirt, and Sanchez whiffed it at. He somehow convinced the ump he tipped it, but the ump punched him on a make-up call on the next pitch after seeing the replay on the jumbo-tron.
Flag Football
There’s been an average of 9.16 flags per game in the NFL, compared to 7.88 in 2018. That’s significant, but it feels like there have been a load more. The Cowboys marched down what would have been a game tying score against the Jets had they converted the two pointer on a drive that seemingly had a flag on every play. Jarvis Landry of the Browne was flagged for throwing a perfectly good block for some reason. It’s hard to watch.
But for some reason the new pass interference challenges never seem to be reversed even when they’re pretty obvious. It seems like it has to reach the egregious level of the Saints/Vikings play for it to be called. Well, someone should have told the coaches.
Going into Week 6, coaches had lost 20 of the last 21 pass interference challenges. The Giants were victimized on Thursday night against the Pats when a clear penalty was allowed to stand as a no call. Well, “victimized” might be a strong word as they had no chance of actually winning the game. The NFL just likes to annoy it’s fans. No other explanation makes sense.
That’s it for me. Irregardless, Angry Ward will be here tomorrow and you shouldn’t misunderstimate him. Supposably, it will be unequivocably and ginormously funny and will prolly make us literally die with laughter. Follow us on Twitter at @BenWhit8, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
