Hale liked his chances of Lefties vs AJ, Heisey, SVS over a RHP chances vs Ethier and Crawford and Adrian. I don't blame him.
I love when @THINKBLUE hates someone and calls them out; it works like a charm. He gets the credit for Heisey's GS today.
That's the thing, they probably have 15 guys in that pen who can go. Then bring in the RHP to face one, let them announce the next guy and then bring back in the lefty... or if Crawford is chosen to go, leave in whomever as Crawford is historically terrible as a pinch hitter.
It will be annoying no matter what to see/hear play out. National media will likely blame the front office for not doing enough at the trade deadline(i.e. not getting Price or Papelbon). Ignoring the fact that the teams hitting has been the problem lately, not the pitching and that they got a good pitcher in Alex Wood who would be a 2/3 starter for most teams in the league. The local media will blame the FO as well, but likely come to the aid of Mattingly as he is apparently well beloved in their ranks, unless he pulls some serious bonehead moves in the playoffs again. Blogs will likely back up the front office, but also point out that there are just not many great coaching options out there right now that would be better than Mattingly while being condescending to fans with different views than them. The fans will divide into the #FireMattingly and #FireTheNerds ranks. The #FireTheNerds will not understand that it is nearly impossible to turn around/build a franchise in one year into a World Series dynamo and demand the team trade X,Y and Z players that didn't become super heroes in the playoffs and get a GM "who has played the game." The #FireMattingly camp will feel that the only reason the team lost was because of him, and not that maybe some guys under performed, some guys were hurt and then some bad luck hit at the wrong time. I can only hope that a lot of fans see that this is still a team rebuilding on the fly and though they didn't win it this year, there is still a bright future. All in all, I hope none of this happens and the team wins the whole fucking thing!
For some reason, I read that more along the lines of the Rollins/Seager season long scenario and not necessarily this game, haha
I wonder if he was really hurt or that was one of those, save him from being DFA'd, DL moves. I don't know what they did to his mechanics, but I am really happy to see the changes they made have really worked out. Him and Yimi figuring things out, with Baez finding a 100 MPH fastball, would be huge boosts going into the playoffs.
