Giants are out.....good job Gabe Kapler
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Sean Doolittle is entering a winter with more contractual uncertainty than he’s ever faced in his career. Unlike most ballplayers who’ve been in the majors as long as he has, he’s never been a free agent before, and because of an early extension he signed with the A’s, he never even went through arbitration. Still, the 33-year-old southpaw is primarily focused on returning to Washington, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Doolittle and his wife are entrenched in the D.C. community, and she wants to stay in Washington. Of course, Doolittle knows nothing is guaranteed in free agency, especially coming off the season he just had. Inconsistency and injury kept Doolittle from ever really looking like the guy that has been the rock of the Nats’ bullpen for years. He finished the season with a 5.87 ERA over just 11 contests, but a strong final few outings provided some hope that this season might be a blip on Doolittle’s return to health – and dominance. As a two-pitch pitcher without elite velocity, there’s not a lot of room for error in Doolittle’s arsenal. But when he’s on, he’s a guy a team can lean on in a postseason run. The Nationals know that. Whether or not GM Mike Rizzo is able to re-sign Doolittle will probably come down to price point. Everything else points to Doolittle staying in the city that’s become his home over the last 3 1/2 seasons.
- Tomas Nido confirmed that complications from COVID-19 ended his season, tweets Newsday’s Tim Healey. Said Nido via instagram: “Unfortunately, my season was cut short after getting Covid and other related complications while trying to come back. Time to turn the page and prepare for a strong 2021.” Nido appeared in just 7 games for the Mets this season, his fourth straight of seeing time in the bigs. For his career, the 26-year-old backstop holds a .197/.234/.319 triple slash across 270 plate appearances. Veterans Wilson Ramos and Robinson Chirinos handled most of the catching responsibilities for the Mets this season, but both could be free agents. The Mets hold $10MM team option for the 33-year-old Ramos and $6.25MM team option for the 36-year-old Chirinos. Ramos has a $1.25M buyout, while Chirinos’ buyout is for $1MM. Nido remains under team control – and he’s out of options – so he’ll either need to be a part of the catching picture for the Mets in 2021 or risk exposure to waivers.
- Dellin Betances holds a $6MM player option for 2021 to remain with the Mets, and it’s unclear what direction he’s leaning as of now, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (via Twitter). As DiComo notes, the option comes with a $3MM buyout, so Betances’ decision really comes down to a $3MM question. Even after a season in which he made just 14 appearances for a 5.56 ERA/4.34 FIP across 11 1/3 innings with 7.9 K/9 to 7.1 BB/9, it’s reasonable to expect someone to bid that much for a reliever with high-end upside like Betances. Still, it’s now been two seasons since Betances was a dominant arm out of the pen, and as a New York native who’s spent his entire major-league career in New York, he may look for a way to remain with the Mets. Betances averaged 93.4 mph on his four-seamer this season, a far cry from his days as a 96-97 mph high-leverage arm with the Yankees.
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Considering the Giants have a lack of pitching they did well to be in contention to the very last day. Kapler could have made some better decisions but given what he had to work with I'm just happy they were competitive this year. If they can retool their pitching staff maybe they will be in the postseason sooner rather than later.Comment -
Some awesome matchups, although sucks to have a losing record in playoffs. Brewers got lucky.Comment -
Crazy that the season is over. playoffs should be funComment -
1st round best of 3 should produce some upsets.Comment -
I'm breaking down the first round games and series now.
This is the way I see it for the moment,
Twins will beat the Astros
Twins kill RHP, and Houston has no LHP
Sano and Cruz will be mashing,
Indians will beat the Yankees, Indians have the pitching to slow down the Yanks bats.
Should be a very tight series.
Jays smack LHP, they can steal game one against the Rays Snell.
Best 2 out of 3? Too close to call.
White Sox over Oakland.
More later, I'm still working on these first 12 games.
4 games tomorrow and 8 Wednesday.Comment -
No baseball today but the Twins and Astros are up first tomorrowComment -
I don't see the Jays winning a series.Comment -
Going to be a fun playoffs starting tomorrow. Wall to wall baseball action so that will be good for sports bettors and baseball fans in general. Hopefully some surprises along the way and a long shot takes it this year.
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It’s possible Dinelson Lamet or Mike Clevinger could start Game 1 of the Padres’ series against the Cardinals on Wednesday, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. It’s fantastic news for the Padres, who saw Lamet go down with right biceps tightness last Friday, while Clevinger suffered a sprained right elbow last Wednesday. At least in Clevinger’s case, it initially didn’t seem he would be ready for the start of the playoffs, but it now looks as if the Padres’ top starters (along with Zach Davies) will be ready when they begin their first postseason series since 2006.
- The Mariners will enter the upcoming offseason with a focus on upgrading their bullpen, per general manager Jerry Dipoto (via Greg Johns of MLB.com). Seattle would “like to add three or four guys down there that can stabilize that group and give us some certainty as we move toward the end of a game,” acccording to Dipoto. The Mariners, who finished with a 27-33 record, kept their long-running playoff drought going this year thanks in part to a weak relief corps that finished last in the AL in ERA (5.92).
- Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson (calf) and center fielder Byron Buxton (concussion) had “a relatively good day” Monday, according to manager Rocco Baldelli (via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Donaldson battled calf problems in the past, but that didn’t stop the Twins from signing him to a four-year, $92MM contract in the offseason. Further calf troubles have held Donaldson to 28 games this year, though, and he hasn’t played since Sept. 25. Buxton, who also has a history of injuries, only played in 39 regular-season games. However, even without full campaigns from either of those two, the Twins won 36 games en route to a second straight AL Central title. They should be even stronger if the two are ready for playoff action.
- White Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez expects to be available for the team’s Game 1 playoff showdown in Oakland on Tuesday, Scott Merkin of MLB.com was among those to tweet. Jimenez hasn’t played since Sept. 24 because of a mid-foot sprain, but when he was able to take the field, he was one of Chicago’s most valuable hitters. As a .296/.332/.559 hitter in 226 plate appearances, the 23-year-old Jimenez helped the White Sox to their first playoff berth since 2008.
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And like I said the Jays hit LHP well.
.262 against LHP 8th best in MLB.
These stats are vs. LHP only.
Name Tm PA AB H 1B 2B 3B HR R RBI BB SO AVG Cavan Biggio TOR 88 67 20 12 7 0 1 15 9 18 23 0.298507 Lourdes Gurriel Jr. TOR 68 63 18 10 5 0 3 8 11 4 15 0.285714 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. TOR 66 58 13 4 3 1 5 14 9 8 12 0.224138 Randal Grichuk TOR 64 61 20 12 4 0 4 9 9 3 11 0.327869 Teoscar Hernandez TOR 55 51 14 7 2 0 5 9 9 4 19 0.27451 Danny Jansen TOR 48 39 4 2 1 0 1 4 6 5 12 0.102564 Travis Shaw TOR 46 44 13 8 5 0 0 5 3 2 8 0.295455 Joe Panik TOR 39 33 10 8 2 0 0 5 3 5 9 0.30303 Santiago Espinal TOR 35 34 11 8 3 0 0 3 2 0 7 0.323529 Bo Bichette TOR 31 30 10 7 2 0 1 3 8 1 9 0.333333 Rowdy Tellez TOR 30 27 9 6 3 0 0 5 4 2 7 0.333333 Brandon Drury TOR 23 23 6 5 1 0 0 2 0 0 4 0.26087 Reese McGuire TOR 18 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 Jonathan Davis TOR 10 8 1 0 0 0 1 1 3 1 4 0.125 Alejandro Kirk TOR 7 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.142857 Derek Fisher TOR 6 5 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0.4 Caleb Joseph TOR 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 Comment -
Here we go!Comment -
Twins need to get more runs inComment -
Twins really choked today.Comment -
What happend to the Cleveland pitching?Comment -
The American League West champion Athletics’ postseason got off to a less-than-ideal start Tuesday with a loss to the Lucas Giolito-led White Sox, who held the A’s to just three hits in a 4-1 defeat. One of those hits came from infielder Tommy La Stella, whom the A’s could see depart in free agency once their season ends, though they’re interested in re-signing him.
Oakland executive vice president Billy Beane lavished praise on La Stella this week, saying (via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle), “I’ve known about La Stella going back to the Braves (2014), but you don’t realize how good this guy is until you see him on an everyday basis, he just puts a good at-bat on you every single time.”
As far as possibly retaining La Stella goes, Beane stated: “I would normally say, ‘We’ll deal with it at the end of the season.’ But based on what I just said about him — well, you’d be crazy not to put him at the top of your list. I normally kind of hedge on everything because you never know, but goodness, he’s been so impressive it would behoove us to put him at the top of the list, at least have a discussion with him.”
The Athletics paid a fairly high price for La Stella when they acquired him from the division-rival Angels before the July 31 deadline, as they gave up former top infield prospect Franklin Barreto in a one-for-one deal. Barreto never got much of a chance to establish himself in Oakland, whereas La Stella broke out as an Angel a year ago and has kept that momentum going between the Halos and A’s this season. The soon-to-be 32-year-old has slashed .289/.353/.483 with 20 home runs over 438 plate appearances dating back to 2019.
Along with providing well-above-average offensive production since last year, La Stella has logged a significant amount of innings at second and third, which should up his earning power if he reaches free agency. If La Stella stays with the A’s, he probably won’t get much playing time going forward at the hot corner, where Matt Chapman should return from hip surgery in 2021. On the other hand, there’s far less certainty for Oakland at the keystone. La Stella has been the team’s top producer there, outdoing Tony Kemp and Chad Pinder.Comment -
Not feeling confident with Paddack on the mound today, hoping he proves me wrong.Comment -
Yankees looking great!Comment -
Yankees are only team that can hit right now.Comment -
Hope Jays live to see a Game 3 todayComment -
Well that was disappointing but not surprising.Comment -
Man the Reds have to be sick after leaving 26 men on base today. I know I am because I'm hoping the Reds can at least make the World Series since I have a Pennant future on them to go along with a World Series future. That was a painful game to watch although as a fan of great pitching I still find enjoyment from games like that.Comment -
The Marlins earned their first playoff win since 2003 on Wednesday with a 5-1 victory over the Cubs in Game 1 of the teams’ wild-card series, but Miami did not come out of it unscathed. Marlins center fielder Starling Marte exited in the ninth inning after taking a pitch off the left hand from Dan Winkler. It turns out that Marte suffered a fractured pinkie, per Craig Mish of Sports Grid. This could end Marte’s season, but the Marlins are hopeful he will return at some point, according to Mish.
Marte, whom the Marlins surprisingly acquired from the Diamondbacks before the Aug. 31 trade deadline, got off to a solid start in Arizona this year before his production fell in Miami. He posted an .827 OPS as a Diamondback and a .701 mark as a Marlin, leading to a .281/.340/.430 line with six home runs and 10 stolen bases in 250 plate appearances.
No matter how their season ends, the Marlins will have to decide how to proceed with Marte once the winter comes. The soon-to-be 32-year-old Marte has a $12.5MM club option or a $1MM buyout for 2021, the former Pirate’s last season of team control. It seems like a reasonable enough figure for the Marlins to put on their books in a year, but it’s worth noting the D-backs were reportedly leaning against exercising it before they traded Marte. If it’s severe enough (and there’s no indication it is), this injury could affect Miami’s plans.Comment