Friend of Nordhagen

Mike Wright, you're gonna get some work tonight.

Thank goodness Dallas has been, in his description, slowly ramping up throughout the season -- so he can be at his best in August and September. I shudder to think what his less-than-best looks like.

But they've underperformed. (And I'm not counting Marshall and Foster; they were always fool's gold.)

If we think Katz should be pitching coach of the year for what he's done with Rodon and Cease, he should be fired for his work with the bullpen. I mean, not really -- but man.

Scotty Pods is Marquee-level quality on the postgame. That ain't good.

A CLOSER PUNCHED OUT THE OPPOSITION WITHOUT INCIDENT

This team looks a lot like vintage 2003-2004 White Sox right about now. The hitting approaches are absolutely miserable.

The worrisome thing is that this team seems to have a bit of a loser's mentality in the late innings -- waiting for the stupid thing to happen. I don't care how much you're "pacing yourself" for October . . . that's a hard habit to break.

Aaron Bummer, March 2021: "I want to be 90-0 with a lead after six innings."

Once, maybe just once . . . try to shoot the ball the other way -- keep your head down on the ball. Stop pulling off sliders. Make a goddamn adjustment. Jesus.

Stop. Trying. To. Pull. The. Ball.

Thank goodness Kuechel strategically ramped up so he was peaking late in the season -- would hate to see how he would look at less than peak.

Joc Pederson is at .800 OPS for the Braves . . .

I'd tell Kimbrel: you want shots at closing games, pitch a clean 8th inning once in awhile. Jesus.

I mean, Katz has to know that no matter how many of those enormous sheets he flips, it won't matter because his fucking relievers can't throw a fucking strike. FUCK.

Liam Hendriks. Jesus, man.

You know what? Seby Zavala did just fine. Bad luck there.

When last seen, Albert Abreu was eating feed corn as Dylan Cease.

You forget Foulke for Koch.

Yes, Jake had his chaw and his balls and you know Kenny had a massive woody for all that. I'm sure Jake played football in high school, too, completing the universal KW chubby.

Yes, needed to be angrier, and maybe toss in a major league breaking pitch.

Awesome at yelling, though. Great yeller.

I mean, Liam basically blew half of his save situations against us in the playoffs last year, so he's performing ahead of that stellar metric.

He's un-pitchable in October. Just can't do it at this point.

I wrote this before Gallo hit his straight, shitty, Billy Koch fastball to the moon.