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2025 Wild Card Round


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ESPN has the absolute worst broadcasts. Last night, they cut away from an Ohtani lead off home run to show a WNBA talkshow. Later on, they were showing a replay while Tommy Edman was hitting a home run. 

Tonight, I'm simply annoyed by the dumbass broadcasters. Trevor Story had a pretty good game and the room temperature IQ broadcaster thought he was very clever talking about Story's "storyline season" (get it?)...except the dude put up .740 OPS this year after a couple of years putting up .900+ OPS and is one of the most overpaid/oft-injured players in baseball. Hardly a storyline season. Maybe he meant it's like the tenku in the Japanese kishōtenketsu four-act play structure, a "twist" of sorts, but I sort of doubt it. I think the guy simply couldn't resist the lowest brow play on words imaginable regardless of whether or not it made sense. Worse than Schriffen. 

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37 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Fangraphs gave him 2.3 WAR, baseball-reference gave him 1.5.

With his offense, should be at 3-4.5 every year.

 

Reds won't survive that blow bases loaded no outs situation.

Edited by caulfield12
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Despite their regular season record, I think the Dodgers are by far the best team in MLB.  They definitely overmatched the Reds whose pitching was never that good to begin with, but collapsed regardless and never had much of an offense. LAD's offense is too high-powered. I think they will do the same to the Phillies unless it turns into a slugfest. But the Dodgers starting pitching is all healthy and converting Kershaw and Sasaki to high leverage relievers might be the difference maker in such games. 

Ya never knows what happens in the MLB playoffs, small samples and all, but I wouldn't bet against them. If the Yankees can beat Boston, I suspect they are the team to beat in the AL.

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3 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Despite their regular season record, I think the Dodgers are by far the best team in MLB.  They definitely overmatched the Reds whose pitching was never that good to begin with, but collapsed regardless and never had much of an offense. LAD's offense is too high-powered. I think they will do the same to the Phillies unless it turns into a slugfest. But the Dodgers starting pitching is all healthy and converting Kershaw and Sasaki to high leverage relievers might be the difference maker in such games. 

Ya never knows what happens in the MLB playoffs, small samples and all, but I wouldn't bet against them. If the Yankees can beat Boston, I suspect they are the team to beat in the AL.

I would agree with this except I think their bullpen is collectively bad right now. It's like a psychological thing. Unless their lineup keeps putting up a ton of runs like this, I'm not sure how good they'll be at holding leads. 

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18 minutes ago, chw42 said:

I would agree with this except I think their bullpen is collectively bad right now. It's like a psychological thing. Unless their lineup keeps putting up a ton of runs like this, I'm not sure how good they'll be at holding leads. 

Right, if their starters can't go deep, they might be in trouble. They had two great outings from their starters in a 3 game series. Might not have the same fortune against the Phillies offense across 5 games. Wonder if our old friend Kopech will be back from injury, he will certainly help.

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Mariners are the team this year.

MLB should be embarrassed, as should the Mets.

Lopsided matchups like this Dodgers/Reds one are not good for the sport.

 

And Philly's down Wheeler. Luzardo and Nola have been decent down the stretch...but LA still has the most pitching talent...overall.

 

  1. Cristopher Sánchez
  2. Ranger Suarez
  3. Jesús Luzardo
  4. Aaron Nola
Edited by caulfield12
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10 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Right, if their starters can't go deep, they might be in trouble. They had two great outings from their starters in a 3 game series. Might not have the same fortune against the Phillies offense across 5 games. Wonder if our old friend Kopech will be back from injury, he will certainly help.

They're not just going to throw Kopech into a matchup like this after all his down time this year...and not facing big league hitters in real game situations recently.

Henriquez Sasaki and Treinen are your RHers in the bullpen, along with Sheehan.

Edited by caulfield12
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2 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

They're not just going throw Kopech into a match up like this after all his down time this year...

Henriquez Sasaki and Treinen are your RHers in the bullpen, along with Sheehan.

Why not? He's way (way) better than Treinen and much more tested than Henriquez or Roki. Kopech was excellent in his limited time this year. He was very good for them in the postseason last year en route to a WS. Well, the peripherals aren't so great, but his stuff is as good as ever.

I think Mikey figured something out after he was relegated to the bullpen/traded. 

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Watching the Dodgers' fans faces in the 8th inning these past 2 nights has been hilarious. You know they've seen some s%*# recently. 

Edited by chw42
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39 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Why not? He's way (way) better than Treinen and much more tested than Henriquez or Roki. Kopech was excellent in his limited time this year. He was very good for them in the postseason last year en route to a WS. Well, the peripherals aren't so great, but his stuff is as good as ever.

I think Mikey figured something out after he was relegated to the bullpen/traded. 

But Roberts still trusts Treinen to an extent.

 

Kopech rejoined the team on Sept. 1 after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Since then, Kopech has walked eight batters over 2 2/3 innings of his last four appearances.

“He’s going through some things physically,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “Obviously with what we’ve seen, it hasn’t been consistent. Certainly it’s pitchable, those are his words, but it’s just not the Kopech, the standard, that he is as a pitcher.”

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30 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

But Roberts still trusts Treinen to an extent.

 

Kopech rejoined the team on Sept. 1 after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Since then, Kopech has walked eight batters over 2 2/3 innings of his last four appearances.

“He’s going through some things physically,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “Obviously with what we’ve seen, it hasn’t been consistent. Certainly it’s pitchable, those are his words, but it’s just not the Kopech, the standard, that he is as a pitcher.”

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I think Roberts will play him if he's healthy. Even in a lower leverage role, he helps their bullpen considerably. As far as righties go, I think he gets a spot before Henriquez or Sheehan. Maybe not Roki if he's truly just a bullpen piece these playoffs. Sasaki and Kopech seem a lot a alike to me in terms of their stuff. I mean, he pitched some important innings in the World Series. If the starters they're relying on blow up, there's plenty of room for all of them. This is assuming Kopech is even ready to go in time. Treinen as a closer just feels like playing with fire. The guy has just not been good this year, but I think you're correct in that Roberts trusts his veterans.

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2 hours ago, nrockway said:

Why not? He's way (way) better than Treinen and much more tested than Henriquez or Roki. Kopech was excellent in his limited time this year. He was very good for them in the postseason last year en route to a WS. Well, the peripherals aren't so great, but his stuff is as good as ever.

Eh. He's running a 1.73 WHIP with more than a walk per inning (and more walks than Ks) on the season...But even worse, 6.75 ERA/3.00 (!!!) WHIP since his return from the IL in September.

62 of 117 pitches for strikes, and a lot of the misses are bad. I remember watching him walk the bases loaded with 1 out in low leverage, they had to burn Vesia to strand his runners.

And that's all after ramping up with a rehab stint that obviously wouldn't be available to him now (though he was getting lit up in AAA too, 18 ER in 11.2 innings with a 2.91 WHIP).

In any case, he's so banged up that the team apparently didn't even know what to put on his IL designation at the end of the season so I don't think he he'll be healthy (and don't see why they would trust him even if he was). Sucks for him going into free agency this year.

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16 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

Eh. He's running a 1.73 WHIP with more than a walk per inning (and more walks than Ks) on the season...But even worse, 6.75 ERA/3.00 (!!!) WHIP since his return from the IL in September.

62 of 117 pitches for strikes, and a lot of the misses are bad. I remember watching him walk the bases loaded with 1 out in low leverage, they had to burn Vesia to strand his runners.

And that's all after ramping up with a rehab stint that obviously wouldn't be available to him now (though he was getting lit up in AAA too, 18 ER in 11.2 innings with a 2.91 WHIP).

In any case, he's so banged up that the team apparently didn't even know what to put on his IL designation at the end of the season so I don't think he he'll be healthy (and don't see why they would trust him even if he was). Sucks for him going into free agency this year.

1.54 ERA in 35 IP is simply good. I noted the peripherals (in low volume). His stuff is absolutely the same as it has been. Not using him in place of rookies/second year players would be a mistake. And I find it doubtful if he does actually return. He pitched 4 games in the World Series last year and closed out 1, below in the bullpen behind Treinen. I find it unlikely that Blake Treinen is the high leverage choice before he is this postseason. This season, post September, Yates/Treinen/Scott were getting that closer role before he was. All three of those guys suck/collapsed/can't be trusted. I think they all actually have negative WAR (checking: they have -0.6, -0.6, -0.5 bWAR).

Sasaki probably gets the 'closer' role before Kopech does I would think. But I might say with confidence that Kopech is a very useful pitcher to LAD in some capacity, probably a high leverage one...again, assuming he returns.

Edited by nrockway
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Counsell had righty Mike Soroka ready, but he decided against going to him. It was a curious move, considering the Cubs used an opener to start Game 2, purposely allowing Imanaga to avoid facing Tatis and Machado in the first inning.

That wasn't the case in the fifth.

"I don't put a manager's cap on," Machado said when asked if he was surprised that he got to face Imanaga in that situation. "I'm 0-for-6 at that point. So yeah, I'm not thinking about that. For myself, I was just thinking about trying to get to Imanaga."

espn.com

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2 minutes ago, nrockway said:

1.54 ERA in 35 IP is simply good. I noted the peripherals (in low volume). His stuff is absolutely the same as it has been. Not using him in place of rookies/second year players would be a mistake. And I find it doubtful if he does actually return. He pitched 4 games in the World Series last year and closed out 1 behind Treinen. I find it unlikely that Blake Treinen is the high leverage choice before he is. This season, post September, Yates/Treinen/Scott were getting that closer role before he was. All three of those guys suck/collapsed/can't be trusted. I think they all actually have negative WAR (checking: they have -0.6, -0.6, -0.5 bWAR).

Sasaki probably gets the 'closer' role before Kopech does I would think. But I might say with confidence that Kopech is a very useful pitcher to LAD in some capacity, probably a high leverage one...again, assuming he returns.

Treinen's 1.93 ERA in 46.2IP last season is also good, but If you're holding his recent performances against him then you can't just ignore Kopech's.

I disagree that the stuff is the same. Fastball is slower/straighter/wilder with a career worst K% and he doesn't throw a slider anymore. Career high pitches per batter/inning because his misses are too uncompetitive to get chase. Between OKC and LA, he has walked 33/122 (27%) of batters faced this season.

And that includes his stats before the knee surgery, he's been even worse since then. 9 walks (and a HBP) vs 5Ks across ~32 batters in 5.1 rehab innings in AAA. 9 walks vs 4Ks across ~24 batters in 4 MLB innings.

A guy with twice as many walks as Ks, allowing a free pass to every 3rd batter and 3 baserunners per inning, just does not scream postseason leverage arm to me.

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