Outside of all of the homers, (I liked seeing Sanchez take an outside pitch and drive it hard to RC for a great HR), Louisiga came in throwing very hard. The YES gun seemed a little fast showing 99 many times (They also had Paxton at 97 consistently), but MLB had Louisiga at 98 consistently! He has a good breaking ball too, but as he comes back he has to harness that stuff and his control hasn't been as good as it can be. Another great arm that hopefully will be peaking for the postseason.
Cessa has been throwing very well too. His curve is a good one, but he needs to throw it to the correct spots and his fastball can be lively. His key is location; that is obvious with any pitcher, but when he is hitting his spots he has been very effective.
Britton was the only pitcher who struggled getting through his inning. He did get out of it, but he wasn't as sharp as he has been. Boone will need to balance rest and keeping them sharp. I would rather our relievers get consistent use regardless of the situation right now.
Other Notes:
- I don't always get the time to write my blog even after taking some notes and watching most every game. Before last nights game, I was going to write about Didi and Tauchman and how the lefties have been struggling of late. They each were 4 for their last 30, but the difference was that Didi had 3 HR's in his 4 hits and Tauchman didn't have any extra base hits. Didi is swinging at so many bad pitches and thus why his OBP is a pathetic .284 (.747 OPS because of 14 HR's in only 257 AB's). Tauchman, to his credit still has an OPS of a very good .850 to go along with his solid defense (Didi is solid defensively as well)
- Ford has his OPS at .844, but it will be hard for him to make the postseason roster. I haven't looked through everything on who should make it yet and won't until we have a better picture on the injuries. The team will be very different when Urshela, Hicks, Stanton, Betances and Severino come back! That is a studly group still waiting to help the team with the barely best record in baseball.
- Michael Kay stated that he didn't think using a game of bullpen pitchers would make sense because as each goes out there for an inning or so, someone will have a bad night and mess up the game. That is not a logical thought process because what is failing for that reliever? Allowing one run in an inning is a 9 ERA, so yeah that reliever didn't do his job, but if everyone's ERA is less than 3, one should expect allowing 3 runs or less on average (with 3 pitchers allowing one run). Keep in mind, this is different than comments I make which are why take a guy out when he hasn't thrown many pitches and is very sharp because you may get a guy who doesn't have it (when you stick to each guy only have one inning). I don't think blindly giving them each their one inning is the right thought process when you watch how they look. The matchups and how they look are the keys (how they look more so for most of our pitchers - Ottavino is more of the exception as he is much better against righties.)
- I am not sure what Severino will look like, but I would go with a bullpen approach and possibly go with Severino for 3 innings and turn it over to the pen. Right now the talk is 3 starters with Paxton, German and Tanaka being the starters. The way things play out matters a lot but the more I see the reliever starting (Green), the more I think it makes sense in big games. Why start a weaker starter; I want my best arms in there so that I am not hoping my weaker guy doesn't get me too far behind.
- Boone will have some very tough choices as we get everyone healthy; but I look forward to getting everyone back!
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