October 9, 2025 • 51 mins
Doug breaks down another Yankees postseason disappointment — from roster flaws to a lack of grit — and explains why the issues go deeper than Aaron Boone. He also looks around the league as the Division Series wraps and the Championship Series takes shape, analyzing what’s working for the Dodgers, Brewers and the teams still fighting for a ring.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm your host, Doug
mc kavich. I figured this would be a good time
to do a Yankee breakdown. I have a lot of
friends that are Yankee fans. I played for the organization
at one point in two thousand and seven. I think
it's a hot topic. I think the Yankees are either
you're either a fan or you can't stand them. So
(00:24):
here we go. This is coming off of their alds
loss to the Blue Jays, and I've just had enough
of listening to social media and listening to fans and
friends of mine who talk about how Boone's got to
get fired. At the end of the day, this is
an organizational problem goes beyond the manager. Look if it's
(00:48):
twenty twenty five people, If you truly feel that managers
make their own decisions, I don't understand what rock you've
been living under for the past several years. These games
are scripted from the front office. There are some managers, yes,
that have a little more say in what goes on
(01:12):
according to the game. They meet before the game, after
the game for hours with general managers and analytical departments, scouts, coaches.
They get input, they put it all together, but at
the end of the day, it has to be agreed
upon before it is put into motion. So let's just
break this down. I think you saw last year's season
(01:34):
end on poor defense, and this goes on beyond just
the Yankees. The postseason in general have had a lot
of routine, basic mistakes that have cost teams. And that's
what good teams do. Teams that make the postseason capitalize
our mistakes. If you look at the way this Yankee
philosophy is, I think it's been this way for a
(01:57):
long time. You can go back to the glory days
of the ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand, back to
back to back World Series champs teams. Those teams just
wore you down. They grinded you. They had grinders, they
had all they had superstars, they had a collective group.
They had a pitching staff that was out of this world,
a solid bullpen. Look, it's hard to compare to that group.
(02:20):
That group is arguably you can put those teams up
with any team in the history of the game. They
did everything right, they did everything well, led by a
Hall of Fame manager and Joe Tory. So it's hard
to compare any team to that, So go move forward
two thousand and two. I think from that generation on
(02:43):
that era on, they were better you could say, position
wise than they were in the early late nineties and
early two thousands. Two thousand and two posts. You know,
Jason Johnby, you go down the list just because you're
better players doesn't mean the the team is better. And
I think that goes into where they are now. I
(03:04):
think this roster is full of really good to great
to elite players. Obviously Aaron Judge. The list goes on
and on, they get great players. Stanton's a postseason you know,
animal Hall of Famer four hundred and fifty almost five
hundred homers in the big leagues. It's just the way
it's broke down. If you look at it, This roster
in the Alds had holes everywhere. You carry three catchers.
(03:29):
All three catchers are left handed, left handed hitters. It
just doesn't make any sense. These are cardinal sins you
make when you put a specially a postseason roster together.
You have one left in the bullpen. One It makes
it really hard. I know your rotation, I know you
have Max Freed Rodan, they're both left handed. You need
(03:49):
more than one left in the bullpen just for matchup.
Especially the way the game is today with the platoon systems,
you force other managers to make decision they might not
have to make, or they don't want to make early
in the game, knowing what's going on. In certain critical
situations of a game, you look at you have four
(04:10):
or five dhs on your team, it's just hard to do.
Look at the teams, they're starting to be a to me,
a shift, maybe hopefully in the game itself. Look at
the Brewers. Look at what they lost to the Blue Jays.
A bunch of guys who and I'm so tired of hearing, well,
(04:33):
we don't want to just make contact. Well, no one's
ever talked about making soft contact. Putting the ball in
plate does not mean we're trying to just weakly put
it in play. Shorten up your swing. Take what the
game gives you. I've always used that line. If you
take what the game gives you, you'll never be wrong.
It doesn't mean you'll execute it, but if you think
(04:54):
along the lines of what the game is giving you,
you'll never be wrong. Look at what the Blue Jay.
How many guys hit six hundred and there's a couple
of guys six hundred and four hundred. All all are
doing was hit the ball where he was pitched. There's
sometimes something to be said that going up there and
being one dimensional it's tough. I mean, take Volpi for example.
(05:14):
I thought this year, I've heard it so many times
and Reddit so many times from all the gurus on
the internet, he needs to pull the ball in the air,
because that's where his numbers say he's successful. Well, yeah,
most guys are. They do hit the ball harder to
the pull side. Just reality not many guys can hit
the ball just as hard the other way as they
(05:34):
do to the pul side. You can't go up there
and think to the pull side. If you looked at
those Yankee guys mostly in the end of the last
night's game, they had a lot of quick front hips,
which means you're trying to yank the ball. I thought
Volpi was on something new. I thought I gave him credit.
He had a tough year. Bo he comes in the
Boston Series, hits an oppo homer. Okay, perfect, he's staying
(05:59):
on the ball. Good, he might go off. And then
as they started to see it go, as the games
got longer, and all of a sudden he went into
the Blue Jay series. My goodness, Grace's quick front hip
quitting on the ball way which he could drive out.
He just proved it the other night against the Red Sox.
You just see quick front hips, and when you're trying
to lift and pull the ball in the air, you
(06:21):
have what he did, a ton of punch outs, meaningless
at bats. You literally this line up the way it's configured. Now,
there's a lot of soft landing spots for an opposing manager.
There's a lot of them, and there's only so many
times you can continue to keep doing this. Yes, I
know the coal injury hurt. Yes, not many teams can
(06:44):
lose their ace and still function. But you're the Yankees.
You had Max Free. Not many teams that lose their
ace have a Max Freed to back them up. So
you did. Have You made it to the postseason. To me,
this team is built to make it to October. It's
not built to win in October. It's built to get there.
And if you're the Yankees, and if you're a Yankee fan,
(07:05):
all you talk about are championships. You don't talk about
getting there. You don't talk about making the playoffs. You
talk about winning the final game you play, And for
the love of God, stop blaming Aaron Boone. He's doing
He has to work with what's given to him. There's
only so many things he can do. That's his guys
not playing defense. Guys, boot and routine ground balls are
(07:29):
not on Aaron Boone, They're not. Look. I played for
the Yankees in two thousand and seven. We had a
Rod Jeter Cano, We had a bunch of pacade of
the list goes on and on. That spring training was
like a country club. Well because there were pros that
got ready to play. They had a lot of guys
that believe in fundamentals, and we did it right. We
(07:51):
got better, We got ready individually. We didn't do a
ton of team fundamentals because we didn't have to. We
were proven that we could do that. Watched it again.
Round ball to first, No one covers first. Rice dive
dives feet first for some stupid reason instead of diving
head first. Look, he's not a for real first baseman.
You have a first base back and forth, which Goldschmidt Rice.
(08:15):
You can't really move the d A judge should be
a d h, especially now with his elbow. You want
to get Judge off his feet at some point to
length in his career and for a group of people
that say batten average doesn't matter, and then you want
to crown Aaron Judge and kudos he had a hell
of a postseason or whatever. He hit over four hundred,
(08:36):
five hundred, whatever it was. But you can't tell me
that batting average doesn't matter and then turn around and
praise him for having a great postseason he hit. Yes,
the three run homer he hit in Game three was huge,
but that was given to them by shoddy defense. He
hit it absolutely tough pitch to hit right on right.
(08:58):
It's not as hard as what people make out to be.
Same arm side, you can clear on that. The point is,
if you're gonna praise him from now, he doesn't have
an October like he got over the hump with singles
and doubles but not a lot of RBIs correct me
if I'm wrong, Him and Bellinger hit the same amount
of homers in the postseason. If you say tell me
(09:19):
singles don't matter, then they did it. They did the
same amount of damage. Now, obviously Judge's presence means something,
and if you want to blame boone, blame him for
non intentionally walking Vladimir Carero on the first inning. Look,
I can't stand that. I don't even like I don't
even like intentionally walking Judge with nobody on. It's hard
(09:42):
to hit a homer, even for Aaron Judge. It's not easy.
That's why he's the best in the game. He's sixty
of a year. But still, what do you What message
does that send to your own pictures that not only
do I think he can't you can't get him out,
you can't keep me in the yard. That's a that's
a mental block that you're just throwing out there to
(10:03):
your pitchers, going, we don't have anybody good enough to
even keep this guy in the yard. But at the
same token, you flip flop the other side. Laddy Jr.
Is up in the first inning with a guy's second
first base is open. You went right at him, and kudos.
He hit a great pitch, but he's higher than a firecracker.
(10:25):
With homers, damaged, singles, doubles, RBIs everywhere. And if you
look at the way those games went, it took the
Blue Jays to give the Yankees extra outs, which I
give them credit for good teams capitalize on extra outs,
Yes they do. All these teams do in the postseason,
that's why they're there. But it took extra It took
(10:48):
a drop pop up in left field, a bad decision
by the left field of by the Blue Jays, and
a ground battle second that that's how they scored four
or five of their runs. So the way, the way,
this philosophy is a homer or die. It just it
just there's a way to get more athletic. To me,
it's it's got to start from the top. Your philosophy
(11:10):
has to change. How many times do you have to
see it and let alone this time it was put
in your face, not only last year, but this year
too by a team in your own division who you
had bad blood with going into So to me, this
is an organizational thing that has to philosophy that has
to start to shift. I mean, you look at the
post game last night. That's about as blatant as Derek
(11:34):
Jeter can be. Meaning that he's still involved with the Yankees,
so he can't really go scorched earth on him. But
what he said, there's a lot of validity to it.
Even when Alex said there's a lot of validity to it.
There's a lot of things that they said that they're
not wrong. They're not wrong, and heck, think about it.
(11:56):
It took them a magical pitching performance it's never been
seen before by a rookie against the Red Sox, and
a bloop ball that should have not have fallen for
a Bellinger double, and a ground ball in the first
base in the end of the year. That's the reason
why they even made it this far. So if you
can't tell and see the glaring mistakes that are made
(12:19):
that the organizational philosophy that they're doing does not work
in October and you're seeing more teams shift away from it,
and they just threw it in your face and you
can't do anything about it because the way you're configured.
So this goes beyond this goes beyond firing Aaron Boone.
If you fire Aaron Boone, what changes Nothing. Nothing. He
(12:42):
can't pitch, he can't hit, he can't field it for him.
He's there to take grenades for the front office, and
he's done a hell of a job at it. And
anybody doesn't understand that is foolish. So stop with the hole.
Boone doesn't know what he's doing. These decisions are mapped
out before the game even starts. Pitching matchups, who's the
(13:05):
first call a bullpen? How many how many pitches the
guy's gonna throw, how many times someone's gonna face somebody.
And it's not just Boone, it's everywhere. It's everywhere, It's
not just the Yankees. So just start to realize it's
twenty twenty five people and the managers aren't making these
decisions on their own. You know, this goes even back
to the Red Sox Yankee series. You sat Jazz chishm
(13:28):
in Game one, Dude thirty thirty, and I know Rosario
destroys left handed pitching. I have more of a problem
with Cavallero playing than Rosario. Obviously, Rosario has left these
very very well. Absolutely could have put them at third.
You take out one of them. I think Volpe and
Jazz give you some athleticism on the basis that you
(13:52):
need that you might have to steal a base, you
might have to go first at third, not saying the
other two can't, but the way that game look against
Garrett Cochet, Yes, I know he's devastating against lefties. He's
devastating against righties too. He's gonna be a tough matchup
whether you hit left handed or right handed. It's all
it is to it. But you also have to admit
(14:13):
when you take him out and you put the lefties
in there, knowing if the game's close, you have Chapman
in the wings. So when your closer is left handed,
it makes it tough on the manager to make a
decision whether I pull him out or keep me in
or whatever. You're gonna have a matchup at some point
that you're not gonna like. There's two theories to that.
(14:34):
It's either I'm gonna try to beat the starter or
save my bullets for the end. For the end, and
you know, I just have a hard time. There's no
I know Jassett a lot more homers against rights and
against lefties, but he can click a lefty too, and
he's probably your best defender out there as far as
at second base. So just decisions like that are talked
(14:56):
about before the game. And that's not Aaron Boone, not
Aaron Boone's decision to make, you know, having there's just
so many they they lack athleticism, and that's more importantly,
they lack a grit where's their grit coming from? Where
is it? I don't see it? You know that if
(15:18):
you want to compare it to the past, the Yankee
teams of of prior, you know, Derek had grit. Derek
was grit. You know, you look at the the when
Nick Swisher went over there and Oh nine, that had
a big play in it. That that had a lot
(15:38):
to do with their mentality. You look at the teams
that are in there. You can't look Brewers gritty, Blue
Jay's really gritty. He just doesn't seem like they have
they have that grit that you need. Who's gonna say,
you know what? I know we're facing But so what,
it doesn't matter. It just seems like they're lacking something
and it's not in that It's not in that group's DNA.
(16:02):
You know, it just doesn't it. Don't see it. You
see it in their pitching staff. I think Max Freed's
got it. Rondon's got it. He's learned how to harness it.
But that mentality of it doesn't matter. Like that's so what,
mentality doesn't matter. We'll figure it out. You know, the
guy's been throwing seven shot out of each We're gonna
find a way. I'm gonna lay a bunt down, I'm
gonna hit the ball the other way. I'm gonna try
to I'm I'm a steal second, I'm gonna work a
(16:24):
dirt ball. I'm gonna be aggressive. On the basis, they
just lack that ability to beat you. Teams that are
dangerous in postseason can beat you a number of different ways.
And if you keep the Yankees in the yard, which
is I know it's hard to do, but if you
keep them in the yard and make your manufacture runs,
(16:46):
they're very one dimensional and most teams that win the
World Series are way more than one dimensional. Look at
the Dodgers. Yes they have superstars everywhere, but Tommy had
In finds a way. Yes he clicks homers two, but
he finds a way. Keiky Hernandez one of the best
October players in the history of the game. He elevates
(17:10):
his game in October every single year. There's grit, there's
grit to that. You just don't see that with New York.
And that's a that's a that's a personality trait that
I think is lacking severely in New York. Last point
on the Yankees roster construction is Where are the where
are the where are the wedge breakers on the kickoff team?
(17:33):
Where are the where are the complimentary pieces? I think
sometimes you need those guys who are or willing to
do the little things. Where are the Brent Gardners of
this group? They lack those guys. Everybody there seems like
they want to be a star. You have to leave
your star let your stars be stars, Judge Stanton, I'm
(17:54):
not saying the other guys aren't, but you need a
good mix of both guys that are willing to do
the dirty work to make sure that those guys have
a chance to shine. I just feel like, you know,
when you get brought to New York, you have to
know your role and your role, whether it's to be
the guy or to be one of the guys who
(18:17):
makes it easier for the guy. And I think that's
the one thing that they've they've missed out on. They've lacked,
you know, I said that to me, the Brent Gardners
of the world are the ones that that this team
lacks desperately. They don't have those guys who are willing
to do the dirty work. Stick your face in there,
take a hit by pitch, you know, work to count
(18:39):
be a little pest, you know you don't. You got
to have a good mixture of both. And I think
that's another thing that's lacking on this on this Yankee,
This Yankee Roster. Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm
your host, Doug mn Kaviage. Gonna do a quick little
brief summary so far of the Major League Baseball postseason.
I think the Wildcard round, I think you saw a
(19:00):
lot of defensive mistakes that cost teams for all the
teams that all the people in the world that love
Exit Vlo and we all do, we all want to
hit a ball hard. If you take the Cleveland the
Cleveland Detroit series, I think Game one against Scooba, which
again you're not gonna hit too many balls hard off him,
but they took the lead on a on a bloop
(19:21):
single by Torgelsen. Another ball that was hit roughly around
the mound that barely left the infield in that game
that scored a couple of runs. Sometimes it's about where
you hit it, now how hard you hit it. But
I think collectively, if you had have asked the Yankees
in the Red Sox if they had to meet in
the postseason, in an elimination game. I think if they both
(19:44):
broke spring training, Mayer thought they were gonna have Splitler
against Early in an elimination game, and I think they
all would have thought you were crazy. Kudos to those kids.
Holy moly, what a game. I thought Early was dealt
a bad deal. He had a game up. A bluep
should have been a routine flat ball the right center
that started that inning that cost them pretty much the
series in their season. That's a ball that has to
(20:07):
be caught. That Bellinger hit, The ground ball to low
needs to be needs to be turned at least one out.
They scored, I think for that inning. So I think
that pretty much summed it up. But you know, I
thought both those guys, those young guys, composure was through
the roof. They had command. Schlitler didn't walk anybody, which
(20:27):
is amazing when you have that kind of power stuff
and that emotion going into that, especially when your whole
family is a Red Sox fan. I thought that was
a pretty neat, little little little spin on the story.
But both guys really showed me something about how they
were raised, not only in their organizations, but their college coaches,
their high school coaches, their parents they did to hold
to handle that environment on either side, whether you're home
(20:51):
or away, and to have the command they did and
not really been up there too long. They did a
fantastic job. And look forward to both of those guys
moving on in the future. I thought the Reds Dodgers
series went about as everybody expected. The Dodgers just find
a way to own October. Shout out to ex warrior
(21:11):
Westminster Warrior for getting this first knock in the postseason.
Uh salth Stewart RBI a couple of RBI single and
they had a single and he had a sack fly
in Game one and a single in Game two. So
you know, we just keep producing big leaguers, keep doing it,
keep doing it down there. In Miami San Diego Cubs series,
(21:32):
I thought San Diego's bullpen did an amazing job. I'll
keep them in the game a couple of those games
h early kind of fell behind, but keep grinding, kept
staying in there. Machata with a big homer in Game two.
I just you know, I think the ninth inning call
against Bill Guart's really really changed everything. I'm not a component.
(21:54):
I don't like the whole like ABS system come in
to challenge the strike zone thing. I don't like it,
but when you see that happen in the ninth inning
of an elimination game, it made me twitch. It made
me kind of change my thoughts going, you know what,
if I'm hitting there, or if I'm a teammate on
that and that happens, it'd be nice to be able
(22:15):
to tap the helmet and say, hey, I think you
missed one. So I guess that's changed my mind moving forward.
I don't like the way that Padres handling when the
umpires were walking down the walking down the tunnel at
Radley Field. I thought that could have been a little
more professional. But I get it. Emotions run high in October,
especially for the Padres. I think they feel like they
have a team that should go farther than they do.
(22:38):
And you know, when your season's over with a on
a on a play that's out of your control, it sucks,
and I understand the emotion, but you kind of hope
that you'd handle a little better than that. Let's see
moving forward to the Alds's so far, Yankees, Blue Jays,
(22:58):
I think you're seeing you're seeing a little shift in baseball.
There are two teams to stick out of my mind.
They're both the number one seeds. By the way, it's
the Brewers and the Blue Jays. Kudos to the blue Jays.
Ross Atkins played. I went to Japan with him when
I was eleven years old. He went to Coral Gables
(23:20):
High School. I went to Palmetto to start with. I
played agains him in high school. Then he went to
Wake Forest. I went to Florist State. Faced him there,
faced him in pro ball when he was an Indian
and I was a twin. Now he's the general manager
of the Toronto Blue Jays, and I know he's gotten
a lot of heat over the years, probably because of
the teams he's had and that you know, not coming
through in the Al East. But they did a fantastic
(23:42):
job this year. They've got some guys who can grind.
And I tweeted this the other day about how there's
a lot of really good coaches on that staff. I
managed to get Schneider in the minor leagues. Obviously, don
Manningley on your staff. Any staff helps. I felt that
Donnie's the way he can break down a pitcher and
make it usable as a as the hitter was second
(24:09):
to none. He's as good as anybody. He gives you.
He gives you things keys to look for that are
really easy to understand and apply to your swing tomorrow.
Hales on that staff a lot of good, a lot
of really good. I've heard a lot of good things
about their hitting coach, So obviously to go into that
series and stay who they were all year, I think
(24:32):
that's a big, big thing to look at too. As
far as how you handle October, do you do change things?
I know everybody like no one wants to bunt anymore, nobody,
nobody believes in it. But then you see teams try
to do it in October, It's like, well, that's where
problems arise. When you start forcing your team to do
something that you haven't done all year. Now you're changing.
(24:54):
That's a bad that that's not good. That's when you,
as a player, you're like, wow, now panic sens and
he trust me all year, and all of a sudden,
now you're making me do something that we haven't done
all years. But you're seeing guys that hit the ball
where it's pitched. They grind out at bats, they're two stripe.
They just battle you at two strikes. I know the
(25:14):
I don't know the number off the top of my
head as far as how many two strike kids they got,
but I heard it last night talking about the Blue Jays.
They just do They just grind you to the bone. Obviously,
when you have a springer at the top of the
order who's a you know, been through the postseason. He's
got you know, I think he's third or fourth in
the all time homer list in postseason play, so he's
been there, done that. Then you have Laddie who's out
(25:38):
of control right now, he's locked in. And then you
have the complementary pieces. Our show has a four for
four game. You go list goes on and on about
those guys. Those guys just find a way. They take
what's given to them. They hit the ball the other way.
The high fastball off Williams last night over volpez Head
(25:58):
that's special. And today quote unquote launch angle swing, they
don't hit that pitch. That flat line drive swing gets
it done. And they find a way to fight and
make you work. You look at it this way, look
at the lineups between the Yankees and the Blue Jays.
(26:19):
The blue Jays had no soft landing spot for the
Yankees to manipulate a lineup. I mean, heck they did
it without Mashet who that you take out ninety four
RBIs from anybody's lineup. That's a big thing to kind
of overcome. The Yankees had a lot of soft landing
spots for Schneider and walk Car all those guys to
(26:39):
figure out a way to manipulate a lineup. That's how
the bullpen game worked. There's a lot of soft landing spots.
You know, left on left against Rice, or left on
left against Wells, Vulpe against anybody right now, they had
a lot of soft landing spots. If you eliminate and
go through, can can wiggle you way through. Judge and Stanton.
(27:00):
Bellinger had a decent one. I thought he could have
done a little better. I think he's hurt. I think
he hurts something in the first series, his legs. Something
will look right. But he's a tough out right of
your lefty, you know what. I just feel constant aware
on the opposing pitchers, just the way they do it
(27:22):
from top to bottom. They're athletic, they can go first
to third on anybody. They're base running. Yeah, I think
you take away the defensive blunders they had in Game three,
they sweep. They sweep that series. And that's another thing
that kind of ties into I think I've looked at this.
There have been twenty nine under and runs scored in
the twenty twenty five playoffs up until the today. There's
(27:43):
only been twenty five games up into this point nine
under and runs. And it goes back to the philosophy
of defense. Holy Moly, like there's been a lot of Really,
I'll never say the word routine because nothing is routine.
No play is routine, but plays that need to be made.
And we're talking ground balls and double plays and fly
balls and bad breaks and bad jumps, bad routes, all
(28:05):
the things that aren't really magnified in a regular season.
But when you're under the microscope. I've always said this
and I've said it on this podcast before. The game
has a way of exposing your biggest weakness at the
most important time of a game or a series, and
you're seeing it over and over and over again. All
(28:29):
you need is this, and you get that. You look
at the punch outs. You look count of many times
the Brewers or the Blue Jays punched out. Doesn't mean
much because everybody today's world says it out and out. No,
it's not a strikeout to the same thing as now.
No it's not. No, it's not. And you're starting to
see it. You're starting to see a switch and a
(28:50):
shift back to real like more fundamental, more understandable baseball.
I know what the numbers say. I'll take for example, voping.
I've read it on internet. I've read it, I've seen it.
I've heard it online, I've heard it on TV. He
needs to pull the ball in the air. He's more successful.
(29:11):
Numbers say, so, okay, that's great, but you can't think that.
If you think that, which he did in this series,
you get one for eighteen with fourteen punch outs because
you see a quick front hip. He gives up on
fastballs away and slider in the dirt. It's almost predictable
(29:31):
how you can pitch them over and over and over again.
Austin Wells, you've got the closer on the ropes. Let
him feel a little bit. I understand he got a
he got a split or a slider up last night.
Oh oh, but you fly out to left. Oh to me,
that shows me, no plan, no approach. I'm just swinging
(29:52):
this wing. If you're gonna do that. Sure, go ahead,
it's just short porch to right. Use it to your advantage.
Go on the early. Absolutely, that's what it's there for.
But you can't just go up there and just take
meaningless hacks and expect a different outcome. Again emphasizing the
(30:15):
the Blue Jays Yankee series. I thought the Blue Jays
had developed arms to attack the Yankees. Uh you savage
with his split? Look that angle, that split. It's you're
almost better throwing up a bunch of righties than you
are throwing up a bunch of lefties. Yes, I know
(30:37):
you're you're every day guys, Bellinger is gonna play against
anybody he can hit. I don't care what anybody says,
Lefty Righty, doesn't matter what it is. You want him
in the lineup every day. He's good, he's good on defense.
He gives you good at bad every time for the
most part. Like your platoon guys, I most definitely would
have thought about putting my rights in there. But I
think and the number should show that because you take
(31:00):
away his split, it eliminates one of his major weapons.
And he doesn't throw his split as much to Righty's
as he does lefties. But those are little things to
me that if you're in the numbers in the analytics,
the numbers prove that. But why are we continue to
throw lefties up there? Again, he's young and you just
didn't know what you're gonna get. Pitching wise, they pretty
(31:23):
much dominated them the first two games. Yes, you can
say take him out early. And that's another thing we
talk about. Schneider took your savage out early. Yeah, okay,
he had the ability to. But what people forget is
the Blue Jays had what six days off before the
series even started, So yes, they you can play scrimmage
games and simulated games with your pen and your arms
(31:45):
to keep them fresh, but it's not the same thing
as facing real hitters. So I can see both sides
of the argument. You left the Yankee see a bunch
of your relievers, they started to swing the bats. You
gave him a little hope even after you were winning
thirteen or nothing or whatever it was. But you also
got your guys out there who haven't seen a live
(32:08):
hitter on an opposing team for eight nine days. You know,
if you look at it this way, if you don't
do that and throw your savage deeper in the game,
you only use one guy. Now you're rolling in the
Yankee stadium and your bullpen hasn't seen a live hitter
on an opposing team for ten to eleven days. It's
a tough ask and then if you can't find it
(32:30):
in a close game, you're in trouble. Luckily, they had
enough cushion to kind of get through that. But I
think it also helped the Yankees, and helped the Yankees
as far as guy on that plane fell a little
better about themselves, right, swinging the bat a little better.
But at the end of the day, one game is
one game, and you can't look at it as it's
hard to carry over. You can have confidence in whatever
(32:52):
you're coming home thought the Yankees, they did a good time.
They capitalize on mistakes and that's what you that's what
good teams do. Game three, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
The the booted ground ball the second early in the
game led to a run, and then the pop up
to left that should have been caught by the left
fielder and it wasn't led to judges heroic three run homers.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So you're seeing stuff that it goes back to fundamentals
defense by in the world, we don't take you don't
take as much pride. And I always tell kids today,
everybody wants to go hit in the cage. Amount of
the number of If you put a list of one
hundred kids who want to go hit, one hundred kids
(33:34):
who go hit, you want to go take around balls.
Maybe two of those one hundred will take a round balls.
It is important, it does matter, and everybody can be
a DH. If you look at the game one of
the Yankees Blue Jays series, you're talking about really good.
Obviously glad he hits a home run in the first inning, awesome,
get the home crowd into it. Kerk hits a home run,
(33:55):
makes it to nothing. But if you looked at the
outfield defense, it goes back to or we've talked about
the Blue Jays are just more athletic ro outfielders in general.
Over they're more athletic than the Yankees in the outfield defensively,
and the big spot in this game was what was
it the sixth The Yankees have the bases loaded with two, three,
(34:20):
four up, and don't with they score one out of
that Uh, Judge chases a slider away and again we
talked about how he has He's had a great postseason fantastic.
But if you say that average doesn't matter anymore and
singles don't matter, then basically he had the same postseason
that Bellinger did because he had a home run, so
(34:44):
to Judge, So which one is it? So there's a
there's a time and a place for singles, there's a
time and a place to put the ball in play.
And there's a couple of situations here that you know,
taking what the pitcher gives you would have helped. That's
not all on Judge, because Judge did pretty much everything
he possibly could offensively, that is to to h to
(35:09):
help this team move forward. It just shows you that
how many like there's holes there there's there's there's holes
in that lineup, and the Blue Jays exposed him. Gosman
did great, another split you know, downward angle kind of
guy that fouled up you savage. They they brought they
had guys that were just not a good matchup for
(35:31):
that lineup with all the lefties.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And that's and and it showed you look at the
defense the defense was. You know, the Blue Jays, if
you look it on paper, bluejas are way better defensively
than the Yankees are. And that and that's that that
stuff like that shows up in October and then the
one time it the Blue Jays defense let them down,
the Yankees got the win. So, you know, I thought
(35:54):
cam Kid pitched well in Game three. There were Game
four he you know, he gave him a chance to win.
That's all you can ask. Was he as electric as
he was against the Red Sox. No, But I mean
that's never been done before in the postseason, so to
expect him to do that again is almost asinine. So,
you know, I think there's a lot of good things
that happened for them, but there's it just goes back
to they're just not built to win the whole thing
(36:19):
with the way their philosophy lies, and it's it's gonna take.
It's not it can't change overnight. They're gonna have to
get creative. They're gonna have to make some severe changes
to their philosophy. And that goes from the minor league's
on up because you start to see the same similar
(36:41):
issues with a lot of the same players, and a
lot of players that come up. They all have andy. Granted,
don't get me wrong, no players perfect, but you're telling
me with that payroll and that you can't do. You
look around and you look at some of the guys
that Blue Jays have where they come from. Some were
almost out of baseball, but they're grinding. And there's something
(37:04):
to we said about guys that have had it ripped
from them several times. I don't think the Blue Jays
are really worried about what color glove they have on,
or what their flashy belt looks like, or what shoe
game am I gonna roll out there today? Or am
I gonna wear EyeBlack in a night game? Like, let's
stop with the nonsense. I wore EyeBlack every chance I could.
(37:25):
I loved it. I didn't wear the night games they
need to. There's flash and their substance. Blue Jay's a
little more about substance. They are about flash, and you're
seeing that, and that's why they're moving on. I think
that's why the Yankees are going home. We'll move on
to the Dodgers Philly series. I'm not gonna go over
every play and every in depth mistake or whatever. I
(37:47):
just want to get a collect from a let's just
say a drone aspect of what's going on. The Phillies
ran into a bussaf and they just they ran into
the Dodgers, and I get it. Everybody the same thing.
That the same energy that they give Boone in New York,
they give Topper in Philly. Stop it stop he's not
(38:08):
going up there and not performing. I think the Phillies.
I've always liked the Phillies. I thought they had a
couple of years ago. I thought, you know, this was
a team that had it, and I still think they do.
It's just the Dodgers kept adding and I feel like
they went. The Phillies went and got durand maybe two
(38:30):
years too late, but you got to give the Dodgers credit.
I mean, you know they get on Topper about the bunt.
Stops lays down a perfect bunt. The Dodgers pull off
a wheel play. We talk about defense. They performed it,
they executed it. They never really worked on it. But
you have out a centerfielder, right fielder playing shortstop. He
puts it on Boom, he gets it. But that's where
(38:51):
it goes back to roster configuration. There. You're telling me
there's no reason why Nick Castiano should be still running
in a one run game with the ninth inning. But
it can't happen. You've gotta have someone on the bench
to go run for him. Then you don't a picture.
Someone's got to be faster than that. It's just reality.
(39:13):
But what the way the roster's configured, you don't have
many options. So to blame Topper through all this, I mean,
I give Philly a lot of credit to lose Willard
the way they lost him, and to lose the big
lefty for for the PDS, for the postseason, to make
it this far and do what they did in the
(39:34):
NLL East to get to this point. They're not dead yet.
They're not dead yet. And I said this, I watching,
you know, watching the middle of the game too. I
see Philly fans they cheer for him, and then as
soon as they don't make it, they don't get a hit,
they boot, And I get it, you're frustrated. And Brush
Harper said it best. It's like I blew myself when
I'm making out. Yes, players do that, But I felt
(39:55):
like the best thing that that team could do is
get away from Philly, get on the road. And you
saw it last night. All of a sudden, the guys
are hitting again. Obviously, Trey Turner's got to have a
good feeling. Go to La. He won a batting title
for the Dodgers, so he likes to hit there. Schwarmer
could hit anywhere. Yeah, there's sometimes when it doesn't matter
what season you have, When you have a six or
(40:17):
seven day layoff, you're not quite sure what you're gonna
get on the way back, And even within a division series,
there's not enough. Like players are creatures of habit. They
used to plane every day, and when you have that break,
it takes. Some guys are great at it and they
pick quite off they left off, and some guys have
trouble coming back from that. And it doesn't mean it.
(40:39):
You can't really put it in like, oh, this guy's
used to coming back from this. It can happen year
to year. It might be different and it takes some time.
Like you can have what Laddie did. He hit the
same wayoff and he came back just it helped him
because he struggled down the stretch of September. But other
guys it might take some time. Swarmer comes back. It's
two old runs. Last night, I felt bad for Kersh.
(41:02):
I know Clayton. Nobody wants to go out there and
have a good couple of these more than Clayton does
and Kershawn and you know, it just adds to that
stupid narrative about him not being a big game, post
game pitch, post postseason pitcher because he threw some gems
back in the day when he was out there way
too long because the Dodgers didn't have anybody else to
turn to, so his numbers got damaged in the end.
(41:23):
But you can't tell me for twenty seventeen years you
wouldn't want Clayton Kershaw on your staff and any any
month of the year, You're crazy. But good win for
the Phillies last night. One of my only regrets is
the Phillies Dodgers series is not a seven game series.
I still believe in the Phillies, even though it's all
(41:44):
doom and gloom. If there's one team that can get
hot and it's not afraid of the moment I'm not
afraid of, the opponent would be the Phillies. They're battle tested,
They've got some they've got some savvy veterans on their
Turner Shoreverer, Castianos, keep Harper, keep going on the list. Well, newtwo.
You have to understand, like, if there's one team that
(42:04):
if Swobber gets hot and comes off the two homer
game you had last night, and Trey Turner gets hot,
it doesn't really matter who they face. That if they
get going, that's a team that can kind of run off,
you know, six in a row, six out of seven,
whatever it is. I just feel like, you know, people
want to say they didn't do this, they didn't do that. Look,
Blake Snell has always pitched well against them, so you
(42:27):
know they have certain guys that don't match up well
against certain teams, and they ran into that. You know,
a couple of bad breaks here and there. There had
two one in this series. This one is not over.
This one's not over yet. Two to one, You never know.
You know, you go back to Philly Game five, who knows,
So the Phillies get hot offensively, Yeah, it can change
(42:48):
some things. You still have waiting for a bigger moment
from Harper. You know. That's to say these guys, you know,
they're not built for this. That's that's just not that's
not the right narrative. They were two years ago. So
you know, the Dodgers are are battle tested too, and
they understand what it takes to win they probably have
more depth of pitching obviously than the Phillies do. But
on a short series like this, anything can happen. You
(43:10):
can bounce back being down too. Nothing isn't the end
of the world. With a team like that, you get rolling,
you get some guys that get hot together, which the
Phillies can do because their veteran style hitters. You never know,
and you know, the Phillies did a good job of
shutting down the top three hitters for the Dodgers, so
you know, anything can happen. Still a game, you never know.
(43:32):
If there's one team that can do it, Phillies definitely
one that can come back against the Dodgers. Love to
see my guys that I got a chance to manage
and coach the end of the postseason. Max Kepler with
the Phillies made a hell of a catch last night,
and I had hit a triple kind of off the bench,
kind of ignited a little bit of a rally, got
them going a little bit. Go over to the Seattle
(43:53):
Detroit series. You know, Polanco I thought was probably pound
for pound, the best hitter I ad consistently for four
years from both sides of the plate, and I felt
like his right handed swing was he was better left handed,
but this year the numbers say right handed, and he
takes the best pitcher on the planet deep twice in
(44:13):
the same game. That's pretty amazing. Made some pretty good plays,
a second base two. Mcgarver got a hit in that
game against Seattle. But that's a that's a good series too.
That's a tough one too. Cayle Rally having a hell
of a year, obviously, but to go up there and
beat Schoogle anyway, any anyhow, you can any any way
you can score off him as a plus in Seattle.
(44:34):
I think that's the third time they've beat him this year.
And I won't even say beat, I think they just
survived him. And that's all you try to do against
someone's ace, especially when they're the best in the world.
You don't try to beat him. You try to survive him.
And you got to have your guy go out there
and match Zero's with him, and Castillo did that. You know,
Detroit gets this series back to Seattle, and now you
gotta beat him twice. You know it's gonna be tough
(44:57):
to advance in any postseason. You've got to do some
things that on paper don't look like a heck of
a lot of fun that don't look almost feasible. No
one's had it harder, in my opinion, in a five
game series, then they have to beat Derek Scruble twice
and that's what they're going to be faced with on Friday.
(45:18):
So it should be should be must see TV, you know,
to see teams like this. The cool thing about it
is that someone's gonna represent the American League that hasn't
done it in a while. So you know it's either
going to be the Blue Jays, the Mariners, or the Tigers.
So it's been pretty cool to see, pretty fun to watch.
It should be a pretty good game five. Obviously, those
(45:40):
those must those those finishing games are always always entertaining.
So moving forward, Brewers Cubs another game that you see
errors that open the floodgates. Corner makes an air in
the first inning, Brewers take off and score whatever how
many runs in the first That team's different. Now, give
(46:02):
Pat Murphy credit. Goodness, gracious, them guys are rolling and
they it doesn't matter who they put in there, they
just keep on coming and they have good at bats
and cheerio and just it's it's electric. It's fun to watch.
The Milwaukee's a tough place to play when that when
that place is a pack. Those fans are Upper Midwest people.
(46:23):
They follow their they follow their groups, and they love it.
Pat Murphy gets a lot of credit for that club.
They all of them will bunt, all of them moved
the ball. They find a way. They they grind out
at bats. I mean Game two, the Cubs hit the
big three in homers. Zukiets the big three in home
in the first bohen they come right back, and that's
(46:45):
a gut punch. You know. You figure, if you're the
visiting team, you're just trying to get one of the
first two. You think if you get one of the
first two, you're in good shape. You come out hit
a three on homer. Three in homers in October usually
me wins, and you hit one of the first and
then you want to get to enjoy it for about
eleven minutes, and you turn around and they hit one.
(47:05):
Now it's tied. Now the crowd's back into it, and
here come here it comes. So you know, they gave
up two three win homers the first five innings, and
that that's usually spells disaster in the postseason. But that
team's rolling. You know, even even yesterday's game in Wrigley,
cub score four in the first and the Brewers come
(47:26):
in and shut them out the rest of the game,
and they give themselves a chance in the ninth inning
in a one run game. They had their chances. But
you do see a guy, a bunch of guys just
grinding out of bats, playing good defense, taking hits away,
not giving them extra outs. You know, you're you're seeing
a lot of a lot of the purest of baseball.
(47:46):
That's what makes October so great. It's purest of baseball.
You know, one mistake, one pitch can change everything. Quickouts
are or should be. You know, quick outs from a
pitching from a pitching staff or a pitcher are golden.
You don't see a lot of them. If you get
(48:06):
quick outs, every pitch matters. Foul balls matter, you know,
just because a guy makes an air, that's extra pitches.
And you'll see these. Once these series go to seven games,
the bullpen days, it becomes more exposed. That's why you
don't see That's why I don't believe in I understand
there's times in places where you have to do the
bullpen game. I totally understand it. But if you try
(48:29):
to live off them, you're just not gonna A seven
game series is too long to break down your pen
that way, you're gonna need those guys a lot, and
in high leverage, you know, high adrenaline situations to force
them to do that over and over and over again
in a seven game series. History is proven that it
(48:50):
doesn't really work. Eventually, the guys are gonna get exposed.
And I know from my playing days you could tell
the difference in guys stuff from game one to game
seven in the bullpen, and it was significantly The stuff
gets significantly worse, and the more times the hitter sees it,
the better advantage goes to the hitter. So that's gonna
(49:11):
be something to watch out for moving forward. I think
today is Game four for the the Brewers and Cubs.
It's it's it's an intriguing series for me. There's a
lot of young, young guys on either side. So with
a couple of veterans mixed in, he got yellings. With
the Brewers, he got the Swanson it short which and
(49:32):
then you know, don't don't forget the impact that Justin
Turner has on the Cubs. I think that gets lost
in the shuffle with a lot of these guys. I
thought Council did a fantastic job the other day. It
wasn't a sentimental pick because you don't do that in October,
but getting justin in the game and him coming through
with a knock in Milwaukee, that that that goes beyond
(49:55):
a lot of what people understand. And him helping those
young guys and helping them understand and control the moment
is shouldn't be left unnoticed. So as a veteran guy,
you look at that and that he gets it, he understands,
and that's why that team has been successful. So I
think the Cubs are facing it uphill battle. I think
(50:16):
they're young. I just don't think they have the horses.
But I have a lot of guys on that team too,
Taylor Rodgers. I'm trying to think of a couple other
ones that I have had lucky to be around. Caleb
field Bar, who the Tigers told me no every time
the Tigers called me who was ready in Triple A.
I gave him field Bar's name, and for some round
(50:37):
reason they kept moving on to somebody else. But it's
nice to see Caleb up there again in high leverage situations.
He had a pretty bad arm injury and he came
back from it. He was a twin and he came
back from the Tigers, and he was one of my
in Toledo. Was probably my most consistent reliever I had.
And it's good to see him pitching high leverage situations.
So they got their work cutout for him. Milwaukee's a
(50:59):
Milwaukee's They've got this thing rolling and uh, you know,
they just they have multiple ways to beat you. All right, everybody,
that's going to wrap up this episode of The Dugout.
Thank you for listening. Come find us on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever else you find your favorite podcast. Check us
out on social media x Instagram, Facebook, leave a question,
(51:23):
leave a comment, Love to hear you guys, feedback, maybe
for a future episode or whatever. Until then, thank you
for listening and look forward to the next one.
Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm your host, Doug
mc kavich. I figured this would be a good time
to do a Yankee breakdown. I have a lot of
friends that are Yankee fans. I played for the organization
at one point in two thousand and seven. I think
it's a hot topic. I think the Yankees are either
you're either a fan or you can't stand them. So
(00:24):
here we go. This is coming off of their alds
loss to the Blue Jays, and I've just had enough
of listening to social media and listening to fans and
friends of mine who talk about how Boone's got to
get fired. At the end of the day, this is
an organizational problem goes beyond the manager. Look if it's
(00:48):
twenty twenty five people, If you truly feel that managers
make their own decisions, I don't understand what rock you've
been living under for the past several years. These games
are scripted from the front office. There are some managers, yes,
that have a little more say in what goes on
(01:12):
according to the game. They meet before the game, after
the game for hours with general managers and analytical departments, scouts, coaches.
They get input, they put it all together, but at
the end of the day, it has to be agreed
upon before it is put into motion. So let's just
break this down. I think you saw last year's season
(01:34):
end on poor defense, and this goes on beyond just
the Yankees. The postseason in general have had a lot
of routine, basic mistakes that have cost teams. And that's
what good teams do. Teams that make the postseason capitalize
our mistakes. If you look at the way this Yankee
philosophy is, I think it's been this way for a
(01:57):
long time. You can go back to the glory days
of the ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand, back to
back to back World Series champs teams. Those teams just
wore you down. They grinded you. They had grinders, they
had all they had superstars, they had a collective group.
They had a pitching staff that was out of this world,
a solid bullpen. Look, it's hard to compare to that group.
(02:20):
That group is arguably you can put those teams up
with any team in the history of the game. They
did everything right, they did everything well, led by a
Hall of Fame manager and Joe Tory. So it's hard
to compare any team to that, So go move forward
two thousand and two. I think from that generation on
(02:43):
that era on, they were better you could say, position
wise than they were in the early late nineties and
early two thousands. Two thousand and two posts. You know,
Jason Johnby, you go down the list just because you're
better players doesn't mean the the team is better. And
I think that goes into where they are now. I
(03:04):
think this roster is full of really good to great
to elite players. Obviously Aaron Judge. The list goes on
and on, they get great players. Stanton's a postseason you know,
animal Hall of Famer four hundred and fifty almost five
hundred homers in the big leagues. It's just the way
it's broke down. If you look at it, This roster
in the Alds had holes everywhere. You carry three catchers.
(03:29):
All three catchers are left handed, left handed hitters. It
just doesn't make any sense. These are cardinal sins you
make when you put a specially a postseason roster together.
You have one left in the bullpen. One It makes
it really hard. I know your rotation, I know you
have Max Freed Rodan, they're both left handed. You need
(03:49):
more than one left in the bullpen just for matchup.
Especially the way the game is today with the platoon systems,
you force other managers to make decision they might not
have to make, or they don't want to make early
in the game, knowing what's going on. In certain critical
situations of a game, you look at you have four
(04:10):
or five dhs on your team, it's just hard to do.
Look at the teams, they're starting to be a to me,
a shift, maybe hopefully in the game itself. Look at
the Brewers. Look at what they lost to the Blue Jays.
A bunch of guys who and I'm so tired of hearing, well,
(04:33):
we don't want to just make contact. Well, no one's
ever talked about making soft contact. Putting the ball in
plate does not mean we're trying to just weakly put
it in play. Shorten up your swing. Take what the
game gives you. I've always used that line. If you
take what the game gives you, you'll never be wrong.
It doesn't mean you'll execute it, but if you think
(04:54):
along the lines of what the game is giving you,
you'll never be wrong. Look at what the Blue Jay.
How many guys hit six hundred and there's a couple
of guys six hundred and four hundred. All all are
doing was hit the ball where he was pitched. There's
sometimes something to be said that going up there and
being one dimensional it's tough. I mean, take Volpi for example.
(05:14):
I thought this year, I've heard it so many times
and Reddit so many times from all the gurus on
the internet, he needs to pull the ball in the air,
because that's where his numbers say he's successful. Well, yeah,
most guys are. They do hit the ball harder to
the pull side. Just reality not many guys can hit
the ball just as hard the other way as they
(05:34):
do to the pul side. You can't go up there
and think to the pull side. If you looked at
those Yankee guys mostly in the end of the last
night's game, they had a lot of quick front hips,
which means you're trying to yank the ball. I thought
Volpi was on something new. I thought I gave him credit.
He had a tough year. Bo he comes in the
Boston Series, hits an oppo homer. Okay, perfect, he's staying
(05:59):
on the ball. Good, he might go off. And then
as they started to see it go, as the games
got longer, and all of a sudden he went into
the Blue Jay series. My goodness, Grace's quick front hip
quitting on the ball way which he could drive out.
He just proved it the other night against the Red Sox.
You just see quick front hips, and when you're trying
to lift and pull the ball in the air, you
(06:21):
have what he did, a ton of punch outs, meaningless
at bats. You literally this line up the way it's configured. Now,
there's a lot of soft landing spots for an opposing manager.
There's a lot of them, and there's only so many
times you can continue to keep doing this. Yes, I
know the coal injury hurt. Yes, not many teams can
(06:44):
lose their ace and still function. But you're the Yankees.
You had Max Free. Not many teams that lose their
ace have a Max Freed to back them up. So
you did. Have You made it to the postseason. To me,
this team is built to make it to October. It's
not built to win in October. It's built to get there.
And if you're the Yankees, and if you're a Yankee fan,
(07:05):
all you talk about are championships. You don't talk about
getting there. You don't talk about making the playoffs. You
talk about winning the final game you play, And for
the love of God, stop blaming Aaron Boone. He's doing
He has to work with what's given to him. There's
only so many things he can do. That's his guys
not playing defense. Guys, boot and routine ground balls are
(07:29):
not on Aaron Boone, They're not. Look. I played for
the Yankees in two thousand and seven. We had a
Rod Jeter Cano, We had a bunch of pacade of
the list goes on and on. That spring training was
like a country club. Well because there were pros that
got ready to play. They had a lot of guys
that believe in fundamentals, and we did it right. We
(07:51):
got better, We got ready individually. We didn't do a
ton of team fundamentals because we didn't have to. We
were proven that we could do that. Watched it again.
Round ball to first, No one covers first. Rice dive
dives feet first for some stupid reason instead of diving
head first. Look, he's not a for real first baseman.
You have a first base back and forth, which Goldschmidt Rice.
(08:15):
You can't really move the d A judge should be
a d h, especially now with his elbow. You want
to get Judge off his feet at some point to
length in his career and for a group of people
that say batten average doesn't matter, and then you want
to crown Aaron Judge and kudos he had a hell
of a postseason or whatever. He hit over four hundred,
(08:36):
five hundred, whatever it was. But you can't tell me
that batting average doesn't matter and then turn around and
praise him for having a great postseason he hit. Yes,
the three run homer he hit in Game three was huge,
but that was given to them by shoddy defense. He
hit it absolutely tough pitch to hit right on right.
(08:58):
It's not as hard as what people make out to be.
Same arm side, you can clear on that. The point is,
if you're gonna praise him from now, he doesn't have
an October like he got over the hump with singles
and doubles but not a lot of RBIs correct me
if I'm wrong, Him and Bellinger hit the same amount
of homers in the postseason. If you say tell me
(09:19):
singles don't matter, then they did it. They did the
same amount of damage. Now, obviously Judge's presence means something,
and if you want to blame boone, blame him for
non intentionally walking Vladimir Carero on the first inning. Look,
I can't stand that. I don't even like I don't
even like intentionally walking Judge with nobody on. It's hard
(09:42):
to hit a homer, even for Aaron Judge. It's not easy.
That's why he's the best in the game. He's sixty
of a year. But still, what do you What message
does that send to your own pictures that not only
do I think he can't you can't get him out,
you can't keep me in the yard. That's a that's
a mental block that you're just throwing out there to
(10:03):
your pitchers, going, we don't have anybody good enough to
even keep this guy in the yard. But at the
same token, you flip flop the other side. Laddy Jr.
Is up in the first inning with a guy's second
first base is open. You went right at him, and kudos.
He hit a great pitch, but he's higher than a firecracker.
(10:25):
With homers, damaged, singles, doubles, RBIs everywhere. And if you
look at the way those games went, it took the
Blue Jays to give the Yankees extra outs, which I
give them credit for good teams capitalize on extra outs,
Yes they do. All these teams do in the postseason,
that's why they're there. But it took extra It took
(10:48):
a drop pop up in left field, a bad decision
by the left field of by the Blue Jays, and
a ground battle second that that's how they scored four
or five of their runs. So the way, the way,
this philosophy is a homer or die. It just it
just there's a way to get more athletic. To me,
it's it's got to start from the top. Your philosophy
(11:10):
has to change. How many times do you have to
see it and let alone this time it was put
in your face, not only last year, but this year
too by a team in your own division who you
had bad blood with going into So to me, this
is an organizational thing that has to philosophy that has
to start to shift. I mean, you look at the
post game last night. That's about as blatant as Derek
(11:34):
Jeter can be. Meaning that he's still involved with the Yankees,
so he can't really go scorched earth on him. But
what he said, there's a lot of validity to it.
Even when Alex said there's a lot of validity to it.
There's a lot of things that they said that they're
not wrong. They're not wrong, and heck, think about it.
(11:56):
It took them a magical pitching performance it's never been
seen before by a rookie against the Red Sox, and
a bloop ball that should have not have fallen for
a Bellinger double, and a ground ball in the first
base in the end of the year. That's the reason
why they even made it this far. So if you
can't tell and see the glaring mistakes that are made
(12:19):
that the organizational philosophy that they're doing does not work
in October and you're seeing more teams shift away from it,
and they just threw it in your face and you
can't do anything about it because the way you're configured.
So this goes beyond this goes beyond firing Aaron Boone.
If you fire Aaron Boone, what changes Nothing. Nothing. He
(12:42):
can't pitch, he can't hit, he can't field it for him.
He's there to take grenades for the front office, and
he's done a hell of a job at it. And
anybody doesn't understand that is foolish. So stop with the hole.
Boone doesn't know what he's doing. These decisions are mapped
out before the game even starts. Pitching matchups, who's the
(13:05):
first call a bullpen? How many how many pitches the
guy's gonna throw, how many times someone's gonna face somebody.
And it's not just Boone, it's everywhere. It's everywhere, It's
not just the Yankees. So just start to realize it's
twenty twenty five people and the managers aren't making these
decisions on their own. You know, this goes even back
to the Red Sox Yankee series. You sat Jazz chishm
(13:28):
in Game one, Dude thirty thirty, and I know Rosario
destroys left handed pitching. I have more of a problem
with Cavallero playing than Rosario. Obviously, Rosario has left these
very very well. Absolutely could have put them at third.
You take out one of them. I think Volpe and
Jazz give you some athleticism on the basis that you
(13:52):
need that you might have to steal a base, you
might have to go first at third, not saying the
other two can't, but the way that game look against
Garrett Cochet, Yes, I know he's devastating against lefties. He's
devastating against righties too. He's gonna be a tough matchup
whether you hit left handed or right handed. It's all
it is to it. But you also have to admit
(14:13):
when you take him out and you put the lefties
in there, knowing if the game's close, you have Chapman
in the wings. So when your closer is left handed,
it makes it tough on the manager to make a
decision whether I pull him out or keep me in
or whatever. You're gonna have a matchup at some point
that you're not gonna like. There's two theories to that.
(14:34):
It's either I'm gonna try to beat the starter or
save my bullets for the end. For the end, and
you know, I just have a hard time. There's no
I know Jassett a lot more homers against rights and
against lefties, but he can click a lefty too, and
he's probably your best defender out there as far as
at second base. So just decisions like that are talked
(14:56):
about before the game. And that's not Aaron Boone, not
Aaron Boone's decision to make, you know, having there's just
so many they they lack athleticism, and that's more importantly,
they lack a grit where's their grit coming from? Where
is it? I don't see it? You know that if
(15:18):
you want to compare it to the past, the Yankee
teams of of prior, you know, Derek had grit. Derek
was grit. You know, you look at the the when
Nick Swisher went over there and Oh nine, that had
a big play in it. That that had a lot
(15:38):
to do with their mentality. You look at the teams
that are in there. You can't look Brewers gritty, Blue
Jay's really gritty. He just doesn't seem like they have
they have that grit that you need. Who's gonna say,
you know what? I know we're facing But so what,
it doesn't matter. It just seems like they're lacking something
and it's not in that It's not in that group's DNA.
(16:02):
You know, it just doesn't it. Don't see it. You
see it in their pitching staff. I think Max Freed's
got it. Rondon's got it. He's learned how to harness it.
But that mentality of it doesn't matter. Like that's so what,
mentality doesn't matter. We'll figure it out. You know, the
guy's been throwing seven shot out of each We're gonna
find a way. I'm gonna lay a bunt down, I'm
gonna hit the ball the other way. I'm gonna try
to I'm I'm a steal second, I'm gonna work a
(16:24):
dirt ball. I'm gonna be aggressive. On the basis, they
just lack that ability to beat you. Teams that are
dangerous in postseason can beat you a number of different ways.
And if you keep the Yankees in the yard, which
is I know it's hard to do, but if you
keep them in the yard and make your manufacture runs,
(16:46):
they're very one dimensional and most teams that win the
World Series are way more than one dimensional. Look at
the Dodgers. Yes they have superstars everywhere, but Tommy had
In finds a way. Yes he clicks homers two, but
he finds a way. Keiky Hernandez one of the best
October players in the history of the game. He elevates
(17:10):
his game in October every single year. There's grit, there's
grit to that. You just don't see that with New York.
And that's a that's a that's a personality trait that
I think is lacking severely in New York. Last point
on the Yankees roster construction is Where are the where
are the where are the wedge breakers on the kickoff team?
(17:33):
Where are the where are the complimentary pieces? I think
sometimes you need those guys who are or willing to
do the little things. Where are the Brent Gardners of
this group? They lack those guys. Everybody there seems like
they want to be a star. You have to leave
your star let your stars be stars, Judge Stanton, I'm
(17:54):
not saying the other guys aren't, but you need a
good mix of both guys that are willing to do
the dirty work to make sure that those guys have
a chance to shine. I just feel like, you know,
when you get brought to New York, you have to
know your role and your role, whether it's to be
the guy or to be one of the guys who
(18:17):
makes it easier for the guy. And I think that's
the one thing that they've they've missed out on. They've lacked,
you know, I said that to me, the Brent Gardners
of the world are the ones that that this team
lacks desperately. They don't have those guys who are willing
to do the dirty work. Stick your face in there,
take a hit by pitch, you know, work to count
(18:39):
be a little pest, you know you don't. You got
to have a good mixture of both. And I think
that's another thing that's lacking on this on this Yankee,
This Yankee Roster. Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm
your host, Doug mn Kaviage. Gonna do a quick little
brief summary so far of the Major League Baseball postseason.
I think the Wildcard round, I think you saw a
(19:00):
lot of defensive mistakes that cost teams for all the
teams that all the people in the world that love
Exit Vlo and we all do, we all want to
hit a ball hard. If you take the Cleveland the
Cleveland Detroit series, I think Game one against Scooba, which
again you're not gonna hit too many balls hard off him,
but they took the lead on a on a bloop
(19:21):
single by Torgelsen. Another ball that was hit roughly around
the mound that barely left the infield in that game
that scored a couple of runs. Sometimes it's about where
you hit it, now how hard you hit it. But
I think collectively, if you had have asked the Yankees
in the Red Sox if they had to meet in
the postseason, in an elimination game. I think if they both
(19:44):
broke spring training, Mayer thought they were gonna have Splitler
against Early in an elimination game, and I think they
all would have thought you were crazy. Kudos to those kids.
Holy moly, what a game. I thought Early was dealt
a bad deal. He had a game up. A bluep
should have been a routine flat ball the right center
that started that inning that cost them pretty much the
series in their season. That's a ball that has to
(20:07):
be caught. That Bellinger hit, The ground ball to low
needs to be needs to be turned at least one out.
They scored, I think for that inning. So I think
that pretty much summed it up. But you know, I
thought both those guys, those young guys, composure was through
the roof. They had command. Schlitler didn't walk anybody, which
(20:27):
is amazing when you have that kind of power stuff
and that emotion going into that, especially when your whole
family is a Red Sox fan. I thought that was
a pretty neat, little little little spin on the story.
But both guys really showed me something about how they
were raised, not only in their organizations, but their college coaches,
their high school coaches, their parents they did to hold
to handle that environment on either side, whether you're home
(20:51):
or away, and to have the command they did and
not really been up there too long. They did a
fantastic job. And look forward to both of those guys
moving on in the future. I thought the Reds Dodgers
series went about as everybody expected. The Dodgers just find
a way to own October. Shout out to ex warrior
(21:11):
Westminster Warrior for getting this first knock in the postseason.
Uh salth Stewart RBI a couple of RBI single and
they had a single and he had a sack fly
in Game one and a single in Game two. So
you know, we just keep producing big leaguers, keep doing it,
keep doing it down there. In Miami San Diego Cubs series,
(21:32):
I thought San Diego's bullpen did an amazing job. I'll
keep them in the game a couple of those games
h early kind of fell behind, but keep grinding, kept
staying in there. Machata with a big homer in Game two.
I just you know, I think the ninth inning call
against Bill Guart's really really changed everything. I'm not a component.
(21:54):
I don't like the whole like ABS system come in
to challenge the strike zone thing. I don't like it,
but when you see that happen in the ninth inning
of an elimination game, it made me twitch. It made
me kind of change my thoughts going, you know what,
if I'm hitting there, or if I'm a teammate on
that and that happens, it'd be nice to be able
(22:15):
to tap the helmet and say, hey, I think you
missed one. So I guess that's changed my mind moving forward.
I don't like the way that Padres handling when the
umpires were walking down the walking down the tunnel at
Radley Field. I thought that could have been a little
more professional. But I get it. Emotions run high in October,
especially for the Padres. I think they feel like they
have a team that should go farther than they do.
(22:38):
And you know, when your season's over with a on
a on a play that's out of your control, it sucks,
and I understand the emotion, but you kind of hope
that you'd handle a little better than that. Let's see
moving forward to the Alds's so far, Yankees, Blue Jays,
(22:58):
I think you're seeing you're seeing a little shift in baseball.
There are two teams to stick out of my mind.
They're both the number one seeds. By the way, it's
the Brewers and the Blue Jays. Kudos to the blue Jays.
Ross Atkins played. I went to Japan with him when
I was eleven years old. He went to Coral Gables
(23:20):
High School. I went to Palmetto to start with. I
played agains him in high school. Then he went to
Wake Forest. I went to Florist State. Faced him there,
faced him in pro ball when he was an Indian
and I was a twin. Now he's the general manager
of the Toronto Blue Jays, and I know he's gotten
a lot of heat over the years, probably because of
the teams he's had and that you know, not coming
through in the Al East. But they did a fantastic
(23:42):
job this year. They've got some guys who can grind.
And I tweeted this the other day about how there's
a lot of really good coaches on that staff. I
managed to get Schneider in the minor leagues. Obviously, don
Manningley on your staff. Any staff helps. I felt that
Donnie's the way he can break down a pitcher and
make it usable as a as the hitter was second
(24:09):
to none. He's as good as anybody. He gives you.
He gives you things keys to look for that are
really easy to understand and apply to your swing tomorrow.
Hales on that staff a lot of good, a lot
of really good. I've heard a lot of good things
about their hitting coach, So obviously to go into that
series and stay who they were all year, I think
(24:32):
that's a big, big thing to look at too. As
far as how you handle October, do you do change things?
I know everybody like no one wants to bunt anymore, nobody,
nobody believes in it. But then you see teams try
to do it in October, It's like, well, that's where
problems arise. When you start forcing your team to do
something that you haven't done all year. Now you're changing.
(24:54):
That's a bad that that's not good. That's when you,
as a player, you're like, wow, now panic sens and
he trust me all year, and all of a sudden,
now you're making me do something that we haven't done
all years. But you're seeing guys that hit the ball
where it's pitched. They grind out at bats, they're two stripe.
They just battle you at two strikes. I know the
(25:14):
I don't know the number off the top of my
head as far as how many two strike kids they got,
but I heard it last night talking about the Blue Jays.
They just do They just grind you to the bone. Obviously,
when you have a springer at the top of the
order who's a you know, been through the postseason. He's
got you know, I think he's third or fourth in
the all time homer list in postseason play, so he's
been there, done that. Then you have Laddie who's out
(25:38):
of control right now, he's locked in. And then you
have the complementary pieces. Our show has a four for
four game. You go list goes on and on about
those guys. Those guys just find a way. They take
what's given to them. They hit the ball the other way.
The high fastball off Williams last night over volpez Head
(25:58):
that's special. And today quote unquote launch angle swing, they
don't hit that pitch. That flat line drive swing gets
it done. And they find a way to fight and
make you work. You look at it this way, look
at the lineups between the Yankees and the Blue Jays.
(26:19):
The blue Jays had no soft landing spot for the
Yankees to manipulate a lineup. I mean, heck they did
it without Mashet who that you take out ninety four
RBIs from anybody's lineup. That's a big thing to kind
of overcome. The Yankees had a lot of soft landing
spots for Schneider and walk Car all those guys to
(26:39):
figure out a way to manipulate a lineup. That's how
the bullpen game worked. There's a lot of soft landing spots.
You know, left on left against Rice, or left on
left against Wells, Vulpe against anybody right now, they had
a lot of soft landing spots. If you eliminate and
go through, can can wiggle you way through. Judge and Stanton.
(27:00):
Bellinger had a decent one. I thought he could have
done a little better. I think he's hurt. I think
he hurts something in the first series, his legs. Something
will look right. But he's a tough out right of
your lefty, you know what. I just feel constant aware
on the opposing pitchers, just the way they do it
(27:22):
from top to bottom. They're athletic, they can go first
to third on anybody. They're base running. Yeah, I think
you take away the defensive blunders they had in Game three,
they sweep. They sweep that series. And that's another thing
that kind of ties into I think I've looked at this.
There have been twenty nine under and runs scored in
the twenty twenty five playoffs up until the today. There's
(27:43):
only been twenty five games up into this point nine
under and runs. And it goes back to the philosophy
of defense. Holy Moly, like there's been a lot of Really,
I'll never say the word routine because nothing is routine.
No play is routine, but plays that need to be made.
And we're talking ground balls and double plays and fly
balls and bad breaks and bad jumps, bad routes, all
(28:05):
the things that aren't really magnified in a regular season.
But when you're under the microscope. I've always said this
and I've said it on this podcast before. The game
has a way of exposing your biggest weakness at the
most important time of a game or a series, and
you're seeing it over and over and over again. All
(28:29):
you need is this, and you get that. You look
at the punch outs. You look count of many times
the Brewers or the Blue Jays punched out. Doesn't mean
much because everybody today's world says it out and out. No,
it's not a strikeout to the same thing as now.
No it's not. No, it's not. And you're starting to
see it. You're starting to see a switch and a
(28:50):
shift back to real like more fundamental, more understandable baseball.
I know what the numbers say. I'll take for example, voping.
I've read it on internet. I've read it, I've seen it.
I've heard it online, I've heard it on TV. He
needs to pull the ball in the air. He's more successful.
(29:11):
Numbers say, so, okay, that's great, but you can't think that.
If you think that, which he did in this series,
you get one for eighteen with fourteen punch outs because
you see a quick front hip. He gives up on
fastballs away and slider in the dirt. It's almost predictable
(29:31):
how you can pitch them over and over and over again.
Austin Wells, you've got the closer on the ropes. Let
him feel a little bit. I understand he got a
he got a split or a slider up last night.
Oh oh, but you fly out to left. Oh to me,
that shows me, no plan, no approach. I'm just swinging
(29:52):
this wing. If you're gonna do that. Sure, go ahead,
it's just short porch to right. Use it to your advantage.
Go on the early. Absolutely, that's what it's there for.
But you can't just go up there and just take
meaningless hacks and expect a different outcome. Again emphasizing the
(30:15):
the Blue Jays Yankee series. I thought the Blue Jays
had developed arms to attack the Yankees. Uh you savage
with his split? Look that angle, that split. It's you're
almost better throwing up a bunch of righties than you
are throwing up a bunch of lefties. Yes, I know
(30:37):
you're you're every day guys, Bellinger is gonna play against
anybody he can hit. I don't care what anybody says,
Lefty Righty, doesn't matter what it is. You want him
in the lineup every day. He's good, he's good on defense.
He gives you good at bad every time for the
most part. Like your platoon guys, I most definitely would
have thought about putting my rights in there. But I
think and the number should show that because you take
(31:00):
away his split, it eliminates one of his major weapons.
And he doesn't throw his split as much to Righty's
as he does lefties. But those are little things to
me that if you're in the numbers in the analytics,
the numbers prove that. But why are we continue to
throw lefties up there? Again, he's young and you just
didn't know what you're gonna get. Pitching wise, they pretty
(31:23):
much dominated them the first two games. Yes, you can
say take him out early. And that's another thing we
talk about. Schneider took your savage out early. Yeah, okay,
he had the ability to. But what people forget is
the Blue Jays had what six days off before the
series even started, So yes, they you can play scrimmage
games and simulated games with your pen and your arms
(31:45):
to keep them fresh, but it's not the same thing
as facing real hitters. So I can see both sides
of the argument. You left the Yankee see a bunch
of your relievers, they started to swing the bats. You
gave him a little hope even after you were winning
thirteen or nothing or whatever it was. But you also
got your guys out there who haven't seen a live
(32:08):
hitter on an opposing team for eight nine days. You know,
if you look at it this way, if you don't
do that and throw your savage deeper in the game,
you only use one guy. Now you're rolling in the
Yankee stadium and your bullpen hasn't seen a live hitter
on an opposing team for ten to eleven days. It's
a tough ask and then if you can't find it
(32:30):
in a close game, you're in trouble. Luckily, they had
enough cushion to kind of get through that. But I
think it also helped the Yankees, and helped the Yankees
as far as guy on that plane fell a little
better about themselves, right, swinging the bat a little better.
But at the end of the day, one game is
one game, and you can't look at it as it's
hard to carry over. You can have confidence in whatever
(32:52):
you're coming home thought the Yankees, they did a good time.
They capitalize on mistakes and that's what you that's what
good teams do. Game three, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
The the booted ground ball the second early in the
game led to a run, and then the pop up
to left that should have been caught by the left
fielder and it wasn't led to judges heroic three run homers.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So you're seeing stuff that it goes back to fundamentals
defense by in the world, we don't take you don't
take as much pride. And I always tell kids today,
everybody wants to go hit in the cage. Amount of
the number of If you put a list of one
hundred kids who want to go hit, one hundred kids
(33:34):
who go hit, you want to go take around balls.
Maybe two of those one hundred will take a round balls.
It is important, it does matter, and everybody can be
a DH. If you look at the game one of
the Yankees Blue Jays series, you're talking about really good.
Obviously glad he hits a home run in the first inning, awesome,
get the home crowd into it. Kerk hits a home run,
(33:55):
makes it to nothing. But if you looked at the
outfield defense, it goes back to or we've talked about
the Blue Jays are just more athletic ro outfielders in general.
Over they're more athletic than the Yankees in the outfield defensively,
and the big spot in this game was what was
it the sixth The Yankees have the bases loaded with two, three,
(34:20):
four up, and don't with they score one out of
that Uh, Judge chases a slider away and again we
talked about how he has He's had a great postseason fantastic.
But if you say that average doesn't matter anymore and
singles don't matter, then basically he had the same postseason
that Bellinger did because he had a home run, so
(34:44):
to Judge, So which one is it? So there's a
there's a time and a place for singles, there's a
time and a place to put the ball in play.
And there's a couple of situations here that you know,
taking what the pitcher gives you would have helped. That's
not all on Judge, because Judge did pretty much everything
he possibly could offensively, that is to to h to
(35:09):
help this team move forward. It just shows you that
how many like there's holes there there's there's there's holes
in that lineup, and the Blue Jays exposed him. Gosman
did great, another split you know, downward angle kind of
guy that fouled up you savage. They they brought they
had guys that were just not a good matchup for
(35:31):
that lineup with all the lefties.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And that's and and it showed you look at the
defense the defense was. You know, the Blue Jays, if
you look it on paper, bluejas are way better defensively
than the Yankees are. And that and that's that that
stuff like that shows up in October and then the
one time it the Blue Jays defense let them down,
the Yankees got the win. So, you know, I thought
(35:54):
cam Kid pitched well in Game three. There were Game
four he you know, he gave him a chance to win.
That's all you can ask. Was he as electric as
he was against the Red Sox. No, But I mean
that's never been done before in the postseason, so to
expect him to do that again is almost asinine. So,
you know, I think there's a lot of good things
that happened for them, but there's it just goes back
to they're just not built to win the whole thing
(36:19):
with the way their philosophy lies, and it's it's gonna take.
It's not it can't change overnight. They're gonna have to
get creative. They're gonna have to make some severe changes
to their philosophy. And that goes from the minor league's
on up because you start to see the same similar
(36:41):
issues with a lot of the same players, and a
lot of players that come up. They all have andy. Granted,
don't get me wrong, no players perfect, but you're telling
me with that payroll and that you can't do. You
look around and you look at some of the guys
that Blue Jays have where they come from. Some were
almost out of baseball, but they're grinding. And there's something
(37:04):
to we said about guys that have had it ripped
from them several times. I don't think the Blue Jays
are really worried about what color glove they have on,
or what their flashy belt looks like, or what shoe
game am I gonna roll out there today? Or am
I gonna wear EyeBlack in a night game? Like, let's
stop with the nonsense. I wore EyeBlack every chance I could.
(37:25):
I loved it. I didn't wear the night games they
need to. There's flash and their substance. Blue Jay's a
little more about substance. They are about flash, and you're
seeing that, and that's why they're moving on. I think
that's why the Yankees are going home. We'll move on
to the Dodgers Philly series. I'm not gonna go over
every play and every in depth mistake or whatever. I
(37:47):
just want to get a collect from a let's just
say a drone aspect of what's going on. The Phillies
ran into a bussaf and they just they ran into
the Dodgers, and I get it. Everybody the same thing.
That the same energy that they give Boone in New York,
they give Topper in Philly. Stop it stop he's not
(38:08):
going up there and not performing. I think the Phillies.
I've always liked the Phillies. I thought they had a
couple of years ago. I thought, you know, this was
a team that had it, and I still think they do.
It's just the Dodgers kept adding and I feel like
they went. The Phillies went and got durand maybe two
(38:30):
years too late, but you got to give the Dodgers credit.
I mean, you know they get on Topper about the bunt.
Stops lays down a perfect bunt. The Dodgers pull off
a wheel play. We talk about defense. They performed it,
they executed it. They never really worked on it. But
you have out a centerfielder, right fielder playing shortstop. He
puts it on Boom, he gets it. But that's where
(38:51):
it goes back to roster configuration. There. You're telling me
there's no reason why Nick Castiano should be still running
in a one run game with the ninth inning. But
it can't happen. You've gotta have someone on the bench
to go run for him. Then you don't a picture.
Someone's got to be faster than that. It's just reality.
(39:13):
But what the way the roster's configured, you don't have
many options. So to blame Topper through all this, I mean,
I give Philly a lot of credit to lose Willard
the way they lost him, and to lose the big
lefty for for the PDS, for the postseason, to make
it this far and do what they did in the
(39:34):
NLL East to get to this point. They're not dead yet.
They're not dead yet. And I said this, I watching,
you know, watching the middle of the game too. I
see Philly fans they cheer for him, and then as
soon as they don't make it, they don't get a hit,
they boot, And I get it, you're frustrated. And Brush
Harper said it best. It's like I blew myself when
I'm making out. Yes, players do that, But I felt
(39:55):
like the best thing that that team could do is
get away from Philly, get on the road. And you
saw it last night. All of a sudden, the guys
are hitting again. Obviously, Trey Turner's got to have a
good feeling. Go to La. He won a batting title
for the Dodgers, so he likes to hit there. Schwarmer
could hit anywhere. Yeah, there's sometimes when it doesn't matter
what season you have, When you have a six or
(40:17):
seven day layoff, you're not quite sure what you're gonna
get on the way back, And even within a division series,
there's not enough. Like players are creatures of habit. They
used to plane every day, and when you have that break,
it takes. Some guys are great at it and they
pick quite off they left off, and some guys have
trouble coming back from that. And it doesn't mean it.
(40:39):
You can't really put it in like, oh, this guy's
used to coming back from this. It can happen year
to year. It might be different and it takes some time.
Like you can have what Laddie did. He hit the
same wayoff and he came back just it helped him
because he struggled down the stretch of September. But other
guys it might take some time. Swarmer comes back. It's
two old runs. Last night, I felt bad for Kersh.
(41:02):
I know Clayton. Nobody wants to go out there and
have a good couple of these more than Clayton does
and Kershawn and you know, it just adds to that
stupid narrative about him not being a big game, post
game pitch, post postseason pitcher because he threw some gems
back in the day when he was out there way
too long because the Dodgers didn't have anybody else to
turn to, so his numbers got damaged in the end.
(41:23):
But you can't tell me for twenty seventeen years you
wouldn't want Clayton Kershaw on your staff and any any
month of the year, You're crazy. But good win for
the Phillies last night. One of my only regrets is
the Phillies Dodgers series is not a seven game series.
I still believe in the Phillies, even though it's all
(41:44):
doom and gloom. If there's one team that can get
hot and it's not afraid of the moment I'm not
afraid of, the opponent would be the Phillies. They're battle tested,
They've got some they've got some savvy veterans on their
Turner Shoreverer, Castianos, keep Harper, keep going on the list. Well, newtwo.
You have to understand, like, if there's one team that
(42:04):
if Swobber gets hot and comes off the two homer
game you had last night, and Trey Turner gets hot,
it doesn't really matter who they face. That if they
get going, that's a team that can kind of run off,
you know, six in a row, six out of seven,
whatever it is. I just feel like, you know, people
want to say they didn't do this, they didn't do that. Look,
Blake Snell has always pitched well against them, so you
(42:27):
know they have certain guys that don't match up well
against certain teams, and they ran into that. You know,
a couple of bad breaks here and there. There had
two one in this series. This one is not over.
This one's not over yet. Two to one, You never know.
You know, you go back to Philly Game five, who knows,
So the Phillies get hot offensively, Yeah, it can change
(42:48):
some things. You still have waiting for a bigger moment
from Harper. You know. That's to say these guys, you know,
they're not built for this. That's that's just not that's
not the right narrative. They were two years ago. So
you know, the Dodgers are are battle tested too, and
they understand what it takes to win they probably have
more depth of pitching obviously than the Phillies do. But
on a short series like this, anything can happen. You
(43:10):
can bounce back being down too. Nothing isn't the end
of the world. With a team like that, you get rolling,
you get some guys that get hot together, which the
Phillies can do because their veteran style hitters. You never know,
and you know, the Phillies did a good job of
shutting down the top three hitters for the Dodgers, so
you know, anything can happen. Still a game, you never know.
(43:32):
If there's one team that can do it, Phillies definitely
one that can come back against the Dodgers. Love to
see my guys that I got a chance to manage
and coach the end of the postseason. Max Kepler with
the Phillies made a hell of a catch last night,
and I had hit a triple kind of off the bench,
kind of ignited a little bit of a rally, got
them going a little bit. Go over to the Seattle
(43:53):
Detroit series. You know, Polanco I thought was probably pound
for pound, the best hitter I ad consistently for four
years from both sides of the plate, and I felt
like his right handed swing was he was better left handed,
but this year the numbers say right handed, and he
takes the best pitcher on the planet deep twice in
(44:13):
the same game. That's pretty amazing. Made some pretty good plays,
a second base two. Mcgarver got a hit in that
game against Seattle. But that's a that's a good series too.
That's a tough one too. Cayle Rally having a hell
of a year, obviously, but to go up there and
beat Schoogle anyway, any anyhow, you can any any way
you can score off him as a plus in Seattle.
(44:34):
I think that's the third time they've beat him this year.
And I won't even say beat, I think they just
survived him. And that's all you try to do against
someone's ace, especially when they're the best in the world.
You don't try to beat him. You try to survive him.
And you got to have your guy go out there
and match Zero's with him, and Castillo did that. You know,
Detroit gets this series back to Seattle, and now you
gotta beat him twice. You know it's gonna be tough
(44:57):
to advance in any postseason. You've got to do some
things that on paper don't look like a heck of
a lot of fun that don't look almost feasible. No
one's had it harder, in my opinion, in a five
game series, then they have to beat Derek Scruble twice
and that's what they're going to be faced with on Friday.
(45:18):
So it should be should be must see TV, you know,
to see teams like this. The cool thing about it
is that someone's gonna represent the American League that hasn't
done it in a while. So you know it's either
going to be the Blue Jays, the Mariners, or the Tigers.
So it's been pretty cool to see, pretty fun to watch.
It should be a pretty good game five. Obviously, those
(45:40):
those must those those finishing games are always always entertaining.
So moving forward, Brewers Cubs another game that you see
errors that open the floodgates. Corner makes an air in
the first inning, Brewers take off and score whatever how
many runs in the first That team's different. Now, give
(46:02):
Pat Murphy credit. Goodness, gracious, them guys are rolling and
they it doesn't matter who they put in there, they
just keep on coming and they have good at bats
and cheerio and just it's it's electric. It's fun to watch.
The Milwaukee's a tough place to play when that when
that place is a pack. Those fans are Upper Midwest people.
(46:23):
They follow their they follow their groups, and they love it.
Pat Murphy gets a lot of credit for that club.
They all of them will bunt, all of them moved
the ball. They find a way. They they grind out
at bats. I mean Game two, the Cubs hit the
big three in homers. Zukiets the big three in home
in the first bohen they come right back, and that's
(46:45):
a gut punch. You know. You figure, if you're the
visiting team, you're just trying to get one of the
first two. You think if you get one of the
first two, you're in good shape. You come out hit
a three on homer. Three in homers in October usually
me wins, and you hit one of the first and
then you want to get to enjoy it for about
eleven minutes, and you turn around and they hit one.
(47:05):
Now it's tied. Now the crowd's back into it, and
here come here it comes. So you know, they gave
up two three win homers the first five innings, and
that that's usually spells disaster in the postseason. But that
team's rolling. You know, even even yesterday's game in Wrigley,
cub score four in the first and the Brewers come
(47:26):
in and shut them out the rest of the game,
and they give themselves a chance in the ninth inning
in a one run game. They had their chances. But
you do see a guy, a bunch of guys just
grinding out of bats, playing good defense, taking hits away,
not giving them extra outs. You know, you're you're seeing
a lot of a lot of the purest of baseball.
(47:46):
That's what makes October so great. It's purest of baseball.
You know, one mistake, one pitch can change everything. Quickouts
are or should be. You know, quick outs from a
pitching from a pitching staff or a pitcher are golden.
You don't see a lot of them. If you get
(48:06):
quick outs, every pitch matters. Foul balls matter, you know,
just because a guy makes an air, that's extra pitches.
And you'll see these. Once these series go to seven games,
the bullpen days, it becomes more exposed. That's why you
don't see That's why I don't believe in I understand
there's times in places where you have to do the
bullpen game. I totally understand it. But if you try
(48:29):
to live off them, you're just not gonna A seven
game series is too long to break down your pen
that way, you're gonna need those guys a lot, and
in high leverage, you know, high adrenaline situations to force
them to do that over and over and over again
in a seven game series. History is proven that it
(48:50):
doesn't really work. Eventually, the guys are gonna get exposed.
And I know from my playing days you could tell
the difference in guys stuff from game one to game
seven in the bullpen, and it was significantly The stuff
gets significantly worse, and the more times the hitter sees it,
the better advantage goes to the hitter. So that's gonna
(49:11):
be something to watch out for moving forward. I think
today is Game four for the the Brewers and Cubs.
It's it's it's an intriguing series for me. There's a
lot of young, young guys on either side. So with
a couple of veterans mixed in, he got yellings. With
the Brewers, he got the Swanson it short which and
(49:32):
then you know, don't don't forget the impact that Justin
Turner has on the Cubs. I think that gets lost
in the shuffle with a lot of these guys. I
thought Council did a fantastic job the other day. It
wasn't a sentimental pick because you don't do that in October,
but getting justin in the game and him coming through
with a knock in Milwaukee, that that that goes beyond
(49:55):
a lot of what people understand. And him helping those
young guys and helping them understand and control the moment
is shouldn't be left unnoticed. So as a veteran guy,
you look at that and that he gets it, he understands,
and that's why that team has been successful. So I
think the Cubs are facing it uphill battle. I think
(50:16):
they're young. I just don't think they have the horses.
But I have a lot of guys on that team too,
Taylor Rodgers. I'm trying to think of a couple other
ones that I have had lucky to be around. Caleb
field Bar, who the Tigers told me no every time
the Tigers called me who was ready in Triple A.
I gave him field Bar's name, and for some round
(50:37):
reason they kept moving on to somebody else. But it's
nice to see Caleb up there again in high leverage situations.
He had a pretty bad arm injury and he came
back from it. He was a twin and he came
back from the Tigers, and he was one of my
in Toledo. Was probably my most consistent reliever I had.
And it's good to see him pitching high leverage situations.
So they got their work cutout for him. Milwaukee's a
(50:59):
Milwaukee's They've got this thing rolling and uh, you know,
they just they have multiple ways to beat you. All right, everybody,
that's going to wrap up this episode of The Dugout.
Thank you for listening. Come find us on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever else you find your favorite podcast. Check us
out on social media x Instagram, Facebook, leave a question,
(51:23):
leave a comment, Love to hear you guys, feedback, maybe
for a future episode or whatever. Until then, thank you
for listening and look forward to the next one.
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