Today is the strange day when every game starts at the same time at 3:00 PM, so the schedule doesn't have an effect on the postseason. The only issue that hasn't been decided is the NL Central, where a St. Louis loss and Milwaukee win would result in a game #163 to decide the division.
Quite an ending - Dom Smith in his first at bat in 2 months hits a walkoff 3-run home run in the 11th to win it for the Mets 7-6. Might be his last at bat as a Met in Mickey Callaway's last game as a Met manager.
With the Angels firing Ausmus, Maddon has jumped to the top of their list (he spent 30 years in their system). The Mets are a far better team than the Angels, but it will take a quick decision and big bucks to get him to Flushing, two things the Wilpons aren't known for.
If the Mets cannot land Maddon or Girardi, I don't see the point in firing Calloway. The players like playing for him and if they actually had a decent BP we would have been the teams in the WC playin game. That falls on Brody, not Calloway.
And Calloway is gone. Every team wants to go analytical, but Girardi was anti analytics at some points and went with his gut feeling in games. Isn't that the exact opposite of what current teams are doing or want? Not sure I agree with this.
The players liking Callaway is in my opinion not the point - he was a horrible decision maker who couldn't even articulate the reasoning for half of the things he did. Even with the monumentally bad bullpen they would have made the wild card game if he hadn't given away a half-dozen games (at least) with boneheaded decisions. Good riddance to bad garbage. None of which means that the Wilpons will do any better next time, by the way, but at least Maddon and Girardi have pedigrees that warrant respect, and can clearly handle the pressure of managing in a big city with big expectations. I believe they should go after Maddon right away, and try to get an answer from him quickly so they don't lose Girardi if he turns them down. Are they allowed to announce a hiring over the next month, or do they have to wait until after the World Series?
Do you think he pushed the button that the analytics told him too? I remember hearing reports (maybe on ESPN Radio from Rick DiPietro) that the lineup was on Mickeys desk hours before first pitch and came from the top down based on analytics. I would expect that those decision makers would have their fingers involved on who comes in next from the BP. Based off that assumption, it would make sense that Callaway wouldn't blatantly throw everyone under the bus above him.
I can only go by what he explicitly said, which was that 90% of the time he went against the analytics. I said at the time that that was nonsense, but the real point was that he was stupid enough to say it and think it made him look smart. If he thought he was doing analytics for in-game decisions he obviously didn't understand it even slightly, since his decisions were often totally against even the most basic analytics. Making out the lineup card is the least important job a manger has nowadays. It doesn't bother me at all if it's done based on knowing how lineups actually match up against the opposing team's pitching, which is not something that a manager knows anything about at all.
I never like to see a person fired but he was a terrible manager. That being said good luck to Mickey on his future endeavors. I don't know if someone like Brody wants a Maddon or Girardi. He seems to want to be the captain of the ship. Someone he can dictate to. I guess we shall see.
I actually felt bad for Mickey. When he was on Fat Mike last week and he asked Mickey why he should stay, I thought his answer was great and he sounded so genuine. He just wasn't a good manager- that's all there is to it.
Clutchness (or the lack thereof) is mostly a myth, but at this point you have to say that Kershaw simply chokes in the postseason. He's pitched 160 innings and has an ERA over 4.50, and it gets progressively worse as you go from NLDS to NLCS to WS.
Apparently Beltran is only considering the Mets job, and has turned down interview requests from the Cubs and Padres. It seems that he wants to stay in New York. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...lined-interviews-with-cubs-padres-per-report/
I might think it’s actually not $-related, but rather that he wants to move up the ladder and they’re not interested. It’s a shame - he always seemed to be a good guy, and having a Hispanic manager at the minor league level is a real benefit. Having someone with positive history with the franchise is a good thing too. well, no one ever said that the Wilpons know what they’re doing.
