2024 WS: Yankees vs. Dodgers
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
That is quite the article, especially the Dodger's scouting report, which is ruthlessly accurate. To oversimplify things, re-signing Soto sums up the problem, since he is a below average fielder who is not going to get better as he ages into his next massive contract. Judge will be 33 next year and really should move from CF. And Stanton is signed for 3 more years, filling up the DH spot. As I understand it, Dominguez has poor/mixed reviews on his defense, but with a strong arm. Signing Soto means questionable outfield defense for the next 3 years.
In the infield, Chisholm is under contract for two more years and is athletic with, again, mixed/poor reviews defensively. LeMahieu is under contract for the next two seasons. Maybe he's the 1B next year? Volpe has a very good reputation for his defensive skills...
All of which is to say, it is going to be a complicated task for NYY to improve team defense next year and beyond. Trade Dominguez, sign/trade for an excellent CF, dump DJ, sign a great infielder?
None of this is a surprise and Cashman is certainly well aware of the problem. But the path forward may be to lean into the Bash Brothers approach and hope to not get bitten again next year.
I sincerely hope that Brez doesn't try to rebuild the Sox on the NYY pattern of great hitters who can't field or run the bases intelligently. I appreciated the Sherman article. He said some of that on mlbn, but without the details of Dodgers scouting observances.
Watched that Mookie grounder to first for probably the 15th time… and yeah. I think Rizzo could have possibly beat him there…. IF he wasn’t expecting to toss it to Cole.
Not sure if this was posted, Fox Post Game with Papi and the other guys
View: https://youtu.be/lEVWGmJFdS4?si=MUozDoiftYrHVMim
View: https://youtu.be/lEVWGmJFdS4?si=MUozDoiftYrHVMim
One of six times actually, it was a sacrifice fly so it doesn't get counted in with his 5 hitless at bats
Triston Casas is soft. (Complete sarcasm, for the record)
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42101919/2024-world-series-champions-los-angeles-dodgers-celebration-dominance-parade-freeman-betts-ohtani
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42101919/2024-world-series-champions-los-angeles-dodgers-celebration-dominance-parade-freeman-betts-ohtani
He had to be helped into the X-ray room, but had to drive himself to Santa Monica?
I absolutely think Rizzo could have made it to the bag if he had put in the effort. And you can see from that frame of the play, Cole wasn't gonna get there in time.
The Dodgers had to borrow a plane for the ride home so do you think they would spring for an Uber to a Santa Monica urgent care? Cheap jerks.
They have like 1 1/2 cameras, I swear. T’Oscar Hernandez has been on camera more than all other Dodgers combined. No Freddie, no Mookie, no Kiké that I’ve seen. I watched all the Red Sox parades, Patriots, Celtics and the coverage was so much better. Maybe getting better overall coverage now. Kersh on.
This is a play that should have been made.
A grounder in that direction the pitcher must sprint to 1st. And the 1B has to run to the bag and toss the ball if it comes to it. Neither happened and the inning gets extended. They follow baseball 101 and the inning is over and we have a game tonight in Chavez Ravine.
If it is the frame I am thinking of, Cole had already made the mistake of giving up on covering and turning to the dugout. If he had played it like every little leaguer is taught to, he would have a had a chance.
This video breaks down the play perfectly in my opinion. Rizzo overplays the ball due to the spin and can't get his momentum going back toward the bag. Cole makes a mental mistake and assumes Rizzo can make the play. Just sprint to the bag like you are supposed to and see what happens.
View: https://youtu.be/9KXb99Ux9wY?si=xR3ziYIW_BuXHwUh
This was the Red Sox for many years. Thinking especially of the Rob Deer/Pete Incaviglia lineups.
our namesake, too.
No. Bullshit. This even has me more convinced that Rizzo screwed this up. 1- he overplayed it coming back to first to get it, then, yeah... had to turn back to grab it and it knocked out some of his momentum. Had he not overplayed it, he could have easily scooped it up on his way to first and probably would have beat Mookie by two steps. He had to almost turn back. That said... look at how slow the guy moves. Zero effort put in to run it to first. Maybe he didn't because he was expecting to just toss it to Cole? That'd be a fine excuse, but he barely tried. I'm glad Theo traded him over a decade ago... it was pure foresite.
I'm not sure why you think it has to be either Rizzo or Cole who made the mistake. Por que no los dos? Rizzo could have played the ball better and he could have run harder to first. Cole could have not given up on executing the play like you are supposed to and maybe been there to take the flip from Rizzo. It's the same thing as a pitcher not backing up third on a throw from the outfield. If the throw gets past the 3rd baseman then either the 3rd baseman or the outfielder made the primary mistake. If the runner scores because the pitcher was too lazy to back up the base like they are supposed to then they too made a mistake on the play.
I think Rizzo overplaying the ball is slightly less egregious in this case because the ball had a ton of english on it and changed direction. All Cole had to do is continue his sprint to the bag.
I'm not saying it was one or the other at all. Both did. Cole should have been heading to first. Rizzo gave a half-assed effort. But yeah, if I was going to partition blame, I'd say 65% Cole, 35% Rizzo during the first half of the play. The second half is the inverse of that though.
That's the thing for me. Rizzo didn't even TRY. He saw that Cole wasn't gonna be there, yet he didn't even make an effort.
Regardless of whose fault it is (I agree it’s mostly Cole), I don’t know why you wouldn’t sprint to 1B as fast as you can once it becomes obvious that Cole wasn’t coming to the bag. Maybe Mookie still beats you but it’s G5 of the World Series and bases are loaded with 2 outs! That was a “Cam Newton recovering his fumble in the SB” level effort from Rizzo.
Yep.
And if either of them had done that, we might be able to watch a baseball game tonight.
Small price to pay, though, for the glory of YED.
FWIW, here is a post I made here in May:
I don't know why Rizzo did this all year, he didn't do it in previous seasons, but the main thing to note there is that Cole should have been ultra-aware of that coming in and done his best to cover on anything in that direction.
Reminds me of one of the best jokes here ever. Forget whose but when the Pats but the plane someone went “now the Patriots own 54 jets.”
And then he got his arm broken as a baserunner by a pitcher covering first base. Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think?
Hah, thanks, this was mine. Still proud of it.
Having been to this live in the Bronx was really the time of my life. Jesus how many people stole seats though and got up from their seats in the middle of plate appearances. I've never seen a line that bad at Lobel's.
I haven't checked film since but what cameras possibly didn't show on-air was that Cole got a really heavy, early start on this ball, and I thought it would be a routine 3-1 play in the scorecard, much more so than 3u given that charge, and given the speed Cole blustered initially, especially because I thought he had a better chance to get a relatively faster runner like Betts, as opposed to like a Muncy. I think the responsibility was on Cole primarily for not just continuing on his path towards the first base bag, even if Rizzo takes the ball himself at that point.
Cole didn't act like it was his own doing remotely though, and was (understandably) absolutely livid in the dugout and stomping off like an enraged elephant missing a child from the herd, and went straight into the Yankee clubhouse into the bottom of the frame. Did not take a seat. Nowhere near anyone else and no words exchanged. I was on cooler watch. The way I'd describe it was that he almost was clenching up and pissed like he was internally punching something to express himself without doing a full Kevin Brown.
I swear the play gets weirder the more you watch it. As Mookie hits it, Cole does take ~two sprint-like steps off the mound, but they're oddly angled at the dugout and then he just... stops. It's hard to tell exactly why, nothing 'happens' appreciably to make him slam on the brakes like that.
Rizzo does seem to see some crazy spin on the ball so he almost surrounds it in his route, but when he has the ball and looks up, if his first step is to the bag he definitely gets him, so he fielded that ball fully decided to flip to Cole. I wonder if something about looking up and not seeing Cole read to him as "lost cause" and it stops him from running just long enough. Thing is, it would have at least been close if he'd immediately switched gears back and darted at the bag, but something in him decides it is a lost cause.
If one of them just does the routine thing its an out; either one. The Dodgers tying it that inning required a lazy fly ball being dropped as a total aberration--nothing caused it--as well as the ball bouncing away from Judge enough and Hernandez being aware enough that they couldn't just get the force at second, AND two players making a massive fundamental mistake simultaneously where really only one had to get it right to survive it with an out. And it happened.
Rizzo does seem to see some crazy spin on the ball so he almost surrounds it in his route, but when he has the ball and looks up, if his first step is to the bag he definitely gets him, so he fielded that ball fully decided to flip to Cole. I wonder if something about looking up and not seeing Cole read to him as "lost cause" and it stops him from running just long enough. Thing is, it would have at least been close if he'd immediately switched gears back and darted at the bag, but something in him decides it is a lost cause.
If one of them just does the routine thing its an out; either one. The Dodgers tying it that inning required a lazy fly ball being dropped as a total aberration--nothing caused it--as well as the ball bouncing away from Judge enough and Hernandez being aware enough that they couldn't just get the force at second, AND two players making a massive fundamental mistake simultaneously where really only one had to get it right to survive it with an out. And it happened.
Plus Chisholm not being able to hold onto the bounced throw from Volpe. I think Volpe made the best play he could here, I don't think he had a chance at first or second and I think the idea there is to get the ball to the base as quickly as possible, and trust that the 3B can make the play. It was a bit offline and bounced, but it was there in time. But Chisholm never played 3B until August and understandably isn't great on many of the nuances there, and couldn't hold on.
I would have gladly kept the Rizzo career at 1B for the Red Sox instead of the massive contributions made by Adrian Gonzalez to the team! Rizzo was quite productive for the Cubs from 2012 to 2019.
Wonder if Casas would have tried to play with the injury if it was the playoffs. These injuries are notoriously variable as far as person to person pain tolerance, needed healing time, return to play etc. So who knows.
Interesting what injuries do and don't get declared publicly as they happen. Seems like you have to disclose more injuries in the NFL than MLB for whatever reason, though given the gambling implications, I'm not sure why there is really a difference.
Everyone has focused on what Cole and Rizzo did or didn’t do. I would like to give Mookie a lot of credit for burning down that line as hard as he could. I’m not sure that they would have gotten him out had they done everything right.
No… totally. I was joking. I always felt that Theo hewed to the Anderson pedigree while ignoring the better but less heralded player right under his nose. It was one of Theo’s first errors- otherwise almost perfect prior to then.
Rizzo. Khalish > Reddick…. Crawford. Not going all out on Beltre and focusing on Gonzalez
Appropriate to the final game of the thread, I booted it on the fundamentals here. Thank you for the correction.
Gee, if I were as bad a team as the Patriots seem to be at the moment, I don't know that I'd be doing that.
This Jomboy breakdown is excellent:
View: https://youtu.be/LebrzDtQn_s?si=DZnDcNMyerppmUYj
I think the big thing he points out about the Mookie grounder is the spin it takes back to Rizzo’s right toward 2B. Initially it seems like a standard first base grounder. He never should’ve just assumed it was handled anyway. But by the time it takes that spin, Cole has already peaced out and is headed to the dugout.
View: https://youtu.be/LebrzDtQn_s?si=DZnDcNMyerppmUYj
I think the big thing he points out about the Mookie grounder is the spin it takes back to Rizzo’s right toward 2B. Initially it seems like a standard first base grounder. He never should’ve just assumed it was handled anyway. But by the time it takes that spin, Cole has already peaced out and is headed to the dugout.
Every time I see this photo I fail to see how it’s Cole’s fault. No way he beats Mookie to the bag and Rizzo basically had the ball in his glove here and must be 30-40 feet closer to the bat than Mookie.
The photo is completely misleading. His mistake happened well before that picture was taken. He started toward first, gave up on the play and started toward the dugout and then the picture was taken.