The Changeup for October 3rd, 2019
2019 Season Ends
I didn’t really write this season. The stories coming out of the front office (42 years of control, etc) and then moves the Jays made (or didn’t make) baffled and irritated me.
Had I written more, the tone would’ve been something like this:
Nobody wants to read that.
I mean, this kind of shit just makes me want to get in my car, drive out to a field and scream into the night:
Let’s just ignore the Dodgers and the Yankees or all the other teams that spend and also win. Also, ignore the ridiculous and occasionally baffling moves the front office and management of those teams made that had nothing to do with signing Manny Machado or Bryce Harper. Or that Rogers is a telecommunications giant.
The consternation even clouded my enjoyment of Bo Bichette, who I completely fell in love with this season. (I named my new betta fish, who is a very fancy blue crown tail, Bo Fish-ette)
Bichette was dazzling:
But I couldn’t help wondering why this kid didn’t break camp with the club. We could’ve had this all season.
I mean, I understand years of control (42 years of it!), but I wanted this sooner:
SMOAKERS
Justin Smoak played what was likely his last game as a Blue Jay.
Smoak is officially the last man standing from the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He’s always seemed like a solid dude, and his veteran presence had an impact on these youngins. For instance, I appreciated his advice to Bo Bichette after Bo took a pitch off the head:
Fairservice, as he is wont to do, pretty much sums it up:
PLAYOFFS!
I hate one-game playoffs even though one once involved this:
I think it’s unfair to the teams. I would probably argue in favour of a three-game series for a wild card. The logistics might be a nightmare, but baseball is a game of series. Teams never play one-offs, except in this situation.
I didn’t really care one way or another who won the NL WC game, but I did want Oakland to beat Tampa Bay.
The Coliseum looked great and there is just something magic about California baseball.
Also, this happened:
I don’t care about the Rays, other than Tommy Pham (who is awesome) and Charlie Morton (who is so serious and so tall), but John Lott manages to make me want to read something tangentially related to them:
Mottloa said Mel Queen taught him the most:
Acuña Jr. , Goes 3 for 4, Ruins Everything
Hearing that Carlos Martínez had an issue with Ronald Acuña Jr. pimping his late homer in Game 1 of the NLDS saddened me.
The reason this saddens me is that Martínez is now parroting the stuff he hears from American baseball players and broadcasters, stuff like what was apparently said on TBS before Game 2.
Playing the game with swag and style is Latino baseball. Acuña Jr. is one of the brightest stars in the game, it’s the PLAYOFFS and you want to dull his shine?
Also, if you don’t want him to show you up, don’t give up dingers.
On the subject of Acuña Jr.: in Game 1, some of his teammates called him out for what they saw as a “lack of hustle” after Acuña Jr. turned a deep flyball off the wall into a very long single by not hustling it out of the box.
Jeff Shultz of The Athletic reports that Braves’ manager Brian Snitker would’ve benched Acuña if it hadn’t been a playoff game.
First baseman Freddie Freeman said, “It’s frustrating. But I think you have that conversation once. It becomes kind of beating a dead horse if you keep having that same conversation over and over again.”
But I guess it doesn’t hurt to try shaming him in the press, right, Freddie?
Obviously, Acuña shouldn’t turn his doubles into singles, but he did go 3 for 4, with a 2-run homer in the 9th.
And all of this is just ignoring that the Braves’ bullpen completely melted down in the 8th. And it’s also ignoring the fact that Dallas Keuchel, a pitcher the Braves went out to get for these situations, was pulled in the 4th inning for mysterious reasons, thus making this game essentially a bullpen game. A bullpen that gave up six runs in three innings.
But sure, the kid didn’t hustle to second. That’s why they lost.
Today's Walk Up
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