World Series Game 1 Chat

8:01
Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, it’s World Series time!

8:01
sadtrombone: baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball

8:01
Dodger Fan: Let’s do this!

8:01
Ben Clemens: Look uh… it’s the World Series. I would normally post in some lineups and such, but WORLD SERIES VERY EXCITING

8:02
Ben Clemens: The Rays are fun, the Dodgers are fun, this is going to be fun

8:02
Dodger Fan: Hi Ben!

8:02
Ben Clemens: Hey everyone

8:02
Mad Joe-Don: Is it weird that I want Kershaw to pitch well but for the Rays to win?

8:02
Chris: Does a kershaw win tonight and a dodgers sweep change his whole narrative or does he need to perform well a couple times on this stage to change it?

8:02
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The time has almost come. The time for baseball.

8:02
David K: Not looking forward to Buck and Smoltz over praising the managers and ignoring the front offices.

8:02
Avatar Dan Szymborski: DO YOU WANT A-ROD

8:03
Ben Clemens: Are they next to each other?

8:03
Ben Clemens: Or is this some trick?

8:03
Ben Clemens: And I would think Kershaw winning a ring will just make the noise quieter, not change the story

8:03
Dodger Fan: They’re in the same room. Glass pane in the middle is a bit confusing

8:03
5 Run Homer: A-Rod>Smoltz, at least A-Rod is interestingly bad. Smoltz is just a bummer

8:03
Dodger Fan: Obligatory cat update?

8:04
Ben Clemens: 5 Run Homer, I think that’s the correct take, personally. A Rod is so fun to laugh at

8:04
Ben Clemens: Or potentially laugh with

8:04
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I dunno, there’s all upstairs and the moment. Cassiopeia was here a little while ago but left in a huff when I pulled her off my NAS. I heard the catlets rumbling upstairs at some point. No ide what Mercutio is doing.

8:04
Jim: How many years in a row would the dodgers have to lose in the postseason to convince you we live in a simulation?

8:04
Ben Clemens: 1.5 would do it for me, because the real world doesn’t handle fractions well

8:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: If humanity were to ever to develope the capacity to run such a simulation, then the prob is nearly 100% that we are in a simulation

8:05
Derek: Hey we made it to the World Series!

8:05
Ben Clemens: But the real treasure is all the COVID we tested for along the way

8:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: in one piece

8:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: uh oh

8:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: big text

8:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: dont’ know what happened but it’s gone now

8:06
Fangraph’s Lurker: As a rays fan who lives in st Pete and loves kershaw, this World Series is great and tragic. Don’t get me wrong, go Rays, but dodgers are 2nd only to the rays for me

8:06
Ben Clemens: This general sentiment seems like a lot of what I’ve heard people saying

8:06
Ben Clemens: And I totally agree

8:06
Ben Clemens: I like Mookie and Kershaw (and other Dodgers too, just them most)

8:06
Ben Clemens: And I like the Rays

8:07
Avatar Dan Szymborski: There’s nobody I really hate, which always makes me sad

8:07
Ben Clemens:

Who you got?

Dodgers (68.0% | 68 votes)
 
Rays (32.0% | 32 votes)
 

Total Votes: 100
8:07
sadtrombone: I am dumbfounded by the fact that we got this far. I suppose something good had to happen in 2020.

8:07
Ben Clemens:

Who you want?

Dodgers (43.9% | 47 votes)
 
Rays (56.0% | 60 votes)
 

Total Votes: 107
8:08
5 Run Homer: As a baseball fan since about 2013, watching the Dodgers in the postseason is Baseball to me. There’s a certain comfort in their dominance, lefty hitters striking out 40% of the time, and weird sketchy bullpen stuff

8:09
Ben Clemens: Nothing says playoffs like Dave Roberts just going absolutely nuts with pitching changes

8:09
Avatar Dan Szymborski: “Relief is the opposite of starting, so I have to bring in Clayton Kershaw to face RIGHTIES!”

8:09
Lurker #7: I’m probably one of few in the chat who can say they have been a Rays fan literally all their life, I was born in St. Pete in 1999. It means so much this year to be watching October baseball, and glad to be doing it with you all. Here’s to this week inspiring a new generation of Rays fans and baseball fans all over the country!

8:09
Ben Clemens: Hooray!

8:09
Ben Clemens: Also, I do think this WS will be very good for attracting fans

8:10
Ben Clemens: The two best teams, one of which is star-studded

8:10
Scotty: Over/under for Randy home runs this series? 3.5?

8:10
Ben Clemens: With great regret, under

8:10
YardGoat: Me: Glasnow will start Game 1 of the World Series in 2020  
Pirates fan from 2017: Wow! So we finally made it to the WS!
Me:
Pirates fan from 2017: So, is Meadows doing well?

8:11
Ben Clemens: :/

8:11
Mad Joe-Don: If the saying is, ‘get a trophy or go home’ does that mean that the winner doesn’t get to go home?

8:11
Ben Clemens: The good news is, Globe Life is quite spacious

8:12
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Reminder for the MLB.TV crowd that radio streams are an option. Dave and Andy for the Rays are great, can’t speak to the Dodgers. Plus, area-specific commercials!

8:12
5 Run Homer: Randy the DH is so funny to me

8:12
5 Run Homer: Imagine starting Randy at DH even a month ago

8:13
Ben Clemens: The Rays traded for a Proven Lefty Masher ™

8:13
Ben Clemens: And also Jose Martinez

8:13
Eel Ffilc: Kershaw has had the same glove for at least 10 years

8:13
Mister Puppy: Although I’m definitely rooting for the Rays (even as an O’s fan) I have a soft spot for the Dodgers bc I have an OOTP sim going as their GM and I’m in like 2048 so I kinda feel like a Dodgers fan now

8:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m honestly fine with either

8:13
sadtrombone: I’m for the Rays, but only barely.

8:14
Derek: The thing is (and I realize this is somewhat controversial), I actually really like Joe Buck as a Big Moment announcer. I think just his presence makes things seem important. But Smoltz is just… ugh. So yeah, maybe radio broadcasts are the way to go

8:14
Ben Clemens: I think the Joe Buck hate is overdone

8:14
Ben Clemens: He’s quite competent

8:14
Ben Clemens: Which is what you want from the play-by-play guy

8:14
sadtrombone: I just think it would be cool if the Rays won. Dodgers are fine.

8:14
Ben Clemens: “I just think they’re neat!”

8:15
Gavin Lux: I hit a walkoff bomb tonight

8:15
Ben Clemens: That would be some trick

8:16
5 Run Homer: That clip of Buck and Aikman making fun of the military flyovers at a football game made me like him just a little more

8:16
Ben Clemens: Oh man, highly suggest listening to that if you haven’t

8:16
Dave Roberts: It’s kind of annoying that Gameday is ahead of the Fox broadcast

8:16
Avatar Dan Szymborski: NOTHING IS SYNCED EVER

8:17
Thomas: IDK if American viewers would be envious of this, but in Canada Sportset shows the MLB International feed which has Vasgersian on play-by-play and Buck Martinez doing colour which I enjoy

8:17
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: How was home field advantage determined this year?

8:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: record

8:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: or preference for costco

8:17
Ben Clemens: The Randy man and the Yandy man both on base, we need another rhyming Ray

8:17
Ben Clemens: (yandy doesn’t actually rhyme, I know)

8:18
djoker7: How many innings do you think Kershaw will pitch tonight?

8:18
Ben Clemens: This first inning isn’t exactly setting up well

8:18
Ben Clemens: But I’ll say 6

8:18
Derek: Ji-Man-dy man

8:18
Grant: Is Manny (Margot) a close enough rhyme?

8:18
Thomas: Randy and Yandy rhyme like Lowe and Lowe, so I’ll allow it

8:19
Baby Shark: Over/under 0.5 Baby Shark references in this World Series?

8:19
Ben Clemens: Best over under question of the night so far

8:19
Ben Clemens: Wow

8:19
Ben Clemens: I will say over

8:20
Ben Clemens: But I don’t feel confident at all

8:20
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I haven’t heard much Baby Shark

8:20
Avatar Dan Szymborski: that’s not really as big a pop culture thing anymore

8:20
Ben Clemens: Pretty amazing that Verlander has a worse WS ERA than Kershaw but doesn’t have the bad big game rap at all

8:20
staz: What planet is Smoltz on?

8:21
djoker7: Which team has the better bullpen? Will it swing the series?

8:21
sadtrombone: I know Hunter Renfroe has good splits against lefties for his career but I’m always shocked I still get a visceral reaction of “this is a bad idea putting him in the lineup.”

8:21
Derek: I think Baby Shark definitely gets a shout-out… It was only last year! (although it feels like a decade ago…)

8:21
Guest: A sign of the times. the clean-up hitter hit .156 during the season.

8:21
sadtrombone: It looks like the big difference between Renfroe vs. lefties and righties is he walks twice as much and strikes out 2/3rds as much against lefties.

8:21
Ben Clemens: Tampa definitely has the better pen, but I’d say that how many innings LA needs to cover out of the bullpen will be a great prediction of the series

8:21
Ben Clemens: predictor?

8:22
Chet Manley: Has Verlander been much better in the DS/CS?

8:22
Ben Clemens: Yeah, he has a 3.4 ERA overall

8:22
Ben Clemens: But hey, the WS is more important. If we’re assigning playoff games extra importance as compared to reg season the World Series should get EVEN MORE

8:23
Guest: Over/under 3.5 kershaw hankook tire commercials?

8:23
Ben Clemens: In the first two innings? Maybe still over

8:23
bosoxforlife: I wish i could agree with you Ben but I doubt if a starter on either team sees the 7th.

8:23
Thomas: Wear a mask doo doo doo doo doo doo, wear a mask doo doo doo doo doo doo

8:23
Dodger Fan: That was not a promising first

8:23
Dave Roberts: Did Hankook have to pay extra to show Kershaw giving up an absolutely massive HR in the commercial

8:23
Ben Clemens: Yeah, but there’s a difference between ‘no one sees the seventh’ and ‘Dustin May is out after an inning and a third’

8:24
Llewelyn: buehler doesn’t make that defensive play because his pants are too tight

8:24
bosoxforlife: Or Dane Dunning leaving after 2/3 which cost Renteria his job.

8:25
Ben Clemens: I would argue that the later decisions in that game were worse, but yeah

8:25
Llewelyn: Is Glasgow the tallest RH starting pitcher in WS history?

8:25
Ben Clemens: Did Chris Young start a game?

8:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Free taco!

8:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Yeah!

8:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: From Taco Bell!

8:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Ye…oh.

8:26
Dave Roberts: Is it just me or is the fact that Buehler’s pants don’t reach his shoes more interesting than how tight they are?

8:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: He wears David Eckstein’s pants

8:26
Chet Manley: Is it more important? (Not trying to sound snarky). I mean, they’re all just elimination series. Just a matter of when you’re eliminated. It’s not like choking in G5 of the DS is fine and people say, “It’s no big deal, not like it was the WS or anything.”

8:26
Ben Clemens: It is, in that playing well there increases your odds of winning the WS more

8:26
Ben Clemens: if the goal is just to win World Series, playing well in the World Series is great

8:26
AdamZ: Mookie Betts in a non red sox uniform makes me sad 😥

8:26
bosoxforlife: Does anyone agree with me that Mookie has surpassed Trout as the best player in the game?

8:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Someone does.

8:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: But I don’t agree

8:27
Guest: Dan <== dating himself bringing up Eckstein..

8:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Everyone knows I’m 42!

8:27
Ben Clemens: I would still take Trout

8:27
Ben Clemens: I think Trout should probably move to a corner soon, though….

8:27
Mad Joe-Don: Think Smoltz is annoyed that Betts is batting leadoff?

8:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Smoltz being annoyed is like yummy ginger snaps

8:27
Ben Clemens: No, Betts is fast

8:27
Ben Clemens: He probably doesn’t notice all the dingers and thinks Mookie looks like a leadoff hitter

8:28
Joe: Has Smoltz always been this annoying?

8:28
Ben Clemens: I don’t th ink so!

8:28
Ben Clemens: I think he got worse as time went on

8:29
Mister Puppy: If you had the under on 29.5 minutes into the WS for a David Ecktsein reference in the chat, collect your money at the window.

8:29
Fire Ken Tremendous: Renfroe is a “terrific” outfielder?

8:29
Ben Clemens: You know, maybe?

8:29
Ben Clemens: Definitely has a terrific arm

8:29
Ben Clemens: And he grades out really well, though I understand some skepticism

8:29
staz: In 3 years, Verdugo and Downs > Betts and Price

8:30
Ben Clemens: I….. don’t even close to agree with this take

8:30
Derek: Renfroe made that one nice play last round!

8:31
Dave Roberts: FWIW in my OOTP save I re-signed Betts to 10/420 then traded him back to the Red Sox after two years because he only put up 5 WAR

8:31
Ben Clemens: I mean, I don’t think he’s great, but he’s serviceable

8:31
Fire Fire Ken Tremendous: does anyone else hear “steal a base, steal a taco” to the tune of “save a horse, ride a cowboy”? just me?

8:31
Will you accept this rose: which player in this series is most likely to be a bachelorette contestant in a future offseason

8:31
maranville: It would be pretty funny if not a single base is stolen this world series

8:31
Ben Clemens: Chris Taylor

8:31
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Taco Bell stock soars

8:31
Mad Joe-Don: I pick on Smoltz a lot, but I could listen to him explain little details all day. Just wish he enjoyed modern baseball.

8:32
Ben Clemens: Tyler Glasnow struggling to find the zone? Who could have seen that coming?

8:32
Avatar Dan Szymborski: you can always tell when some producer feeds them a tidbit

8:32
Ben Clemens: I really enjoyed the Ringer article on the people behind football broadcasts

8:33
Ben Clemens: There are a ton of spotters and stats people we never hear about

8:33
Clemente’s Ghost: As a Pirate fan, I find it hard to figure out whether or not to root for Glasnow.  It’s not *his* fault he went from okay with the Pirates to very very good with the Rays, but he’s sort of the encapsulation of the previous FO’s issues.

8:33
Ben Clemens: I actually LOVE rooting for players who were traded away from my team (Cardinals)

8:33
Ben Clemens: When they succeed, it’s super fun

8:33
Ben Clemens: Because I wanted them to succeed as prospects/young major leaguers

8:33
Ben Clemens: So I get to keep rooting for them

8:33
Ben Clemens: When they fail, who cares??

8:34
Jesse: Given that he’s currently gloating about it on Twitter, I wonder if Trea Turner didn’t specifically steal a base as quickly as possible last year to get the free tacos.

8:34
Ben Clemens: It does help that he’s an advertiser for them but yeah, that’s pretty funny

8:34
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Ben, you are one of my favorite writers here, but that take is on about the level as preferring cold pizza.

8:34
Ben Clemens: Wow really?

8:35
Ben Clemens: I will admit to feeling a little weird when players leave in free agency

8:35
Ben Clemens: And also when they’re playing AGAINST the Cardinals

8:35
Ben Clemens: But short of that, I invested mental capital into hoping they succeed, it’s fun when they do

8:35
Clemente’s Ghost: Maybe it’s different when your own team has anything approaching success and every successful player traded away isn’t a reminder that the last time your team won a playoff series was before you born… not that I’m bitter or anything

8:35
Furlough Michael Schur: An electric hummer sounds dirty

8:35
Kwah: It’s always Tyler Glasnow, but when will we finally ask, “Whyler Glaswhen?”

8:35
5 Run Homer: I will always always always carry a flag for Edwin Encarnacion and Marcus Stroman

8:35
5 Run Homer: I 100% agree, Ben

8:36
Dodger Fan: I totally still root for guys like Puig and Darvish

8:36
Ben Clemens: Rooting for Yu Darvish just means you’re a human

8:36
Ben Clemens: Who doesn’t want to root for him? He’s the best

8:36
Ben Clemens: Intermission for a funny story about one of my friends

8:37
Ben Clemens: I have a friend who is, let’s say, a bit of a contrarian

8:37
Ben Clemens: He also doesn’t like the Dodgers

8:37
Ben Clemens: He decided he would just bet against each Kershaw start, because that’s more fun to him then betting on the Rays to win the series

8:37
Ben Clemens: The salt level is extreeeeeme

8:37
Man Robfred: You have to root for Mets players who leave: they are finally free and tend to improve.

8:37
Derek: I love rooting for players who used to be on my favorite teams – I agree that it’s basically all upside, unless they play well against your favorite team, I guess

8:37
Ben Clemens: Oh yeah when they’re AGAINST your team

8:37
Ben Clemens: That’s a totally different story

8:38
bartolos_colon: I’m a lifelong Red Sox fan. And I think Mookie has helped fully transition me to being 100% OK with actively rooting for a player on another team. Watched him play lots of minor league ball. Loved him from day one. I watched more Dodgers games than Red Sox games and didn’t think twice about it. Hope it just comes and goes.

8:38
Ben Clemens: Mookie is another member of the ‘how can you not enjoy that guy?’ club for me

8:38
Dave Roberts: Is it bad to root against Delino DeShields Jr because of the Pedro trade?

8:39
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Definitely!

8:39
Guest: Not sure what to make of this (probably nothing!) but I can’t help from noticing that the Dodgers have got to be the league’s whitest team, no?

8:39
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I dunno if anyone tallies that

8:39
Derek: I’m a coward and bet on the Rays yesterday after betting on the Dodgers to win before the playoffs started. I come out ahead either way but also, yeah… I’m a coward.

8:39
Rockies front office: To avoid this issue for other teams, We just sign other teams stars years after they are any good

8:40
Ben Clemens: I did see an excellent Twitter crop of the Dodgers’ 2-9 that said “The conspirators who planned to capture Michigan’s governor have been arrested’

8:40
See! You! Later!: As a Nats fan, I used to root against guys like Giolito because of our struggle with developing pitching and root for the other guys, now I root for them all after winning the WS

8:40
Ben Clemens: Oh yeah that helps for sure!

8:40
bartolos_colon: Plus, buying the knockoff Betts jersey was WAY better than a #50 Financial Flexibility Nike jersey for both my soul and my wallet.

8:41
Ben Clemens: I remember for a while the custom jersey makers wouldn’t let you make certain jerseys

8:41
Ben Clemens: like an “R Mexico” number 7 for the Falcons and so on

8:41
Ben Clemens: I don’t think “Financial Flexibility” quite hits that mark but it’s pretty enjoyable

8:42
Dave Roberts: Not sure why, but as a UCLA fan I’ve always rooted for guys like Hedges, Heyward, Giolito and Fried

8:42
Whyler Glaswhen?: Are those for sale? I would like to acquire one.

8:42
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Peloton? Feels a little culty

8:43
Kwah: Kershaw is hoisting his loose trousers near his left hip after every single pitch.  My theory is that this little upward curling motion is how he counteracts the inverse downward elbow trauma that goes in the opposite direction with every single pitch.

8:43
Fanny Graphy: I have a question about defensive WAR and Renfroe. Supposedly he suddenly improved on defense based on his numbers, but I was looking at defensive values and in 2011 Carlos Lee was the second best LF defensively. How is that possible? That makes me unfortunately doubt defensive metrics. Or am I doubting El Cabayo…

8:43
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Defensive numbers are super volatile

8:43
Avatar Dan Szymborski: And that’s a position with a lot of bad defenders

8:43
Ben Clemens: Yeah, the best thing to do is look at, say, 6 years?

8:43
Ben Clemens: 4 years?

8:43
Ben Clemens: And take an average

8:43
Ben Clemens: Accounting for aging

8:43
Mad Joe-Don: Why would you not sell a Ron Mexico jersey? That’s leaving real money on the table.

8:44
Ben Clemens: I know right??

8:44
sadtrombone: If you want to just see range, OAA is probably better for outfield (I was told it doesn’t have other stuff in it though).

8:44
Ben Clemens: There’s a good BP article comparing the strengths of each defensive metric

8:45
Ben Clemens: Let me see if I can find it

8:45
Ben Clemens: It’s written by BP so, don’t be surprised that it loves FRAA, but I think Rob is really good at this stuff

8:45
sadtrombone: My understanding is that the stuff that teams actually use is pretty similar to OAA.

8:45
sadtrombone: But maybe that’s off.

8:45
Ben Clemens: For infield OAA is clearly better I think

8:46
Ben Clemens: And the methodology OAA uses is just probably always going to be best?

8:46
Dodger Fan: Gameday is wayyyy ahead of FOX right now.

8:46
Chet Manley: “Defensive numbers are super volatile” needs to be like on a permanent banner at the top of Fangraphs

8:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: That’s prime ad space!

8:46
Ben Clemens: But it doesn’t appear to be THAT much better in the outfield because outfield is easier to figure out

8:46
sadtrombone: OAA actually has complete measurements for infield, so for that, I agree.

8:47
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’ve started eating the candy I picked up for trick or treaters

8:47
Ben Clemens: I’ve stopped calling it ‘candy I pick up for trick or treaters’ and started calling it ‘candy for me’

8:48
Clemente’s Ghost: My dad’s vision for a custom Pirates jersey is to just take out the ‘P’ and ‘s’ and have it just say, “irate.” Don’t think he cares what’s on the back.

8:48
Ben Clemens: It’s refreshing to hear Smoltz excited by the Rays pitching staff

8:49
Ben Clemens: He seems to like the arm angle angle

8:49
kevinthecomic: Does someone make Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers uniforms?

8:49
Furlough Michael Schur: Good idea there’s going to be a lot fewer trick or treaters this year. Eat it before it goes bad

8:50
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Mostly old people on my block. I give every trick or treater like a pound of candy

8:50
Ben Clemens: I don’t know if this is a normal first baseman thing I’ve just missed but on pickoff throws, after he tags the baserunner with his glove, Yandy takes the ball out of his glove…. and tags them with it again

8:50
Chet Manley: Ben can’t wait until they sign Adam Engel, convert him to a submarine reliever and he can say the “Engel angle angle”.

8:51
sadtrombone: I was wondering how on earth someone gets a nickname “Joc” so I looked at his Wikipedia page. Not only is that his given name, he has a brother named Tyger.

8:51
Ben Clemens: Notable indy ball player Tyger Pederson actually

8:51
Ben Clemens: I think he had a cameo in The Only Rule is it has to work

8:53
sadtrombone: Oh yes of course, Tyger Pederson. How could I have forgotten him?

8:53
Dodger Fan: I know that this is very irrelevant right now, but thoughts on where Bauer goes?

8:53
Ben Clemens: I will say, if you met him you’d remember him

8:53
Avatar Dan Szymborski: No clue.

8:53
Noggin: If the Rays win the world series, will Jeff Sullivan get a ring?

8:53
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I believe so

8:54
Guest: Which of these teams would you bet on to have a better next five or so years? Dodgers have more concentrated talent (Betts, Bellinger, Buehler) and more money; Rays get better every time they make a trade and Wander Franco awaits.

8:54
Ben Clemens: Dodgers

8:54
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Money is a great way to tame the down periods

8:54
Ben Clemens: Mookie Betts is a great way to tame the down periods too

8:54
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Money is a great way to tame Mookie Betts!

8:54
Mister Puppy: @ben that specific first base animation was always prevalent in MLB the show 11. It served no purpose and just wasted three seconds and was unbelievably infuriating.

8:54
Ben Clemens: Maybe he grew up on that

8:55
Ben Clemens: “If I were Kershaw, this is the name in the lineup I’d be scared of”

8:55
Ben Clemens: about Mike Zunino

8:55
Ben Clemens: uh….

8:55
lmb2020: I imagine his parents thinking “We like the name Jacques, but not what it implies about his nationality”

8:55
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Don’t give him advanced data

8:55
sadtrombone: Mike Zunino really tests the limits of how playable a guy is who cannot do anything good at the plate.

8:55
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Zunino’s most dangerous because he’s struggling and nobody expects it!

8:56
Ben Clemens: meet Jeff Mathis

8:56
Ben Clemens: I wrote an article this year that found the Rangers added almost a win last year

8:56
Ben Clemens: a win!

8:56
Ben Clemens: by pinch hitting for him

8:56
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Chris Davis is the most dangerous player in baseball!

8:56
Ben Clemens: hm, it might have been half a win. but still

8:56
Jeffrey Toobin: Just to confirm, is this a video chat?

8:56
Avatar Dan Szymborski: heh

8:56
Avatar Dan Szymborski: tomorrow!

8:57
sadtrombone: Jeff Mathis is far beyond the limit.

8:57
staz: “Zunino swings hard, strikes out and that’s dangerous.”

8:57
5 Run Homer: The thing with Zunino is that he runs into one just enoigh that expectations can be a little high. Mathis just can’t hit at all

8:57
Furlough Michael Schur: Analytics people who get World Series rings should get “ for the dork lord on his dork throne” inscribed on it

8:57
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Poor Voros didn’t get a ring

8:57
Fanny Graphy: Might be more of an Eric question, but how high will Arozarena rise on Prospect list for 2021

8:57
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Everyone in the Red Sox org got a ring, even some groundskeepers

8:57
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Poor V man got a watch

8:57
Ben Clemens: Eric moved him up to 42nd in the 100

8:57
LFC Mike: Is that because Chris Davis will freak out one day and attack his teammates dangerous?

8:58
Avatar Dan Szymborski: He get so few outs that the analytics say they’re accumulating in his bat like a garden hose you stand on!

8:59
sadtrombone: Well that was pretty good pitching.

8:59
Ben Clemens: classic Kershaw

8:59
Ben Clemens: just, not the kind of classic Kershaw you think I mean

9:00
Dodger Fan: What kind of classic Kershaw do you mean?

9:00
Ben Clemens: like, good Kershaw

9:00
Ben Clemens: rather than the caricature of him in the playoffs

9:00
Shattenjager: I have no idea how to interpret “classic Kershaw . . . just, not the kind of classic Kershaw you think I mean.”

9:00
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Wait, can candy go bad?

9:00
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Yeah

9:00
Avatar Dan Szymborski: see ashens on youtube trying to eat 40 year old chocolate bars

9:00
Guest: I had a gym teacher in like ninth grade who was teaching us basketball, and he got into this refrain of “Passing is very important; the team that passes better usually wins,” and “Rebounding is very important; the team that rebounds better usually wins,” and then he got to Scoring, and you just saw it coming from a mile away, and luckily he stopped himself before saying the team that scores better usually wins. Anyway, Smoltz!

9:01
LFC Mike: Arozarena eligible for ROY  next year..correct? Possible World Series MVP could then be ROY next year. Very 2020

9:01
Ben Clemens: That is correct, though I think I mentioned that I would just have thrown him on my 2020 RoY ballot

9:01
Ben Clemens: (downballot, to be fair)

9:01
Ben Clemens: he was mashing in the regular season too

9:02
Ben Clemens: Austin Barnes with the “I knew that was a strike before the ump called it” power walk-off

9:02
Ben Clemens: That really sends a message

9:03
Ben Clemens: What message, I’m not sure

9:03
Ben Clemens: But a message!

9:03
Chris: Why is renfroe in right and margot in left? Isn’t margot the better defender?

9:03
Ben Clemens: Renfroe has a HUGE arm

9:03
Ben Clemens: Dispute his other defensive metrics all you’d like, but he should play right if he plays the outfield

9:04
Dave Roberts: Back to Back ROY >>> WS MVP then ROY

9:04
Ben Clemens: Sadly back-to-back ROY is strictly prohibited this year

9:04
Ben Clemens: By rule

9:04
Ben Clemens: John Smoltz talking OPS

9:04
Ben Clemens: You love to see it

9:05
sadtrombone: Glasnow is uncharacteristically painting the edges.

9:05
Dodger Fan: 84 mph changeup LOL

9:05
Mister Puppy: It’s really kind of insane how disproportionate the distribution of home states are for MLB players

9:05
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: How much would permanent 28-man rosters help Mathis prolong his career? Seems like a perfect third catcher at this point, stick him aggressively in as a defensive replacement for a bat-first guy like Gary Sánchez.

9:06
Avatar Dan Szymborski: It’s weird that the pitchers duel is kind of a pietchers duel!

9:06
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Usually when you look forward to a matchup, ti’s like 13-11

9:06
Fire Ken Tremendous: Pat Valaika always makes me think of Kramer’s oddball friends that he was always telling Seinfeld about. Like Bob Sacamano

9:07
Lzfreak: Regarding tall World Series starters: didn’t Randy Johnson start in the World Series?

9:07
Ben Clemens: He definitely did; the earlier question was “righty pitcher” for that reason I think

9:07
5 Run Homer: lmao 92mph changeup

9:07
5 Run Homer: that’s just a normal guy’s sinker

9:08
5 Run Homer: with crazy movement

9:08
Ben Clemens: THose might have been out of order

9:08
Ben Clemens: but you get the idea

9:08
Chet Manley: Chris Young wasn’t on that 2015 Royals team was he??

9:08
Ben Clemens: He was, and he made two playoff starts

9:08
Ben Clemens: Let’s see if they were WS starts

9:09
Ben Clemens: One was

9:09
Dodger Fan: iirc Young did pitch in that WS

9:09
Derek: This has been a typical high-pitch-count, high-effectiveness outing for Glasnow so far

9:09
sadtrombone: Glasnow’s stuff is ridiculous. Someone just had to get him to throw strikes and not try to hit the bottom of the strike zone all the time.

9:09
Ben Clemens: Pitched twice, one start

9:09
Guest: Holy crap there are fans in the stands for the World Series! I can’t believe how much my frame of reference has shifted in seven months.

9:09
casualballer: Glasnow changeup looking like video game idea of a 2 seamer power up lol

9:09
sadtrombone: Glasnow is on FIRE

9:09
Ben Clemens: Fun word to use with Glasnow

9:10
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

9:10
bosoxforlife: Glasnow is ready to emerge as a superstar but the Rays system won’t let him. Cash will not allow pitchers to go through the lineup three times.

9:10
Ben Clemens: I don’t think this is true, though i agree that some pitchers are held back by such a rigid system. Glasnow is just too inefficient for it to really be a times through order issue

9:11
Ben Clemens: It’s not as though he’s cutting through the order twice on 60 pitches and then hitting the showers

9:11
Ben Clemens: It’s actually in his contract that he has to go to 3-2 on every batter

9:11
5 Run Homer: Can you think of any pitchers that have been held back by that system?

9:11
Ben Clemens: I think Ryan Yarbrough is better than his role on the Rays

9:12
Ryan: Did you guys see Luhnow’s recent interview?  Does anyone hire him this offseason?

9:12
Ben Clemens: I’m not really sure, depends on how much teams are willing to get thrown under the bus after he inevitably does some sketchy stuff and gets caught

9:12
Guest: I just saw a political ad and without advocating for any candidate can I implore FanGraphs readers to vote? At least as important as baseball!

9:13
Ben Clemens: That is a fair statement. Everyone should vote if they are eligible

9:13
Lance Biggerstaff: Same with Snell. Do you think that maybe it’s a gameplan thing… don’t give in, don’t worry if it takes 100 pitches to get thru 5 bc we have the bullpen depth?

9:13
Ben Clemens: I kind of do. So I guess you could argue that holds them back?

9:13
Ben Clemens: But Glasnow just doesn’t look like he has the command

9:13
Mad Joe-Don: I voted! Where’s my cookie?

9:13
bosoxforlife: While I bemoan the fact that even the top of the rotation studs seldom go even 7, they are throwing many more pitches than a Greg Maddox did with all the K’ and BB’s.

9:13
5 Run Homer: Good lord that curveball

9:13
Bighen: I know we’ve moved on but I can’t believe you root for former players from the org to do well.  Mets fans are just too bitter I guess.  Daniel Murphy; Justin turner; Travis darnaud; even Colin Mchugh went elsewhere and pitched well.  Zach wheeler was a lock to pitch well.

9:14
Avatar Dan Szymborski: That strike two was a beaut

9:14
casualballer: I saw somwhere, maybe on the ringer, where they were opining that Arozarena’s flat swing made him better at attacking pitches at the top of the zone. Is this the new swing change revolution?

9:14
Ben Clemens: Yeah this is a real thing

9:14
Ben Clemens: Also, I don’t get this narrative that Arozarena wasn’t the best piece the Rays got in that deal

9:15
Ben Clemens: People who thought that at the time were mostly people who have heard of Jose Martinez and no one else in the deal

9:15
Benny and the Mets: As a Mets fan, the only thing I hate more than the Yankees is myself.

9:15
Shattenjager: Wasn’t Glasnow considered most likely a reliever specifically because of that lack of command?

9:15
sadtrombone: Yeah, you can teach Tyler Glasnow control, but teaching him command? I am shocked when he was painting the edges like that today. Like, who is this guy?

9:15
sadtrombone: He’s just leveled up for the World Series or something.

9:15
Dodger Fan: Smoltz: “Tony Pham”

9:16
Ben Clemens: classic Tony Phams

9:16
sadtrombone: At Fangraphs everyone thought Arozarena was the prize. Every other media outlet was wrong about that.

9:16
Ben Clemens: Eric was really into Arozarena b/c he’s an adept talent evaluator

9:16
Ben Clemens: I was really into Arozarena b/c I really like watching him play

9:17
Derek: I was into Arozarena because he has a fun name

9:17
Ben Clemens: Another great reason!

9:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: It’s a fun name to say

9:18
LarryTheBerry: If Mike Trout actually kidnapped and took the place of Hunter Renfroe would the Rays be favored?

9:18
LFC Mike: Didn’t someone famous say strikeouts are boring.. and also fascist?

9:18
Ben Clemens: I would say ask ZiPS, but there’s no way he could keep that kidnapping quiet long enough

9:18
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Bull Durham

9:18
Dodger Fan: I am enjoying this pitcher’s duel.

9:18
Shattenjager: Clayton Kershaw being this good while clearly past his prime should emphasize just how scary good he was a few years ago.

9:19
Ben Clemens: Kershaw is a really fun pitcher to watch just because the three pitches are so clearly different

9:19
Ben Clemens: and all aesthetically pleasing

9:19
Ben Clemens: it kind of feels like playing a video game

9:19
Cam: Can we officially call this a pitchers duel now?

9:19
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Someone technically has to slap each other across the face with a glove

9:19
Mad Joe-Don: Plus that backspin curveball!

9:19
Hugh Duffy: I think you mean Crash Davis, Dan.

9:19
Kwah: cHRash dAAAvis.

9:20
Lzfreak: Could Liberatore still make the Rays look bad?

9:20
Ben Clemens: I suppose so, yeah

9:20
Ben Clemens: I do think that the Cardinals were generally acting rationally given their internal evaluation of Arozarena

9:21
Ben Clemens: But I mean, the Rays are ahead at the moment

9:21
Hugh Duffy: I don’t think the Cardinals had any way to forecast that Arozarena would suddenly go on a diet of chicken and rice and 500 pushups a day.

9:21
Ben Clemens: delicious pushups!

9:22
ARod: Slapping people is indeed how you win playoff games.

9:22
Lzfreak: Should’ve tried feeding him rice and chicken

9:22
Mad Joe-Don: They could have asked him to do that. Just saying.

9:22
Ben Clemens: The thing is, he already broke out last year

9:23
Ben Clemens: The chicken and pushups are a good story but he was already bat speed god before that

9:23
Ben Clemens: He’s even more that now, though

9:23
LFC Mike: Doesn’t every game start as a pitches duel? Technically

9:23
Cam: Deal, taxes, and a Muncy walk

9:23
Ben Clemens: Dan why?

9:23
Cam: Arozarena and his eating better and exercise routine, is what Vlad Jr was meant to be. But isn’t.

9:24
Ben Clemens: I’d still take Vladito rest of career

9:24
Ben Clemens: But yeah, if every player could suddenly put on 15 pounds of muscle or whatever

9:24
Ben Clemens: that’d be great!

9:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

9:24
Guest: Given his diet, should his nickname be Randy ARROZarena?

9:24
LFC Mike: Oh Boom Stick

9:24
sadtrombone: Ah, this is more like what I remember from Glasnow.

9:25
sadtrombone: If Tyler O’Neill put on another 15 pounds of muscle his neck would be larger than his head.

9:25
Ben Clemens: Joey Wendle instead of Brosseau against Kershaw is just so weird

9:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I thought he was going to say “righties are hitting 100 against him, lefties are hitting 200 against him, so that’s a 300 batting average”

9:25
Ben Clemens: Looks like the shoulder’s okay

9:26
LFC Mike: Don’t celebrate

9:26
Ben Clemens: this celebration is amazing

9:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: More like Stephenglassnow amiriate?

9:26
Kwah: BellingeHR.

9:26
kevinthecomic: DINGER!

9:26
5 Run Homer: HOLY HELL

9:26
Ben Clemens: Mister Glass-now

9:26
casualballer: nervously expecting Bellinger to pop an ankle with this new dance

9:26
LFC Mike: Like strange folk dance from a small European country

9:26
Dodger Fan: Tyler GlassLater

9:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: GLASNOW’S HAND DOESN’T SMELL RIGHT

9:27
Furlough Michael Schur: Damn my stream is so far behind

9:27
Lzfreak: It’s the part of a Kershaw postseason start where his team gets a lead for him to “protect” later on

9:28
Cam: For the Rays, you gotta hope Glasnow doesn’t try to pitch “perfect” and nibble because his offense is putting up 0’s. Forget it, back to pitching son

9:28
bosoxforlife: Bellinger’s swing at low pitches is a symphony of elegance, grace and balance

9:28
Fangraph’s Lurker: Glassnow, Glasslater, Glassforever

9:28
5 Run Homer: I know that landed in the bullpen but that is on the goddamn moon

9:28
Dave Roberts: “Bellinger’s injury helped him hit a HR” is certainly a take

9:29
5 Run Homer: It’s always fun seeing a huge homer then noticing halfway through the next AB that there was a man on so it’s a 2-run

9:29
Ben Clemens: that is….. aggressive yeah

9:29
Ben Clemens: I do not think that his shoulder being hurt somehow makes him better

9:29
Furlough Michael Schur: More like Tyler Glasnost

9:29
Joe: I’m realizing the reason I got cut from my freshman team is that I never dislocated my shoulder.

9:30
Ben Clemens: Rookie of the Year 2: Junior Varsity

9:30
LarryTheBerry: Just from watching today I would have assumed he had a pretty sizeable splits, but surprised that isn’t the case for Glasnow

9:30
sadtrombone: Glasnow was just totally dominant until this inning, and now he looks like bad Glasnow. I can’t really understand why Cash, who has a very quick hook for pitchers and must have seen that Glasnow was different this inning, didn’t pull him.

9:30
Ben Clemens: I think Glasnow’s low splits are b/c his pitches are extremely north/south

9:31
Ben Clemens: Between his arm angle and the movement

9:31
Ben Clemens: It’s not like he’s throwing pitches that break into lefties’ bats

9:31
Dodger Fan: Barry Bonds never took PEDs!  He just popped his shoulder every morning!

9:31
Clemente’s Ghost: Smoltz is clearly not familiar with the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy…. or perhaps he’s too familiar with it?  Unclear which direction that flows.

9:32
BettsBellingerCaruso: My Pet theory is that “Playoff Kershaw” has to do A LOT w/ how his slider looks.

vs. Milwaukee, his best start this season, his horizontal release was 1.44 ft, horizontal movement -0.35, vertical movement 0.74, and got 63% whiff

vs. SD, he had a horizontal release of 1.39, horizontal movement of -0.33, vertical movement 0.79, and got 26% whiff

vs. ATL he had a horizontal release of 1.29, horizontal movement of -0.09, vertical movement of 1.02 ft with only 28% whiffs.

Basically, my theory is that in his worse playoff starts this year, he was releasing the slider closer to his body, leading to a more “vertical” spin, making his slider look closer to a flat cutter than a whiff inducing slider that caused him trouble.

So far tonight, I don’t have the statcast data on the spin & movement, but based on his large number of whiffs tonight it looks like it’s been “back” since the 2nd inning.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/jf0znd/game_thread_world_se…

9:32
LFC Mike: Taco Bell executives starting to sweat

9:32
Benny and the Mets: Free Taco!!!

9:32
Derek: No taco!

9:32
Lzfreak: Not a taco!

9:32
Jerome Walton: No tacos!!!!

9:33
Ben Clemens: WOWWWWWW

9:33
Ben Clemens: Taco Bell put in a call

9:33
Markymarc: They took back the stolen base 🙁

9:33
Avatar Dan Szymborski: YOU HAVE TO PAY 99 CENTS NOW YOU BASTARTDS

9:33
Ben Clemens: Big Taco has its fingerprints all over this game

9:33
Lzfreak: The taco drama is unbearable

9:34
BettsBellingerCaruso: Reminds me of Laker games where Jack in the Box would give free tacos if opponents were held under 100 points, they’d start booing during blowouts when the opponent hit 100 points lmao

9:34
Fire Fire Ken Tremendous: Shouldn’t it be Dorito Loco Taco if it’s only one?

9:34
5 Run Homer: Greasy, greasy fingerprints

9:34
Kwah: Taco Bell menu execs suddenly swapping out their bear meat with bull meat.

9:34
Joe: Who the hell only wants one taco

9:34
Chili Aficianado: Why not a bowl of chili with every stolen base? Sigh…

9:34
Avatar Dan Szymborski: better not be skyline!

9:35
Clemente’s Ghost: You can have diarrhea whenever you’d like for 99 cents, but we’re all eagerly awaiting the ability to get it for free!  #2020

9:35
Ben Clemens: What’s the best thing Joc could be short for

9:35
Ben Clemens: Jocthaniel?

9:35
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Jockstrap

9:35
Joe: Jocorious

9:35
Dodger Fan: Jocular

9:35
Lzfreak: Jock

9:36
kevinthecomic: Jocathon

9:36
Laura: Jocathan

9:36
5 Run Homer: Jocjamin

9:36
Ben Clemens: You guys are coming up with these too quickly!

9:36
Furlough Michael Schur: Jockjams vol. 2

9:36
Derek: Jocinthebox

9:37
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Joc Full o Nuts.

9:37
Ben Clemens: What ever happened to Austin Barnes’s bat?

9:37
Ben Clemens: I always thought he was a good hitter

9:37
Ben Clemens: And then disaster

9:37
Mad Joe-Don: Joctor Joctopus.

9:39
Ben Clemens: that was a nice recovery by Glasnow from some wildness, but I’im not sure they can keep him in at this point

9:39
BettsBellingerCaruso: It actually became somewhat less of a disaster this season under the tutelage of Mookie Betts lmao

9:39
Furlough Michael Schur: Joctimus prime

9:39
Cam: I advocated for him over AJ Ellis for quite a while, because it looked like he could be a genuine full-time .380 OBP guy who can frame. Maybe he’s chosen D over O.

9:39
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m not tweeting Ilovetmobile

9:40
5 Run Homer: Alexandria Jocasio Cortez

9:40
BettsBellingerCaruso: Kershaw Slider Watch so far: 24 sliders, 14 swings, 8 whiffs.

MUCH better than his last 2 games where he got 5 each out of 19 and 18 swings.

9:40
Joe: How about tmobileandiarejustgoodfriends

9:40
Guest: Joch Ness Monster

9:40
Ben Clemens: #ilovetmobileimjustnotinlovewithtmobile

9:41
Avatar Dan Szymborski: OK, you can be Joc McClanahan. And you are now Shane Pederson

9:42
Danny Kaye: Jocomo – the court jester

9:42
Clemente’s Ghost: This whole “Joc” game reminds me that Ryan Lochte tried to trademark the word, “Jeah.” Jeah, that’s not a joke.

9:42
Lzfreak: I keep getting political commercials for a race in a district I’m not in…

9:42
Dodger Fan: Kershaw just threw 82.  I have not seen that in a decade.

9:42
Hugh Duffy: I think Glasnow is fine. That pitch to Bellinger was just in the wrong location. Down and in to a lefty is playing with fire unless you bury it off the plate inside. Bellinger has been missing more up and in, and I’m surprised they didn’t go there.

9:42
Ben Clemens: yeah also sometimes you just miss

9:43
Ben Clemens: You can ‘try not to go somewhere’ and still end up there

9:43
Ben Clemens: aka how I keep eating In ‘n Out

9:44
Jamie: Would deadshot be the best pitcher of all time since he never misses

9:44
LFC Mike: Is Rue McClanahan his mom then?

9:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Grandma

9:44
Benny and the Mets: Kershaw. Is. Fun. To. Watch.

9:44
Lzfreak: Smoltz is great when breaking down pitching mechanics actually

9:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Yeah, stick to your lane!

9:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Smoltz has a lot to offer

9:44
Ben Clemens: Yeah definitely agree

9:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: And really, so does A-Rod

9:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: but what they have to give is when they stay with what they know, not what they pretend to know

9:45
5 Run Homer: Every booth should have one pitcher and one hitter

9:45
Dodger Fan: Uh oh

9:45
Dave Roberts: a solo HR just to remind you he’s still Kershaw

9:45
casualballer: Back when baseball prospectus first introduced me to pitch framing, they used 2 pitcher archetypes to demonstrate. Hendricks was the pitch tunnel type when everything looks the same until the last moment and Barry zito was the “I have 2 pitches that look nothing alike and you just have to try your best.

9:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: There are a lot of aspects of baseball I can talk about very well.

9:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: But if I’m talking about things out of my lane, like the experiences day-to-day of being a player, I have no insight

9:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: so I shouldn’t offer those

9:46
King’s Court: I wonder if Kiermaier’s wrist injury helped him hit that HR…

9:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: PAIN IS THE NEW HEALTH: 2020

9:47
LFC Mike: so Chris Davis will never be in the booth after he retires?

9:47
Avatar Dan Szymborski: He can talk about struggling!@

9:47
Avatar Dan Szymborski: When Ben is back, I’m going to generate Rays nicknames.

9:47
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I never did the Rays this year!

9:48
Cam: God damnit. I go away for 5 minutes to take a phone call and Kershaw returns.

9:48
LFC Mike: If an arm injury made you better then the Black Knight wouldn’t have lost to Graham Chapman as King Arthur

9:48
Ben Clemens: I’m not quite gone yet

9:48
Ben Clemens: but soon!

9:48
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The Black Knight’s injury was rather extreme

9:48
Boba Chette: Fewer strikeouts, more blaster fire

9:49
Ben Clemens: Doing some alone time training with our dog (she’s great and also terrified of being alone)

9:49
Dodger Fan: Ben, my dog also has major separation anxiety.

9:49
Ben Clemens: it’s harrrrrrrd

9:49
Ben Clemens: it’s so sad

9:49
Derek: I feel like this chat is teetering right on the edge of “World Series chat” and “Random nonsesnse chat”, and it’s fantastic.

9:50
Ben Clemens: That’s the brand you can expect when Dan and I are chatting

9:50
Ben Clemens: The only constraint is your nonsense tolerance

9:50
Dodger Fan: GlasTimeIsASocialConstruct

9:51
Wraith: I’m actually really surprised Glasnow is pitching considering how quick Cash’s hook is, especially since there are off days in the series to rest pitchers

9:52
Boba Chette: Arozarena by any other name…

9:52
Epic Gamer: Who else loves Sonic and the Black Knight

9:52
BettsBellingerCaruso: Kershaw FB Velo and Slider watch:
Game:
FB: 91.6 mph 11 swings 5 whiffs
Slider: 87.7 mph 19 swings 11 whiffs

5th inning:
FB: 90.6 mph 1 swing 0 whiff
Slider: 86.8 mph 5 swings 3 whiffs

I would pull Kershaw after the 6th honestly based on these numbers.

9:52
LFC Mike: Tyler Glaswegian- a short Scottish redheaded angry relief pitcher

9:52
bosoxforlife: I give Glasnow a 0% chance of pitching the entire 5th inning.

9:52
Kwah: MookLeadoff BBetts.

9:52
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Really pushing it Kwah!

9:53
Ben Clemens: Alright, I’m going to head out for 15 minutes. Ruby will be here, but I don’t think she knows how to use a keyboard, so it’ll be Dan and the cats running the show

9:53
Avatar Dan Szymborski: YOU SAID 14 MINUTES

9:53
Joe: Nice of Adames to give America’s Taco Hero a congratulatory hug

9:53
Mad Joe-Don: Defensive indifference, no taco!

9:53
LarryTheBerry: Tacos! Ball don’t lie

9:55
bosoxforlife: Is MLB going to fine Betts and Adames for the hug?

9:55
HappyFunBall: Is Betts our only two time free taco winner? Will he wear a Taco Bell hat when he’s inducted into the HOF?

9:55
Avatar Dan Szymborski: There’s a big catch to the Taco Bell promotion.

9:55
Avatar Dan Szymborski: If there’s no stolen base, Taco Bell comes and gets a taco from YOU

9:57
Avatar Dan Szymborski: This Folger’s commercial is really awkward given the Jeffrey Toobin Zoom story.

9:58
Fire Ken Tremendous: If Mookie gets picked off does he have to reimburse Taco Bell?

9:58
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’ll say yes.

9:59
LFC Mike: If this chat goes Toobin  it will not recover

10:00
Kwah: Mookie SBettSB.

10:00
Fire Ken Tremendous: FREE BURRITOS!

10:00
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Did they say anything about burritos

10:00
HappyFunBall: Does a double steal upgrade us all to. Gordito?

10:00
5 Run Homer: swinging K’s on high fastballs are so cool lookin

10:02
BettsBellingerCaruso: STEAL HOME MOOKIE

10:02
LFC Mike: Great rental that Mookie

10:02
Avatar Dan Szymborski: WE’RE ALL GETTING CHIMICHANGAS

10:02
Mookie Betts Taco King: I am Mookie Betts, the Taco King

10:05
sadtrombone: Now he’s just trying to hit the strike zone.

10:05
NickG: Have we asked why Glassnow is still pitching?

10:05
Kwah: At some point if this prolific baserunning continues then FoxSports has to pay for The Wall, is my understanding.

10:06
CJ: Maybe Roberts can pull Kershaw after 6 after all

10:06
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The Dodgers had a secret plan. By starting Kershaw, Roberts can’t bring him in relief! Check. Mate.

10:06
Wraith: Did Roberts and Cash secretly switch places on a bet

10:06
sadtrombone: He had three innings of utter dominance and now he looks awful. Just awful. I’m surprised Zunino can even catch those.

10:07
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:08
Shattenjager: The problem with this secret Dodgers plan is that it won’t stop Roberts from bringing Kershaw in out of the ‘pen tomorrow!

10:08
Avatar Dan Szymborski: FOILED~!

10:08
Lzfreak: What data do you train those neural network nicknames on?

10:08
Ben Clemens: I’m back!

10:08
Avatar Dan Szymborski: It’s a GPT-3 API

10:08
Ben Clemens: ooooof

10:08
LFC Mike: if Kershaw  got lit up would we see his commercial?

10:08
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I just give it 10 nicknames to “get” the format and let it ride.

10:09
Ben Clemens: The commercial is about him getting lit up!

10:09
Ben Clemens: Did we already talk about why Yarbrough is in?

10:09
Bb: How is your 🐕?

10:09
Ben Clemens: she did great!

10:10
Ben Clemens: Not a peep, she slept half the time

10:10
Fire Ken Tremendous: Police Curfew to restore order in this game

10:10
Read with a British accent: I call batters batsmen

10:10
Mad Joe-Don: Shattered Glasnow.

10:10
sadtrombone: They must think they still have a chance to win this, that’s why Yarborough is in. Why Glasnow wasn’t relieved earlier, no, we still don’t have a reason for that.

10:10
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Ben, we mostly talked about Taco Bell offerings while you were gone.

10:10
Ben Clemens: Just seems like Cash is a big fan of thinking about leverage when he picks relievers

10:10
Ben Clemens: And now he’s using a valuable pitcher in an un-valuable spot

10:10
Ben Clemens: Doesn’t track

10:11
Six Ten: How big a lead before Kershaw doesn’t even throw a pitch in the sixth?

10:11
Ben Clemens: 11?

10:11
LFC Mike: In case of Emergency, break Glasnow

10:11
Ben Clemens: The Dodgers support this message

10:11
Lzfreak: When do we next see Glasnow? Game 5 presumably? 2021?

10:11
Ben Clemens: I have not had many/any Taco Bell offerings

10:11
Ben Clemens: since the days of Chalupas

10:11
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Smart man

10:12
Fangraph’s Lurker: Waiting for the kershaw shank redemption

10:12
Derek: Dave Roberts will pitch Kershaw as much as is prudent, and then add like 47 2/3 innings for him to also pitch

10:12
Avatar Dan Szymborski: So far, I can use the good Kershaw image.

10:12
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:12
Dodger Fan: That Betts graphic was hilarious.

10:12
Ben Clemens: Taco Bell gets their money worth with this promotion

10:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski: As opposed to the sad Kershaw image.

10:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:13
Furlough Michael Schur: What is that image from?

10:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Both are mine!

10:14
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The first is from WWE 2k19

10:14
LFC Mike: Seriously.. How does Taco Bell  not get Mookie  to do a commercial?

10:14
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The second from the Smashing Pumpkins album cover

10:14
Derek: Smashing Pumpkins album!

10:14
Lzfreak: Why is Kershaw’s head bleeding in his good pic?

10:14
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Because it was a brutal fight to win the briefcase!

10:14
Mockcarr: Kershaw social distanced on the bench in October 2019 before anyone knew they were supposed to

10:14
5 Run Homer: Love Bellinger’s animated pissed off reactions to pop-ups

10:14
Ben Clemens: It’s the only time he’s ever animated

10:15
Ben Clemens: Hit a home run, it’s time for a slow walk

10:15
Deathstar Graterol: This inning is getting out of control

10:15
5 Run Homer: Chris Taylor feels real underrated in this lineup

10:15
Avatar Dan Szymborski: This is what happens. You lose control of the Dodgers and they bury you

10:16
Shattenjager: Did you just say that a guy who dislocated his shoulder celebrating a home run is not “animated” when he celebrates such?

10:16
Ben Clemens: That’s a good counterpoint. I was just thinking of the bat flip, or rather slow stroll light flip

10:16
Ben Clemens: But yeah, I forgot about the case of the jumpies he got at the end

10:16
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Any chance Yarby is going to be used as a long reliever this series? Because burning him in a losing effort here feels awful.

10:16
Ben Clemens: I guess that’s the plan?

10:17
Guest: How soon do you start thinking of pulling Kershaw here so he’s fresher if needed to start again?

10:17
Ben Clemens: Not for that, but maybe just to keep him fresher on regular rest?

10:17
Derek: Or, as Zazu would say, wildly out of wing

10:17
Ben Clemens: First Disney song reference I’ve seen tonight

10:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Well, at least they don’t have to worry about saving their bullpen

10:18
BettsBellingerCaruso: Rays w/ the 5D chess move to get Kershaw off his game by giving up a bunch of runs and making him rest too much this inning

10:18
BettsBellingerCaruso: Kershaw’s FB velo dropped to 90.6 last inning when his game avg was 91.6.

Not the worst idea to pull him tbh

10:18
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Wood’s on the roster, no? I’d just leave him out there the rest of the game

10:18
5 Run Homer: This has been a looooooooooooooooooong inning

10:19
Ben Clemens: I left, literally spent 15 minutes out of the apartment, came back, and still have seen half of the runs scored in this inning

10:19
Benny and the Mets: This offense is really as good as its built up to be.

10:19
Ben Clemens: And I left after the inning started!

10:19
Ben Clemens: Now Smoltz is coming out in favor of walks!

10:19
Ben Clemens: He’s dangerously close to accidentally agreeing with sabermetrics

10:20
Ben Clemens: aaaaand ‘they hit with runners in scoring position’

10:20
Ben Clemens: sharp right turn to curmudgeonliness

10:20
Shattenjager: Walks for hitters or for pitchers?

10:20
Ben Clemens: haha, hitters

10:20
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Oh, I also have a specific GIF for Kershaw back problems.

10:20
Wire Fan: Smoltz realizes the Dodgers advanced because of HRs?

10:21
Ben Clemens: Oh certainly not

10:21
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:21
Ben Clemens: The won b/c they hit with runners in scoring position

10:21
Shattenjager: (I’m listening to Diablo Swing Orchestra instead of Smoltz. I think my call is correct.)

10:21
CJ: My wife has been like ‘why is Glasnow still pitching?’ for half an hour

10:21
5 Run Homer: Listen it’s not crazy that he’d say walls are good for pitchers

10:21
Ben Clemens: He has talked about the whole “I’d rather give up a leadoff homer than a leadoff walk” thing before

10:22
Ben Clemens: But that was in the ninth, where it’s not as preposterous (though still preposterous!)

10:22
Avatar Dan Szymborski: As Mitch Hedberg said, no matter how good you are at tennis, you’ll never be as good as a wall.

10:22
Eel Ffilc: Of course you have a WWE GIF haha

10:22
Clemente’s Ghost: That leadoff HR > leadoff walk thing was extremely tedious.  He also claimed that a postseason walk was worse than a regular season walk.

10:22
Ben Clemens: I didn’t hear that one, but do tell

10:23
Dodger Fan: Isn’t anything bad in the postseason inherently worse because of the leverage? Hate to say it, but I agree with Smoltz there.

10:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I have way worse things than WWE Gifs

10:24
Ben Clemens: Haha in that sense I suppose it’s true. Presumably he’s talking about relative badness though

10:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Like Mike Troump.

10:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:24
Fangraph’s Lurker: I think the winner will be whoever scores the most runs

10:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski: HEY MCCARVER

10:24
Walks are bad: I think Johan Hedberg said something similar about his profession. Maybe they are related.

10:24
Clemente’s Ghost: Oh it wasn’t simply about the higher leverage.  The logic seemed to be that a postseason walk is worse because of the amount of tension and pitching with runners on base ups the tension even more so postseason walks are disproportionately worse for the outcome relative to regular season walks?  Like, the expected runs scored of a leadoff walk in the postseason would somehow be higher than the same leadoff walk in the regular season.

10:24
Derek: Turner has become Matt Chapman on defense

10:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Turner was always a good defender

10:25
Ben Clemens: Haha yeah…..

10:25
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Though not Chapmannic

10:25
5 Run Homer: Damn I did not expect to get a Johan Hedberg reference in here

10:25
Ben Clemens: If they’re making Hercu-Liam t-shirts in Oakland, surely they can make Half Chapman, Half Chapamazing t-shirts too

10:25
Dodger Fan: Justin Chapman and Matt Turner

10:26
Ben Clemens: Kershaw’s hat is dissssgusting

10:27
Derek: Maybe he’s been wearing the same hat all postseason

10:27
Ben Clemens: Maybe he’s been wearing it since 2015

10:27
Ben Clemens: They’re pushing the old Cardinals Holliday/Carpenter/Adams group for Matts Batted In

10:28
Ben Clemens: MBI’s are just RBI’s where you score a Matt

10:28
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m just using Old Dan as my avatar so I don’t have to worry about dating myself.

10:28
Ben Clemens: That said, they’re probably not doing great in Matts Matted In. MMI’s are where a Matt drives a Matt in

10:28
Dodger Fan: Didn’t Audrey write an article on that a while back?

10:28
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:28
Ben Clemens: I believe the MBI was her original creation, and then it got really weird on VEB

10:28
Ben Clemens: But don’t quote me on that, I was late on the scene

10:28
5 Run Homer: How many Matts are in the chat right now?

10:28
Remaerdbob: Jeff Toobin was dating himself.

10:29
Fangraph’s Lurker: Ben, you’re dangerous close to going the markkar route

10:29
Fangraph’s Lurker: Marklar

10:29
Ben Clemens: I had to look up that reference

10:29
Ben Clemens: My South Park knowledge is kinda spotty

10:30
Ben Clemens: Though I did watch and enjoy the Pandemic Special

10:30
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I was sad when I referenced 24 is the highest number and you weren’t familiar with it!

10:30
LFC Mike: Dan. Can you make Get Off My Lawn. Rant

10:30
Ben Clemens: It was pretty excellent

10:30
Zazu: This is now officially wildly out of wing

10:31
Lzfreak: You almost had me with that Rockies tweet. I started doing the math

10:31
Ben Clemens: Now picturing all the Dodgers as hyenas and Kershaw as Scar

10:31
Ben Clemens: “We’re gonna kill the Rays!” “What, are they sick?”

10:31
Shattenjager: Mookie is pretty good. I wonder why the Red Sox gave up on him. *Hides from Boston people.*

10:31
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Not gonna be a late night in the Piercing Green Eyes household. Luckily losing to LA is so much less painful than NY or HOU. Less evil.

10:31
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Wendle looked angry tossing that ball

10:31
Ben Clemens: Who can be mad when Mookie beats them?

10:31
Remaerdbob: Mookie Betts has shown off four more tools than Toobin showed off.

10:32
Ben Clemens: Smiling all the way

10:32
Guest: How many years will it be until a Ranger holds the record for most post-season HRs in the Rangers’ stadium?

10:32
Avatar Dan Szymborski: “The ball really carries to right field here.” Anyone want take bets that he just pulled that out of thin air?

10:32
Fire Ken Tremendous: Nanny McFaddle isn’t fooling anyone

10:32
Mad Joe-Don: Mookie’s five tools: lathe, claw hammer, tape measure, throwing, socket set.

10:32
Ben Clemens: Oh yeah, for sure

10:32
Ben Clemens: It will be a lonnnnnng time before a Ranger holds that record

10:33
Dodger Fan: This is FUN.

10:33
Avatar Dan Szymborski: We should not have made an Official Declaration of Pitchers Duel

10:34
Ben Clemens: What do you think the odds are that no Ranger *ever* holds the record

10:34
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:34
Dave Roberts: In the NLCS game that had pants rippling winds it seemed like it was blowing out to right. Smoltz’s observation seems like a reasonable summation of the last 8 games.

10:34
Mad Joe-Don: Too late, Dan. You owe us all gyros.

10:35
Derek: Smoltz wants more sac flies!

10:35
Avatar Dan Szymborski: .With such a lead, I won’t even have to pull out Kershollum

10:35
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:35
Ben Clemens: Little does he know that’s not a sac fly

10:35
Dave Roberts: So if Kershaw’s done, what’s #thenarrative

10:35
Dodger Fan: Why isn’t Alex Wood warming up?

10:35
Avatar Dan Szymborski: That’s what I was wondering. Just stick him in for mopup

10:35
Deathstar Graterol: That is a horrific Kershollum

10:36
Baseball Eating: was that bullpen ball 5D chess to waste time?

10:36
Jim: Archaic Smoltz takes never get old.

10:36
Ben Clemens: Holy maskless fans, Batman

10:36
10:36
Ben Clemens: It won’t be but I’d be happy with that

10:36
Tim: Fleming seems to be finding the Dodgers lineup tougher to deal with than my Alma Mater Greenville University Panthers in the Saint Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference back in the day.

10:36
Clemente’s Ghost: Aren’t they supposed to wear masks in the stands?

10:37
Derek: It’s Texas, Ben! Masks are outlawed for at least half the population

10:37
Ben Clemens: Two contrasting takes on Texas mask laws here

10:37
Ben Clemens: I’m almost certain they were supposed to wear masks but that’s a tough thing to enforce

10:38
LFC Mike: Where  does the contract for Mookie Betts  even start ?

10:38
Ben Clemens: In LA

10:39
Mad Joe-Don: World Series MVP is Mookie’s to lose now, right? Or too soon?

10:39
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Too soon

10:40
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Did they have to tell Betts to smile there or is he just naturally radiant?

10:40
Ben Clemens: No that’s just how he looks

10:40
CJ: Kershaw is out! I don’t recognize this world. Is the nightmare which is 2020 ending?

10:40
Deathstar Graterol: He glows

10:40
JM: Mookie got us free tacos so i feel like not giving him MVP is just wrong at this point.

10:40
Ben Clemens: He has, in fact, won MVP in every WS in which he’s won the nation free taocs

10:40
Ben Clemens: tacos*

10:41
Derek: I’d rather have a taoc, whatever that is, than a Taco Bell taco honestly

10:41
Ben Clemens: I am very tempted to try exactly one Doritos Locos taco in my life

10:41
Ben Clemens: Preferably after a few adult substances of one type or another

10:41
Jim: Are Doritos Locos tacos even good

10:42
Ben Clemens: I don’t know!

10:42
Ben Clemens: It’s a question I’d like to know the answer to, because they could be awful or great and neither would truly surprise me

10:42
Fire Ken Tremendous: One is the right number. By two, you’ve reached your annual sodium limit

10:42
Laura: Doritos Locos Tacos are, indeed, good. And if you’re a vegetarian, you can get them with beans!

10:42
Jesse: The doritos locos taco is totally fine, but this is coming from someone who likes taco bell – I don’t think it’s a substantial upgrade on the regular hard taco, and neither are as good as the soft taco

10:43
Dave Roberts: doritos locos tacos are inferior to regular taco bell tacos

10:43
Ben Clemens: EVERY TAKE IMAGINABLE

10:43
Wire Fan: If Baz pans out… The Pirates might regret that Archer trade.

10:43
kdl: They’re a cheap taco with dorito shell instead of a regular shell. If you aren’t a snob about cheap tacos, and like doritos, you’ll prob like it

10:43
Ben Clemens: Still too soon!

10:43
LFC Mike: Don’t mention beans around Dan

10:44
Dodger Fan: Dan gets very touchy about bean-related topics.

10:44
Read with a British accent: Bigger accomplishment for Friedman: the 38% drop in payroll between 2015-2019 or accepting the league’s gifts for the feat (Betts, Pandemicball WS)?

10:44
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m not sure MLB created COVID to reward Friedman.

10:44
Jim: Do we think that Kershaw is being taken out early so that he can potentially come back for Game 4?

10:44
Ben Clemens: I do not

10:44
Ben Clemens: I think that’s a ‘down 3-0’ kinda move

10:45
John Henry’s Wallet: Why does nobody think about me or celebrate me like they do Mookie Betts? I’m so flexible!

10:45
Derek: But Dan, are you sure they didn’t?

10:45
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m not 100% positive about anythign. But I’m at least 95% sure.

10:45
Eel Ffilc: Taco Bell is the real winner here tonight is my takeaway from all this

10:45
Ben Clemens: This ad buy is so smart

10:45
Ben Clemens: Promotion, whatever

10:45
Avatar Dan Szymborski: See, all the taco talk makes me want a taco, but I just buya  good taco

10:45
Ben Clemens: Yeah, but I don’t think you’re their target audience

10:46
Derek: Why can’t it be like, steal a base, steal a Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich instead?

10:46
Ben Clemens: Steal a Base, End Global Hunger

10:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Here, now you won’t want a taco.

10:46
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

10:46
Shattenjager: I would sign up for Ben’s idea.

10:46
Jim: One fewer blunt and Bellinger makes that catch

10:47
Kwah: Rays versus [chloro] Floro [carbons] is the defining battle of our times.  No surprise this inning has become very heated.

10:47
Ben Clemens: okay this one is a gem, Kwah

10:47
Nate: At least they put scare quotes around “tacos”

10:47
Guest: Is it wrong to prefer the Beastie Boys version of Bennie and the Jets?

10:47
Ben Clemens: juuuuust what a 7-run game needed, a mid-inning pitching change

10:48
Dave Roberts: Big win for the Rays to get a high leverage Dodger reliever into the game. Dave Roberts has entered the chat.

10:48
Shattenjager: Yes. It’s wrong to prefer any version of “Bennie and the Jets” or anything by the Beastie Boys.

10:48
Jim: Manfred in shambles

10:48
Ben Clemens: New next year: ‘four batter minimum”

10:48
LFC Mike: Are you 100% positive about being 95% sure?

10:48
Avatar Dan Szymborski: 87

10:48
Ben Clemens: Note: Affects only Dave Roberts and Tony LaRussa if he ever returns

10:49
Ben Clemens: My dad taught stats for a while when I was a kid

10:49
Ben Clemens: He used to give me confidence intervals for how long it would take us to do a thing

10:49
Ben Clemens: Go to the grocery store, arrive at our destination, etc

10:49
Ben Clemens: I always thought they were preposterously wide

10:49
Ben Clemens: LIke we’d be driving 30 minutes and he’d say he was 99% certain we’d get there in 90 minutes

10:49
Ben Clemens: or less

10:50
Ben Clemens: Now whenever I hear confidence intervals I get flashbacks

10:50
Brian CashGod: All the other dads were raising their sons to be major leaguers, Ben’s dad was raising him to write for FanGraphs, I love it

10:50
Ben Clemens: He would be very proud to hear that

10:50
kdl: Dan, would you classify this as Roberts getting “too cute”? I think I would

10:50
Ben Clemens: Roberts is totally too cute!

10:50
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I would as well

10:50
Brian CashGod: half of all statistics are made up

10:50
Dan Szymborski: I’m the real Dan. The other is an imposter. Somebody please stop him.

10:51
Shattenjager: My dad did the opposite. He always claimed complete certainty about everything when he was usually just pulling it out of his butt. He was a salesman.

10:51
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Your dad is A-Rod?

10:51
Dodger Fan: I didn’t know we were playing Among Us at FanGraphs

10:51
kdl: shit.. “too clever” was the line from the articel. Looks like I was getting “too cute” too

10:51
Wire Fan: Umpires are supposed to be chosen on merit for the playoffs, no? how is Laz Diaz doing the WS?

10:51
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Like they’re chosen for merit

10:51
Ben Clemens: Played my first game of Among Us yday (it’s hard to get enough people together)

10:51
Benny and the Mets: My chat name is a direct pun on Bennie and the Jets for what it’s worth.

10:51
Ben Clemens: it’s a blast

10:52
Dodger Fan: Belli and the Betts

10:52
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I haven’t played it yet

10:52
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’ve played Town of Salem though, which is the same concept

10:52
Ben Clemens: Smoltz is amazed by Brosseau’s .500 batting average on grounders

10:52
Ben Clemens: He even mentioned that it’s on 26 grounders

10:53
Ben Clemens: How does he not get that 26 grounders are only 26 grounders?

10:53
Floyd: Dan sus

10:53
Derek: Ooh Among Us is so good. Eventually you’ll have to flip a bunch of options because competent crew members can just win every time, but it’s still so good

10:54
Wire Fan: Is it time to take Kershaw out yet?

10:54
Avatar Dan Szymborski: SZYM INNO

10:54
Ben Clemens: Kershaw Too Cowardly To Handle Seventh, Dodgers Collapse

10:54
Ben Clemens: (potential headline tomorrow)

10:54
Derek: Also this game is getting somewhat interesting again

10:55
Steve Nebraska: Pulled kershaw too soon… It’s bizarro world

10:55
Ben Clemens: Good news for LA here: they have an odd lead

10:55
Ben Clemens: (but above 4)

10:55
Shattenjager: Town of Salem is Werewolf/Mafia. Among Us has some minor actual gameplay outside of the arguments, so I think it’s rather different. I’ve found both ruined by toxic communities when I’ve tried them, though, so I’ll stick to Patriots & Redcoats with real people or playing solo games until that’s possible instead.

10:55
Ben Clemens: A Rod’s reasoning was that a grand slam can’t beat you and a solo home run can’t tie you

10:56
Avatar Dan Szymborski: True, but it’s the same basic concept of an imperfect information social deduction game

10:56
Ben Clemens: true of a 5 run lead too

10:56
Read with a British accent: Should I watch The Wicker Man (1973) again or continue with this game?

10:56
Avatar Dan Szymborski: You have to watch the REMAKE

10:56
Wire Fan: What about a zero run lead?

10:56
Ben Clemens: Not sure how up A Rod is on number theory

10:56
Ben Clemens: is zero even, and all that

10:57
Derek: But Ben, you want EVEN leads!

10:57
Ben Clemens: See that was the soundbite

10:57
Ben Clemens: But after you focus in on his logic

10:57
Ben Clemens: It’s still ridiculous but he actually just means you want to be up by four or more

10:57
Ben Clemens: I do like that ‘a grand slam doesn’t beat you’ is obviously untrue of a 2-run lead

10:58
Ben Clemens: but look

10:58
Ben Clemens: A Rod’s nickname is A Rod, not Alex “Internally Consistent Logic” Rodriguez

10:58
Lzfreak: You’d obviously rather be up by 2 than 3 duh

10:58
LFC Mike: Cloro Floro Carbons evaporated

10:58
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Wickerman sounds like the last name of a Rays reliever

10:58
CJ: Dan:  Really? You are saying the one with Nicholas Cage is better??

10:58
Avatar Dan Szymborski: No, but I’m giving him a worse idea

10:58
Dodger Fan: WOW

10:58
Benny and the Mets: wowwwwwwwwww

10:59
Jared: Exit velo guesses on that one?

10:59
Ben Clemens: 105.6 per statcast

10:59
Kwah: v1-6tor Gonzalez

10:59
Chris Martin: *when you try your best but you don’t succeed…*

10:59
LFC Mike: That’s how you know you aren’t going to win

10:59
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’d even trust Kenley with this lead!

11:00
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Although do anonymous baseball names get any better than former OAK minor leaguer J.P. Sportman?

11:00
Wire Fan: That really helps pace of play as it likely keeps Baez out of this game.

11:01
Ben Clemens: Do you guys think Baez warms up at a glacial pace too?

11:01
Ben Clemens: I never pay attention

11:01
Clemente’s Ghost: Well, >95% win probability after 11 o’clock means it’s bedtime for me.  Thanks for hosting this odd and enjoyable taco-themed chat, Dan and Ben!

11:02
Ben Clemens: For the seventh inning stretch:

11:02
Read with a British accent: Nick Cage, in a bear suit, punches a woman in her face: https://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lskwcq4N9K1qkei6p.gif

11:02
The Finger Thing Means the Taxes: Since losing my job I’ve had Simpsons Seasons 2-8 on repeat 24/7. Give me a favorite episode or gag

11:02
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

11:02
Eel Ffilc: Baez is in a perpetual state of warming up

11:02
Jared: season 3 ep 17

11:03
Lzfreak: Who is the anti Baez? It used to be Buehrle but who now?

11:03
Jim: Is that for a movie or does Nick just do that? Tough to tell

11:03
Ben Clemens: doesn’t look like Pitch Info has 2020 data yet, but as of 2019, Brent Suter:

11:04
Dodger Fan: Brent Suter!

11:04
Ben Clemens: It’s in only 17 innings but he’s 3 seconds faster than the next-fastest

11:04
Ben Clemens: That’s kinda crazy

11:04
Mockcarr: Gonzalez looks like he is wearing some small mammal’s pelt on his head

11:04
Read with a British accent:

11:05
Jared: To be fair, I think Suter is negatively affected by the speed of his pitches. They take days to get up there…

11:05
Kwah: If you want to celebrate killer B’s, you can either remember the Houston Astros of a generation ago, or you can watch that terrible Nic Cage movie.

11:05
Derek: Look say what you want about Nic Cage but he tries shit, some of it truly wild, and I think that’s cool. He acts in like 3409% more movies than anyone else

11:05
Lzfreak: Plus sometimes he just falls off the mound because he’s working so fast

11:05
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Dont’ blame us, it’s just most of you really want to talk about Nicholas Cage and Brent Suter

11:05
Dave Roberts: Brent Suter was insane in Game 1 of WC series. Felt like he was on the mound for about 10 minutes before getting lifted

11:06
Ben Clemens: I brought up Baez, but the chat really went to town

11:06
Ben Clemens: Suter* rather

11:07
Shattenjager: What’s next for Fangraphs? A film project: The Brent Suter Story starring Nicolas Cage. Giving the fans what they want.

11:07
Ben Clemens: We were dangerously close to having to talk about the game again

11:07
Ben Clemens: But Victor Gonzalez put an end to that

11:07
Avatar Dan Szymborski: 5G DOESN’T MAKE THE SOUND QUALITY MAGICALLY BETTER

11:07
Jim: Nic Cage doesn’t have an agent, it’s just a robo-line that says “yes” to every film request

11:07
Read with a British accent: Who, in their right mind, dislikes Nic Cage?

11:08
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Who here had actually heard of Victor Gonzalez before this postseason?

11:08
Ben Clemens: I had, but it’s my job. I would assume most people hadn’t

11:09
Eel Ffilc: Are Brent Suter and Nic Cage the same person?

11:09
Ben Clemens: Has anyone ever seen them in the same place at the same time?

11:09
Dodger Fan: I had, but…duh.

11:10
Jim: He pitches so fast because he has so many movies to shoot

11:10
Dodger Fan: Everyone get ready to wait 14 minutes between each pitch!

11:10
Lzfreak: Suter could star in a movie about Cage… he has time to spare waiting for Baez to pitch

11:10
Read with a British accent: BTW as a man who pretends to have a British accent in this chat room….The original Wicker Man is considered a gd classic in British cinema. Christopher Lee did it for free! He even paid out of pocket to do publicity! He called it his best work!

11:10
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Wow… González last appeared on a prospect list here in 2016.

11:10
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: He debuted in 2020

11:10
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: I mean I know he’s a reliever but still

11:12
Avatar Dan Szymborski: You know what would end Lowe’s slump? A better pronunciation of his last name.

11:12
Ben Clemens: So Chris Bassitt was working really quickly in the Wild Card series, so I got in the habit of running a stopwatch when he caught the throw from the catcher

11:12
Ben Clemens: He was like 10-15 with no runners on

11:12
Ben Clemens: Baez is at about 20

11:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Sadly, I never found any kind of useful predictive information from pace or changes in pace

11:13
LFC Mike: People who shop at Lowe’s are confused by Brandon Lowe

11:13
Jim: You can probably predict fans’ enjoyment

11:13
Read with a British accent: The Rays are going to add to this team, right? Like at some point they just kinda have to move people…I like that they finally moved towards full time starters again and have more coming through

11:13
Ben Clemens: It kinda feels that way to be honest

11:13
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Maybe we need to publish WAR per minute.

11:14
Guest: He should go by Brandon Low-way, with the accent on the e at the end.

11:14
Ben Clemens: I think they’re not as into their infinitely modular lineup deal as they were three or four years ago

11:14
Ben Clemens: But they can only play with what they have, as it were

11:14
Lzfreak: There have been times when Baez was legitimately at like a minute per pitch in previous years

11:14
Ben Clemens: I have to say, I didn’t expect Joe Buck to be bringing up Arozarena’s minor league numbers

11:14
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Going by WAR per minute, Greg Maddux looks even more like an all-time great

11:15
Fire Ken Tremendous: Barrel Hands is a very sabermetric friendly nickname

11:15
Ben Clemens: The best part of barrels is that it used to be used to mock Eno

11:15
Ben Clemens: and sabermetrics generally

11:15
LFC Mike: Good thing he isn’t named Brandon Depot .. that could get interesting

11:15
Ben Clemens: And now that people can see what a well-struck ball actually is, it turns out Hosmer wasn’t much of a barrels hitter all along

11:15
Avatar Dan Szymborski: He’d probably say it Brandon Dee-pot

11:15
Jim: That might have been the quickest Baez inning of all time

11:16
Derek: Or go with the Men in Blazers intro Rebecca Lowe pronunciation (loo-wah)

11:17
Mockcarr: How many blues are the Rays allows

11:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: There’s a House of Blues, so you can have a lot of blues

11:17
Shattenjager: On my screen on Gameday, he took about five minutes to throw his first pitch, then threw like six in about four seconds. I have to admit, making such drastic changes in pace impresses me and seems like a possible advantage.

11:17
Ben Clemens: now that’s quick pitching

11:17
Dodger Fan: I prefer WAR/nanosecond myself

11:17
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Dan, I think you’ve said in the past that you incorporate MLB postseason numbers into your projections. Do you do the same with minor league playoff statistics?

11:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Yes

11:17
Avatar Dan Szymborski: If the minor leaguers were a thing. 🙁

11:18
Derek: A lot of blues, apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_blue

11:18
Mockcarr: Dan,I suspect the helmets are left over from a little league team.

11:18
LFC Mike: How many rooms in a House of Blue.Full House of Blues starring a pair of insufferable twins.

11:19
Jim: There would be infinite shades of blue, technically, but I don’t want to be shallow and pedantic

11:19
Derek: Joe Buck gets it

11:19
Fire Ken Tremendous: Joe Buck absolutely trolling the Boston faithful now

11:19
maranville: OK Joe Buck is good now

11:19
Ben Clemens: Aggressive trolling!

11:19
Ben Clemens: Joe Buck has been great this game

11:19
Ben Clemens: Credit where credit is due

11:19
LFC Mike: Full House of  Blues  Tv sitcom gold

11:19
Jared: When you hear the term “Go Blue!” what team do you think of?

11:19
Ben Clemens: Michigan for me

11:19
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Michigan

11:19
Eel Ffilc: 1-2-3 is the same time in any units for the World Series

11:20
Ben Clemens: Wow Ken dropping ‘financial flexibility’ to mock the Red Sox

11:20
Avatar Dan Szymborski: The rate of mask wearing in the crowd is underwhelming

11:20
Jared: Absolutely, heard it in a Dodger reference the other day for the time.. thought maybe I had a regional bias

11:20
Derek: Wow an extended troll job. This is incredible

11:20
Ben Clemens: The Fox crew is going off

11:21
Derek: Of course Smoltz is the one trying to defend the Sox’ decision

11:21
Ben Clemens: lol Smoltz is trying to say something positive

11:21
Ben Clemens: But he just

11:21
Ben Clemens: He got lost midway through the sentence and said “I’m sure there’s…..’

11:21
Jim: Isn’t it true that Mookie was pretty set on going to free agency anyways? I don’t remember

11:21
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: *correction* González was back in the 2020 updated prospect list — it’s just that there hasn’t been a “Keeping up with the NL West” article yet, so the only links on his player page are the ’15/’16 lists

11:22
Ben Clemens: We don’t know for sure, of course, but the scuttlebutt I heard was that he was going to go to free agency if he didn’t get a deal he liked

11:22
Ben Clemens: The deal the Sox offered him was reportedly in the low 200 million range

11:22
Steve Nebraska: Obviously not as he didn’t make it to free agency…

11:22
Poop: Is mookie lebron because trout is Jordan?

11:22
Avatar Dan Szymborski: No baseball player can be James or Jordan.

11:23
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Don’t blame Betts for you Roberts!

11:23
Ben Clemens: Per MLBTR, they later offered him 10/300

11:23
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Josh James begs to differ

11:23
Ben Clemens: Jordan Hicks, too

11:24
Avatar Dan Szymborski: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN MURDER

11:25
Dodger Fan: Blaze Jordan?

11:25
Ben Clemens: Great prospect name

11:25
Derek: Why is this pitching change happening

11:25
Ben Clemens: Legitimately no clue

11:26
Jesse: For some reason I can’t shake the conviction that Bellinger’s true talent level is greater than Betts’, am I crazy?

11:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: A little. Bellinger is god, but Betts is better

11:26
Jared: Max Muncy is clearly his civilian name.. but what is his superhero alias?

11:26
Fodger “Dan” Szymborski: Apparently Cool Papa Bell’s given name was James

11:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Maxibillions.

11:26
Shattenjager: I hope Blaze Jordan becomes awesome, just because it will be fun to see his name. Though the inevitable stoner memes will be painful.

11:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Cool Papa is way better than James

11:26
Ben Clemens: The good news is we’re already using up all the memes on Bellinger

11:26
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Sorry Jameses here. But it’s true.

11:27
Ben Clemens: Lebron Cool Papa would work

11:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Cool Papa Madison

11:27
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I’m Rick Cool Papa!

11:28
Ben Clemens: On a trip once, my wife and I met an Italian guy who was oddly a huge Knicks fan

11:28
Ben Clemens: He at one point is like “Oh do you know James? James LeBron? The Knicks will sign him!”

11:28
Shattenjager: I’ve played Call of Duty before; I do not doubt the stoners’ ability to come up with more memes no matter what.

11:28
Ben Clemens: I now mainly think of him as James LeBron

11:28
Fire Ken Tremendous: Cool Papa and the Giant Peach

11:29
Derek: Has there ever been an adequate explanation given for why nicknames used to be awesome but are now uniformly awful?

11:29
Avatar Dan Szymborski: We have no style.

11:29
Ben Clemens: Will Smith’s face as he walked away was awesome

11:30
Ben Clemens: It was a ‘Yeah sure whatever you say gramps!’ look for sure

11:30
Shattenjager: Given names used to be awful and now we give better official names, so we don’t need the creativity of nicknames to fix them.

11:30
Ben Clemens: What a contrarian take

11:31
segiddins: Is Smith the fast catcher in baseball? Before when he was running, I had to remind myself that he’s a catcher

11:31
Ben Clemens: Third-fastest, actually

11:31
Ben Clemens: Realmuto can fly

11:31
BettsBellingerCaruso: Would you risk letting Wood close it out?

11:31
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Sure

11:31
Avatar Dan Szymborski: If you can’t hold a 5 run lead why are you on the roster

11:31
LFC Mike: If Kershaw has a bad industrial accident we could call him 3 Fingers  Kershaw .. but that is a little extreme.

11:31
Eel Ffilc: Blaze is a great name meme or not, bring it on

11:31
Ben Clemens: I was excited for Alex Wood to be back in LA

11:31
Ben Clemens: Hasn’t quite panned out that way

11:32
Derek: There is nothing from modern times that compares to like, the Splendid Splinter or the Say Hey Kid. Cool Papa as we’ve covered. I just don’t know what happened! The greatest closer ever, Mariano Rivera? Let

11:32
Derek: ‘s call him “Mo”!

11:32
Ben Clemens: Mike Trout as Millville Meteorologist is good but no one uses it

11:32
segiddins: Mariano didn’t need a nickname, he had a cutter

11:33
Ben Clemens: They’re still doing good nicknames some places

11:33
Avatar Dan Szymborski: That’s why I use computers!

11:33
Avatar Dan Szymborski:

11:33
Ben Clemens: Seung-hwan Oh was both Stone Buddha and Final Boss

11:33
Jared: speaking of great facial expressions… lets go Joe “Pout Pout Fish” Kelly

11:33
Lzfreak: La Tortuga is great for Astudillo

11:34
Derek: Okay Final Boss is great. Seung-hwan Oh was… not (in MLB, anyway).

11:34
Benny and the Mets: The Buffalo for Wilson Ramos

11:34
Benny and the Mets: or the Polar Bear for Pete Alonso

11:34
Ben Clemens: Marcell Ozuna used to wear “El Oso Grande” on player’s weekend, maybe he will again

11:34
Ben Clemens: Big Bear, excellent

11:34
Ben Clemens: Polar Bear Pete is good too

11:34
Dodger Fan: Let’s not forget Big Sexy

11:34
Shattenjager: Final Boss is one of the great nicknames ever. In the US, I don’t think a video game nickname would catch on. Still considered not mainstream.

11:35
Eel Ffilc: Blaze it up is all I’m sayin

11:35
Ben Clemens: His call-up is just going to be a barrel of memes

11:35
Guest: Gotta love the old days where deaf players were nicknamed Dummy

11:36
Ben Clemens: There are SO MANY old players nicknamed Dutch

11:36
Wire Fan: Scrabble is a good nickname for the guy whose last name i can’t spell

11:36
Ben Clemens: Rzcepesykpisnekski

11:36
Ben Clemens: roughly

11:36
Dave Roberts: John Smoltz is not a fan of parallax

11:36
Dodger Fan: Marc the lefty®

11:37
Ben Clemens: Joe Kelly had a hand in the last out of the game

11:37
Ben Clemens: On that note, I’m going to go eat dinner with my patiently waiting wife… thanks Jenna!

11:39
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Thanks for comiogn all!





Meg is the managing editor of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on twitter @megrowler.

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