Category Archives: Pitchers

January 10, 2026

Skubal Skubal Doo!

The Detroit Tigers put themselves in a huge hole with their arbitration offer to Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal:

The result was Skubal filing at $32 million and the team at $19 million, the largest gap in the history of MLB arbitration. Barring a surprising settlement, it looks like there will be a dramatic hearing sometime in the next few weeks.
SI.com

I don’t really see much drama here. Players in their final year of arbitration should get about 80% of their free agent value. The $32 million request puts that value at $40 million. Skubal averaged five WAR over the last three seasons, including two Cy Young awards. If he were to become a free agent today requesting a one-year contract, I suspect he would land in excess of $60 million for the season. So his number seems rather fair, and the Tigers number appears extremely low. I have been surprised by arbitration decisions in the past when they looked like a slam dunk for the player, but his one seems rather obvious,

December 31, 2025

Checking Points

Tom Tango has a new Cy Young predictor.

For #AspiringSaberist, Ive offered an update to a potential new (and final) Cy Young Predictor, consolidating Classic version and FIP version into one unified version. I'd love for someone to spend some time and see how well it did since 2021 at least:https://t.co/B91i3N0tSo pic.twitter.com/H7frwaf6w5
— Tangotiger ? (@tangotiger) December 31, 2025

I did the calculation going back to 1920 here, minimum 50 Cy Young points.

In 2024, Skubal was at the top of the AL and won the award. Seth Lugo came in second in the award voting, fourth in points. Emmanuel was third in the voting not on the points list. Cole Ragans fourth in the voting second on the list. Corbin Burns fifth in the voting sixth on the list.

In the NL, Chris Sale topped the voting, also first on the list. Zack Wheeler second in the voting second on the list. Paul Skenes third in the voting, did not reach 50 points. Dylan Cease fourth in the voting, sixth in points. Shota Imanaga fifth in voting, eighth in points.

In 2023,Gerrit Cole won the AL voting, finished second in points. Sonny Gray finished second in the voting, first in points. Kevin Gausman finished third in the voting, fourth in points. Kyle Bradish finsihed fourth in the voting, third in points. Luis Castillo finished fifth in voting, ninth in points.

In the NL that year, Blake Snell won the voting, finished first in points. Logan Webb finished second in the voting and third in points. Zac Gallen finished third in the voting and sixth in points. Spencer Strider fourth in the voting and fifth in points. Justin Steele took fifth in the voting and second in points.

2022 AL, Vote rank, Point rank

Justin Verlander, 1st, 1st
Dylan Cease, 2nd, 3rd
Alex Manoah, 3rd, 5th
Shohei Ohtani, 4th, 2nd
Framber Valdez, 5th, 8th

2022 NL, Vote rank, Point rank

Sandy Alcantara, 1st, 3rd
Max Fried, 2nd, 2nd
Julio Urias, 3rd, 6th
Aaron Nola, 4th, 5th
Zac Gallen, 5th, 4th

2021 AL, Vote rank, Point rank

Robbie Ray, 1st, 2nd
Gerrit Cole, 2nd, 1st
Lance Lynn, 3rd, less than 50 points
Nathan Eovaldi, 4th, 3rd
Carlos Rodon, 5th, less than 50 points

2021 NL, Vote rank, Point rank

Corbin Burnes, 1st, 1st
Zack Wheeler, 2nd, 2nd
Max Scherzer, 3rd, 3rd
Walker Buehler, 4th, 5th
Brandon Woodruff, 5th, 4th

I think the 162 inning mark might be less of a barrier if the season is stupendous.

November 29, 2025

Ryan or Witt?

A friend mentioned to me that he thought Dylan Cease was more Bobby Witt than Nolan Ryan. I disagreed off the top of my head, but here are the comparisons through their age 29 seasons:

Category	Bobby Witt	Nolan Ryan	Dylan Cease
Innings	1393	1935	1015 1/3
Strikeouts per 9 IP	7.8	9.7	10.9
Walks per 9 IP	5.7	5.5	3.8
HR per 9 IP	0.67	0.51	1.07
ERA	4.52	3.11	3.88

Through Seasonal Age 29

Ryan and Witt are much more like each other than either is like Cease. Cease owns a very high walk rate for the era, but nothing close to Ryan or Witt at the same career age. Note that the two older pitchers could get away with more walks due to the lack of power in the league compared to today. Cease’s ERA is almost halfway between Ryan and Witt (3.82).

November 13, 2025

Wins Lost?

2 Replies

From Tom Tango:

With both Yamamoto, Brown finishing third in Cy Young ahead of Webb, Fried respectively, we may finally update Cy Young Predictor to exclude Pitching Wins as category altogether! Looking forward to seeing complete results

All thanks Paul Skenes!

Sorry-not-sorry @billjamesonline
— Tangotiger ? (@tangotiger) November 12, 2025

I’m not 100% sure wins are dead in the eyes of the voters, or if we just haven’t seen an outstanding win total in a while. We need to have a season where a pitcher goes 22-5 with a 3.00 ERA and another goes 11-10 with a 2.10 ERA in about the same number of innings. I’m guessing that vote would be a lot closer than the NL in 2025.

While we like to think that writers are more statistically aware than in the past, strategy killed the starter win:

Decade	% Wins by Starters
1920	81.4
1930	79.3
1940	78.8
1950	73.9
1960	72.9
1970	74.3
1980	71.5
1990	70.1
2000	70.3
2010	66.7
2020	58.2

Only two decades in this eleven decade span saw upticks in starters getting wins. The 1970s saw the adoption of the five man rotation, which might have allowed starters to go deeper in games. The 2000s saw the end of the steroid era, so maybe fewer starters got pummeled early.

A big drop happened in the 1950s, and things were generally declining until the 2010s. We then see two big drops. Teams started using openers in the 2010s, and the 2020s brought about the strategy of not letting a starter pitcher to batters once he went through the order twice.

Strategy spent 15 years taking away starter wins, and the voters responded accordingly.

Update: Here is Tango’s post on possibly updating the Cy Young predictor.

November 11, 2025

Hendricks Retires

Few MLB players actually retire. Most try to hang on and after a while come to understand that teams no longer want their services, and then hang up their cleats. I understand this, as hyper-competitive people want to continue to compete, and the money is really good. Kyle Hendricks joins the rare breed who steps away from the game on his own:

Longtime Chicago Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks, who won an ERA title and a World Series championship during his 12-year big league career, is retiring, according to his agent.

Hendricks, 35, played last season with the Los Angeles Angels, compiling an 8-10 record with a 4.76 ERA. He spent his first 11 years with Chicago where he won 97 games utilizing a changeup/sinker combination that kept hitters off-balance. He had a 3.68 ERA during his time with the Cubs, winning the ERA title in 2016, the same year Chicago won the World Series.
ESPN.com

Hendricks never over-powered batters with strikeouts, but even with a low K rate opponents found him tough to hit. He walked few, and tended to keep the ball in the park. That final bit saw the most deterioration over his last five seasons.

On the other hand, Hendricks pitched 164 2/3 innings, over the level of 162 IP, the qualification level ranking in average categories. Only 52 pitchers in the majors reached that mark in 2025. Hendricks could have easily hung on as an innings eater at the back of a rotation despite his 4.76 ERA. Musings Marcels Opposition Batting projects him to 136.5 innings in 2026 with a .271/.323/.438 slash line. Not great, but he could give a team the occasional seven innings when the bullpen needs a rest.

I suspect he will wind up in an organization as a coach or in the front office some day. For now, he wants to take a break from the game.

November 4, 2025

Yu Can’t Pitch

Yu Darvish underwent UCL surgery and will miss all of the 2026 season for the Padres:

Darvish, 39, also got an internal brace in the surgery performed last week, the Padres announced Tuesday.

“I will be working hard on my rehab to be able to throw a ball comfortably again,” Darvish wrote in Japanese on social media.

Darvish had Tommy John surgery in March 2015 and returned to a major league mound on May 28, 2016.
ESPN.com

Of course, in 2015 he was seasonal age 28. When and if he returns in 2027, he’ll be seasonal age 40. There is a good chance this injury ends his career.

November 1, 2025

Third Not a Charm

Max Scherzer takes the Blue Jays three-run lead into the bottom of the third inning and runs into trouble, too. He loads the bases on a double, single, and walk, the latter coming with one out. Teoscar Hernandez hits a line drive to centerfield, and Daulton Varsho makes a shoestring catch to hold it to a sacrifice fly. Then Tommy Edman hits a hard line drive down the first base line, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. snags it for the third out. Scherzer gets saved by his defense and Toronto leads Los Angeles 3-1.

We’ll see if Scherzer comes out for the fourth inning.

November 1, 2025

Playoffs Today

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It’s game seven of the World Series, the game that even mildly interested baseball fans will watch. MLB went through a long game seven drought, the last one taking place in Houston in 2019. Both Max Scherzer and George Springer started that day, although on different team. Scherzer did not pitch great, walking four and striking out just three in five innings, leaving with the Nationals down 2-0. The bullpen gave up just two hits in four innings, striking out five, giving Washington time to come back and win the game 6-2.

The word on the street gives the Dodgers start to Shohei Ohtani. This will be his fourth post-season start, his first on three days rest. By starting the game Ohtani will be able to stay in as the designated hitter. He could come on in relief, but then the designated hitter disappears, so Ohtani would need to stay in the field to keep batting. This is the one weakness of the Ohtani two-way player situation. Los Angeles gets less flexibility. They can’t rest other players by allowing them to DH once in a while, and they can’t bring Ohtani on in relief without complicating the lineup for the rest of the game.

Ohtani pitched well in terms of three true outcomes, striking out 25, walking five, and allowing one home run in eighteen innings. He is charged with seven runs, however, so his 3.50 ERA doesn’t match his FIP. Part of that comes from a weak Dodgers bullpen.

Scherzer makes his third start of this post season and he has not pitched well. He struck out eight and walked five in ten innings, giving up three home runs along the way. He allowed five earned runs, but also three unearned runs. So Max didn’t help out his fielders when they let him down.

Of course, it’s all hands on deck, so don’t be surprised to see anyone coming out of the bullpen with the exceptions of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Kevin Gausman.

Enjoy this rare treat of a game!

October 31, 2025

K Gausman

Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays strikes out all three Dodgers he faces in the top of the first inning to start game six of the 2025 World Series. He now owns 21 K in 25 2/3 innings with just 14 hits allowed in the post season.

Update: Gausman strikes out two more in the second inning as the Dodgers have yet to see a batter reach base still no score.

October 31, 2025

Playoffs Today

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Game six of the World Series kicks off Friday night at 8 PM EDT/ 5 PM PDT in Toronto with Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers taking on Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays in a rematch of game two. The Dodgers won that game 5-1 after Yamamoto pitched a second complete game in the post-season. Note that he never pitched a complete game in the regular season. Note that even if Yamamoto pitches another complete game tonight, he won’t make the top 10 in post-season innings, missing it by 1/3 an inning. Madison Bumgarner in 2014 pitched 52 2/3 innings with a 1.03 ERA. Note that a number of pitchers are tied for tenth place at 38, and the top ten include Dodgers greats Orel Hershiser (42 2/3 innings, 1.05 ERA in 1988) and Fernando Valenzuela (40 2/3 innings, 2.21 ERA in 1981, the first year of three rounds due to the strike). Yamamoto comes into this game with a 1.57 ERA, walking just four batters in 28 2/3 inning with just 17 hits allowed.

Gausman owns a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. He has not delivered the strikeouts, just 18, but still managed to limit hits, allowing just 14 in the post season. Four of them went for home runs, however, The four solo shots account for most of his seven runs allowed.

Both pitchers throw the split finger fastball. The pitch experienced a renaissance, after being dropped due to injury concerns. I suspect that since pitcher injuries kept going up after the pitch went on leave, people started to realize that maybe it’s just the act of pitching that causes injuries.

Both Yamanoto and Gausman get an extra day of rest due to the two travel days, so if they pitch well, expect both of them to go deep tonight.

Enjoy!

October 29, 2025

Yesavage Goes Seven

Trey Yesavage just finished seven innings against the Dodgers by inducing a double play. He allowed three hits and struck out twelve without walking a batter, throwing 104 pitches. That’s two gems in the post season for the rookie, and he is in line to get the win as the Blue Jays lead the Dodgers 5-1 as Game 5 heads to the top of the eighth inning.

October 29, 2025

10K

Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays just completed five innings against the Dodgers, striking out ten batters without issuing a walk. At 77 pitches, he should have another inning in him. The only blemish came from the Enique Hernandez HR, and the Blue Jays lead 3-1.

October 29, 2025

Playoffs Today

Game five of the World Series takes place Wednesday evening at 8 PM EDT/ 5 PM PDT in Los Angeles. Game one starters Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays and Blake Snell of the Dodgers take the mound once again. Neither pitched especially well in game one. Yesavage lasted just four innings, giving up four hits, three walks, and two runs. Snell went five innings, allowing eight hits, three walks, and five runs.

Yesavage pitched more in the post-season than in the regular season in his brief career. In a total of 33 innings he struck out 43 batters, walked 17, allowed two home runs and fourteen runs. Despite his great performance against the Yankees, he is not invincible.

Snell owns an excellent post-season history, 7-4 with a 3.01 ERA in 74 2/3 innings. He blows batters away with 93 strike outs, leading to just 52 hits. Only 15 of those hits went for extra bases, giving him a career opposition slugging percentage of .316 in the playoffs. The Blue Jays are the type of team that can get to Snell, as we saw in game one, but we also saw Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is similar, find a way to miss Blue Jays bats.

Enjoy!

October 28, 2025

Ohtani Done Pitching

Shohei Ohtani starts the seventh inning for the Dodgers but gives up a single and a double to the first two batters to put runners on second and third. He allowed six hits and a walk, striking out six and allowing two runs so far. An impressive performance given the likely fatigue from Monday’s 18 inning game. The Blue Jays lead the Dodgers 2-1.

Update: Anthony Banda comes in to pitch to eighth place hitter Andres Gimenez dumps a three-two pitch into leftfield for a single, and the Blue Jays extend their lead to 3-1.

Update: Isiah Kiner-Falefa lines out to third base. Max Muncy throws to first, and the runner is called out, but it’s under review.

Update: The call is overturned.

Update: Ty France pinch hits and hits a slow roller to second. That advances both runners on the ground out, and the Blue Jays lead 4-1.

Update: Blake Treinen comes in after an intentional walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Treinen gives up singles to Bo Bichette and Addison Barger and the Blue Jays lead 6-1.

October 28, 2025

Bieber Done

Shane Bieber gives up two singles on either side of a line out in the bottom of the sixth inning, and he comes out of the game for the Blue Jays. He allowed four hits and three walks, but just one run so far.

Mason Fluharty comes on to face Max Muncy. The Blue Jays lead the Dodgers 2-1.

Update: Fluharty records a fly out and a K to end the threat.

October 28, 2025

Playoffs Today

Two tired teams take the field in game four of the World Series Tuesday night, getting underway at about 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT. The Dodgers lead the series two games to one. Shane Bieber battles Shohei Ohtani. Bieber should be somewhat better rested than Ohtani, as he was one of the few players on either side who did not get into the eighteen inning game on Monday. Note that his 2025 three-true outcome line is very similar to his 2022 post season. His ERA that year was over two runs lower than his 4.38 ERA in 2025. The difference comes allowing 16 hits in 2025 compared to eight hits in 2022. His high K rate is not leading to fewer hits.

Ohtani has not allowed a home run in 12 post-season innings, so he’s out homering his opponents by eight this year. We’ll see just how much Ohtani’s body can take tonight. It’s quite possible that the fatigue of Monday causes him to leave the mound early. On the other hand, he keeps performing amazing feats, so I won’t be surprised if he pitches a perfect game.

Enjoy!

October 27, 2025

Early Closer

Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers comes on with one out and two on for the Blue Jays in the top of the eighth. He gets two ground balls to get out of the inning with no runs allowed to keep the game tied at five. If the Dodgers score in the bottom of the eighth, the closer might get a five-out win.

October 27, 2025

Easy First

Tyler Glasnow of the Dodgers throws seven pitches to retire the Blue Jays in order in the top of the first inning of Game Three of the World Series. That included a strikeout of George Springer. No score going to the bottom of the first inning.

Update: Not as easy for Max Scherzer as Shohei Ohtani leads off the bottom of the first with a double.

Update: Scherzer gets the next three batters, including a K, and game three is scoreless at the end of one inning.

October 27, 2025

Playoffs Today

Game three of the World Series is set to kickoff at 8 PM EDT, 5 PM PDT Max Scherzer of the Blue Jays taking on Tyler Glasnow of the Dodgers. Scherzer will set a record tonight:

“I absolutely respect playing in a World Series, what that means and absolutely cherish these opportunities,” said Scherzer, who will become the first player to pitch in the World Series for four different teams. “So, yeah, when I get a chance to get the ball, man, this means everything.”
TorontoSun.com

Just to demonstrate the toughness of pitching in the post season, Scherzer overall stands 8-8 with a 3.75 ERA. In the World Series, he is a bit better, 2-1 with a 3.26 ERA. He struck out 19 in 19 1/3 innings, but walked 10 and allowed 21 hits.

Glasnow owns a 0.68 ERA this post season in 13 1/3 innings. He struck out 18 so far, leading to just seven hits allowed, although he did walk eight batters. I suspect these were defensive walks. Once again, the game likely comes down to Dodgers starters stopping the ability for the Blue Jays to put the ball in play, and staying in long enough to avoid the back of the LA bullpen.

October 26, 2025

Moving Up

Youshinobu Yamamoto started the post season in thirteenth place in the Bill James Pitcher Rankings. With an overall great performance and two consecutive complete games, Yamamoto now ranks fifth, passing Saturday night’s opponent Kevin Guasman, who started off in seventh place.

Yamamoto posted consecutive game scores of 83. He only posted one game score as good or better during the regular season, an 86 on Sept. sixth. Note that during the regular season, only 39 or 4860 starts resulted in a game score of 83 or better, 0.8%. Back in 1988, when Orel Hershiser made his great run, there were 131 such games in 4200 starts, 3.1%. This post season, we’ve seen four such games out of 84 starts, 4.8%.

October 25, 2025

Complete Victory

Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers pitches a second complete game victory in game two of the 2025 World Series, as Los Angeles defeats Toronto 5-1. Yamamoto walked none and struck out eight, giving up four hits. All the hits came early in the game.

As John Smoltz mentioned in the broadcast, this ranks as a very significant feat, since the last pitchers to do this did it in an era when complete game were more expected. The two games also fly in the face of avoiding the third time through the lineup strategy, as his last hit allowed in this game came in the bottom of the third inning.

The Dodgers now hold home field advantage as they head to Los Angeles for games Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

October 25, 2025

Playoffs Today

The Dodgers send Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound against Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays as Los Angeles tries to even the series at one game apiece. The two pitchers stand very close in ERA in the 2025 post season. Yamamoto comes in with a 1.83 mark to Guasman’s 2.00. Yamamoto pitched, better, however. All three of his true outcomes beat Gausman, especially his walk and strikeout rates. This will be the first time Yamamoto face the Blue Jays.

Gausman made nine appearances against the Dodgers in his regular season career, eight of them starts. He pitched well, especially since 2020, with a 3.57 ERA overall. He’s had little success against them in his post-season outings. It’s a small sample size, as he allowed a 6.75 ERA despite striking out eleven batters in eight innings.

October 24, 2025

Playoffs Today

The 2025 World Series kicks off Friday night as the Dodgers visit the Blue Jays. The game starts at 8 PM. Los Angeles sends veteran Blake Snell against the Blue Jays rookie Trey Yesavage.

Snell missed most of the season due to a shoulder injury. He returned in August but his success was erratic until his last three starts of the regular season when he started blowing away batters. Note that the Dodgers gave him six days off between starts, and the extra recovery time appeared to matter. He walked five and struck out 28 without allowing a home run in his last 19 innings. That led to nine hits and one run allowed. He worked on five or six days rest in the post season, with 28 K and five walks in 21 innings, no home runs, six hits, and two runs allowed. He comes into game one on ten days rest.

Yesavage started pitching in the majors at about the same time Snell got hot. He struck out 16 batters in 14 regular season innings, but did show some wildness walking seven. Like Snell, he did not allow a home runs, but did give up five runs for a 3.21 ERA. He had a moment in the post season, striking out eleven Yankees in 5 1/3 innings in his debut, but Seattle managed to score seven runs against him in 9 2/3 innings, as the walks returned, and he allowed two home runs. All his post-season starts came at home. The Dodgers will be selective against him, so we’ll see how the rookie handles this giant spot light. The Dodgers have not lost a road game this post season.

Enjoy!

October 19, 2025

Playoffs Today

The Mariners play the first of two match points Sunday night as they visit the Blue Jays in game six of the ALCS. This series reminds me of the 1986 World Series, where the Red Sox surprised the Mets by winning the first two games at Shea Stadium. New York won games three and four in Boston, with the Red Sox coming back for a win in game five. Even the closeness of the games are similar. Mariners fans need to hope that the similarities end there.

Logan Gilbert takes the mound for Seattle against Trey Yesavage. Gilbert makes his fourth appearance and third start of the 2025 post season, and so far pitched very well, just not very much. He struck out eleven in his eleven innings of work, allowing two walks and no home runs. Opponents did collect 12 hits, but 10 of those went for singles. The Mariners likely will remove him from the game before he can get in trouble.

Yesavage failed to repeat his fantastic start against the Yankees, the Mariners knocking him around for five runs in four innings. Yesavage can be wild, as he walked seven batters in his 14 regular season innings. The Mariners took advantage of that in game two of the series as they went on to blow out Toronto.

Enjoy!

October 18, 2025

Best Single Game Performances

2 Replies

Just where did the Friday performance of Shohei Ohtani rank as the greatest of a single day? The Day by Day Database can calculate game scores for both the batting side and the pitching side back to 1920. Given that very few homers were hit before 1920, it’s likely the best performance happened since then.

Ohtani posted a pitching game score of 75 and a batting game score of 92 for a 167 total. That was beat. Whitey Ford of the Yankees, on April 22, 1959, pitched a fourteen inning shutout of the Senators. He allowed seven hits, seven walks, and struck out 15 batters. At the plate Ford went one for three with three walks, his hit going for a double. His pitching was good for a game score of 106, while his batting scored at a 62, a 168 total game score.

Another Yankees pitcher, Red Ruffing, also combined for Ohtani’s 167. On August 13th, 1932, Ruffing pitched a ten inning shutout, also against Washington. He allowed three hits and two walks while striking out twelve for a pitching game score of 96. At the plate, he went three for four with a home run, his shot in the top of the tenth the only run of the game. That gave him a game score on offense of 71.

Just behind them stands Catfish Hunter and his perfect game for the Oakland Athletics, May 8, 1968. Hunter struck out 11 Twins in that game for a score of 98. He went three for four at the plate with a double and three RBI for a batting score of 68, and a total of 166.

I took a quick look at Babe Ruth, and didn’t see any of his post season starts when he was a pitcher that would qualify here. He may have a great regular season start, but then again, K’s were not that common in the dead-ball era.

Given that Ohtani’s performance came in an elimination game, it likely will go down as the best. Ford, Ruffing, and Hunter do deserve some recognition.

Update: A friend inquired as to the use of “elimination game” in this context. It was an elimination game for the Brewers, not the Dodgers. In other words, it was not a high pressure game for Los Angeles. On the other hand, it would mean that the Brewers should have been going all out to win, so Ohtani was pitching against a very motivated offense.

Also, further research indicates that Orel Hershiser’s performance in game two of the 1988 World Series ranks as the second best playoff game.

October 17, 2025

Brash Move

After a leadoff single in the top of the fifth, Mariners manager Dan Wilson brings in setup man Matt Brash. He gets two outs, then gives up a game tying double to George Springer of the Blue Jays.

The announcers didn’t understand the move, and it may have worked if Wilson was trying to prevent a big inning.

The Blue Jays and Mariners are tied at one in the bottom of the fifth inning.

October 17, 2025

Playoffs Today

The Blue Jays and the Mariners play their game five early as they travel back to Toronto after the contest, the winner only needing one win to capture the American League Pennant. Kevin Gausman faces Bryce Miller. Gausman went 5 2/3 innings in each of his two post-season starts in 2025. He only struck out eight batters, but he still limited batters to just seven hits in those 11 1/3 innings, good for a 2.38 ERA. Miller opposed Gausman in game one of this series, and allowed one run in six innings. Like Guasman, he limited hits without a lot of Ks this post-season, with three K and six hits allowed in 10 1/3 innings.

The Brewers still have not named a starter for game four the first elimination game of the LCS round. All three of the games against the Dodgers were winnable, as Los Angeles scored a total of 10 runs. Most of the damage comes early, as the openers and starters allowed a .259/.355/.667 slash line, with with six of the seven hits allowed going for extra bases. That’s in 31 BFP. The relievers allowed a high OBP, but not the power. Note that Dodgers starters faced 79 batters, striking out 25 of them, and allowing a .093/.139/.160 slash line. It’s as if the Brewers lineup were all poor hitting pitchers from the pre-DH days.

Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for Los Angeles. He went six strong innings in his start against the Phillies, walking one and striking out nine.

Enjoy!

October 16, 2025

Misiorowski Tires

2 Replies

Jacob Misiorowski came on in relief in the first inning after opener Aaron Ashby allowed a run. He held the Dodgers at bay until the sixth inning, when he tired and the middle of the Dodgers order started getting to him. He left after five innings and nine strikeouts, with the last three batters reaching, leading to a run and the Dodgers lead. He also allowed an unearned run as closer Abner Uribe entered the game to try to stop the scoring, and threw away a pickoff attempt.

The opener strategy didn’t work. The Brewers might have been better off starting Misiorowski and pulling him after five innings. They could have then gone with their conventional reliever strategy. Ball players like to know their rolls, and the opener/closer use throws chaos into the system.

Update: Jackson Chourio just left the field with an injury to his right leg after a swing.

October 16, 2025

Playoffs Today

The Brewers and Dodgers play the early west coast game on Thursday, with Milwaukee still working on pitching plans while the Dodgers send Tyler Glasnow to the mound. The game kicks off at 6 PM EDT, 3 PM PDT with the Dodgers up two games to none.

Jose Quintana of the Brewers likely will try to pitch the bulk of the innings for Milwaukee. He has yet to record a win in the post season covering nine appearances and seven starts. In the starter-relief role against the Cubs he pitched three shutout innings. Glasnow pitched both as a starter and reliever this post season, giving the Dodgers 7 2/3 shutout innings. He did walk five batters, but his ten strikeouts kept them from moving far once they reached base.

At 8 PM EDT, 5 PM PDT, the Blue Jays attempt to even the series with the Mariners who lead the ALCS 2-1. Max Scherzer takes on Luis Castillo. Scherzer did not make the short series roster against the Yankees, and makes his first start of the 2025 post-season. Scherzer makes his 31st playoff appearance and his 26th start. He stands 8-1 with a 3.78 ERA, showing just how difficult it can be to pitch against consistently good talent. This shows up in his walk numbers. In his regular season career he averaged 2.37 walks per nine IP, but 3.52 BB per 9 IP in the post-season. Castillo pitched well in his limited post-season career. In 25 2/3 innings he struck out 23, walked five allowed two home runs and only four runs total for 1.40 ERA. Despite that low ERA, he stands 2-2.

Enjoy!

Update: Aaron Ashby will once again serve as an opener for the Brewers.

October 15, 2025

Playoffs Today

Shane Bieber of the Blue Jays and George Kirby of the Mariners square off in Seattle as the M’s lead the best of seven ALCS 2-0. Bieber experienced little success in the post season as he comes into this game with 5.23 ERA in 20 2/3 innings. He struck out 24, but his high K rate did not limit hits, as he allowed 22 in total. On top of that, six of the eight extra base hits he allowed came with runners on base, doing great damage against him.

Kirby allowed just three runs in his 18 post-season innings, striking out 20. Opponents are 4 for 28 against him in the post season with runners on base, and just one for 13 with men in scoring position.

Game time is 8 PM EDT. Enjoy!