Transmogrified Tiger

This is pretty similar to how the other LHSP lineup, right? Only difference is in the 8/9 spots, where it's Madrigal over Busch and Amaya over Gomes. But v. a LHSP those are pretty coin-flippy decisions based on other circumstances.

Gotta be a piggyback/bullpen game for when/if game 3 happens. Maybe a calculated gamble that it won't happen this week.

Harden was also really strong: 5.1 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 10/3 K/BB

Batted balls with an exit velo above 85 mph are 0 for 20 today Batted balls with an exit velo under 85 mph are 3 for 6 today

shout out to the wind, I always liked you

I struggle a little bit with the macro lens for this type of situation, because in a single at bat so much that may or may not repeat itself in the long term can manifest. It's also prone to us seeing what we want or hope to see, we want Busch to be a success so him having an 'almost' moment burns brighter in our memories than the inning before when Seiya missed a backup slider that he could have sent to the moon with 1st/3rd & 2 out. You could write an article with very similar tenor about that moment, and about the differences in being a strong hitter v. making the leap to be an elite bat, etc. That said, my unscientific opinion after watching Busch for the weekend is that I'm reminded a lot of Happ. Both are very patient, let the ball travel and will try to use all fields, and they're of similar stature and from the same side of the plate. That'd be a very nice outcome because even with the higher bar at 1B, a 115-120 wRC+ from Busch would play very nicely in deepening the lineup to consistently be 6+ hitters of strong quality. But what makes Ian Happ work well is excellent pitch recognition, and watching Busch's at bats against Gray I don't think he was picking up his repertoire very well(swinging through a 2 strike fastball, and not tracking the slider particularly closely). Contrast that with Happ seeing the ball well enough that he went 2/3 w/ a 2B off Gray, and that's the small sample comparison I'd make about Busch's ability to make the jump at the MLB level.

Boog being flustered speechless by people not drawing a line between ghosts and aliens is the best thing I'll hear today

No

Did the camera angle play tricks on me or did Dansby miss first base by a lot

you have to know that's a backup catcher going down the line and take the step to set yourself

I think it's less about Brown pitching tonight and not being rested and more about Brown pitching tonight and giving up more 100 mph line drives than he got outs. That said, I think at least for next week it will be more about times through the order, and I suspect both Smyly and Brown will be asked to get 9-12 outs.

like I said, great choice sticking with Cooper

Tauchman for Cooper here I assume, would be nice to scratch across 1 to make the 9th tighter, especially w/ Leclerc 'blowing' his last outing

ooooh Cuas putting that new sweeper where he wants it

Seager has 3 hits with exit velos of 86, 78, and 78

1) this assumes the order will remain the same all year long, it won't which is most of Derwood's point 2) even then, 'fewer starts' in this context is like a maximum of 2 starts, not meaningful

are these balls hot, that should not have been a home run

this is hilarious

Gomes and Busch it is

Caissie with 2 singles and a walk through 5 innings

Fangraphs pages have average fastball velocity on the dashboard: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/keegan-thompson/19795/stats?position=P Keegan has sat at 94 or just under it for all his MLB seasons.

Brown getting called up *today* might be an indicator that he's going to be used in a pen or piggyback role, unless the rotation is getting shuffled to keep him on a schedule.

With a day game tomorrow, probably best to think of the next two games as a pair for lineup purposes. Hendricks v. soft tossing LHP today, Wicks v. hard throwing RHP(Gray) tomorrow. The catchers will split the games, ideally starting Amaya against this LHP would be nice, and it's Hendricks who calls his own game. Other way would be if Counsell was alarmed by Gomes getting dusted by velo on Thursday(remember Gomes was PH for in the 10th), then it could be Gomes today, Amaya tomorrow Cooper today seems like a certainty, this is what he's on the roster for Then you've probably got a decision between Madrigal and Busch, or rather Madrigal 3B/Morel DH v. Morel 3B/Busch 1B. Madrigal has handedness and defense on his side, but Busch worked excellent at bats and this is a pretty good opportunity to get a look at if he has any viability v. LHP at the moment. Especially since... Tomorrow should be a very similar lineup to opening day(catcher potentially excepted) given the pitching matchup. Depending on the above decisions I could see Tauchman(at Busch/Morel's expense) or even Mastrobuoni(for Madrigal) getting token starts to get them first series ABs and ease some regulars into the grind of the season given the night/day back to back.

oh good point I hadn't considered that