As the World Series continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. World Series Game 3:
The Dodgers won both of their home games over the weekend, but after a travel day yesterday the series will resume this evening on the Yankees’ home turf at 8:08pm local time. Right-hander Clarke Schmidt will be on the mound for New York after posting an impressive 2.85 ERA in a season shortened to just 16 starts by injury. In the postseason so far, Schmidt has drawn two starts and sports a 3.86 ERA with six strikeouts and three walks in 9 1/3 innings of work.
His opponent this evening will be Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, who struggled to a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular season starts this year and was shelled for six runs in five frames during his NLDS start against the Padres. Despite that shaky track record this year, Buehler did manage to put up four scoreless innings while striking out six in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets. On offense, meanwhile, the Dodgers are currently expecting to have star slugger Shohei Ohtani back in the lineup after a shoulder injury Saturday night gave baseball fans a scare.
2. Can Judge break out of his slump before it’s too late?
With the question of Ohtani’s status likely answered, the other likely MVP winner in the series is facing his own set of questions. Aaron Judge has struggled to a meager .105/.280/.325 slash in 50 plate appearances across 11 postseason games this year. Any hitter can have a tough stretch in a sample that small, of course, and Judge even had two separate 11-game stretches not dissimilar to this one back in April alone. His slump has deepened even more since the World Series began, however, as he’s struck out six times in nine trips to the plate over the last two games while collecting just one hit. Can Judge get back to his dominant regular season form in time to help the Yankees fight back from their current 0-2 deficit?
3. Is the White Sox managerial search heating up?
This weekend saw some noticeable movement on the managerial front in Chicago. Three candidates were noted to be out of the running for the White Sox vacancy yesterday, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggested last night that the Sox were taking a “hard look” at Rangers associate manager Will Venable for the role. Heyman cautioned that there was no indication that an agreement was close just yet, but the report nonetheless adds to the sense of movement that’s begun to surround the search for the South Siders’ next manager. Other candidates who are not yet known to have been eliminated from the running include current interim skipper Grady Sizemore, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.
Dos Judge do poorly in the playoffs because he’s a choker, or because pitchers aren’t giving him anything decent to drive?
Enquiring minds want to know.
So during the season pitchers try to give him something to drive?
Expect a new supply of Goldilocks baseballs in Yankee stadium.
I say let sleeping dogs lie. The Dodgers should keep pitching him the way they have. Don’t wake up his bat. By the way, has Ohtani been much better? I’m not being a smarta**, I really don’t know.
Teams always focus on the most dangerous hitters and try to take them out of their game. There’s a book on Judge but if pitchers always went there, maybe he would “figure it out”. So they save the good stuff for when it really matters. He’s not choking, he’s meeting stiffened competition.
Post-season OPS:
Judge – .605
Ohtani – .863
Put alot on the Yankees winning it with a bookie based on someone’s advice (doesn’t seem like the type who would be interested in negotiating if the Yankees lose). Please say it was still the right move.
The difference in this series has been the Dodgers have a hot Freddie Freeman and Judge has disappeared. I still think New York can make this a series, game 4 will be a bullpen game for the Dodgers. If ya win that Gerrit Cole awaits for game 5. Then the Dodgers might feel pressure, but Mookie and Freddie have both won World Series titles it’s gonna be tough. If it is gonna happen Judge needs to start hitting.
Some stars just struggle in the postseason. Barry Bonds comes to mind
That .936 OPS is tough to take in the playoffs. If we could all struggle so mightily.
That OPS was inflated by a very good 2002 postseason after lousy postseasons in 1990-’92, ’97, ’03
You mean, because statistics and probabilities normalized for him eventually?
Well they pitch around Judge because Wells sucks and Stanton loves to strikeout. I think Boone would be better off switching Judge and Soto…Judge would see pitches because no one is walking him to pitch to Soto and Soto would still get on base because he’s so disciplined at the plate. He will take his walks.
I think I speak for 90% of the country when I say I don’t give a flying crap who wins as long as it ends ASAP.
The guy who brags about having muted “over 100” folks on the site expects an answer to his question. Maybe the crickets you’ve created for yourself will chirp back at you.
Pitchers in the playoffs are just not giving Judge anything they can drive? Why don’t they do this during the regular season if it’s as simple as that?
Drasc – Judge has a career .192 BA/.711 OPS in 215 career ALDS/ALCS PA’s ….. he simply hasn’t been able to handle the postseason pressure.
Can he eventually figure it out? Possibly. This is where a “Mental Skills Coach” is supposed to help a player.
Clutch stats don’t exist according to Bill James… you know… because baseball players are machines and not humans with human emotions and stress reactions.
Drasc – Yeah I always thought how ironic it was that Bill James worked for the same team that had some of the best postseason players in MLB …. Ortiz, Schilling, Lester, etc.
Ortiz who is considered one of the best clutch hitters in MLB has the same slash line in the post season as he does in the regular season(931 ops ref season, 947). I would say that good players just keep hitting no matter the situation.
ellis – A postseason OPS that’s 16 points higher is very good considering the much better quality of pitching in the postseason.
And also you really need to look at the situations, such as the number of times he had a huge game-tying or game-winning hit.
There are certain guys you want up when the game is on the line, Ortiz is near the top of the list.
BTW – Plenty of very good regular season players perform far worse in the postseason.
Brandon Lowe has a career .812 OPS in the regular season, but also a career .423 OPS in the postseason.
Because he has 18.9% walk rate during the regular season, and 14% walk rate in the playoffs (this year). He is so eager to get out of his slump that he is merely extending it.
If he takes a couple of walks in front of Stanton, then Stanton will punish the pitcher for it, Once Stanton punishes the pitches for the walk, Judge will see more strikes, which will result in more hits/HRs.
In this regard, nothing in BB has changed in 6,000 year.s
Could be just a tad out of his comfort zone to be able to perform at his regular season level of production. It happens. Look at Kershaw. 2.50ish career reg season era. Close to 5 in post season play.
Joe: The old saying goes “Don’t let the other team’s best player beat you.” So far, that player seems to be Stanton, although Soto has had his moments. But Stanton is the guy I would be worried about.
@Joe, I agree. I think he’s pressing, he’s swinging at pitches that are never in the strike zone. If I was pitching to him today I’d throw mostly breaking/sweeper pitches across the lower outside part of plate/zone and sprinkle in a few high inside fastballs until he changes his approach..
4.49 is close to 5?
Hmm. I wrestled with how to word the glaring contrast between his reg and post season era. I hear ya. And yes, to your point, 4.49 stretching it to 5.00 is a bit of; well, a stretch.
I’d switch Judge and Soto in the lineup…Stanton strikes out way too much. Judge would get pitches that way. You would walk or pitch very carefully to Judge to pitch to Wells or Stanton. Both strikeout a ton, Soto not so much.
You mean he should swing at strikes? And not swing at balls? What a novel approach.
Who brags about muting over 100 people?
Samuel.
Yeah I definitely have him on mute. He’s kind of a knucklehead.
He muted me because I disagreed w/his take that Kevin Newman is a better SS than Dansby Swanson. This happened when Swanson was a FA.
@nashville doesn’t mute only pertain to this thread? I’ve muted a couple trolls but they always seem to pop back up in other threads. The mute isn’t exactly an end-all for communication.
I’ve only muted one person since I’ve been posting on the site (5 or 6 years.) I’ve never seen him since, but occasionally see a notice referring to the guy I muted saying that x amount of “comments are deleted from the thread because you muted” so and so. Don’t know why you still see someone’s comments that you’ve muted.
If you’ve muted somebody you won’t see their posts. However, It also mutes all the REPLIES to their comments. You can check who you’ve muted by clicking on your Avatar and it will show you.
Yeah, there’s one particular I wish the fleas of 1000 camels to invade his armpits, but he keeps popping up. hmmm, my personal Waterloo continues…
ChiSox, give the job to Sizemore.
Grady was a pleasant change for the young guys, he’s the guy to keep I agree.
Across: I say anyone who wants the job and understands that he won’t have any better players than he has now, SIGN HIM before reality sets in.
Don’t hire Sizemore. He lost twice as many as he won. How is that “a pleasant change”? Certainly not for the fans. If we’re bound to start over, then let’s start over with a new manager, too.
@RealSox Sizemore has no previous experience there will be learning pains. Why waste money on a more proven manager when ya team and I’m being very generous might win 50 wins next season? Would an established manager even want that job and ruin his resume? The White Sox job is the perfect opportunity for an unproven candidate to get experience. You can build chemistry by having continuity and not changing. A new owner also isn’t going to want to pay a proven manager 15 million a year when the team at it’s absolute best is only going to get 50 wins.
This has been a bit of a charade from the start. It is going to be Venable and no one else has been seriously considered.
Terry Turdbucket seems like an ideal candidate to manage the White Sox.
I hate to sound like an uneducated baseball fan, but Judge is not getting the job done. Boone is adamant at keeping him in the three spot behind Soto, and that’s not working. This isn’t April in the regular season where you can wait out a slump, this is the World Series, you gotta get creative and adapt.
Acoss1331: Not that I want the Yankees to win, but if I was Boone I would move Stanton to third to protect Soto and because he’s hitting better than Judge right now.
That’s the right move, but Boone doesn’t want to hurt Judge’s ego. If Judge really wants to be embraced as the team captain, he would tell Boone to move him down the lineup.
Acoss1331: At some point Boone has to do what’s best for the team. He’s the guy in charge. The Yankees are down 2-0. If they gone down 3-0, I think Boone would have to do something.
If it was me, I’d keep the lineup intact, except for moving Judge to the lead-off spot. That would focus him on getting on base, Once his selection improves, good things will follow.
Why not? It’s worked for Schwarber and Ohtani.
Yankees still have a shot in this series because Beuhler is beatable and Los Angeles is using a bullpen game tomorrow, but if Judge doesn’t hit, they have zero chance.
Hell, outside of Soto and Stanton, the rest of the team hasn’t done much, either. Same old Yankees…get plenty of runners on but fail to drive them in. Been the storyline of these playoffs, they were just fortunate that the Royals and Indians were just as bad.
Beuhler has said he plays will in cold weather and he did well in New York in the NLCS, so it looks good for the Dodgers, tonight.
Beuhler still thinks it’s 2018. My guess is he’s out of the game by the 4th inning.
Close, but no cigar….
I was right about the 4th inning…except it was Schmidt who was gone lol wtfdik?
Judge is as overrated as they come,
Hits all these homers in the regular season off of bum pitching.
Completely horrible take, and of course you liked your own comment.
Explain how he’s overrated, because you could say that he hits all those homers off of bum pitching for alot of different players
@McNasty1
Anyone pitching at the MLB level is a lot better than ‘bum pitching’.
I was bred to be a Dodgers fan thanks to my Uncle Caesar being the first Asian American exec for the team. I’ve been ingrained to hate the Yankees, partially because Lou Piniella stole a ball from me (and a homer away from Ron Cey)in Game 4 of the ‘77 Series. But over the years and lack of Dodgers championships , I’ve learned to appreciate the runs of other teams, even the Giants’ (gasp!) string of championships thanks to my late “traitor” brother Dave. I still want LA to win, but I also want the Yankees to be at full strength and have Judge and Co. turn it around and be at their best. If they win, so be it. That’s the beauty of baseball.
Judge is perfectly healthy, and at full strength.
sugoi51: Sounds like you and your family should start group therapy before the WS is over.
Judge is having a usual Judge post-season performance. It’s rare that he has a good post-season series, so there shouldn’t be any surprise here.
Judge is struggling, we get it.
This does NOT make him overrated, there are many players that are hall of famers that either didn’t make the postseason, or were bad in the postseason.
Calling judge overrated because of this would mean people like the following would be overrated:
Tony gwynn
Ernie banks
Ron Santo
Mike trout
Clayton kershaw
Adam dunn
Frank thomas…
I could go on.
Femboy: Frank Thomas won a WS ring with the 2005 White Sox. And Santo was definitely overrated.
@avenger
Ron Santo is overrated?
Hall of famer, over 340 career homers, over a career 120 OPS+
Over 70 Career WAR, 1300 RBI’s only 200 more career strikeouts than walks….
ALSO….Please, learn how to read. I said didn’t make the postseason OR had a BAD POSTSEASON
It doesn’t matter if he won a ring or not, either way he had a .224 career postseason average in 16 games.
Thank you for your comment though. :3
Frank Thomas may have won a ring in 2005, but he didn’t play in the postseason – he fractured a bone in his foot, only played 34 games, and missed all of the postseason.
lol, surely you are trolling by putting Adam Dunn in the middle of a list of hall of famers.
@Shortstop
Adam dunn had a great career…its not hard to go look at this face metrics.
Dunn was solid, I’m just busting your chops… although you have to admit that he is not on the same level as everyone else you listed.
@short
Thats fair, I just put him there because people don’t realize that even with his HORRIBLE fielding, dunn had such an amazing hitting career.
basically the original Kyle schwarber…
That’s a great call:
Dunn – .237/.364/.490 124 OPS+
Schwarber – .230/.343/.491 123 OPS+
wow! I didn’t think it was that close….literally the same player lol.
I have no idea how Dunn ever faired in the postseason but I do know Schwarber is a postseason beast. I believe he’s hit 21 home runs in the playoffs.
Adam Dunn didn’t fare so well in the postseason – 0 games.
Short – “He’s a lifetime .230, .240 hitter that strikes out a ton and hits home runs. Do you know the guy doesn’t really like baseball that much? Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player?
There’s a reason why you’re attracted to some players and there’s a reason why you’re not attracted to some players. I don’t think you’d be very happy if we brought Adam Dunn here.
We’ve done our homework on guys like Adam Dunn and there’s a reason why we don’t want Adam Dunn. I don’t want to get into specifics.”
@Femboy
Tony Gwynn made the postseason twice, homered in Yankee Stadium, and was pretty much the only Padre who hit at all in the ’98 World Series. He does not belong on that list.
@Femboy Correction: Tony made the postseason three times.
thank you, sometimes I forget the padres went to the postseason with gwynn a couple times….probably the only reason they made it lol.
@Femboy In all three years they made it, they had enough pieces around Gwynn to make it.
Obviously, if Gwynn alone were enough to make it, they’d have made it every year.
Yeah, Adam Dunn IS overrated. Poor man’s Dave Kingman….
@Jerry Hairston
who is overrating Adam dunn?
Also! Dave kingman is nowhere near as good as Adam dunn was
Also…when did Dave Kingman have 5 STRAIGHT 40 Homer seasons??
Never.
if anything Dave Kingman is a very poor mans Adam dunn
I advise you go compare their stats!
Adam dunn leads Kingman in the following! :
WAR, Batting average, games played, plate appearances, hits, home runs, OBP, OPS, OPS+, average, and SLG.
he also leads him in total bases and walks….
Please do your research before commenting.
Thank you!
Ohtani is hitting almost identically to Judge, so why is Jusge getting all the hate while Ohtani gets excused?
@YC because Ohtani has produced at least once in a clutch situation (double off Kahnle and ensuing taking of 3b on the misplay) and has made other contributions to the squad like actually reaching first base from time to time.
Judge has literally done nothing all series besides catch a couple fly balls.
Also missing here is the lack of production from ANYONE in the Yankee lineup besides Stanton, which magnifies Judge’s struggles.
@yankee
I’m sorry but that’s incorrect.
Ohtani is batting .263, with three homers, a .406 OPB, and an .835 OPS.
Now for judge:
.150 batting average, 6 hits in 40 at bats, .280 on base, and a 38% k rate
Please do research before commenting.
There has always been a proven formula to get Judge out. Hard stuff up and in, followed by breaking stuff low and away, off the plate. The problem for most pitchers is executing that formula. Most pitchers these days can’t locate to save their life. They are throwers and not pitchers. Judge is, and always will be, a mistake hitter. You see better pitching in the playoffs. Simple as that. The sooner Judge starts recognizing the breaking stuff out of the zone, and lay off it, the sooner he’ll start to rake.
That’s not even remotely true for a locked-in Judge. He’s been expanding his strike zone bc his mechanics timing is off. Recognizing pitches is not the problem. We saw that back in April and now again in October.
Oh no…I agree with you. It’s difficult to get a hitter out who is on a heater no matter how good your stuff is and where you put it. That’s when a hitter is seeing the ball out of hand exceptionally well. And yes, he’s fishing right now because he’s frustrated and the pressure is on him because it’s the WS. He needs to relax, and be patient so he can hopefully get ahead in counts, and then either jump on the get over offering if it comes, or jog to first on four wide ones.
Spot on.
Luis: All ML hitters are mistake hitters, especially the better ones. I didn’t see Flaherty make one mistake to Judge.
Judge always will suck in the playoffs. Big reason why the Yankees can’t ever beat the Astros. Yankees luckily beat the Royals and Guardians this year, and only reason they’re in the World Series is because the Astros had 2 bad games and weren’t in their way. No way the Yankees beat the Astros in ALCS and wouldn’t be surprised if they got swept in this World Series.
Footjoybou: Fingers crossed.
They pitching around Judge. Not pitching around Stanton and he’s actually hitting.
Six strikeouts don’t look like pitching around Judge. Nor walking Soto to get to him.
Dude just ain’t getting it done.
Put alot on the Yankees winning it with a bookie based on someone’s advice (doesn’t seem like the type who would be interested in negotiating if the Yankees lose). Please say it was still the right move.
Did your bookie seem to hold a grudge against Ohtani? If so, he may have been biased.
@E gambling is always the right move provided you pay up when you lose.
My take on Judge is more than one thing. Playoff pitchers are obviously better otherwise their team would be at home watching the games. Although Judge is an incredible athlete, he is also a big man and big men have a tough time maintaining timing/mechanics because of their length. The off days in between series can have a greater effect on a big player such as Judge vs a smaller compact player like Betts. He seems to be mentally “sped up” and is not seeing the ball. Has nothing to do with choking, just an adjustment that takes some time and the playoffs magnify those issues.
I believe a less complicated explanation works at least as well: all players slump. Even the most talented ones have bad streaks. Baseball being a game of probabilities, the proven players will eventually regress to their mean performance. Will Judge do it within the next few games? Only time will tell — and that’s part of the beauty and mystery of baseball.
Joe – Agreed. Aaron Judge has struck out 19 times in 40 at bats for 47% strikeout rate…..very bad. (.150 batting average – .605 OPS)…..
Hope he keeps doing what he has been doing!
Judge is struggling, no question. He struggled stretches during regular season also. Keeping him 3rd helps Soto get better pitches for sure. Stanton stays behind Judge to help protect him. He needs to hit to RF-RC to get it going
This game is painful to watch.
Meanwhile fox executives are panicking at the thought of having a sweep, after hyping this up to be the World Series of the century.
They got their ratings regardless. Sold a bunch of ad space. Two biggest markets in the country….
Boone has made no adjustments except move Wells down in the order and that hasn’t worked. Schmidt hasn’t been right since he came off the DL. He’s over using his closer.
Gleyber Torres flies out to right fielder Mookie Betts in foul territory, on fan interference. 1 out
Total POS fans. Embarrassing.
“Meanwhile” cannot come in the center of a sentence, interjecting between subject and verb between commas. It has to START the sentence, like most conjunctive adverbs.