rippleintime17

I don't want to get my hopes up, but Ohtani to the Giants is not a huge stretch in any way. While they may be the largest non-LA market of the West Coast teams chosen to meet with him, there are other perks that may appeal to him. San Francisco itself is not a large city in the same way NYC is, and he could easily live in a quiet suburb if he likes (as many Giants do). There is a Japanese community, should that be important to him. The Giants are pretty cool about their pitchers hitting and wouldn't be the type of team that tries to "protect" him by limiting his time at the plate. They also need outfielders! And now, they still have a bench coach that speaks Japanese (thanks Yankees, even if I still think you're dumb!). Not only that, but they have recently developed a number of players who have become part of their successful core that lead them to WS championships, many of whom are still around and many of whom are getting older, leaving room for a new young star to step in. I'm just saying, it could happen. Also, Giancarlo. You come too.

I am really intrigued by the Yankees interviewing Hensley Muelens. It's an interesting thing, simply because he just moved from Giants hitting coach to Giants bench coach, so some (including myself) took that to mean he was likely next in line to replace Bruce Bochy when he retires but clearly, the Giants were okay with him going to interview for the Yankees job. I like the idea of it, as Bam Bam has managerial experience (with Team Netherlands), he's multi-lingual and speaks each of the main languages of the players on the Yankees roster and he's a generally smart and cool baseball dude. I'm pulling for him to get the job, even though it might leave the Giants in a bind later on. Congrats to Jose Altuve and Giancarlo Stanton on their MVP awards! They are both so much fun to watch and I'm happy for both. I was a little surprised by just HOW much Jose won over Aaron Judge but other than that, I can't be mad, even as a huge Aaron fan.

Any Yankee fan who wants Don Mattingly CLEARLY does not watch enough NL baseball. No, no and nooo. I'll be surprised if a veteran like Baker ends up managing these Yankees. I think they are going to want a younger guy, who isn't already set in his own ways/style. The FO wants to have some pull here. I also would be surprised if they choose someone who is totally new to the organization, but that's mostly because I'm surprised they'd take the risk of having someone getting to know a full team and vice versa, while also getting used to managing on the MLB level. But I guess we'll see.

Oh man, Yankees, this is dumb. Why would you omit the leader of a young team who knows them each so well? I still love Puig. His comments on Correa's bat flip were A+.

This was a really fun ride and I am super proud of the Yankees. They are so exciting and talented, and they had so much fun this year. I've missed the fun in Yankee baseball! They will be back and I hope even hungrier to move on. This season was a pleasant and thrilling surprise and I can't wait to see what else they can do. And congrats to the Astros! This has to feel SO great for them and their fans! Please BEAT LA!!!

I'm gonna need the baseball media to stop acting like the ALCS is wrapped up already. The Astros may be down but they are not out and it's not good for the karma or anything else that everyone is assuming the Dodgers will be playing the Yankees! I HOPE they will be and I hope we know that they will be TONIGHT but stop being so dismissive of the 100-win team! Go Yankees Go Yankees

I can't believe the foul/not foul drama from last night. Maddon got ejected for yelling about it and then the umps turn around later and say they are wrong? What would they have done if it were anyone but Curtis Granderson (love you Curtis but lets be real) and he hadn't struck out anyway and the Dodgers had gone on to clinch because of the blown call?! If there's a replay review system, it should be universal. Confirm anything you aren't sure about or don't use it at all. I am happy for Javy Baez, who hadn't had a hit in the postseason until his two homers last night! And I'm glad the Cubs got another home win. They should win again tonight too, just for fun. Use up those Dodger resources! Make them sweat! Get it back to LA! Yankees, meanwhile, should finish this up nice and neat on Friday, please.

Oh my goodness, this comeback. Hang on, Yanks!

Frazier's from New Jersey, so really, calling him the Toddfather makes more sense than Todd Helton, regardless of Helton being named Todd first. I'm not sure there's ever been a Yankee as Jersey as dear Todd, who it seems is being groomed to stick around as a Yankee for awhile (we shall see if that actually happens once the offseason rolls around).

Yeah, that's been confusing me as well. First of all, since I was a kid in 1988 and I don't like the Dodgers at all, it never occurred to me that Gibson's homer didn't come in a must-win game. What do you meaaaan it happened in Game 1! But also, wasn't Kirk Gibson basically incapable of playing the field and was only on the roster to do exactly that? Part of what made the moment was that it was dramatic because Gibson was injured and barely able to make his way around the bases. Justin Turner is arguably the best player on the team! As soon as Lackey came in, I knew the Dodgers were going to win but once it got to Turner with men on, it was obvious. There was nothing improbable about this at all. I totally believed what I saw.

Nah, I'm a Giants fan and I can't help but love him. That he makes so many people angry because he enjoys himself and injects some personality into the game makes it even easier for me. Joe Maddon, on the other hand...

I definitely like both AL teams more than either NL team. I want the Cubs to beat the Dodgers (preferably in dramatic games in which all the pitchers are used a lot) and then I want whoever wins the ALCS to beat them. As a Yankee fan, I obv have my preference as to who that should be.

This is the third postseason since 2014 and I still can't get over how readily managers are using their aces out of the bullpen and how rarely it has worked. It happened before 2014 too, of course, but that seemed to make it way more common than it should be given the success of it. People forget that Madison Bumgarner did not pitch out of the bullpen until there were no tomorrows.

This Yankee team is just really easy to root for. I know chemistry is bred from a winning environment but they really seem to be clicking and obviously enjoy each other. They remind me of the 2012 Giants in that way, and in their resiliency (that team also fought back from down 2-0 in the NLDS). This game even had an AB that reminded me of one late in that Game 5 (Romo vs. Bruce, Allen vs. Gardner). Houston is a tall order but pretty much everyone on this team has shown up already this postseason, and the few that have struggled have been picked up by the others around them. I know a lot of fans find it easy to hate the Yankees and their fans, I'm used to that, but this has got to be one of the most likeable Yankee teams in awhile. I'm excited for them. And I'm just so happy for Joe Girardi. Man, was he eating himself up about Game 2. I felt awful for him that it was the narrative that would not die and I'm relieved for him that his 25 guys were able to make it moot. Rarely do you see a manager with his heart on his sleeve as much as Joe's was since Friday and I'm glad he can really put that behind him. I do feel awful for Cleveland and their fans though. Had the Yankees not advanced, I would have been rooting for them onward. They had a fantastic season and made their 162 a real fun journey for their fans. It's why these five-game postseason series can be such a gut punch. The Yankees are good, and the Yankees played better, and the Yankees deserve whole-heartedly to advance, but the Indians are also great and young and talented. I think they will get it done sooner than later.

I am so glad the Yankees won these two games at home! Going out on the note of Friday's game would have just been awful for all involved. Instead, they proved that they weren't going to back down, the crowd rallied behind them and they made it happen. It seems too much to hope for that Kluber will be off again on Wednesday, but I have faith this offense might be able to stay hot and challenge him. If the Yankees can get the CC that pitched in Game 2 (maybe settled down even earlier this time!), things have a good chance of being ok. It's anybody's game! I'm annoyed the Dbacks didn't even get a win, it would have been nice to see the Dodgers squirm a bit. I really hope the Nats pull off a win today because I want another Game 5 AND I would prefer they move on, but the Cubs probably have a better shot at eliminating the Dodgers, so I guess I'm ok with whichever happens. Oh, one more thing! I am SO psyched about how present and loud and into it the crowds at Yankee Stadium have been so far this postseason! In 2012, I went to an ALCS game there vs. the Tigers. The Yankees hadn't had a good series and were on the brink of elimination and I was able to get in for super cheap, and the crowd was dead. It was like a funeral taking place! This team, this group of guys, is so fun and full of energy that even when they come home with a tall task ahead of them, the crowd is able to stay in it and help them along and it's fantastic. The Stadium has been louder this week than maybe ever before and I love it. I hope the Yankees get a chance to play there again this year so much!

Yeah, my hope for the Yankees was that they would win the Wild Card game, the young guys would get a taste of the postseason and give themselves a chance to face Cleveland and possibly advance. Cleveland definitely has the upper hand in this series. I'm hoping that CC can hold things together well enough today to give the bats a chance against Kluber (though Kluber is going to have to help a little by not being his dominant self as well for this to work) but if they don't manage to tie the series up, at least they head home with a chance to win on Sunday and who knows. The best thing about postseason baseball is that you never really know what's gonna happen!

I ended up at the game (bought a ticket two hours before first pitch) and it was a blast! I am a Giants fan and a Yankee fan so this was actually the second Wild Card game in two years that I've attended and it was kind of crazy how different they were! Last year Bumgarner & Syndergaard went deep, hardly allowing hits and three runs came at the very end. This time, the game started out with three runs for each team and the pitchers didn't go deep at all! So happy that David Robertson came home. I was ecstatic for he and Chad that they were able come in and settle the ship and give Joe solid innings and the bats a chance to put the game away. I actually cried a little during Didi's homer because it was just SO big, tying the game up so quickly and I just love Didi! Judge hitting a homer in his first postseason game was a must! And keeping things from getting too stressful in the end was greatly appreciated (even if it literally took multiple days to do so). Keep rolling, Yanks! I'm so happy for this bunch that they are going deeper into the postseason. They are so fun and are doing so well and deserve this! And shoutout to the Twins too! They had an amazing season and I'm such a mom fan at these games, even when I really want a team to win, I hope the other team has something to be proud of and something to give their fans to cheer for during the game and the Twins certainly did that. They'll be back!

Yeah, this is one of those years where the Wild Card #2 is not adding to the game at all. Both the Yankees and the Diamondbacks have handedly taken the first Wild Card spot and in the old format would be going right to the Division Series but now they have to play a one game playoff against teams who aren't that close to their records and nowhere close to the division leaders. I'm not complaining, exactly, as one of my favorite teams won the World Series having gotten into the playoffs as Wild Card #2 but... at least that was a tighter WC race!

Kershaw is hilarious with his reactions. He's so over the top and gets away with all of it because he's Kershaw. If he were a hitter and doing the equivalent of reacting like he does when someone hits a homer off of him, it would be like bat flip-o-rama.

I went to the game on Monday. It was not a neutral game. Also, only the lower bowl was open, not the upper decks, but it was very full. I believe they opened up more seats for last night's game. The tickets were only $25 no matter where you were, so a lot of Yankee fans were probably in the best seats they ever will be for a Yankee game!

On the other hand, the Rays are donating all proceeds from ticketing, parking and concessions to relief efforts. I believe it's a $10 standard price to get in and you can sit wherever you'd like.

The team has to play short. If in fact both Romine and Sanchez get suspended, the Yankees will be pretty far up the creek. The one thing I can think of to avoid a total mess is to have one of the players accept his suspension while the other appeals. It takes FOREVER for some appeals to be heard and decided upon. Hunter Strickland was technically suspended in May for a similar situation (he was the Cabrera) and it was over a month before he served his suspension due to MLB shuffling their feet regarding his appeal. So technically it's possible, though no guy wants to accepts a suspension on principle. My hope is that Romine doesn't get suspended at all. He really did seem to just be reacting to a guy physically going at him, but I'm sure any words exchanged will be taken into account as well.

I'm not sure I believe Dellin meant to hit him in the HEAD on purpose. But it's a good example of why all of this is ridiculous. My favorite player is currently on the concussion DL for the third time in his MLB career because he accidentally got hit in the head with a pitch. The idea that it's okay to aim for someone and take the risk of missing and hitting them in the head, which if Dellin had intent at all is likely what happened here, is pretty absurd. How about you not aim 95mph projectiles at people? Dellin was clearly upset and I think it's because he really did not mean to hit McCann in the head, and with Dellin's control issues, it's possible he didn't mean to hit him at all but the situation was escalated and Dellin's ejection was justified. On the other hand, I can't believe that McCann not only stayed in the game to take his base after that but stayed in the game to CATCH. Maybe it's because my other favorite team is Concussion Central but there's no way he doesn't have a concussion of some kind. I think it should be standard protocol that if a pitch or throw hits you in the head, you get removed from the game.

I watched Austin's post-game interview. He was very measured in his responses. The question that seemed to fluster him most was the one regarding if Andrew had come over to talk sense into him. His response was along the lines of "I'm a grown man, I don't need him to talk sense into me."

How is he stealing money that the Red Sox decided to give him? Do you think that any player who doesn't live up to a contract is stealing or just this one?