Tuesday, October 11, 2022

The Cole Start Really Comes Down To One Player (And It Ain't Cole)

Gerrit Cole toes the mound in the Boogie Down tonight in Game One of the ALDS against Cleveland and that's the way it should be.  

After all, according to Boone, Cole's been throwing the ball really well. (Except for the gopher balls.) and they are paying him to be the ace exactly for games like this. (Hey, it worked for Max Scherzer and the Mets)

And, let's face it Cole is the best starter on the team (Except for Nestor and probably Sevy, and Talion’s actually looked pretty good lately but aside from those three, Cole is definitely number one.)

But the key to Cole’s success or failure is going to come down to this guy…

That’s right, Josh Donaldson.

If he makes an error, you know Cole is going to give up a home run to the next batter, and it’s all downhill from there. If Josh plays the kind of stellar defense at third base that the YES men in the booth keep telling us he has been all year... (Despite what our eyes tell us.) Cole will dominate. 

Unless he gets a bad call. 

If Cole “unjustly” walks a guy, then the next guy will hit a home run.  I don’t know who the home plate umpire is today but he’s really important too.

Aside from that, Cole is the right choice to start Game One. He’s got great stuff and he knows how to rise to the pressure of the occasion. 

Unless he hears a loud noise, or the game starts a couple of minutes late, or he realizes that Josh Donaldson is playing third... Then he will give up a home run to the next batter.)

At least he's not pitching in Fenway.

As Michael Kay says: "Let's do this!"

12 comments:


  1. I'm thinking the key is Cole's wife. She has to remember to gas up his car and charge his phone today because if he has to stop for gas on the way to the stadium and then gets there and his battery is down to 9% he'll never get out of the first inning.

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  2. Mildred, I think you've identified the key person in this situation. What if Cole's wife looks at him cross-eyed today? Or disagrees with him on any topic including which breakfast cereal he should eat?

    What if she leaves the pickle slice off his roast beef sandwich? Or forgets the Russian dressing? God forbid she refused him sex within the past week. That could be disastrous.

    Ha ha...of course, I'm kidding with that last one. Cole can't think of sex because he's busy staring at his coffee spoon and wondering if someone moved it a millimeter when he was in the can.

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  3. Yeah, Colace's wife is pregnant, which might mean no to sex for the foreseeable future. If the Yankees were a real organization, they'd find ways for him, uh, relieve himself! Heh: "relieve." There's probably a pun in there, but I can't think of it!

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  4. ALDS roster dropped.

    On the roster: Matt Carpenter, Marwin Gonzalez, Aaron Hicks, Tim Locastro, Miguel Castro, Clarke Schmidt

    Off the roster: Scott Effross, Aroldis Chapman, Oswald Peraza, DJ LeMahieu, Andrew Benintendi

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  5. oh my god TJS for Scott Effross

    you've got to be kidding me!!

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  6. Effross being left off the roster in favor of Castro is a shocker. He must really not be "right". Or it's anti-semitism. Maybe he said something nice about Chapo.

    Regarding Donaldson's fielding, I hate to be that analytics guy, but Statcast ranked him 7th in the majors. In fact the only 3B in the playoffs with a better ranking is Machado.

    https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_average?type=Fielder&startYear=2022&endYear=2022&split=yes&team=&range=year&min=q&pos=5&roles=&viz=show

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  7. Very bad news that DJ is not ready to go. Not to mention Scott Floss.

    So...save for Tots Bader, all of Cashman's big, trading deadline pick-ups—Montas, Floss, and Benintendi—are on the DL for the playoffs.

    Great job, Coopsie.

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  9. It is funny that you focused on Joshy Boy and not a bd thought. Donaldson could choke on defense, more like popping up in the infield with the bases loaded or striking out.

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  10. I'm not sure why it is, but doesn't it seem that Jackie Donald Duck makes errors and mis-plays when Prima Donna Cola Cole is on the mound? Actually, both Jackie and Falafel seem to get skittish whenever our leading lady is pitching.

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  11. Some program had a nice graphic of all the Colace pitches that were hit for homeruns. Amazingly, every one was in the middle of the plate. Like straight down the middle. Even the ones that were a little above or below the strike zone were in the middle of the plate. Like Colace just chucked it down the pipe daring them to make contact.


    It would be unfuckingimaginable were it not so mundane.

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