4/15: Gil vs. Bassitt

[Wingack]

Gil takes the bump tonight, in back to back starts against the Jays, which is always a little scary.

Let's see if he can keep things under control and also stretch himself to 5 innings.

 

[jon abbey]

He needs to make them hit his FB, easily his best pitch, less playing around with the offspeed pitches, please.

I still can't get over this Volpe shot off a 100 MPH Clase cutter, only the 26th time in 4 seasons he's given up an extra base hit on a cutter, and it was most definitely not a cheapie.

View: https://twitter.com/ncostanzo24/status/1779640489337037095

 

[Wingack]

He needs to make them hit his FB, easily his best pitch, less playing around with the offspeed pitches, please.

I still can't get over this Volpe shot off a 100 MPH Clase cutter, only the 26th time in 4 seasons he's given up an extra base hit on a cutter, and it was most definitely not a cheapie.

View: https://twitter.com/ncostanzo24/status/1779640489337037095

That's really great to see from Volpe. Like I said yesterday, I was at a dance competition and watching the game on my phone and got kinda fuzzy during his at-bat, and I wasn't sure if that ball was misplayed.

 

[jon abbey]

The OF probably took the wrong angle but it was a rocket.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Sterling just retired effective immediately.

And the lineup is out:
Volpe, ss
Soto, rf
Judge, dh
Rizzo, 1b
Torres, 2b
Verudgo, lf
Cabrera, 3b
Wells, c
Grisham, cf

 

[jon abbey]

Volpe has reached base in 11 of 20 PAs since switching to leadoff.

 

[cromulence]

Rizzo continues to be bad defensively.

 

[cromulence]

OK, if Rizzo shouted there to get the pickoff, he's forgiven. Nice escape.

 

[jon abbey]

John Flaherty is funny because he does seem to have a big ego as someone mentioned here recently, but also he is pretty consistently bad. He just went through a whole thing explaining from his expert ex-catcher position how Bassitt can use his wide repertoire to potentially be effective, and he ended with:

"A guy like Bassitt covers a lot of speeds, from the low 90s into the low 80s, and everything in between."

And then he stops talking, he's clearly timed it to line up with Bassitt's next delivery, which was a 70 MPH curve.

 

[jon abbey]

I'm behind on the game but this is really amusing me:

So then Flaherty didn't say another word for more than three pitches, probably investigating why he was so off on Bassitt's velocity range. He then picked it back up and at 3-2, he told us how Bassitt would now use his 8 pitch arsenal and that Verdugo couldn't just sit FB like some other pitchers, he basically said 'this pitch will be anything but a FB'.

Of course I thought to myself immediately "heh so this is going to be a FB', as did Verdugo evidently because he smashed the 95 MPH FB up the middle for a hit.

 

[EvilEmpire]

Yeah, I was a little critical of Flaherty yesterday, probably my least favorite Yankees broadcaster. Seems like a jerk. However, I will say one positive thing about him: he was better than I thought he would be doing the play-by-play stuff instead of the analyst bit most former players stick to.

Edit: of course he seems terrible as an analyst, so maybe he should stick to PBP.

 

[jon abbey]

Boo.

 

[jon abbey]

One more observation from earlier:

In the 5th now, Grisham is up with a 3-1 count. Bassitt makes a beautiful pitch, the ump rightly calls it a strike and does his elaborate punch out for a K. Then the ump realizes it is only 3-2, but Grisham doesn't seem to even have noticed (?). Then the 3-2 pitch Grisham takes again and it is perfectly on the line but I think the ump is still embarrassed and can't do the punch out twice in a row, so ball four, Grisham walks.

And then the baseball gods fixed it with a caught stealing a few pitches later.

 

[jon abbey]

Volpe grabbed the leadoff spot much more quickly than anyone expected, I think Dominguez will do the same with cleanup once he is back.

 

[jon abbey]

Who wants the next game? You still with us, @jarules1185 ?

 

[jarules1185]

Who wants the next game? You still with us, @jarules1185 ?

Sorry, I'm here, just intensely unreliable. Will try to be more useful in the future