This is a great video topic for this channel. I'm glad you jumped on this

The issue with Miller is that he's struggled with command all season and was ineffective for the entire month of September and in game 1. It may be reasonable to assume that he will regress to his mean in the long run, but there's no reason to think he was going to snap out of his funk the second game of the playoffs.

I also think you're overstating the magnitude of the penalty. It's an extra run per 9 innings as you say and we're talking about letting a starter try to go an extra 1 1/3 innings, which is a small fraction of a run on average.

If the leverage of that spot truly warrants being aggressive with your pen, then bring in your best, most reliable guys and that wasn't Miller. Even the difference between Miller at his best and Gray just isn't that big.

Baseball is a game with constant failures, so you can always blame the manager. No matter how good the manager, one of their pitchers will give up 3. That’s why every team complains about their manager

I’d like to hear about Jhoan Duran in the 7th in Phils/Braves G1. Especially with the Phillies winning G2, a better bullpen move could’ve gotten them the series. I was floored they tried to get Duran to throw two innings.

I agree with the sentiment that people are using hindsight to justify leaving Sonny in. But I think there is a real conversation to be had as well.
Counting 2025 and 2026, Belli and Sonny have reverse splits. Last year Belli had a crazy 1.100 OPS against lefties, and in 2023 he crushed them as well. Belli also only has a .584 OPS lifetime against Sonny. Sonny should’ve been given an opportunity to get Belli out, but he shouldn’t be facing Garcia Jr. with runners on. If he got Belli out then he should face Garcia with no runners in the 5th. Just my 2 cents, love the content!

Where this fails is with the word "probably", at 6:44 & 7:06 , when the 2026 track record is against that.  If Gray continues, everything beyond that could then change as well.

Sonny Gray carried that team all season....PERIOD!

Taking Gray out for Erik Miller to face Bopper is actually unacceptable.

Taking Sonny out was not a bad decision. Cody Bellinger is a top 2 Yankee hitter with RISP and a lefty is the best way to neutralize him, even though he’s good against lefties. The problem was bringing in Erik Miller. Bellinger got a base hit against miller the night before and Miller did struggle down the stretch. Honestly if Tracy really wanted a lefty there, he should’ve brought in Chapman, he would’ve had the best chance of getting you that out. But he’s the closer so he has to pitch the 8th or 9th, which was meaningless in this game.

the lebron image made me laugh

"There's a heartbeat in the game." - Joe Torre (that was the mantra of his entire book.)
I could write a dissertation about not yanking your star starter who is a bulldog and without whom you wouldn't be in the playoffs, but that quote (from a man who knows a thing or two about winning) sums up what everyone at home was thinking. I don't care what your probabilites are, you dance with thd one who brought you. I'VE SEEN Sonny pitch his way out if real trouble on hundreds of occasions. He could've just as easily thrown another two or three shutout innings. Ironically, I had just been asked before the season who was the pitcher that I would give the ball if my life was on the line and my answer was Sonny Gray. He's been doing this a for long time. Analytics sre an aid, and the Red Sox just found out what happens when you make the computer God.

So glad baseball games aren’t played on a spreadsheet like you think they are😂. There’s a feel for the game and a lot of things your shitty numbers can’t measure. So damn silly

Would argue his stats from last year have nothing to do with what’s happend this year. Also the same situation came up the game before and they handled it the same way with the same poor execution…

"Analytics" is whatever a disappointed fan or a disgruntled media person wants to say it is.

Gotta comment one more time.

"Garrett Crochet, whose stuff looked great..."

I'd suggest you actually watch the games lol. There's more to a pitcher's stuff than his velocity and spin. He had zero command. He looked bad.

This is why you don't manage by computer. You make very stupid mistakes that nobody watching at home would have made.

Even if Gray is statistically the best in the AL the third time through the order, that doesn't mean that he is statistically a better option than Miller at that point. It's just a data point. It just means that you might be less motivated to remove him at that point than you would be if another pitcher had started the game and had gotten you to that point.

I don’t like how Gray and Contreras have handled being eliminated. Chad Tracy helped turn this team around, they shouldn’t even be in the playoffs and two of your biggest vet presences are being so negative in a blowout series.

oh god the 98.5 idiots lmfao. yeah they're just trying to get attention by saying inflammatory shit, but I would say your point about Red Sox fans generally opposing the decision is true.

Wily doin Gods work over here