Pretty sure Mariners manager outthought himself there. I would have left Castillo in to try to get out of the jam. Maybe he wants him available for later in the series.
ETA: and then Speier gets out of it. That could have been a lot worse
I was sitting on pins and needles throughout that half inning after confidently predicting a non-blowout then watching Castillo load 'em up w 1 out. Nervous spot for sure.
It’s gonna be important for the Jays manager to pull Scherzer before the wheels come off. They are pretty lucky he’s gotten this far and you don’t want to press your luck too far. But he definitely looks in control so far.
For what it’s worth, Milwaukee was an exceptional team in July and August, but only played .500 ball in September.
Even so, as a lifelong Brewers fan, this series is breaking my heart. 
Well, the Jays took back that home-field advantage. It’s possible the Dodgers will sweep while the Jays and Mariners go 7 games.
Mad Max was impressive.
Off-topic chatter while waiting for the two LCS games later today: I’m a total layman to the whole MLB salary cap debate. What’s the good argument as for why the league shouldn’t have a cap, aside from some players grousing that they can’t earn as much money as they originally wanted? Most other sports leagues in North America already have one, and the fact that many small-market teams have reached the LCS or World Series still doesn’t sound like an argument against one.
I’ve gathered that it comes down to a few things.
- Don’t try to fix what’s not broken.
- It somehow takes away players’ rights or something.
- Baseball is special and this makes it less special somehow.
None of the arguments seem all that great to me. It mostly boils down to some variation of “players want more money” or “baseball has never had a cap and all change is bad for this sacred pastime”.
The last time (only time?) that MLB tried to impose a salary cap, the players went on strike, which resulted in the 1994 World Series being cancelled. Now, that’s not a good reason to not have a cap, but I would rather doubt that the owners want to go through that again.
Given payroll disparities, I wouldn’t be opposed to a salary floor, though. I know that revenue sharing is supposed to be invested into the clubs, but having a payroll minimum would seem like it would make the teams more competitive.
What’s the argument for it? To protect the billionaires from the millionaires?
A league where teams with more money can just buy the best players and dominate is an inferior product.
I didn’t expect green Brewers to win the series, but it would be nice if they won at least one game…
Brian
It is none of those things. Its simple economics. A cap takes money from the players and transfers it to the owners. Why would players ever support it?
Looking forward to that Met vs Yankees world series then?
I heard (maybe here) that the players would consider it if it also raised the floor.
I’m a Royals fan, so I don’t exactly speak from a position of rooting for a team with a history of spending a ton of money.
But other than a handful of teams, the league is full of owners sitting on and building massive amounts of money. Steve Cohen has a bottomless pit of money, and he spends with reckless abandon - but the Mets missed the playoffs. The Padres went all in on free agency this year - they were eliminated in the Wild Card round.
I’d love to see parity in baseball. But the economics of running a baseball team are just drastically different than an NBA or NFL team. Player development is a huge resource that takes up massive amounts of money and personnel - do you put a cap on the front office? Scouting? Player development? The minor league?
None of that is addressed by a salary cap. All that does is give owners a discount.
I strongly encourage raising the floor.
Raise the floor and penalize exceeding the luxury tax by taking away some draft picks and exclusion from the international free agent pool.
The Yankees and Mets both have enormous payrolls. Neither are in the playoffs. I wouldn’t call that domination.