Nice analysis, Rick.
Yep, greatness is greatness, and it’s to be admired. Even if they’re wearing Dodger Blue. The Dodgers are really strong.
GO ASTROS!!
ɯǝlqoɹd ɐ ǝʌɐɥ ǝʍ 'uoʇsnoɥ
BTW I borrowed that from somewhere, can’t remember if it was here or somewhere else.
The weather forecast is about 100F and strong winds from the north. That’s going to make long hits much harder.
Letting **CC **go is easy, but he might be a very economical peice of the rotation in a terrible free agent year if we need a starter. We have 3 locked in and Adams on the way. Tanaka can op out and might (though I think he will not). We should make a strong play for Otani if he is posted. But if we don’t get Otani and Tanaka opts out, CC is a very good answer to fill out the rotation.
Trading Ellsbury is not going to be easy, but it is possible and should be done as the highest priority. **Clint **added to the mix of Judge, Hicks & Gardner will make for a very good to great outfield next year.
Todd Frazier is a free agent and will get a fairly good multi-year contract from some team. Torreyes is an excellent utility player that costs us near minimum. We should keep Toe.
**Trading Bettances **is a good idea at this point, he might be the piece that we surrender to move Ellsbury along with some cash of course. The waters soured for him with the Yanks last arbitration. Many GMs will probably look at him as an economical closer in the making.
Our #1 priority should be to extend Cashman as GM/VP for several more years. Rumors are this is in the works and Brian Cashman will be the highest paid GM in baseball.
Huh, that’s actually hot enough that it might make it harder for the starters to go deep into the game; if so, definitely a factor in the Dodgers’ favor.
Maybe you’re right about Torreyes. He can play about anywhere. The other guy we should be looking at is Castro. I’m starting to think his best days are behind him. I am now much happier with Bird at first- we now know he can play in this league, if his injury-prone days are behind him, he’s going to have a great career.
I hope next spring, the Yankee pitchers all throw sliders low and away to Judge. He needs to learn how to hit that pitch much more consistently.
**Castro **will probably be trade bait by the end of next season and should pull back a good prospect package to keep the farm system replenished. We have several infielders pushing up currently and Castro has 2 more inexpensive years left on his contract. If the Yanks are lucky, Castro will be dangled mid-season as one of the kids has already proven himself but I think off-season 2018 more likely. Miguel Andujar & Gleyber Torres are the bigger names getting close. Thairo Estrada is the 3rd.
You’re 100% correct on **Judge **and **Sanchez **needs to do a lot of work on passballs and catching throws home and smoothly tagging out runners.
As you say, **Bird **just needs to stay healthy. He is a very solid player already. (IMHO)
Excellent analysis. Still, Dodgers in 5 for me.
A couple of weather facts which might slightly alter tomorrows game:
It will be around 100° at first pitch. I heard of a study on the radio this morning stating for every 10° in temp, the ball will carry 3 extra feet. Normally, it would have been more or less 75°. So the ball should carry about an extra 7 feet at game start. Warning track fly balls might become homeruns.
The humidity will be very low
The wind is a wild card because it will be quite strong
I wonder if heat stress on the players, particularly the pitchers, will have more of an effect.
It’s a very dry heat and they will be in shade very early in the game. Kershaw has given up some homeruns lately. Should be an awesome series.
Yes, should be an awesome series, starting with the first matchup of Verlander and Kershaw. It doesn’t get much better than that.
It’ll be Keuchel/Kershaw game 1; unless Verlander goes on short rest for some reason, he and Kershaw won’t go head-to-head.
Corey Seager reports being good to go for the Series. Excellent news, unless you’re an Astros pitcher.
Yeah… someone on sports radio said that today. Obviously incorrect. Thanks.
That’s announced now, and Verlander/Hill in Game 2. Game 3 is Darvish and TBD.
I think it all comes down to the Astros’ bullpen too. Houston has to hope their starters stay in for at least 7 innings. Or have a good lead, which I’ll doubt.
Rooting for Dodgers, but Astros still have a chance. I think we’ll know by the end of game 2 where this is going. If the teams split at Dodger stadium, anything could happen.
I would think the Astros series with the Red Sox and Yankees would have shown that with the Astros you don’t know until the last game.
I figure the Astros need to go 3-1 in the Keuchel/Verlander games and then steal one of the last three; Dodgers’ path to victory probably involves going 2-2 or better vs. Keuchel/Verlander, in which case they’re heavy favorites in the remaining games. (Or who the hell knows.)
And a home run from Taylor already! Well, I always say the AL pitcher’s warmup starts in the 1st inning. 
Welcome to LA, bitches!
Now I have to go get some rosary action going so I didn’t jinx anything!