Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: "He was Fast...Fast on the Draw..."

 

Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: “He was Fast...Fast on the Draw...”

Cleveland Guardians vs. Tampa Bay Rays in Cleveland (“City of light, City of Magic”)

Who’s fast? The starting pitchers in Game 1 of the Wild Card Extravaganza upon which we are about to feast. Shane McClanahan is the Tampa leftie who throws 100. Shane Beiber is the Cleveland ace..the Guardian of the strike zone. (He guards it with sliders painted around the edges.)

So they’re both named Shane...get it? Like the famous Western Movie Flick. The above quote was Shane’s comment to young Joey (child star Brandon De Wilde) after irrigating the abdomen of hired gunman Jack Wilson (played with notable snakiness by Jack Palance) with several slugs from his trusty .44.

Shane (played by Alan Ladd in perhaps his only really good role) steps outside of the saloon where three dead free-range advocates have decorated the bar room floor and staircase with their remains. Ignoring the blood dripping down his shirt, Shane compliments his adversary’s prowess with the immortal line that seems to sum up the futility of mastering the art of fast-draw murder: “He was fast...fast on the draw...”

That’s the Wild Card Series ...being debuted this season as part of MLB’s ongoing effort to update the game. Four Wild Card series of best of three games each...all played at the lower seed’s ballpark. Which means...starting pitching will be paramount.

A team like the Mets, with their two aces Scherzer and De Grom, can shut down the opposition’s hitters one time each and...Boom!...next series please. Teams don’t have enough games to waste time saving anybody’s arm for a Game 6 or something. Bring the heat and scratch out enough runs to win two. That’s the deal.

In this Battle of the Shanes, I like the Guardians on their beautiful home field. They’ve got three studs to deal with the Rays… Beiber, Quantrill and McKenzie. They also have a strong bullpen with Clase, Hentges, and Stephan. I think that’s too many arms for the scrappy Rays to overcome.

I also like that the Guard Dogs strike out less than anybody in baseball. Playoff ball needs balls in play and I think that favors the Dogs. But they may need Jose Ramirez to rediscover his MVP form from the summer and hit a couple of big flies.

Cleveland Triumphant!

***PSYCHIC TIMING ALERT!!!*** As I write this, Jose Ramirez just hit a two run homer in the sixth inning for the Home Team! Honest… you can trust me, I’m not like the others.

Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners in Canada

Most people think the Jays have the hammer in this one. They have the big hitters in Springer, Guerrero, Hernandez and Bichette… all have been red hot at various times. The Jays have the two big arm pitchers they need in Glausman and Manoah. They also have playoff experience, something the Mariners have never experienced.

This team has become the darlings of the Northwest after FINALLY making the playoffs for the first time since the days of Ichiro. They are led by their fab rookie Julio Rodriguez, a wonderkid who can run and hit and field and smile...the perfect young Warrior that the Seattles needed. The M’s also have Eugenio Suarez for power hitting.

Robbie Ray and Luis Castillo are the two Aces of the M’s. And I think that gives them an advantage in this series. Castillo is a seasoned pro who is not likely to lose his mind if the crazy Canucks start puking on themselves up in the stands. (There may be octopuses thrown...they’re basically a bunch of confused hockey fans) If his slider is on, forget it. And Robbie Ray played for the Jays last year and won the Cy Young. Of course, that didn’t stop the Jays from letting him go free agent and sign with the Mariners. I think Robbie will let them know what they missed.

Anyway, the Mariners haven’t won since the last asteroid hit Earth. So this is my upset special...Seattle over Toronto.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals at Busch

I just can’t see the Phillies upsetting the Cards. Even with the strong starters they have in Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Bryce Harper’s been playing hurt all year and he’s just not at his peak or even close. Without him they have Schwarber, Realmutto and not much else offensively.

The Cardinals have four sturdy gents as potential starters but no true Aces. Miles Mikolas and Jordan Montgomery are both pretty tough and they’ve got a phenom as Closer in Ryan Helsley. (WHIP 0.742!) Helsley has had a problem with his finger… but the Cards need him.

The Cardinals had Goldschmidt hitting lights out all summer and Nolan Arenado was right there with him for a dynamic duo of destruction. Come September the boys went cold...but Albert “The Machine” Pujols got plugged in on a steady diet of left-handed meat slinging pitchers and just bombed the league to carry the team through the end of the season. Now the Cardinals need all three of them to hit.

I like the Cardinals in three games.

New York Mets vs. San Diego Padres at The Apple.

The Marvelous Metskies pulled into the finish line like a lame dog this season. They had a chance to protect their 10 game lead that they’d maintained for the entire season over last year’s Team of Destiny, the Atlanta Braves. But they dropped 4 games in a row to the Bravos at the end of the season and coughed up furballs from there on to miss the Division title and just win a Wild Card. If I were Manager Bucky Showalter I would take out some furball insurance.

Perhaps the last-minute reinstatement of Starling Marte will help. The Mets have other horses in Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil. They’ve got the previously mentioned two-headed pitching Ace in Max/Jake with Edwin Diaz backing them up in the bullpen. They won 101 games in 2022 and under normal circumstances should advance to play for the pennant. Gut check, Men!

How do you explain the San Diego Padres? They trade for superstars and as soon as they put on the Taco uniform they forget who they are/were and become Sad San Diego Sacks.

Eric Hosmer, Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Josh Hader, Blake Snell...they all flopped onto the San Diego beach like so many stranded narwhals. Even home grown star Fernando Tatis Jr. got into the prevailing mood and celebrated his broken wrist with a season long suspension for chemical enhancement of the illegal kind.

The fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers treated the Pods like Red Headed Step Children also helped seal the tomb of failure around the freshly embalmed free agent corpses inside.

Except for Manny Machado.

He’s mean. He’s arrogant. He’s a puffed up peacock who you don’t want over to play Pictionary on Sunday nights. But Manny comes to play and play with menace. He hits and he hits consistently no matter what’s happening around him in the lineup. He plays Gold Glove defense at third and he is a top five MVP candidate every season. Hats off to Macho...whatever he’s drinking the Padres need a couple of cases. (No Jabba Jungle Juice though, Boys!)

Two teams with psych problems. They thought greatness was just a shot away and now they have to load up for a fight. Scherzer and De Grom can only go 5 or 6 innings these days. If Darvish has control and Musgrave or Snell can win one I’ll take the Padres to beard the Mets in their Citifield den.

Next Edition Next Week!

Salud!