Chapter 1: What was the significance of Garrett Crochet's 117-pitch outing?
There you go. CEO, owner, founder, co-founder, co-author, Joe Kelly threw out the first pitch in the Dodgers game. He did it in a mariachi jacket. Yeah, mariachi jacket. Yeah, biceps are bigger. Mariachi jacket's a little tighter. All those rings in the finger. It makes it hard to throw a pitch. It's just science. But what also is science is the B.I.B. bump. Yep.
The CEO, the co-author, the co-founder, Joe Kelly, even he is... is the guy delivering the B.I.B. bump these days. Not only me handing out stickers throughout the world and then making players have awesome things happen to them and people have awesome things happen to them, but also Joe with a B.I.B. bump because he throws out the first pitch and then boom, Otani hits a home run.
Dodgers are on their way. They score 10 runs. They win the game. It's science. You get baseballs and boring involved, good things are going to happen. It is just science. Well, a guy who was just on the baseballs and boring program also had another great outing. And it is part of the conversation when it comes to what happened in this first day of the postseason. It is so awesome.
It was so awesome. to have postseason baseball, close games for the most part, low scoring games, just edge of your seat, throw the cougar in the car type of deal, lower the heart rate. But for me, what made it so awesome was just all these starting pitchers just dealing, just dominating. And of course, the guy at the top of the list that we're going to talk to, we're going to talk about,
It's Garrett Crochet because before we get into the Gavin Williams, Tarek Skubal, Nick Pavetta, Matthew Boyd, Crochet, Max Freed, Blake Snell, all these guys and how well they did, let's just pause to understand that you had a pitcher actually throw 117 pitches in a postseason game. So just to add context to that, That was the most pitches since Adam Wainwright threw 120 in 2019.
And since 2020, no pitcher in the postseason had thrown more than 112, and that was Tyler Glasnow. Yes, times have changed, but I am so happy that we have this moment where we had all these starting pitchers at least give this hint, give the feeling that they're going to say, you guys... Follow my lead. I'm going to go dominate. And you do not need to call the bullpen.
No, you don't need to call the bullpen. And if you do, it's going to be one at the most two guys. So maybe we get that because as you're going to hear later in the podcast, we are reminded that last year for the first time, More innings came from relievers in the postseason than starters, which is kind of embarrassing, to be perfectly honest with you. But we're off to a good start.
Maybe it's just a wild card. Maybe it's just desperation to save the bullpen. Maybe it's just the fact that you had all these number ones lined up. But you know what? The number ones have to be number ones. And that's what's what. But 117 pitches. So I feel very, very fortunate that we can talk about that.
We have this podcast and we have some context and we have some information because we're here to entertain, inform, enlighten, all of it. So before we get to my conversation, we talk a lot about the day with Gordo. You know Gordo from our sister podcast, Play Tessie. He was riding high after the crochet outing. But we talked about all of starting pitching, how awesome it is.
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Chapter 2: How did starting pitchers dominate in the Wild Card round?
Yeah, just kind of winging it on the fly, though.
So one of the things that I love, I love, I love... like the idea of get on my back, I'm taking you through the postseason. Like as a young player, and not to say like it's one of 26. Right, right. But still, we've seen guys, this is awesome. Like the ability to do it and the opportunity to do it.
I don't know if you looked at anybody when you were growing up or you followed a playoff run, maybe even as a younger player, like man, even from afar, like man, that is awesome. Because when he pitches in the postseason, it's going to be awesome.
Yeah, obviously Bumgarner was unreal. But the thing is, I feel like you could look around this locker room and point out five or six guys that can do the same thing. And kind of like you said, it all boils back down to one of 26. And for me, it's... I'm trying to do my job and put the team in position to win, same as I have the past six months.
Yeah, I don't want to put pressure on you. I'm just saying I just like the idea.
No, no, it's not pressure. You know, we earned this, so it's not like I'm going to feel pressure and it's going to turn to nerves. No, I'm going to feel the pressure and have pride in it because we worked for this moment.
All right, that's a good springboard to what we're talking about, right? Because it gives you an idea of how he got ready for this, how he prepared, and he's not alone. I mean, it is amazing. It is amazing that you have guys like that who you say, all right, you know, he's an elite pitcher. He's been an elite pitcher all regular season. But what's he going to do in the postseason?
And boom, there he is. Scooble did it as well. For the most part, all these guys did it. All the number ones they were relying on that earned the right to be number ones in the regular season came through in this first round of postseason games. And that's why I wanted to honor them. I wanted to talk about them.
I wanted to tell you how giddy I was to see starting pitchers just dominate and say, hey, you know what? Maybe this is the next run of the Madison Baumgartner, the John Lester, the Josh Beckett, the Verlander, the...
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Chapter 3: What insights did Gordo share about the postseason pitching landscape?
I went back to last year's wild card. remember do you remember the there was only one pitcher one pitcher that pitched eight innings the entire postseason and they did it in the wild card game do you remember this was it corbin burns it was corbin burns and they lost yeah they lost like so yeah eight innings one run it's incredible
But you go back to that wild card, the wild card round last year, you only had one other guy pitch seven innings, and that was Michael King, seven shutout innings. And then you had, let's see, you had four other guys who pitched six innings. You had Jose Quintana, Cole Reagans, Luis Severino, and Skubal. So... You know, that was fine.
Chapter 4: What advice did Garrett Crochet give for succeeding in the postseason?
They all pitched well. And maybe I'm getting out ahead of myself. But I'm just looking at them like, please, please, please. Let's get back on track here. Let's have the Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Evaldi dynamic. The Zach Allen, Merrill Kelly dynamic from a couple years ago. And I know that some of these teams would do it if they could. They just ran out of starting pitchers.
But I don't know what your sense is, and I don't know how you feel. I know you're riding high from the crochet thing. And that's what, honestly, Gordo, that's what made me think about this. Because crochet, to me, looked like so many of these guys that we can rattle off who have gone on these runs, right? Yeah.
Yeah, and it feels like there's no slowing down anytime soon, and I feel like that's the difference between the decision Alex Cora made with Crochet versus the decision Aaron Boone made with Max Freed. Garrett Crochet let up 400-plus mile-an-hour contact pieces in the first two innings. He got stronger as he went, retired 17 in a row, then lets up the base runner.
at the very end before striking out Wells, Max freed was at his best early. And then he had a couple of long innings, had some walks like this is not a guy that you were going to put out there for another turn through the order. I don't, As for it moving forward, I do think for these big horses, like the Crochets, the Scoobles, especially with these teams, Detroit has bullpen issues.
The Red Sox, I wouldn't say have bullpen issues, but they certainly have a couple of guys they want to get the game to. I think you could see them try to ride those guys. I don't know if there's anyone else on those two starting staffs that the managers are going to feel comfortable pushing forward. for like seven plus innings to get on my back.
I mean, maybe if like Brian Baio does what he did a couple other times this year against the Yankees, but last time he was out there and in the entire month of September, we haven't seen that from him. So it might take an ALDS game with Garrett Crochet to see that again from them and maybe the same for the Tigers.
But this is, again, this is what sort of legends are made. You know what I'm saying? Like legends are made with this type of stuff. And I'm looking up, you know, and so I asked Crochet this the other day. I said, do you remember or had you followed a postseason where you said that starter, man, like he's really – he's just rolling.
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Chapter 5: What historical context did David Cone provide about postseason pitching?
And you know that – If you run into him or it's his turn, they're like, good luck with that. Good luck beating him. And he obviously mentioned Madison Baumgartner, which a lot of people do, right?
Easily the number one that comes to mind.
Yeah. So, and, you know, there's been others. I mean, who for you jumps out like that?
Oh, I just remember in 2013 just mapping out the Michael Walker starts because he just came out. I wasn't as tuned with prospects at the time, but at least from my perspective back then in my freshman or sophomore year of high school, he came out of absolute nowhere. And it was just start after start after start. He was that dude. It wasn't Madison Bumgarner level, but nothing really is.
Well, I'm just looking up the total innings pitch for seasons in the postseason. So Bumgarner absolutely has to. I'm going back to the last 20 years, which I think is fair. Yeah. Yeah, so it's kind of incredible. Madison Bumgarner, take a guess in 2014 how many extra innings he pitched.
Oh, man. It had to be approaching 50.
52 and two-thirds.
Wow. That's unbelievable. Think about it. These starters for entire seasons, starters who make 30 starts will get to 160-something innings, and he did 52 in a month.
That's crazy. What's amazing is that I'm looking at the innings total of guys who have actually pitched these innings, this massive amount of innings in the postseason. And if you look at them, and I'm just looking at ERA, batting average against, they're all awesome. I go down to the only one
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Chapter 6: How do managers approach pitching decisions in the postseason?
So it comes back to all the tingles, all the feels, all the vibes. And for you, when you're watching crochet pitch, in your case – You just, I mean, you're just like, hey, listen, no need to overthink this, right? I mean, no need to overthink it, which was interesting. Here's another interesting thing. is that we talk about modern baseball. Now I'm going to get a little wonky for you, Gora.
Sorry. But we talk about modern baseball. We talk about the modern baseball was, well, analytics show you take this guy out because, you know, whatever reasons. Third time through the order. Modern baseball dictates that you do not let the guy go. But where modern baseball surfaced at least on day one of the postseason wasn't there. You know where it was?
It was actually, like, in the trainer's room. Like, I've never heard the medical staff mentioned more in a post-game press conference than Alex Cora did. Really? Oh, yeah. It was, like, he said he went out of the way.
Like, I don't know if they gave a game ball or whatever they did, but he's like, I went out of my way to tell the medical staff, it was because of what they did that allowed us to do this. Before the game or over the course of a season? No, no, over the course of the season. But he keeps citing... He keeps citing the Mets 85 pitch game, you know. Yeah. Like, okay, I get it.
Like, I understand what he's saying. But, you know, but like the medical staff and how the modern – and it's not just the Red Sox. It's everybody. It's like there is – before, I remember back in the day, it was we have to give this guy a fake I.L. stint so he gets his rest, right? Yeah. Now they have a million different ways to measure.
They put those catapult bras on and they let them go, right? You have one on right now? Always do. Oh, I mean, I would like to.
I need it for my heart rate as I'm walking through this win tonight on Play Tessie. Heart beating. Got to keep myself in check.
How was – so I'll give a promo to our sister podcast, Play Tessie. How was it? Was it – Was it free-flowing? You wait so long to talk about the postseason, and then the postseason comes, and then you have an exciting game. Right off the bat.
Like, I... I felt like we covered everything, but it was free-flowing, and we were happy, but we were in check to the point where it's like, okay, we understand that this was just the first step that had to happen because the Red Sox had to win that game. If the Red Sox didn't win that game, they weren't going to win the series.
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Chapter 7: What role does modern baseball analytics play in pitching strategies?
It's always the first, you know. The first World Series championship with the Blue Jays in 1992 and the ticker tape parade there in Canada and Toronto was amazing. Canada's first World Series was remarkable. The Yankee first World Series in 96 was unbelievable. And the Canyon of Heroes and going through that. It's worth it.
When you get to a ticker tape parade, whatever it is in whatever city you're in, if you get to that and you get to experience that, it's worth it. I promise you. As a player, as a fan, if you go visit it or if you go see it, it's absolutely worth everything.
And just the last thing, how special it is. You guys have such a good booth, man. I'm not just saying because I like you all personally, but you have such a good booth. So what's it like being with these guys, with Eduardo, Carl, Buster, and these guys? I mean, you've been in good clubhouses before, but this feels like sort of like the same. You vibe off each other very, very well.
Yeah, no, they're generous. There's no egos in there. That helps. They don't care. We don't care who gets credit. We just in who says what or who brings up the salient points here or there. It's more about just that we really feel each other, try to help each other. We cover for each other. And there's a trust.
That builds a trust, I think, that I find important, as opposed to somebody who's disagreeing all the time for a point-counterpoint type of production, which I never really liked. But, you know, at times we've disagreed, and it's been organic. But when you try to manufacture that sort of point-counterpoint thing, it never really works in the long run for me.
So the trust that we have really, to me, has been one of the keys.
Well, we appreciate you. Thank you so much, and good luck, man.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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