While everyone thinks that that fan rooting interest in this game is going to be a little lopsided, I think they’re wrong. Let’s tally up the fans:
Toronto: Clearly preferred by 42 million Canadians less the 50 or so related to Freddie Freeman. Add to this 340 million Americans less the 10 million or so within 40 miles of Chavez Ravine, except for the 15,000 of them who are Angels fans. Finally, add to that 7.4 billion rest-of-the-world population less the 120 miilion or so in Japan. This gives a total of around 7.7 billion people rooting for Toronto.
Los Angeles: from the calculation above, it would appear that the Dodgers would be clearly behind, with no more than 129 million fans. This is misleading, however, since it forgets the 8 billion fshxcjfgs’s on Ohtani’s home planet of Xfghrbg%&@. Since they are 427 light-years away, however, it will be a while before they see the broadcast (or even Ohtani’s first game), so it’s complicated, relatively speaking.
Big D, JC’d from the last thread… and he’s correct.
Man, that’s brutal for Mariners fans. Good thing they saved their closer for the 8th inning instead of bringing him in when the game was actually on the line in the 7th. Ugh, memories of Kimbrel watching from the bullpen…
In their defense, their setup man is better than most closers and way better than zombie David Carpenter. But yes, you play like there’s no tomorrow when there literally isn’t.
Tough break for the M’s… an all-time moment for Springer/Toronto.
Interesting WS matchup.
In 11 post-season games, the Jays have 20 HRs, hitting 296/355/523. Vladito is 442/510/950 (!) w/ only 3 Ks.
In 10 post-season games, the Dodgers’ team ERA is 2.45. Something’s gotta give.
Rooting for the Jays, fully expecting the Dodgers to win in 5.
In most things, I’d root for the National League. But whenever I don’t have a dog in the fight, I’ll root like hell for the underdog. Canada, I’m standing on guard for thee, buddy!
Got to say, whatever happens, this has been a great postseason and that was an ALCS for the ages.
Wow, Kurt Suzuki hired by the Angels.
Good for Suzuki-san.
For my lost youth, …
Give ’em heck, you Bums.
I know AA said that they are in no rush to hire a new manager, but putting off the decision this long and longer makes no sense to me. It’s not like Snitkers retirement was a shock so some of the groundwork should have been laid. The longer they wait the less time the new manager has to learn the organization and get to know everyone. Any insight on why it’s taking so long?
Maybe the deal’s done and AA’s waiting out of professional courtesy? No, probably not.
Not to feed the rumor mill, but if they have selected someone with either Dodgers or Blue Jays employment at the moment, they will surely wait until after the Series.
I bet Ohtani would be a good player-manager.
And gourmet chef, AI engineer, ballet dancer, novelist, stand-up comedian and rocket scientist…. as befis those from Xfghrbg%&@.
Apparently, his only flaw is in choice of translators.
https://x.com/scottcoleman55/status/1980999934511067491
Wait, that Ryan Flaherty? Interesting.
Should bring in Janis and Belliard for an “all-wet-paper-bag” staff
‘Other fans have it worse’ is not an excuse for one’s own team’s shortcomings, but, dang, this piece on the Pirates. Woof.
“We laugh at all of this [expletive] behind closed doors,” one player was quoted as saying. “It’s just a bad organization.”
https://defector.com/why-are-there-still-pirates-fans
oof, yeah, And we are are mad about spending only 200+ millionn
Good piece… and it really is a spectacular stadium.
So, Rob, think UF will raise enough dough to get Kiffin?
The site ate a long response by me, but long story short, Lane’s not making much more than Billy was, Florida can probably spend more, and can probably spend more than Ole Miss can.
And he’s not exactly shutting down rumors…
https://x.com/on3sports/status/1981799609111654490?s=42
Will Anthopoulos make Lehmann trim that Colby Rasmus haircut?
Luke Sinnard looking good out in the desert!
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6735473/2025/10/22/hagen-smith-anderson-brito-arizona-fall-league-pitchers/
I don’t subscribe. Gimme the gist.
Fangraphs also had something on Sinnard today.
I have to recalibrate much of my criticism of the front office based on the emergence of Waldrep and Ritchie and now maybe Sinnard. If you draft multiple starting pitchers who can stick in a 3-year window, you’re doing a lot right. That’s not counting a few others who project well.
It also makes sense if that is your philosophy to let Max Fried go rather than pay him. I hate to say it, but it’s true.
That said, if you’re going to go all in on pitching, you need to acquire some goldarn outside position talent that’s better than Jurickson Profar.
Stampton, do you think Profar has any surplus trade value? I think they could probably dump his salary.
Yes Rob, he is a decent value for any team needing a DH or LF. You can do a lot worse for the money. That said I would not trade him unless you plan to acquire Kyle Tucker (notgonnahappen). We need his OBP and who are we gonna replace him with? Nobody internally.
Also, there’s a real scenario here that if AJSS hadn’t gone down, you were looking at homegrown products Strider, Schwellenbach, Waldrep, and AJSS in a 2026 rotation. So I really can’t fault Atlanta’s pitching development at the moment. Ritchie, Sinnard, Burkhalter, Fuentes, Murphy, and Braun also all have a chance to hit the big leagues next year, with Elder as a perfectly decent innings-eating 5th starter option. Oh, and you have Sale and Lopez under contract. There’s a lot of good here.
We have done well to find great pitching talent. I still disagree with drafting pitching first. Even if you hit on your picks, the chances of arm injury are so high that you can just count on those pitchers missing a couple of their controllable years. And then they’re going to take time to build up to a major league load. Many pitchers don’t offer any significant value until they’re 28-31 (Wheeler, Morton, Eovaldi).
So even though we have all these exciting arms, AA is saying adding to the rotation is going to be our first priority. And he’s right. How can we count on so many pitchers with injury histories and unknown workload potential?
I somehow just found out that Don Mattingly is associated with the Blue Jays. This changes everything.
https://x.com/680TheFan/status/1981760212781416802
9 openings. This is interesting. It just goes to show you that just because you’re a good talking head on MLB Network, doesn’t mean that you’re respected by MLB decision-makers.
AA’s fingerprints on another Dodgers WS win. 👏
At least we have that sdp. We will always have that.
18 innings?! Paging Joey Devine.
Jays figured out 1 at-bat too late to just not pitch to Shohei.
As someone who watched the whole game here on the East Coast, I get it it, but I am definitely not certain the absence of the Manfred Man helps ensure that the “better team” wins. But it does stretch out the suspense….
In other news, I am just about done with Smoltz. He is still quite good, maybe the best ever, on pitching sequences. The rest of it, repeated over six hours is… difficult.
Smoltz said something so egregious last night, even by his standards, that I could not believe my ears. Some Dodger bench guy, Call I think it was, was at the plate and took a ball. Smoltz said something to the effect of, “Nobody takes a pitch with as much swag as Call does.”
I do not claim to have any idea how hard it is to be a color analyst, nor do I know what guidelines are set for them, but surely one of the latter must be “do not voice a subjective opinion that EVERY SINGLE LISTENER will instantly recognize as objectively incorrect.” Juan Soto exists, Smoltzie, and I would bet that anyone who cares enough about baseball to still be watching in the 14th inning or whenever it was knows exactly who he is and understands that he is famous for his antics when taking a pitch.
It may be harsh, but I believe there are some mistakes which so blatantly reveal one’s ignorance as to disqualify everything else a person says on the subject, and this meets that criteria.
In short, great pitcher, the absolute worst color analyst. The guys doing his job on random Tuesday night AAC football games are better than him.
My opinion of Smoltz is colored by my memory of the difference between Joe Simpson with, say, Chip Caray and, say, Jim Powell. Caray encouraged all of Simpson’s crotchetiest impulses, and in my experience, the national network broadcast crews often tend towards a really obnoxious ignorance, perhaps because they believe that broadcasters who were too knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the game might intimidate casual fans who tune in just for the playoffs.
So I think Smoltz could be a lot better if he were paired with a play-by-play guy who encouraged him towards his best tendencies. As it is, I hear you.
Was flying back to NYC from Austin, TX, last night. Flight left at 1st pitch & watched on the plane. Got into JFK after midnight, watched the early extras in a very long taxi line, then watched in the cab ride home, which navigated much construction on “the dreaded Van Wyck.” Got home & still watched the last 4 innings.
No matter how fatigued, was bound to watch to the end… and the ending probably surprised very few. (I’m sure Freddie secured a few more HoF votes.)
I only wish it has gone another inning, so that we could’ve seen Yamamoto actually pitch… or a position player.
In terms of length & general craziness, last night’s game was up there with 7/4/85 (NYM@ATL), which had rain delays, ejections, a protest and, of course, Rick Camp.
And Ohtani now… in 3 WS starts, he’s suddenly looking like ’02 post-season Bonds… better to take your chances w/ the next 2 future Hall of Famers in the lineup. Very few managers have ever said, “No, we’ll just have to let Mookie Betts try to beat us,” but that’s exactly what I’d do. Almost worked last night.
Ohtani’s 4 IBBs just edged out Bonds’ 3 IBB in game 4 in 2002. Others with 3 IBB in a WS game are Ortiz, Pujols and Rudy York in 1946.
But I was just looking at the list of 3 or more IBBs in one game, playoff or no.
Bonds leads with 17: 16 regular season and 1 postseason game
Ruth is second with 6 regular season games
Ohtani is now at 1
Only three other players have as many as 3: Ryan Howard, Mark McGwire and Nick Etten (during WWII)
So yes, it was extraordinary, but Shohei has a ways to go before he can get compared with Bonds. Ruth is the better comparison, because you were walking him to face Gehrig. No one remembers who hit behnd Bonds. (In 2004 I think it was usually Edgardo Alfonzo, who wasn’t a bad hitter, but wasn’t Mookie Betts.)
Believe it or not, Benito Santiago hit behind Bonds in ’02 — Bonds hit clean-up.
Bonds did it the whole ’02 post-season, Ohtani has been out of his mind “just” for the NLCS clincher & 3 WS games, but… I still wouldn’t pitch to him.
In the 2002 postseason, Bonds was intentionally walked 3 times by the Braves, 3 times by the Cardinals, and a hefty 7 times by the Angels — 13 times in 17 games. He was also unintentionally walked another 14 times, several of which were surely intentional as well. 27 walks in 17 games.
So far in his 13 games this year, Ohtani has been walked 12 times, 7 intentionally. In the at most 4 remaining games, I doubt Ohtani can catch him, unless we get another 18 inning game or two.
On 5/29 the Blue Jays were 28-28 and had a -14 run differential. We were 26-29 and had a +14 run differential.
I don’t think you should announce this is your strategy, but I do think that if you’re in the World Series, you can look at a guy on the other team and say, “We’re not letting that guy beat us.” If Seranthony hadn’t grooved a pitch to Shohei, the Jays might be up 3-1!
Didn’t see this charge coming from the Blue Jays. The Dodgers are hitting like the Braves.
Man, as I try to size up the offseason, I keep coming back to the same place: barring some sort of huge 8-9 player trade or something, AA is stuck at so many important spots. He doesn’t have much money to spend, so he can’t just go buy a bunch of bullpen arms. He’s pretty much committed to his rotation with Sale, Lopez, Strider, Schwellenbach, Waldrep and a load of pitching prospects he probably doesn’t want to waste. And 7 of the 9 lineup spots are locked up longterm. So like I said, short of him dealing guys he’s locked up (which he said he wouldn’t do), then you’re almost forced to just hope everybody rebounds and stays healthy.