"Take It Up With The League Office" - Pete Alonso Got HOSED At The Plate Tonight
Hosed Down G's Up:
Maybe the most incredible early-May walk-off relay-throw double-play in the modern review era. Maybe a botched call or a bad slide. However you want to categorize the above play, we can all agree that's exactly how you hit the cutoff man and I'll talk about that in a second.
Right now though I am all in on Hot Mic content:
Advertisement
Take it up with the league office is worth a cover story on a traditional newspaper from a traditionally credible journalist from the mid-to-late 20th century. More telling though is we only got a single bullshit from Carlos Mendoza. Like that's incredible restraint given the moment, which thus makes me a huge Carlos Mendoza guy. He'll have that clubhouse going in August if he's that level-headed now. Just a hunch but I don't watch the Mets every day. I watch the Cubs and they won tonight because of a flawless cutoff play.
One more time for the youngsters:
Eddie Olczyk, with passion: Okay boys run it again. You're gonna see Happ starts it with a perfect glove-side, chest-high feed that let's Madrigal get momentum into a lightning-quick transfer while Amaya prepares to block just enough plate without triggering a dead ball violation. I know that's a mouthful but I mean every word. It's gorgeous baseball and truly, just great timing. Reminds me of a guy I played some juniors with that some of you watching might recognize as Tom Emanski. It's that style of play. The connectivity in the transaction to trusting your teammates to be in position. Classic, old fashioned and crisp. Regardless of the league's review situation, there's a lot of clean movement here for younger players at home right now.
Speaking of Emanski, nearly every travel dad in a 200 mile radius of Wrigley Field has already reinforced the above fundamentals on the team's group chat. Tomorrow's practice plan has been updated to recreate the exact same play, over and again, until coach runs out of gas on the fungo. Huge opportunity for youth coaches across the Chicago metropolitan area into the deep reaches of Cub country.
Some other observations on the play and the Cubs:
- Pete Alonso should be applauded for running hard and sliding head first in a contract season. So go ahead and applaud him for getting the uniform dirty and busting his ass down the line.
- Okay now stop applauding because Pete Alonso is objectively slow. Let's start there.
Advertisement
Shabby gif. Whatever. Big takeaway is that he's about a step away from grazing in Molina-family territory on the stopwatch scale. You might expect that but he was nearly league average his rookie season. So bigger perspective is that the bigger man is slower.
More importantly, he's due free agency and at least $200 million next winter where just about the only thing preventing that would be a catastrophic injury. So sliding head first in such an aggressive manner to miss home plate entirely probably triggered stroke-like brainwaves in his agent and immediate family. And as a risk averse baseball fan, I found it stupid too. Dave Kingman once said it for power hitters everywhere: they (the owner) ain't paying me to slide.
Correct: they're paying you to hit 50 home runs, which is impossible with a mangled top hand
- However and more importantly, I want to circle back to the applause. (Emphasis mine.) He deserves it because he obviously doesn't give one flying fuck about anything along the lines of what I just said. Pete just wants to smash baseballs and beat the opposition. So let me conclude with further nuance: going that hard should be celebrated at all times, and it's the exact reason I would love to see him on the Cubs next winter. (And hopefully never doing that shit again.)
Couple more things:
- Block the plate, yes. Instinctually, yes. On review, yes. Any decent Mets fans should carry a grudge over this with the league office. Numbers are better when the Cubs are good while the Mets average attendance is down 5k/game to 23,000 paid. Cook your conspiracies folks. A lot of Japan got up early to watch that game. I'm just saying.
- Speaking of Shota, he's been remarkable so far. I'll spare you the incalculable amount of words at my finger tips on the topic to just say that his success is driven from fastball deception. It acts much different than what hitters expect when swinging. He's otherwise unremarkable in most measurables, and that makes it even better. We got a front office operating off Japanese 4-seam spin rates while others actively cover-up fraudulent wire transfers. Feels good to get this one right on so many different levels.
- Some people are mad Shota came out after 7 shutout innings. I'd prefer those people turn the volume down or shut up all together.
- Instead, please focus your angst on the late-inning reliever situation. We (The Cubs) can weather plenty of starting rotation hiccups because we already have. The bullpen needs to catch up or get some more help. There's positives I can spin but right now I'd rather have a reliable closer so Hector Neris can go back to the 8th where he belongs. He can hold it down but this isn't why you signed him to the bullpen.
- Injuries. Everyone's injured and the Cubs are no different. I don't want to complain about it because we got a day game in like 12 hours and that's not helping. It's also way too early to bitch. Wait a couple weeks to categorize anything as unfair or complete fuckin bullshit.
Advertisement
- Seiya's oblique injury teeters on the complete fuckin bullshit. If we get there, I'm starting with him. But again, it's too early.
Very good chance I still complain
- Holding a 2-1 series lead after the first 3 games is pretty remarkable if you've paid attention. It's borderline creepy how this club keeps rattling off good series play. Nerds say that should turn any day but I'm compelled to believe in the mojo. They're on pace for 100 wins and now I'm slowly wanting more as things play out. Probably sounds crazy to someone not watching them every day but it's the truth. You can see it in tonight's Emanski. Nothing but a bunch of hard nosed ball players.
- Last thing though is that the Cubs have played like shit. Sloppy defense. Bad base running. Cold bats and inconsistent relief pitching. We're shuffling AAA starters and missing $40M in outfielders with torso injuries. Then add 4 rookies to the everyday lineup protected and flanked by a combined .340 slugging percentage from Dansby/Nico/Happ. None of this makes any sense yet here we are. So try to enjoy it while simultaneously recognizing they've been shitty, sloppy, banged up and some times just bad.
But all that's okay because we got a game tomorrow.
Who's pitching?