From Bryan Hoch:
Cam Schlittler pitched what was celebrated as “the game of his life” in the American League Wild Card Series last October, announcing his presence on the postseason stage with a gritty performance that sent the Red Sox home.
That designation may have been premature. The more Schlittler pitches at this level, those performances look like his standard.
The 25-year-old right-hander dominated again on Wednesday, striking out seven over 6 1/3 scoreless innings while retiring the final 15 batters he faced in a 5-3 victory over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
“The biggest thing is just pitching with a lead, making sure I’m taking care of what I need to do, being efficient,” Schlittler said. “Limiting the walks, hits and strikeouts is a good way to put the team in a position to win.”
It’s truly hilarious how much Schlittler looks a lot like a better version of, say, Clark Schmidt, Will Warren, and Luis Gil, except for one thing – at one point, he just stopped fucking around like those guys constantly do, and he’s been transformative.
They all have great stuff, but Schlittler is showing what it looks like when you’re smart with great stuff. It’s what makes Gerrit Cole such an amazing pitcher. He has amazing stuff, but he’s also smart. Max Fried has pretty good stuff, but he’s also very smart, so Fried is a great pitcher, too. Schlittler is truly looking like a mini-Gerrit Cole right now, and it is such an outstanding thing for the Yankees. It’s a true game-changer.
Think about a Cole/Fried/Schlittler playoff rotation. Or hell, for all we know, by the end of the season, it might be Schlittler/Cole/Fried, with Carlos fucking Rodon as the NUMBER FOUR STARTER!! That shit is SICK.
Okay, we all acknowledge the awesomeness of Schlittler (and he, of course, gets the header image. It’s a shot of him celebrating a big K. It actually isn’t as cool looking as I would have liked), so let’s talk about the bad stuff. Austin Wells continues to be an absolute zero at the plate, Jazz is struggling (as is Cabby), and, the oddest of them all, Aaron Judge has had six pretty embarrassing games so far. Luckily, he also hit two home runs, but boy, he has been striking out a TON (11 strikeouts in 6 games is a ton).
Grisham hasn’t been great, either, but he’s playing great defense, which is nice.
Belli, Rice, and Stanton have been carrying the offense, and Goldy obviously had a big game today, as well. But, well, let’s be frank, if you have three dudes in the middle of the lineup doing major damage every game, your team is GOING to score some runs, ya know? So I’m not too worried about the offense.
The bullpen didn’t have a good game, but honestly, I can’t even be too concerned about Doval and Bednar. For Doval, he pitched poorly, but he left with two outs, the bases loaded, and most importantly, NO RUNS IN. Boone absolutely made the right call to go to Bednar with Raleigh up as the tying run. I think that was very impressive, honestly, move-wise. It was a “going for the throat” type of move we don’t normally see from Boone. But we have seen good relievers load the bases MANY times over the years. Mo would do it. D-Rob. Andrew Miller. Chapman. It happens sometimes. The issue here was that another pitcher was the more reliable guy to get the final out. That isn’t too much of a shot at Doval.
Bednar just gave up a slap hit to a very good hitter, and then struck out another good hitter to get out of it.
The ninth inning was annoying, as Bednar continued his weird “dick around” shit he does, but come on, that game was never in real jeopardy in the ninth once they had a three-run lead. The two-out hit that drove in Bednar’s first run allowed this season was also just a slap hit. Bednar hasn’t been as good this year as he was last year, but I’m attributing that to the WBC stuff. I’m sure he’ll calm down with the stuff (his stuff has been way more in the zone this year. It’s a BAD idea), but what I’m less sure about is whether he’ll stop dicking around. That shit annoys me.
But whatever, long story short, I don’t think it’s fair to give Doval too much shit, and Bednar deserves a decent amount of shit, but not THAT much, either. And Cruz, meanwhile, was good.
So, all in all, not concerned. I guess, if I were to be concerned about anything, it would be about losing Headrick when Luis Gil is called up. That doesn’t feel like a boon to the bullpen, right? I actually LIKE Blackburn, but why do we they have TWO long men in the bullpen, coupled with a guy in Winquest who THEY DON’T TRUST TO PITCH ANY GAME? How much value is there in holding on to Winquest’s rights so that they can option him next season if they just NEVER let him pitch? It’s very strange roster management, and I am going to be unhappy when Headrick gets sent down when he’s actually been a valuable member of the bullpen so far (Bird is the only other option, and he has looked even better than Headrick, I think).
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