Finis

The Brewers sent the Cubs packing with a 3-1 win last night at a rocking American Family Field to clinch the NLDS. Put another way, the team that finished 22nd in homeruns during the regular season bested the team that finished with the sixth most longballs by outhomering them, three taters to one. Best of all, ex-White Sox Andrew Vaughn hit the deciding go-ahead homer for his new team in the fourth inning. Oh, where to start? The emperor’s new clothes seems the best bet, the emperor here being Cubs’ team chair and de facto owner Tom Ricketts. This is the man who claims his cash cow is but a small or medium market franchise. Hence, only the tenth highest team payroll this year, per sportrac.com. Up until around 9:30 or so last night, Ricketts was probably feeling downright proud of himself. Why, his team with a $211.9 million payroll had a good shot at advancing to the NLCS. Not like the Mets, who didn’t even make the postseason despite spending $342.4 million on player salaries. Too bad the real small-to-medium market team, the one with the eighth-lowest payroll ($121.7 million), won when it counted. The other team? Oh, they played the analytics-driven game of longball and launch angle all season while their opponents opted for on-base percentage. The team that had the sixth most homers in the regular season lost the division, let alone the NLDS, to the team that finished with the second-highest on-base percentage. And that really mattered because the home team won every game in the series. Would the Brewers have won game five if it were played at Wrigley Field? I really, really doubt it. But we’ll never know, courtesy of front-office decisions made by Jed Hoyer and company, at the behest of their emperor. Which leads me to my last point, that Emperor Ricketts also subscribed to the Jerry Krause dictum that players and coaches alone don’t win championships, organizations do. That’s were willing to spend $40 million in the 2023 offseason to make Craig Counsell the highest paid manager in baseball. (The Dodgers’ Dave Roberts signed an extension at the beginning of 2025 that gives him $8.1 million a season to Counsell’s $8 million.) The Cubs thought Counsell provided more value than any potential free-agent signing. In other words, they spent money to save money, however imaginary the savings might be. Great philosophy, only it didn’t work for the Krause’s Bulls after Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson left, and it’s not working for the cash cow on Addison. Let’s see if the postseason changes anything.

Not My Cup of Tea

I bailed on the Tigers-Mariners’ ALDS game five after thirteen innings. Where FOX announcer Adam Amin saw baseball poetry in motion which he described in hyperbolic flourishes, I saw two teams incapable of bunting the ball or stealing a base. Heaven forbid someone try a hit-and-run. The Tigers struck out seventeen times in fifteen innings, the Mariners twenty (!) times in 14.1. Somebody had to win, and it was the Mariners 3-2 on a walk-off single by Jorge Polanco. Yea. They still lose to the Blue Jays in the ALCS.

Sister Jean

Sister Jean Schmidt died yesterday at the age of 106. She was an actual person turned into a media star. If you’re Catholic and of a certain age, the odds are you knew someone like Sister Jean, a teacher probably along the way from kindergarten through twelfth grade, although it’s worth noting Sister Jean also taught on the college level. If you’re looking for a “the nun(s) beat me every day for x-years” story here, sorry, I don’t have one. Members of the Sister Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary taught me as best they could at St. Gall. In many ways, I was a challenging case. Sister Jerome Marie, my teacher in fourth grade, gave me batting tips, which was very nice of her considering how I tried to forge my mother’s name on my report card in the spring. Like I said, no “she beat me silly” stories here. To me, Sister Jean and Sister Jerome Marie are interchangeable; nuns were jacks—and maybe Jills—of all trades who helped the students entrusted in their care. Because she was the team chaplain for the Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team and Loyola went deep in the NCAA tournament in 2018, a national audience learned all about Sister Jean, or some cute version of her. Make it to 106, and you outlive just about everyone you’ve ever cared about. Age brings sorrow as well as wisdom. That Sister Jean chose to smile for the cameras diminished neither her wisdom nor her sorrow. We’re diminished, or should be, by her passing.

Minority Report

According to today’s Tribune via the AP, viewership was way up for MLB’s Wild Card Series, especially among the young folks. There were big gains registered for both the under-35 and under-17 demographics. Something about trotting out relief pitchers, maybe, in which case I don’t get it. What’s so exciting about watching a parade of pitchers following the starter, e.g., seven relievers for the Guardians in their October 2nd loss to the Tigers? And who gets a kick out of watching batters fan time after time, e.g., the first Tigers-Guardians’ game that featured 28 strikeouts? I can’t wait to see the numbers for the ALDS and NLDS. I mean, the Yankees struck out fifteen times against eight Toronto pitchers on October 5th. Talk about exciting.

Like I Said

Pardon my crude analytics, but I said the other day the Blue Jays should’ve kept Trey Yesavage in for more than 5.1 innings of no-hit ball on 78 pitches. Here’s why. Last night in the Bronx, four of the relievers who appeared in Sunday’s game came out again in what at one time was a 6-3 Toronto lead. Three of those four were scored on, this after they posted scoreless outings on Sunday. So, it does in fact look like the Yankees gained momentum scoring those seven runs in a 13-7 loss. Final score of Yankees 9 Blue Jays 6. But what do I know?

The Ex- Factor

Oh, my Cub-loving hardware guy must’ve been in seventh heaven last night after Seiya Suzuki hit a three-run homerun in the top of the first inning. Cubs 3 Brewers 0. Oh, to have seen his reaction when ex-White Sox Andrew Vaughn tied the game with a three-run homer of his own in the bottom half of the inning. Final score: Brewers 7 Cubs 3. After the game, Vaughn said all the right things while his teammates and manager said all the nice things. All White Sox fans can do is note that Vaughn was hitting .189 when he was shipped off as opposed to the .308 BA he put up just north of the border. Nothing says “good trade” for a team better than the player you acquired having 46 RBIs in a mere 221 at-bats. How did the 27-year old, former first-round pick do it? In part, he credits working “my butt off” at Triple-A Nashville and then taking advantage of the opportunity when the Brewers called him up. [quote in story today on team website] And nothing more than that? Vaughn never struck me as a prima donna in any sense of the term applied to sports. After he homered, Clare texted, “That’s the first time I ever saw Andrew Vaughn smile,” which is probably little if any exaggeration. The guy was always serious, always looking to do his part. But it didn’t work. If the trade shook him and showed him he had to change, good for Andrew Vaughn. If the Milwaukee minor- and major-league coaching staff was able to reach him unlike anyone with his former team, shame on the White Sox. I checked, and none of the five hitting coaches in the Milwaukee system Vaughn has encountered since the trade got beyond Triple-A. It's not enough to go all-in on analytics, if that had anything to do with Andrew Vaughn’s resurgence. You have to have the right people doing the analyzing. The proof’s in the homerun that denied the Cubs any momentum.

Two Questions

First question: Why did Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider pull his starter? I ask because 22-year old Trey Yesavage had thrown 5.1 HITLESS innings, striking out eleven Yankees along the way. Yes, the Jays won 13-7, but why not let Yesavage at least go six innings? I mean, he’d thrown all of 78 pitches. If he goes six or seven, the Yankees may not have scored the seven runs they did off of Toronto relievers, giving them the tiniest bit of momentum. No doubt Schneider went by the analytics’ book. God forbid the home-team fans or those watching the game on television get a chance to see some no-hit history. In any event, the Yankees are now down two games to none, which leads to my second question. If Aaron Judge and company stink the way they did the previous two games, how will Yankee fans react? Class has never been a strong suit in the Bronx.