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Dave Cameron
12:05
Happy Wild Card Wednesday, everyone.
12:07
The playoffs have begun, and I just published some thoughts on the Yankees power display last night (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-yankees-are-overwhelmingly-powerful...), so obviously we'll talk about the postseason plenty today.
12:08
But I'm sure there are plenty of questions about what's going on in Atlanta, and other off-season issues, so we'll grab some of those too.
Also, I'm running the live blog for the NL Wild Card game tonight, so you'll get an overwhelming dose of me chatting today.
toki
12:09
What kind of penalties are you expecting the braves to be handed?  Do you expect them to lose prospects like the Red Sox did?
Dave Cameron
12:10
SInce we don't have the information, it's impossible to know, but it's not that hard to note that no one in Boston got fired or resigned, and A.J. Preller was just suspended by MLB when he was with Texas and was accused of doing some shady stuff on the international scene. If Coppolella was forced to resign over the accusations, it seems like whatever he got caught doing was probably more blatant than what BOS or TEX did, so yeah, I'd expect some significant penalties for the Braves are still to come.
12:12
I don't think MLB really wants to make a guy like Maitan a free agent unless they have to, though. If he gets $20 million or something if his contract is voided and he's allowed to sign with anyone for whatever teams want to offer, then it will become even more obvious to future players that it could be financially advantageous to them to engage in shady activity with a team, then turn in the team they signed with in order to become a free agent.
CamdenWarehouse
12:13
Are we at the tip of the iceberg point with the Braves or are we really supposed to think that Hart had no idea what Coppy was doing?
Dave Cameron
12:13
Again, without knowing what they did, it's difficult to say with any kind of certainty. But everyone in baseball knows how this stuff works, and it's difficult for me to believe that this was just Coppy and Blakely doing stuff by themselves with everyone else completely unaware.
CarrotJuice
12:14
Is it OK to skip a philosophy course to watch the NL Wild Card Game? Asking for a friend...
Dave Cameron
12:14
As long as it isn't a final, you have my full endorsement.
Chris
12:14
Recommendations on places to eat in Bend? Some thing
Dave Cameron
12:16
Wild Rose is a pretty interesting northern thai spot downtown. Spork is good. Bos Taurus, if you just won the lottery. If you're looking for more casual fare, Sunriver Brewing probably has the best food of the 25 or whatever brewpubs we have now.
The Average Sports Fan
12:16
Doesn't the Indians planned starters kinda fly in the face in what is supposed to be the disadvantage to the WC winner?
Dave Cameron
12:17
Well, the primary disadvantage for the Wild Card team is that they have to play their way in, and use their #1 starter generally to get through that game, meaning he only makes one start in the DS. But Severino didn't work long enough to have to wait until Game 3 to start, so that disadvantage probably went away. Now their disadvantage is Robertson and maybe Kahnle/Green won't be available for Game 1.
12:18
But yeah, this starting Kluber in game 2 thing is weird. I get that he'd only be able to pitch in Game 5 either way, so it might not matter, but you're risking only getting one start out of him if there's a rainout.
If you throw Bauer on Thursday, and then Friday's game is canceled for weather -- it's October in Cleveland, after all -- then you're screwed, because he'd have to go Saturday in Game 2 and Game 5 would still be Wednesday, so your only option then would be to throw him on short rest.
12:19
It's just not a risk I'd be willing to take.
doodus
12:19
If you could have any reliever for the playoffs who would you take?
Dave Cameron
12:19
Andrew Miller
12:20
Kimbrel and Jansen are awesome too, but Miller gives you more flexibility with the early entrance comfort.
Dontrelle Willis
12:20
Who are the Dodgers rooting for tonight?
Dave Cameron
12:20
Probably the Rockies. They won't admit it, but COL is just a much easier matchup.
Ryan from NC
12:21
I was going to ask you about Kiley McDaniel's status in light of ongoing Atlanta implosion.  But then I read that he's been "demoted" to West Coast crosschecker.  https://www.talkingchop.com/2017/10/3/16413510/atlanta-braves-reassign...
Dave Cameron
12:21
He didn't get demoted; he took that job several weeks ago, well before all this came out.
Q-Ball
12:22
From the outside, it looked like Coppolella was doing a really good job rebuilding the Braves.  Couple headscratcher moves (Kemp, Olivera), but mostly he was doing a good job on surface.  Would you agree with that?
Dave Cameron
12:22
Nope.
The farm system is in good shape, but the Major League team is mostly a mess.
The prospects are mostly very high risk types.
12:23
I don't think the Braves are all that close to being good, and they haven't done a good job of managing fan expectations.
J
12:23
If Cleveland is down 2-1 in the series with Tomlin on the mound in game 4.... are they making a mistake?
Dave Cameron
12:23
I think they're making a mistake either way.
Zonk
12:23
Who is your pick for NL MVP?
Dave Cameron
12:24
I honestly don't know. I didn't have a ballot this year, so I haven't gone through the process of splitting all those hairs.
There are a lot of legitimate candidates.
Eric
12:24
We finally got (almost) a bullpen game!
Dave Cameron
12:25
It works pretty well if you have four guys throwing 98.
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
12:25
Once Severino was pulled, were you impressed with how the Yankees managed their 'pen? Or do you think there was too much or too little of an arm?
Dave Cameron
12:26
GIrardi handled it really well. I probably wouldn't have used Chapman up by four, and taken that as an opportunity to see whether Betances could earn some trust back, but I get why he didn't want to mess around with potentially having to bring Chapman in to fix Betances' mess.
Mac
12:26
I saw something about how the indians gained an advantage by how much Robertson and green pitched yesterday. With the day off could they still pitch tomorrow, granted not for as long?
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