Bellinger and Judge: whelp of a beaten cur.

Supposedly the reaction of American League president Ban Johnson when told of the concern of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey that some of his players had taken money from gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds:

"That's the whelp of a beaten cur."

Cody Bellinger: rookie on 2017 Dodgers who lost the World Series to the Houston Astros in 7 games.
Aaron Judge: rookie on the 2017 Yankees who lost the ALCS to the Houston Astros in 7 games.

Addressed in about three dozen posts here on this ridiculous non issue has been the actual impact on the field, a.k.a., what "edge" did the Astros actually get ... and remember, that "edge" was only in their home games.

Yesterday Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge made the unfortunate decision to speak out about the admission by members of the 2017 Houston Astros that they had violated MLB rules in stealing signs of opposing teams and getting that information to Astros hitters in real time.

No matter how non intuitive it may seem, there does not appear to any real substantive "edge" for the Astros. The previous post dealt directly with games one and two of the 2017 ALCS in Houston, both won by the Astros 2-1:

2017 Astros 2-1 ALCS scores against the Yankees reviewed. Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Both Bellinger and Judge, along with too many other players, take the simple minded view that this type of cheating automatically means that the cheaters gained an advantage so great that it eliminated fair competition. Let's look at the 2017 series in which the Houston Astros beat both the Yankees and Dodgers. Let's also look at how Bellinger and Judge performed in those series.

2017 ALCS: home team won all seven games; this is very unusual.

1: Houston 2-1; Judge 1 for 3, BB, SO

2: Houston 2-1; Judge 0 for 4, 2 SO

3: New York 8-1; Judge 1 for 3, HR, 3 RBI, BB

4: New York 6-4; Judge 2 for 3, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, BB, SO

5: New York 5-0; Judge 1 for 3, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 SO

6: Houston 7-1; Judge 1 for 4, HR, RBI, BB, SO

7: Houston 4-0; Judge 0 for 4, SO

Judge OPS for the seven games: 1.065. But clearly Judge did most of his damage in New York, not in Houston where the Astros would have cheated. In Houston in four games:

2 for 15, HR, RBI, 2 BB, 5 SO.

In game 6 Astros led 3-0 when Judge homered in the 8th. Astros answered right back with 4 in the 8th, making it 7-1.

Judge should have just kept quiet and kept his dignity.

2017 World Series: 

1: in LA Dodgers 3-1; Bellinger 0 for 3, SO

2: in LA Astros 7-6, 10 inn; Bellinger 0 for 4, 2 SO

3: in Houston Astros 5-3; Bellinger 0 for 4, 4 SO

4: in Houston Dodgers 6-2; Bellinger 2 for 4, 2 2B, RBI, SO

5: in Houston Astros 13-12, 10 inn; Bellinger 2 for 5, 3B, HR, 4 RBI, 2 SO

6: in LA Dodgers 3-1; Bellinger 0 for 4, 4 SO

7: in LA Astros 5-1; Bellinger 0 for 4, 3 SO

As in the Yankees ALCS the Astros didn't score amazing numbers of runs, except in the WS in game 5 the slugfest. Astros did win two 10 inning games, the types which always cause second guessing for the losing team; only one was in Houston.

Bellinger had two big games, both in Houston but his Dodgers only split those two. He also had two: 0 for 4, 4 SO.

Bellinger had 17 SO in seven games! How dumb do you have to be to draw attention to a series like that? Sign stealing had nothing to do with the hitting of either Judge or Bellinger. NOTHING.

In game 7 Bellinger also made a throwing error on the second play of the game, which caused an unearned run to score.

The Dodgers and Astros both scored 34 runs and the Dodgers pitchers had a slightly lower ERA.

So how likely is it that any stealing of signs caused either the Yankees or Dodgers to lose their series against the Astros in 2017? Not very. Given that, both Bellinger and Judge, but especially Bellinger, should keep their mouths shut. At least Judge wore his hat straight in making his statement, unlike Bellinger, who looked like a complete doofus a few days before.

Showing posts with label Signs.