Odds and ends as this weird season nears the finish line:
* In case you missed it, last Tuesday, Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu took a 48.7 mph pitch thrown by Blue Jays infielder Santiago Espinal and launched it into the left-field seats. Espinal was mopping up in the ninth inning of New York’s 20-6 blowout win at Yankee Stadium.
It was the slowest pitch recorded since the pitch-tracking era that began in 2008.
* Broncos Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater was known as the “Smiling Assassin.” LeMahiue is the “Silent Assassin.” He says little but he’s a killer on the baseball field.
* LeMahieu, a Gold Glover, entered the weekend hitting .373 with 10 home runs, a 1.067 OPS and a 189 OPS+. He signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Yankees that ranks as one of the great steals in recent memory. LeMahieu wanted to stay in Colorado and his teammates desperately wanted him back. Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich thought otherwise.
* Instead, the Rockies signed Daniel Murphy to a two-year, $24 million deal. Murphy is a below-average fielder and has lost his job as the starting first baseman to Josh Fuentes. In his time with the Rockies, Murphy has hit .270, with 16 homers, a .745 OPS and an 81 OPS+.
* Commissioner Rob Manfred wants baseball’s expanded, 16-team playoffs to remain in place after the 2020 season.
“I’m a fan of the expanded playoffs,” Manfred said during an online event hosted by Hofstra University. “I think getting back to that three-game series in the first round is a positive change. I think the initial round could have the kind of appeal you see in the early couple days in the NCAA Tournament. It’s going to be crazy — just a lot of baseball in a compressed period of time. We’re going to have a bracket, obviously. People love brackets and love picking who’s going to come through those brackets. It is one of those changes that I hope becomes a permanent part of our landscape.”
* I hate this idea. For this one season it’s great, but not forever. Why does baseball keep thinking it has to be like the NFL, NBA or NHL?
Joe Posnanski, a senior writer for The Athletic and one of the best baseball writers of our time, expressed it better than I could:
“The people running baseball used to understand that the playoffs are antithetical to the balance and rhythms of the sport. Baseball is a game for the long season. It’s a game meant to be played every day from the beginning of spring through the humidity of summer and into the falling leaves of autumn. While other team sports like football, basketball and hockey are built around matchups and two-minute drives and last-minute shots and desperately pulling your goalie, baseball greatness comes out of a 162-game march, finding a way to take two out of three series after series, playing through the slumps, riding the waves for as long as possible, winning with your fifth starter on the mound and your backup catcher hitting eighth and your bullpen depleted after three close games in a row.”
* Finally, I was speaking on the radio with KKFN’s Sandy Clough and he asked me to find some positive aspects to a Rockies season that began with such promise and has turned into a disaster. Four things popped into my mind:
1. The resurgence of left-handed starter Kyle Freeland.
2. The emergence and maturation of right-handed starter Antonio Senzatela.
3. The blossoming of Raimel Tapia as a leadoff hitter, though he still has work to do as an outfielder.
4. The remarkable comeback of closer Daniel Bard, who started out just wanting to make the team and turned out to be Colorado’s best reliever.
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