Last Saturday night the Dodgers wrapped up an absolutely epic World Series with an extra innings win to repeat as world champions. This was one of the best postseasons and World Series I’ve ever witnessed and as a pure fan of the game I loved it.
Game 7 was an overwhelming success and global event. Over 27 million Americans tuned in to the game. Night after night the numbers were good, with the Series averaging about 16 million viewers per game in the States. That 27 million number means more people watched Game 7 of the World Series than the college football championship game, Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the March Madness final.
But unlike in previous eras this truly is a World Series nowadays. Adding in Canada and Japan, the game brought in over 51 million viewers. The Series averaged nearly 33 million viewers across the three baseball crazy countries.
For the fourth time in 6 years the World Series outdrew the NBA Finals. As far as post season ratings go, the sport is in great shape. Let’s hope the interested parties realize the positive momentum and work towards a collective bargaining agreement.
The End of the World Series means the beginning of the off season. We’ll start our If I Was Perry pieces next week. In the meantime, the Angels did something we all like.
Maddux is a universally respected pitching coach and the move is a bit of a shock. Yes, he has family in the area and the Rangers are undergoing a management change, but a 1 year deal in a shipwreck of an organization seems like an offer he could beat elsewhere. Either way, I’m stoked he’s here and the Angels wasted no time snagging him a new toy.
If I tried to recap all of the players waived, outrighted, claimed, and changing teams this week this column would be a mile long. Suffice it to say, mlbtraderumors.com is your friend for the next few months.
The above mentioned managerial change in Texas is due to Bruce Bochy stepping down. Many figured he’d find his way back to San Francisco and he has. Not as a manager, though, Bochy will be a special assistant to his former catcher Buster Posey.
Certain guys just belong certain places. For Bochy, that place is SF. I’m sure the fans will be happy to see him milling around Scottsdale Stadium next March.
After the playing season there is awards season. Rawlings announced the Gold Glove Award winners this week and the list features 9 first timers.
A site I need to link more often, fieldingbible.com, also released their defensive awards list. Congrats to Patrick Bailey for being the best defensive player in all of baseball.
If you look at the team rankings, the Angels finished 28th out of 30 teams with -45 defensive runs saved. I know we all point the finger at pitching, but until the defense is sound the pitchers will always suffer.
In my off season piece I plan on emphasizing defense and on base percentage. We have the dingers. Who will I acquire? We shall see.
For those of you wishing to join along in the off season fun, FanGraphs has their list of Top 50 free agents and salary estimates available. Not to be outdone, MLBTR published their list and guesstimates as well.
MLBTR has their arbitration salary estimate list out as well as a comprehensive list of free agents they update frequently.
Just released yesterday is the list of players receiving a Qualifying Offer. Remember, the QO is a one year deal worth about $22 million. If the player rejects it a club signing him will be hit with draft and international bonus slot penalties.
Intern Yorke Lee is a talented writer who is learning more about baseball through this experience. He published two nice pieces on potential Japanese third base targets. I recommend you read them both. One and Two.
On the flip side, I can talk baseball with intern Landon all day and he’s learning to go from strict newspaper writing to finding his own voice. He published a nice piece on Raudi Rodriguez who is tearing up the Arizona Fall League.
Obviously the biggest news around here centers on the Tyler Skaggs trial. This case is such a microsim of modern day America. It is like a soap opera with money, power, and drugs all culminating in the death of a young man and devastation all around him. Except every single bit of this is real.
Angels team doctor Craig Millhouse prescribed Eric Kay over 600 opioid pills from 2009 to 2013. In hindsight that looks like obvious addiction, but back then the medical industry was using a bogus, paid by Pharma study saying Oxy wasn’t very addictive. Millhouse prescribed Vicodin and Norco which are in the same boat.
If you haven’t watched Dopesick on Hulu, I highly, highly recommend it. One family pretty much started this epidemic and has laughed all the way to the bank as our family members and friends have died left and right. The only shocking thing is that the loopholes in our “healthcare” system weren’t exploited to this degree before they decided to do so.
Meanwhile a former clubhouse attendant in Tempe testified he saw Kay crush and snort a pill and that Kay’s drug use was known within the organization. Sorry for the paywall links, but that’s where I can find coverage.
After all that, let’s get back to a better time and age. Weaver had enough of this douchebag and did what needed to be done.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. We will celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday among a host of other things I have going on. Keep plugging away. We have lots of days off coming up.
