View from the catwalk: Snell’s Cy Young campaign continues

Blake Snell, CY Young contender, toyed with a no-hitter, before giving up a home run to lead off the seventh inning. He finished out the seventh before exiting the game.

Marc Topkin wrote about Snell, with a pretty fantastic quote from manager Kevin Cash:

“Yeah, I can’t lie, I was okay with the hit coming because I don’t know, he wasn’t going to get to that 140 pitches as bad as everybody else would have wanted him to,’’ Cash said. “It just wasn’t going to happen. (Pitching coach) Kyle (Snyder) would have beat me down and made me go out there (and take him out).’’

lololol

I’m not entirely convinced Cash really would have pulled him with the no-hitter going—it’s easy to say so afterward and laugh about it—but I respect the sentiment and the commitment to protecting player health.

More good quotes from Cash and also from Terry Francona, in the article.

Rays Links

• Tommy Rancel wrote about Nick Ciuffo, and broke down his trouble preventing the stolen base. It turns out that Ciuffo is fine. Good even. Chaz Roe, on the other hand, struggles mightily to control the running game.
• There should be a proposed financing plan for the potential Ybor stadium by the end of the year. The details matter here, so can’t wait to see them.
• Quick Trivia, this one is easy: Who is the Rays single season saves leader? Who is number two?
• From Topkin’s roundup, Ji-Man Choi is playing for Snell’s Cy Young campaign.

“Every at-bat where you can hit a home run, you feel great,’’ he said. “Especially tonight, helping contribute to a bring a win for Snell. He’s racing for the Cy Young Award, so I hope he gets it at the end of the season. I feel great in how I helped to bring him the win.”

• Tommy Pham is getting in on the campaign.

• I hadn’t realized just how much Choi has been platooned in his brief MLB career.

• The Rays have invested in international scouting and signgings, and it’s paying dividends.

Other Links

• David Laurila talked to Astros manager A.J. Hinch aboout bullpen management. Very good interview, including some insight into the modern playing of matchups:

“Matchups are more specific than just handedness. For a long time, handedness would be used as the single most important factor, and that’s just not the case anymore. Now it’s, ‘Where in the strike zone can a pitcher exploit with his best pitches?’ Is it a guy with hop, a high-carry fastball with great spin? Is it a guy who can spin a breaking ball more effectively? Is it the angle of the breaking ball — a sideways, lateral breaking ball versus a top-down breaking ball? Those are things that factor in and layer context into a decision of who the best matchup is for each specific hitter. The more we study it, the more we experience it and have success with it… that creates confidence to try to always have your best weapon up against their best hitters.

• Stephen Strasburg hit three people with one pitch.

• It seems like David Price won’t opt out of his contract with the Red Sox.
• Behind the pay wall, Russell Carleton notes a few interesting characteristics of replacement fielders, specifically on the CF-RF spectrum, and on the SS-2B spectrum.
• Jay Jaffe wrote about Oakland’s rotation, which was thin, even before the injury to Sean Manaea.
• Jeff Sullivan wrote about the weird park factor in Citi Field.
• Steven Goldman streamed some consciousness, and I like it, particularly this phrase: “one of the second-best baseball books.”