Source: http://ift.tt/1qmll7A --- Sunday, November 05, 2017
Pitching, pitching, pitching. Much like the real estate agent’s exclamation of “Location, location, location,” it’s what truly defines success in major league Baseball. Sure the game is now about thumpers capable of blasting 40 home runs per season despite striking out 180 times, but what happened this postseason? The Astros relied on a red-hot Justin Verlander, plus key outings by Lance McCullers Jr. and others, to fend off the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven-game classic. In the end, pitching prevailed. The Phillies, as you probably have noticed, have little quality pitching. There is one hope, the surgical Aaron Nola, whose two-seamer can make batters’ eyes roll and whose curveball can toss them right into the garbage heap. Nola is good. Very good. In fact, I have a totally subjective list of the best pitchers in Baseball. Tier one is Clayton Kershaw (kind of his own tier, to be honest), Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Dallas Kuechel, Corey Kluber, Madison Bumgarner, Stephen Strasburg (when healthy) and Noah Syndergaard (when healthy). Nola is now on the next tier, along with guys like Carlos Carrasco, Jacob deGrom and Yu Darvish. He can be an ace on some teams but is most comfortable as a No. 2 or even a No. 3. Right now Nola is the unquestioned No. 1. That’s fine if the Phils acquire a pitcher with Nola’s ability to work deep into games and strike out close to (or at least) double-digit batters. But if the Phils fail to get anyone ...
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