27 thoughts on “January 22, 2024: Blue(sky) Monday”

  1. Saturday, Estrellas scored two in the seventh to take the lead and defeated Licey 7-5 in game one of the championship series. Willians Astudillo somehow came over to Estrellas and was 0-for-4. Miguel Sano was 1-for-2 with a home run and three RBIs. Lewin Diaz was 2-for-2. Marcelo Martinez started and pitched five shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out five. Carlos Belen got the win despite giving up an unearned run on one hit in a third of an inning. Ronel Blanco pitched a perfect ninth, striking out one, to get the save.

    Sunday, Estrellas scored two in the eight to break a 2-2 tie and defeated Licey 4-2 in game two of the championship series. Miguel Sano was 0-for-2. Lewin Diaz was 1-for-5 with an RBI. Willians Astudillo was 0-for-3. Robinson Cano was 3-for-5 with two doubles. Raimel Tapia was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Jose Barrero was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Dairon Blanco was 2-for-5. Jeff Kinley started and pitched 2.2 innings, giving up two hits and two walks and striking out one. Luis Gonzalez pitched a scoreless inning, walking one, to get the win. Neftali Feliz pitched a scoreless ninth, giving up a hit and striking out one, for the save.

  2. With 50 percent of the ballots made public, Joe Mauer still sitting at about 83% meaning he needs to be on 2/3 of the remaining ballots to be enshrined. Wouldn't it be a typical Minnesota men's sports story that we get taunted with the possibility of Joe being a first ballot candidate and then falling just short at the end? 33 hours to the unveiling so it won't be long.

    https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=F2E5D8FC5199DFAF%2154244&authkey=!AGrU1OUsbz4WHyU

      1. One of thee to vote for Bobby Abreu but not Mauer. The other two are Erik Boland, a Yankees beat writer, and Octavio Sequera, whose LinkedIn page indicates they are the Senior Spanish Editor for NHL.com and who previously worked in production for MLS & MLB.

        1. Gammons has publicly stated that he meant to vote for Joe but somehow didn't. And double checking your work before turning something in is apparently a relatively recent step that's unknown to older voters like him.

              1. Nah. I am lamenting the demise of dead-tree journalism, with its resources for fact-checking and editing. 😬

                1. No-tree journalism can do the checking of facts just fine. It's a choice though that choice is rarely made by the writers.

    3. FanGraphs readers gave Mauer 81.1%.

      One of the oft-voiced complaints about voters publishing their ballots before the announcement is that it somehow ruins the suspense and surprise of the election day, yet this ballot and several other recent ones illustrate the opposite effect. With nearly half of the ballots unpublished before the envelope was opened, the fates of candidates like Walker (83.2% pre-election, 76.6% final in 2020), Schilling (77.3% pre-election, 70% final in 2020, then 71.1% and 72.4% in ’21), David Ortiz (83.4% pre-election, 77.9% final in 2022), and Rolen (80.1% pre-election, 76.3% final in 2023) have made for compelling drama. The Hall itself is well aware of this, which is why it’s never tried to crack down on voters revealing their ballots ahead of time. A suggestion from within the BBWAA to cut it out at last month’s winter meetings was practically laughed out of the room before it could even be formalized into a proposal and put to a vote.

      1. Apparently not all sportswriters understand the concept of “earned media,” even if it’s basically all they do unless they work for one of the league Pravdas.

  3. I picked up some oxtail from the local whole animal butcher and made Kenji’s caldo de costilla for supper on Saturday. Leftovers for lunch the past two days have been incredible. This was my first time making this soup with oxtail, and think it improved the richness of the broth over the times I’ve made it with ribs.

    1. I made some Jamaican braised oxtail earlier winter and I thought it was great but wayyyyyyy too greasy. Remade with short rib and it was regular greasy.

        1. Only managed to catch the final six minutes... grumble.

          I see that multiple guys can yank KAT's arm while he's trying to shoot for no call. I don't want him to get Embiid's whistle, but c'mon.

          1. I don't understand the Embiid whistle. He's the most brutally un-entertaining player to watch because of it combined with his flopping. The league should be embarrassed, and yet...

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