Part 1: Madison Bumgarner's epic World Series finish, Part 2: Why Four Man Rotation is better than a Five Man Rotation 7/18/18

Part 1:

I am watching a video called: Rewinder: Madison Bumgarner's epic World Series finish deserves a deep rewind | 2014 Giants-Royals Game 7. This video talks about Madison Bumgarner 2014 playoffs and the Giants won it all that year. The video starts with a picture of the last at-bat, Bumgarner vs Salvador Perez, with Alex Gordon on third base. But first, the video has an explanation of why Game 7 of the WS is in Kansas City. The reason is that the AL won the All-Star game due to Adam Wainwright throwing meatballs to Derek Jeter. The reason Wainwright was throwing meatballs was that 2014 was Jeter's last year before retirement. Wainwright was simply paying tribute, and Jeter hit one of those meatballs for a double. The double lead to a big rally, and the AL eventually won the game 5-3. But this actually helped the Giants because they were able to play with the DH. The DH for game 7 was Michael Morse, who has driven 2 of the 3 runs, one on a sac fly with the bases loaded, and the other with some help with KC's stadium. Playing at Kansas City helped because of the wet grass. Pablo Sandoval hit a little groundball to Omar Infante, who slipped on the wet grass and Sandoval got a base hit. Then, because of KC's deep outfield walls, Sandoval tagged on a ball to left field and got to third. Then Michael Morse drove him in with a bloop single to break the 2-2 tie. The other run came from a Brandon Crawford sac fly. KC could have more runs, but the recently expanded replay helped out the Giants. With a man on first and no outs, Eric Hosmer hit what looked like would become a first and third situation. But Joe Panik made a diving play and turned two, but Hosmer was called safe. But Bruce Bochy challenged the call and it was overturned, shutting down a potential rally. I will continue this story tomorrow since it is really long.

Part 2:

I am continuing to read "Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong". The chapter I am reading is about why a four-man pitching rotation is better than a five-man pitching rotation. The first argument is the stats (ERA, win percentage, SO rate, HR/inning, opposing BA, innings pitched) is in favor of four-man rotation, with them having an edge in almost every statistic. Another argument is obviously, your four best pitchers are going to be better than your five best pitchers because for most teams, the fifth starter is average at best or well below average at worst. The third argument is the manager gets an extra roster spot with the subtraction of the number 5 starter, which could be a fast runner or power bat off the bench. The most recent team to try a four-man rotation is the 1995 Kansas City Royals. They started off well, but eventually went downhill due to terrible decisions by the manager. The manager often let the four starters go too deep into games, which broke down the starters arms, and the Royals were pretty much doomed to fail. Overall, this chapter was very interesting and the next chapter I am going to read is about drafting high school players.