- 1 day ago
After 8 shutout innings, McCullough pulled Sandy in the 9th and the Marlins lost the game. Explaining why we’re not as upset with McCullough’s decision as we are about Sandy being disrespected before the decision.
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00:00Super weird night for South Florida sports, Miami sports.
00:07At the heat, what the hell?
00:09We're going to get into it with Solana's in a bad mood.
00:11Any Heat fan is in a bad mood.
00:13We'll get into it.
00:14But the Heat, what the hell, is the only thing I can say.
00:18The Marlins, what the hell?
00:20Clayton McCullough, what the hell?
00:22I mean, listen, I don't want to go off on a little tangent,
00:27but this is the guy, and Clayton McCullough,
00:30he had them in wild card contention late last season, so I'm not hating.
00:34This dude shadow banned Matt Mervis.
00:38He's shadow banning Davis and De Los Santos,
00:42and he can't, this Owen Casey can't get in the lineup.
00:46I saw somebody on Twitter say, hey, you got a guy who can mash.
00:51Hey, I'm calling him the Maple Masher because he hits singles.
00:54Guy wrote on Twitter, back in my day, a guy who can mash like that
00:58was in the lineup all the time.
01:00Owen Casey can't get in the lineup, regardless.
01:02Get in the box.
01:02Put him in the box.
01:03Regardless, he pulled Sandy last night in the nine.
01:07Was that thing I heard real?
01:09I heard somebody read the lips of back and forth where Sandy was cussing.
01:17They were going back and forth.
01:18Well, Sandy wasn't happy because Sandy said after the game,
01:21Mike Cugno is going to join us today.
01:22Mike Cugno was in the clubhouse last night, but Sandy said after the game,
01:27I wish he would have asked me if I was ready to come out.
01:30Because what happened was there were two runners on base.
01:34Alcantara had a two-nothing lead the ninth, and he was trying.
01:37I give McCullough all the credit in the world.
01:40He was trying to get him the complete game.
01:42A lot of managers don't even let them take the mound on the ninth.
01:45Now, there's a caveat to that, though.
01:49Their closer is on paternity leave.
01:53That's the guy who we talked about.
01:55What's his name?
01:57Fairbanks.
01:58Fairbanks.
01:58Yeah.
01:59We have a first name?
02:00Peter.
02:01Peter Fairbanks.
02:01Bunch of kids are born every day.
02:03So, I believe if Peter Fairbanks was available last night,
02:08Sandy never even gets the mound in the ninth.
02:10Fairbanks is your closer.
02:11You've got a two-nothing lead.
02:13He pitched a complete game, his second outing,
02:15and they're going to bring in the closer.
02:18I think McCullough, because there was no Fairbanks,
02:22allowed Sandy to go out there for the ninth.
02:24He gets two runners on.
02:25I think there were two runners on with one out, if I recall correctly.
02:28That's when McCullough made the mound visit,
02:31and before he got to the mound, he motioned for the bullpen.
02:35And Sandy said after the game,
02:37I should be asked if I'm ready to come out in that situation.
02:41Like, or I should be asked my opinion.
02:43So, he was not happy.
02:45He shouldn't have been.
02:46A guy like Sandy, let me know if I'm wrong with baseball.
02:49A guy like Sandy, you don't take him out.
02:52You ask him.
02:52Like he said, do you, you good?
02:54You got two on.
02:56One out.
02:56Are you good?
02:57I believe, again, we can ask Cunho or someone who knows baseball better.
03:01I believe if you're established closer.
03:06Cy Young winner?
03:07But if, no, no, no.
03:08If you're established closer is ready to go,
03:11you don't need to ask him any kind of permission.
03:14But if you're going to, who'd they go to, Jimmy?
03:17Who'd they bring in?
03:18Bender.
03:19Bender.
03:20If you're going to Bender, in that instance,
03:23I give the Cy Young winner the ability to say,
03:28hey, keep me, even if you don't think he's right.
03:31Which, you remember that happened years ago
03:33with Grady Sizemore and the Red Sox.
03:35And it was, I mean, may have cost him his managerial job.
03:39But I think last night, a lot of stuff went wrong
03:45because the closer wasn't available,
03:47which is probably a different story
03:49and a different conversation to have.
03:50I spoke with my baseball people.
03:53And it's not so much about...
03:57I got to know.
03:57I'll bite.
03:58I'll bite.
03:59I was going to let him talk.
04:01Yeah, I'll bite.
04:03Go ahead.
04:05Juan, at the JCC, coached Danny Berry.
04:09He coached at Danny Berry Baseball.
04:10Okay, all right.
04:11Yeah.
04:12Really, it's Coach Juancito.
04:15Coach Juancito.
04:16He coached Danny Berry Baseball for years.
04:18Now, Danny Berry Baseball, to be fair,
04:19has been defunct for about a decade.
04:21But that's neither here nor there.
04:23This guy's a Kendall baseball legend.
04:25If you know, you know.
04:27It's not so much that McCullough took him out.
04:30It's more so that before getting to the mound,
04:35he had already signaled.
04:38Right.
04:38And even if McCullough had made up his decision,
04:41you talked to Sandy about it.
04:43Hey, how do you feel?
04:45Sandy responds...
04:46I'm going to take you out, though.
04:47I think you...
04:48Yeah.
04:48And then McCullough says what he believes.
04:50Hey, here's what I think is the best decision for the team.
04:54And that's the proper way to handle it.
04:57With an ace who's gone nine and a third
05:00with potentially his third complete game of...
05:03I'm sorry, his third shutout of the season.
05:06Right, and second complete game.
05:07Yeah.
05:08And you don't show him up by calling to the pen
05:10before you get out there to just give him
05:13that moment of visibility that he's part of the decision.
05:18And that part, back-to-back,
05:20it's not just a good night.
05:21It's Sandy Alcantara, Cy Young winner.
05:23It's Sandy Alcantara, just went nine the last start.
05:27It's not like he's having a good night.
05:29He is this dude.
05:30He's him.
05:31Let him decide when him has to come out the game.
05:34I'm not saying to take the...
05:35It was his worst inning.
05:36But I'm not saying to take the decision away from the manager,
05:40but also you have to know what you're dealing with.
05:42And that's Sandy Dam Alcantara.
05:44Now, I will tell you this.
05:47Tommy Hutton went crazy on the television broadcast.
05:52And you know, Tommy Hutton doesn't hold back
05:54because I was getting texts,
05:55because I was at the game last night.
05:56I'm getting texts.
05:57Appel was texting me.
05:58Like, Hutton is going crazy.
06:00Tommy Hutton was saying,
06:01if you're taking out Sandy Alcantara,
06:06you better be damn well sure
06:08the person you're putting in
06:10gives you a better chance to get out of that inning
06:13and get out of that ballgame.
06:14And if you're not certain that the guy you're bringing in
06:18is a improvement over whatever Sandy's got left.
06:22And by the way, Bender wasn't an improvement.
06:25Tommy Hutton was like, you're making the bad decision.
06:28You're making a bad decision.
06:29100%.
06:30Now, again, if it's Peter Fairbanks
06:31and you know he's your closer
06:32and the dude, that's the guy who slaps himself and stuff.
06:35Yeah.
06:36If you're bringing in that guy,
06:38listen, if he's the established closer,
06:40you go to your closer.
06:41But if you're going to Bender,
06:44you better make damn well sure
06:45it's going to be better than whatever Sandy has left.
06:48And Tommy Hutton seemed to believe that it wasn't.
06:50And obviously it wasn't.
06:51What's the boy from the Yankees?
06:55Mariano Rivera?
06:57Are we pulling him in?
06:58Is Bender him?
07:00Well, no.
07:02No!
07:02But that's apples to oranges.
07:04You got it.
07:05No.
07:06The answer is no.
07:07They don't have anyone.
07:08They don't have anyone that's as good as Fairbanks as their closer.
07:11See, I disagree with that, though.
07:13I saw a lot of people saying,
07:15I'd rather ride or die with Sandy
07:17than go to the bullpen.
07:18And to a certain extent, I understand that.
07:21Like, hey, Sandy's clearly the best guy you have on the roster, period.
07:24He's gone nine and a third.
07:25If he blows it, he blows it.
07:27Eight and a third.
07:27Excuse me, eight and a third.
07:28I understand that logic.
07:30You know, die with your best players out there
07:33and they'll give you the best chance.
07:34But I also understand a manager saying,
07:36hey, we have a bullpen.
07:37You gave us eight and a third unbelievable innings.
07:40Let us close this out for you.
07:41I understand that, and I understand why Bender's not Peter Fairbanks
07:45or Mariano Rivera or any elite closer
07:48and why maybe that wasn't the best decision.
07:50But we're playing the result.
07:51To me, the infuriating part is that you're disrespecting your ace.
07:56I'm with that.
07:57And that's what upsets me.
07:58Because, you know, Clayton McCullough is protecting Sandy there as well.
08:02He's got those two earned runs on base.
08:04But if Bender gives up the home run, Sandy doesn't get an L.
08:07And if Sandy's out there pitching
08:10and he gives up a ding-dong,
08:11or puts another runner on base,
08:13now he's got a potential L coming at him.
08:16So Clayton McCullough is also protecting Sandy there.
08:19I do think, though, you owe him the mound visit
08:23and make it seem as if it's a mutual decision.
08:26But to that point, Hawk, let Sandy decide and explain it to him.
08:29They walk out there all the time and talk to him.
08:32Hey, if he gets on, you know you're going to get an L and all that stuff.
08:36Sandy has gained the respect to be able to say,
08:39no, I got him, coach.
08:40By the way, it was Grady Little, not Grady Sizemore.
08:43I said Grady Sizemore.
08:44Somebody points out on the text.
08:45It was Grady Little from the Red Sox.
08:46Even if it was Uri, Uri's a puppy.
08:50Sandy Alcantara's a Cy Young, 10-year guy.
08:52Exactly.
08:53Let him decide if he wants to go out there with two on
08:56and see if he does it.
08:57And I think it's a bad decision.
09:00It's fair.
09:01Even Fairbanks was there, Hawk.
09:04No, I got you, coach.
09:05Okay, good, Sandy.
09:07Well, tighten up.
09:07Well, you don't know what transpired in the dugout, though.
09:09It could be, hey, you want to go out there for the ninth?
09:12The conversation could have happened in the dugout.
09:15If Fairbanks was there, I think there's a conversation.
09:18Hey, I think I'm going to bring in Peter for the ninth.
09:21Give me two batters.
09:23Give me two batters, Skip.
09:24And then you don't know how it would play out.
09:26So there could have been a conversation in the dugout.
09:30Now, obviously, there wasn't a conversation that let Sandy know
09:34which scenario was going to get him yanked from the game
09:36or else he wouldn't have said that after the game
09:38where I wanted to be out there.
09:40And he's not as upset about being taken out from what I read.
09:43He just wants the conversation to happen because he believes he's owed that conversation.
09:49Yeah, he's owed that.
09:49He's a shy young winner.
09:50Should have tweeted him or DM'd him.
09:52That's what these young people do.
09:54So I have a hot take on last night.
09:58And while I am upset that Sandy was disrespected or Ace was disrespected,
10:03I'm glad last night happened.
10:05Because I haven't seen this much passion about the Miami Marlins on social media
10:11after a game, on radio the next day, podcasts, shows in South Florida,
10:17people who are covering sports about the Marlins.
10:21I can't remember when.
10:22Well, that's a direct correlation to how boring the Heat are.
10:27I'm not kidding you.
10:28The fact that the Panthers aren't in the playoffs,
10:31so we don't need to break down the game,
10:34and the fact that the Heat are the same exact movie that we have watched for four years,
10:40it gives the Marlins a little bit of an alley here
10:44to take some eyeballs.
10:47And you're right.
10:48It happened.
10:50If they were winning, you know, like, they had a chance to get two in New York,
10:55had a nice little comeback in game two.
10:57Would have been nice if they were able to hold on to a 2-0 ninth inning lead last night.
11:03So, yeah, there's a little pathway there.
11:05I'm going to say it is positive that there's so much attention to it
11:08because this is like, and we're not a huge baseball market,
11:11is this like sitting Wade in the fourth?
11:15Is this like taking out Jason Taylor in the fourth quarter?
11:18No.
11:19Ask him if he can keep pitching.
11:22That's the respect he has.
11:23Sandy is one of the best pitchers in the world.
11:25Why would you disrespect him?
11:27But the attention he's getting means that people are watching,
11:31and that means something for our baseball community.
11:33There are literally a handful of times.
11:35Now, this is done every game in New York, every game in Boston.
11:40There are a handful of times in my 13 years
11:43that we could discuss for this long a pitching change.
11:49And people care.
11:50And people care.
11:51That to me, that's what I felt this morning
11:53because I'm listening to the morning show.
11:56I'm listening to the midday show.
11:57But I'm also just kind of scrolling through social media.
12:00All the Miami-based shows,
12:02they're talking about that move yesterday,
12:04and people are outraged.
12:06Last night, people are outraged.
12:08And it's the first time, I'm not kidding,
12:10in a long time that the conversation about the Marlins
12:13wasn't, oh, that's so Marlins.
12:15Oh, of course, that's so Marlins.
12:18Or we're talking about the attendance.
12:20Or we're reminiscing about Jose and talking about,
12:22if Jose didn't pass away, who knows what would have happened.
12:25And people were passionate yesterday about a Marlins game
12:30for all the wrong reasons.
12:32But I don't know.
12:34Like, I can't remember the last time that that happened.
12:36It's cool.
12:37It's cool.
12:37It's not the wrong reasons.
12:39It's passion.
12:39Passion is passion.
12:40Right or wrong, passion is passion.
12:42I know Dan Ugler.
12:45How's CB?
12:47CB?
12:48Yeah, I hit Volstadt.
12:49Yeah, we all got it.
12:50I'll hit Volstadt in a second.
12:51Let me get it and put him up.
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