The Chalk Talk with Dan and the Dawg

The wait is nearly over! In less than twelve hours, the first pitch of the 2017 World Series will scream across home plate and one of two teams will begin the process of dismantling their own respective streaks. Will the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their first World Series title since 1988? Or will the Houston Astros prevail for their first championship ever and continue to help rebuild their home city struck by disaster earlier this fall?  Central to the efforts of the winning club will be the work done behind home plate. The Astros and Dodgers will deploy a quartet of sluggers that were lights-out in the regular season, but have nearly all struggled to some degree in the postseason. Which duo will emerge as the superior battery-mate?  The Case for the 'Stros (Brian McCann & Evan Gattis) The Houston Astros will most likely employ the power hitting duo of Brian McCann and Evan Gattis behind home plate for this year’s World Series. I say most likely because t...

Justin Verlander has pushed the Astros to the brink of the World Series. Six days after twirling a brilliant complete game effort that resulted in a 2-1 walk-off victory, longtime major league hurler Justin Verlander took the mound on October 20th and shut down the visiting New York Yankees to force a decisive Game 7. Verlander sprinkled five hits over his seven scoreless innings of work, racking up another eight strikeouts in the process and further endearing himself to the Houston Astros fan base. The start continued Verlander's run of utter dominance in an Astro's uniform, particularly during the 2017 postseason. In four games (three starts), Verlander has an unblemished 4-0 record. With just seventeen hits and six walks allowed over his 24.2 innings of work, Verlander's WHIP (walks & hits per innings pitched) stands at 0.93, an excellent indicator of just how dominant he has been. Essentially, he is giving up less than a single baserunner per inning pitched. Wh...

The predominant story line of the 2016 MLB playoffs was the evolution of how managers handled their bullpens. At the forefront of the conversation were Indians relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen as well as Chicago Cubs fireman Aroldis Chapman. Convention would dictate that managers hold off to the ninth inning to slot in their respective closers. Keep your best bullpen arm in reserve until you get a lead going into the final inning and unleash him for those final three outs.  It is a tried and true formula.   However, as we saw in last year’s post-season, major league managers were more willing to   shed some of those pre-existing concepts of what a pitchers role was coming out of the bullpen. It’s not entirely an alien concept to MLB. Long relief aces were once one of the defining characteristics of championship caliber teams (the 1990 “Nasty Boys” being an excellent example). In recent years, former Nationals hurler Tyler Clippard made a name for himself as a ...