This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95
using your PayPal account or major credit card. (Zelle users, please email me for details.)
I can’t put this on Roberts. I think had he lifted Snell after six innings with a lead, it would have been reasonable. I also think he would have inspired all the same criticisms that Cash did in 2020, regardless of the result. Forget “cruising” or outcomes: Snell was pounding the zone and holding his velocity. He wasn’t past any pitch-count markers; he threw 100 pitches twice in September and at least 90 in five straight starts in late summer. Tactically, there were two lefties coming up in the inning. There was a lot more evidence that Snell should start the seventh than there was that he should come out.
Both Cash in 2020 and Roberts in 2026 made choices that made sense in an effort to win the game. You judge the process, not the result, and both managers’ processes were sound. The other guys get paid, too.
-
