The Windup: The Roundtable | Are the Yankees in Trouble Down 2-0 to Toronto?

Episode 182 | October 6, 2025
Hosts: Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough, Sam Miller
Podcast: The Athletic – The Windup

Episode Overview

In this episode, Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough, and Sam Miller gather for their regular Roundtable discussion to dissect the Yankees’ perilous postseason position after dropping the first two games to Toronto. The trio also explores ballpark atmospheres in the playoffs, the psychology and etiquette of fan trash talk, current bullpen and rotation challenges across several teams, and trends in prospect development and pitch tipping. The episode balances deep baseball analysis with wit and personal anecdotes, making for a lively, insightful conversation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Playoff Atmosphere: Ballpark Rankings and Fan Engagement

• Ballpark Noise and Home Field Advantage
  • Andy describes the wide variance in playoff park environments based on his experience at over 20 postseason ballparks, citing Minute Maid Park and Yankee Stadium as notably raucous, though he finds Yankee Stadium’s endless sound cues “awful” compared to the more enjoyable noise at Dodger Stadium.
  • “At Yankee Stadium, there is...some sort of cue after every pitch...There is no letup. It's awful. Like, it's genuinely awful. I really dislike it.” – Andy McCullough (05:21).
• What Makes a Great Playoff Crowd
  • Sam values crowds that know when to get on their feet, lamenting the lost art of the two-strike stand-up and praising Seattle and Toronto for their lively, knowledgeable crowds this postseason.
  • “If your pitcher had two strikes on the batter, you stood and that's kind of gone...Cubs are a great stand up crowd. They stand up all the time.” – Sam Miller (08:03).
  • Grant ties this fan behavior to “knowing ball,” noting the tension that comes from a hyper-invested home crowd.
• Crowd Energy as Double-Edged Sword
  • When the crowd is deeply keyed in, anxiety and disappointment can spread quickly to the team during tense moments.

2. The Yankees’ Plight: Down 2-0 to Toronto

• The Nature of the Yankees’ Losses
  • Andy: The Yankees’ back-to-back blowout losses go beyond “flushable games,” provoking pessimism among the fanbase as they head to New York.
  • “When it happens two games in a row, it's no longer a flushing problem. You're being flushed right into the offseason.” – Andy McCullough (15:25).
• Bullpen Failures and Series Analysis
  • Sam: It’s not just an issue with starters—the Yankees’ bullpen has looked lost, compounding the team’s woes.
  • But he also calls for calm, noting that playoff series are designed to test the home team; losing two on the road isn’t a death sentence.
  • “The worry with the Yankees is like, well, what if the bullpen's terrible? And the bullpen was terrible. Like, that's the kind of blowout you don't want to...lose.” – Sam Miller (15:35).
• Historic Comeback Potential
  • The group references series like the 1996 Yankees-Braves and 2012 Giants-Reds as reminders that 2-0 deficits aren’t always fatal, but admit such comebacks are rare.
• Trash Talk and Fan Anxiety
  • Reflections on the tendency for modern fans (and analysts like David Ortiz) to prematurely declare series over, with Sam and Andy critiquing the performative negativity and trash talk that dominates online baseball conversations.
  • “We live in a country no longer guided by the guardrails of shame...It's like Padres fans making fun of the Dodgers when they're up 2 to 1 or something like that. It could go really sideways for you.” – Andy McCullough (21:54).

3. The Bullpen Picture: Dodgers, Brewers, and Beyond

• Dodgers’ Bullpen: Sasaki as a Stabilizing Force?
  • Discussion centers on Sasaki’s transformation from a wild card to a strike-throwing, high-leverage closer, and whether that’s enough to settle the Dodgers’ unsettled bullpen.
  • “Since he joined the bullpen, in his last three outings, he has thrown 86 strikes. That's just a different pitcher with a different plan...He's in control, he's confident, and he's getting results.” – Sam Miller (35:26).
  • Andy is cautious about overexposing Sasaki to multi-inning, high-pressure work, suggesting he should remain a dedicated closer for now.
• Ranking Playoff Bullpens
  • Sam’s off-the-cuff bullpen rankings: Cubs, Phillies, Mariners, then Dodgers/Tigers and Brewers/Blue Jays further down (41:57).
• Brewers’ Rotational Chess
  • The Brewers’ rotation is short due to injuries and underperformance, leading to “crew ball” strategies and opener usage—a challenge for sustaining a playoff run.

4. Modern Prospect Development

• Rapid Rise of College Players
  • Sam notes the astonishing number of 2024 draft picks contributing in the majors by 2025, reflecting how elite college programs’ data-driven approaches accelerate development.
  • “Six of the top 20 picks in the 2024 draft were in the majors this year. And, like, five of them were pretty good.” – Sam Miller (27:58).
• Organizational Shifts
  • Grant comments on the Giants looking at college managers due to these institutions’ advanced analytical labs surpassing some MLB teams.

5. Pitch Tipping: The New Arms Race

• Rise in Pitch Tipping Awareness
  • Andy summarizes a collaborative Athletic project on why pitch tipping is more scrutinized in the pitch-com era, with teams now focusing on subtle body language rather than catcher’s signs.
  • “Once they got rid of signs...they were just studying the body of the pitcher and with cameras and everything, they can really, really do it.” – Andy McCullough (46:15).
• Gamesmanship and Bluffing
  • Many supposed “tips” are bluffs intended to induce pitcher paranoia, adding psychological complexity to the game.

6. Phillies and Postseason Narratives

• Why Don’t the Phillies Have a “Dog” Reputation?
  • Andy wonders why the Phillies aren’t seen as postseason underperformers like the Dodgers, considering recent NLCS chokes.
  • Sam answers that their regular-season records haven’t set grand expectations and their playoff record to date hasn’t reached a “trend.”
  • “I think if this is the year they get pushed down the mountain a little bit, it starts to get Sisyphusian.” – Grant Brisbee (31:43).
• Evolution of Fan and Media Narratives
  • Discussion of how playoff narrative solidifies over time and with repeated “failures” or close calls.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Playoff Tension:
  “If you've been watching baseball for, you know, a long time...the two zero count with two runners on and nobody out is like a real red flag...I can see the crowd sort of, like, tensing up a little bit and sending those vibes.” – Grant Brisbee (09:18)

• On Early Fan Trash Talk:
  “We live in a culture where...that is the, like, Padres fans making fun of the Dodgers, you know, like, when they're up 2 to 1...This could go really sideways for you.” – Andy McCullough (21:54)

• On Pitch Tipping Gamesmanship:
  “Most of the time that's just BS because they want to create the paranoia in the picture that something is going wrong.” – Andy McCullough (47:44)

• Sam’s Playoff Bullpen Ranking
  “I think off the top of my head, just off the top of my head, I think I go, Cubs, Phillies, Mariners, and then like, Dodgers ish. Tigers. Ish. And then blue for the Brewers. Blue Jays.” – Sam Miller (42:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ballpark Atmosphere & Home Field Advantage: 03:11 – 13:57
• Yankees Down 0-2: Panic or Perspective? 13:57 – 21:54
• Fan Trash Talk & Modern Sports Fandom: 21:54 – 24:06
• Rapid Prospect Development & Organizational Trends: 24:49 – 28:34
• Dodgers’ Bullpen, Sasaki’s Emergence: 34:09 – 41:48
• Brewers Strategy & Crew Ball, Reliever Depths: 42:42 – 44:32
• Nico Hoerner Fielding gaffe & Brewers’ Luck: 44:32 – 46:07
• Pitch Tipping: The New Frontier: 46:11 – 48:46
• Phillies in Postseason, Narrative Building: 28:34 – 32:41

Episode Tone & Style

The tone is conversational, irreverent, and analytical, with plenty of self-deprecation (“Egghead!”), jokes (“Closers, close counterpoint: it just might be crazy enough to work.”), and lived baseball experience. Baseball lingo and in-jokes abound, but the trio makes sure to relate their points back to broader trends and universal fan experiences.

Concluding Thoughts

This episode is a field guide for navigating October: the group mixes hard-nosed analysis of the Yankees’ precarious position with musings on fandom, the quirks of playoff ballparks, and the nuances of baseball’s evolving meta-game. Whether you’re wondering if New York is doomed or just in another typical postseason predicament, you’ll leave with a more nuanced perspective—and a few hearty laughs.