#starting with my TOKEN AMERICAN BB

[pookiepiastri]

🦅 Siri play American Boy by Estelle 🦅

[perotovar]

get to know your moots

tagged by angels @guiltyasdave @kedsandtubesocks and @morallyinept ty bbs <3

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what's the origin of your blog title?: my title is only visible on my desktop theme, but it's "white roses, black doves" which is a lyric from "take me back to eden" by sleep token

OTP(s) + shipname: halsin/astarion, frankie/santiago, thorin/bilbo, shane/tim, river/frankie, joel/tess, i have a lot lmao

favorite color: dark green

favorite game: baldur's gate 3 (no one is surprised)

song stuck in your head: "take me back to eden" because i started singing it when i read my blog title lmao

weirdest habit/trait?: biting my nails. i've tried stopping for years. fuck anxiety.

hobbies: playing video games, making gifs, making bracelets

if you work, what's your profession?: not currently! i'm a student.

if you could have any job you wish what would it be?: something in the film industry. cinematography, film editing, music, anything

something you're good at: i think i'm pretty good at being creative. not in any particular way, someone else would have to tell me lol

something you're bad at: at the moment, writing LMAO i can't get the words out, maaannn

something you love: i love a lot of things lol i'm having some arnold palmer tea/lemonade rn so i'll say that

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: metal bands and pedro lol

something you hate: a lot lmao but right now, it's homework

something you collect: so much................. it's a problem. little figurines/funko pops, d&d dice, plushies, stationery, etc

something you forget: SO MUCH. it's the depression/anxiety i think

what's your love language?: acts of service/words of affirmation

favorite movie/show: narcos and lotr

favorite food: ramen

favorite animal: bison and bears!

what were you like as a child?: i was a relatively good kid, but i was a little shit too lol

favorite subject at school?: english, american sign language, and orchestra

least favorite subject?: math/science, but i appreciate these a LOT more in college

what's your best character trait?: i think i'm a good friend? again, someone else would have to tell me lol

what's your worst character trait?: i hold myself back a lot out of fear

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be?: today? i'm skipping class to do homework, so i guess i'd change that i'd have to do homework LOL

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet?: jrr tolkien

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love!): literally any of the frith fics people wrote 🥹 they're all SO amazing

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np tags: @sp00kymulderr @for-a-longlongtime @quinnnfabrgay-writes @ozarkthedog @chronically-ghosted

@moonlitbirdie @userparamore @iero @morallyinept @sin-djarin

@covetyou @arthurhowlett @reedrchards @lotusbxtch @wolvieispunk

@gasolinerainbowpuddles @djarinmuse @almostfoxglove @schnarfer @missredherring

@agentmarcuspike @ghostofaboy @bonezone44 @yopossum and anyone else that wants to <3

[swanlake1998]

Article: What Makes It So Difficult to Diversify Ballet Faculties?

Date: February 17, 2021

By: Theresa Ruth Howard

The lack of Black ballet teachers in professional training programs has long been known to be a weakness holding the field back from true inclusivity. The common refrain of "We can't find them" might have been plausible before, given the scarcity of professional Black ballet dancers. Yet suddenly, qualified candidates are springing up. (Perhaps the world being on fire smoked them out?) To quote choreographer William Isaac, "There seems to be an arms race to hire Black ballet teachers."

Last fall, the schools of Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, as well as the School of American Ballet, all welcomed new, full-time Black ballet teachers. To be fair, some of these hires had been in the works for a few years. But what's kept ballet faculties so white for so long?

With a culture akin to country clubs and Ivy League schools, ballet acts like an old boys' network; it's about who you know, and to know the right people, you have to occupy certain spaces. It is cyclic: Access and opportunity creates access and opportunity. That has historically kept the circle quite tight, and white. The common requirement of a certain pedigree and artistic lineage among faculty members has perpetuated a deficit of Black ballet teachers. These additions to the top ballet training programs are a step in the right direction.

School of American Ballet: Aesha Ash

Over a shared history of more than seven decades, New York City Ballet and SAB have maintained the purity of their bloodline with the company hiring almost exclusively from its school, and the school from NYCB alums. That makes diversification of the SAB faculty difficult, since the company has welcomed a total of 32 Black dancers, including 13 current members. Aesha Ash, who joins fellow Black NYCB alum Craig Hall on faculty this year, fits the criteria: "She's a spectacular teacher, she's an SAB alum, a City Ballet alum and understands Mr. Balanchine's aesthetic," says SAB chairman of faculty Kay Mazzo.

For Ash, this is an opportunity to be something she needed when she was a student at the school. "I think about the loneliness and isolation I felt," she says. "If my presence makes one little girl feel validated, my job is done."

There now seems to be a realization that hiring solely from NYCB's ranks inhibits the possibility of true diversification. "We have two visiting faculty chairs this year, Leyland Simmons and Alicia Holloway, both SAB alums, but they didn't dance in City Ballet, so this is a first," says Mazzo. The school also plans to engage participants from SAB's National Visiting Fellows Program, which invites ballet teachers with diverse student populations to teach and observe classes, discuss SAB's curriculum, and engage in dialogue around pedagogy techniques, school management and other topics twice a year. Since 2015 the program has accepted numerous Black teachers. "With our national visiting fellows as guest teachers in the future, we will be opening doors," says Mazzo. "It's no longer the model that Mr. Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein started."

Boston Ballet School: Andrea Long-Naidu

Boston Ballet School's hiring of Andrea Long-Naidu has a similar thread of lineage. Director Margaret Tracey is a former NYCB principal, and danced there alongside Long-Naidu. "Andrea was a really intelligent dancer in her technical approach. She was incredibly musical and really fast, could learn choreography really quickly," Tracey recalls. She could see those elements in some of Long-Naidu's students who had been accepted into BBS.

Long-Naidu is highly pedigreed: A one-time student of Lupe Serrano (the former American Ballet Theatre star who directed Pennsylvania Ballet's school), she studied at SAB, and is an NYCB alum and former Dance Theatre of Harlem principal. Tracey told her, "Look, you are going to fit in professionally with your expertise automatically. You're going to come into a circle, and a team of people who have a shared background with you."

For Long-Naidu, who comes to BBS from Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, this is a dream. She will be teaching a wide range of levels, from children to the second company. "To be in a school where you know that you can directly affect the look of that company is amazing," she says. "For me, as a teacher, to get them from point A to point Z when they go into the company...what an incredible opportunity."

Pacific Northwest Ballet School: Ikolo Griffin

After Kiyon Ross became director of company operations at Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2019, it left a void in the school faculty. He'd been a beloved Black male teacher in the men's division and professional program, so when looking to replace him, there were conversations about the importance of both gender and racial representation. Then Ikolo Griffin's resumé landed on artistic director Peter Boal's desk. Denise Bolstad, PNB School's managing director, was familiar with him—he was a former PNB summer intensive student—and had followed his career: Originally introduced to dance through San Francisco Ballet's Dance in Schools and Communities program, he became SFB's first outreach student to join that company, and he also danced professionally with DTH (as a principal) and The Joffrey Ballet.

"You knew he would teach in a way that would be complementary to what PNB was looking for in a faculty member," Boal says. But, he adds, "You can always question whether or not you should be looking for someone who teaches like you or whether you should expand the way that you're teaching, and that is something that we are thinking about now."

San Francisco Ballet School: Jason Ambrose

When San Francisco Ballet School faculty member Anne-Sophie Rodriguez and Edward Ellison recommended their former Ellison Ballet student Jason Ambrose to SFB school director Patrick Armand, he was struck by his CV. "It was a totally different ball game," says Armand.

Ambrose started late, at 17, in his native Virginia Beach under Cuban Ana Maria Martinez; two years later he was in Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's graduate program. After attending the Bolshoi Ballet Academy New York summer intensive, he trained at Ellison Ballet for three years and began to choreograph competition solos for his classmates. Just as he was ready to transition to professional, a medical setback derailed him.

"I had a lot of opportunities waiting for me, and then I got really sick and had to go home and have an operation on my stomach related to my Crohn's disease," he says. In 2015, Oleg Vinogradov, director of the Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg Conservatoire in Russia, saw Ambrose's choreography and invited him to study in the ballet masters and choreographers program, and dance with the program's company.

It was Ambrose's mastery of the Vaganova training that sold Armand. "He is really young to have that quality in his teaching," Armand says. "He has an innate talent; his classes are very sound. He studied Vaganova, so there is a real school behind the process. It is what we needed."

The Power of Representation

For too long, Black ballet teachers were siloed to outreach and community programs because "the kids needed to see themselves." When we talk about representation, most frequently we are referring to marginalized people seeing themselves; however, it is almost more important that white students, parents and patrons see and experience expertise from people of other colors. The truth of the matter is that, though systemic racism may stymie access and opportunity, most non-white people are already aware of their capability.

Building a strong and effective faculty is alchemy. Relying on pedigree takes some of the guesswork out of finding the right fit. However, if schools are looking for diverse representation sooner rather than later, they will have to step outside of their elitist comfort zone and acknowledge the implicit bias that believes only those who have had the prescribed trajectory are capable, and that ballet teachers should look, sound and instruct in a particular way. Schools will have to actively recruit and cultivate teachers with diverse backgrounds the same way they have with students. If we are going to shift the art form, ballet will have to abandon the traditional prescriptive, and embrace unorthodox. We cannot change and stay the same.

Theresa Ruth Howard, founder of MoBBallet, has worked as a consultant at Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Boston Ballet. This piece is a companion to her essay "Tokenism vs. Representation: How Can We Tell Them Apart?"

[stupid-lemon-eater]

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

i'm making mum watch star wars

and starting with the prequels

and she was just like "is obi kenobi in this one???" and it's just like yes mum obi wan was in this one

SHE'S CALLING THE TRADE FEDERATION THE TRUMP FEDERATION

SHE JUST CALLED NABOO IRAQ

I'M DYING

"is that liam neeson? why isn't he out looking for his children? what's wrong with him?"

"the one next to him is ewan mcgregor" "omg he's a baby. also what's the rats tail on the back of his head."

"oop! they've got those saber things from woolies! oh, his is running out of battery"

"was this movie ever publicised?" "yes. it was fairly massive." "huh. who'da thunk."

she's calling everyone babies

i relate

"oh my god it is like a high school play *laughing* it's fantastic!"

"token black man steps forward"

she keeps imitating all the speeder noises

"they've gone into jurassic park! what is going on!"

*qui gon runs into jar jar* "oh, they seem to have a special relationship"

"oh, so ewan mcgregor's allowed to play someone not american!"

lmao i'm gonna liveblog mum's commentary

mum: so you haven't seen this one before al? dad: no, i haven't mum: *staring at jar jar* you haven't been missing out

dad's commentary mainly consists of saying "zoom" every time a speeder flies past

mum: why are you making us watch this one?

"go liam neeson! get them then go get your kids! you absent father! and ewan mcgregor stop doing smack!"

"how do they take that seriously? as adults. how do they look at this then say yes, i'm going to take this seriously"

"oh it's just like trying to get on a virgin flight!"

"the hutts? like jabba?" "yes" "ohh, pieball! like you when you were a baby!"

"that's natalie portman. i can tell the difference. she's got that black swan look about her, look at her forehead"

in response to bb anakin (who i'm trying not to cry over): there's nothing wrong with him! the others are worse!

"he's being terribly english isn't he? *imitating ewan's accent* 'nothing to worry about. nothing to worry your pretty little head about'"

"i have some heroin overdoses to do in another movie. master, get me out of here"

"i got it wrong. this isn't a high school play, it's a primary school play. people paid money for this, yeah?"

"over 20,000 mitichlorians? my god he's about to implode! how many mitichlorians do you have andie? you have one. he has over 20,000!"

"it's just like ben hur all over again"

"has he let the kids mother know he's doing this? or is he just saying 'sorry lady i'm taking your son. BECAUSE MINE'S BEEN TAKEN'"

"yes 9 year old. make a decision about your future."

qui gon: what does your heart tell you? "my heart tells me i want raspberry lemonade. i'm 9. leave me alone."

"you can take the boy out of the slavery, but you can't take the slavery out of the boy" bit too close to home there mum

mum: about obi wan so who does he become? dad and i: he's obi wan mum: .....so when does he become a droid?

mum: oh my god he's got a plait now! first a pony tail and now a plait! me: he's had both this entire time mum: oh for fricks sake

mums making me fast forward through the gungan droid fight lmfao

"i don’t condone drug taking but these movies are better watched stoned"

anakin: everything's overheated! mum: well sweetheart, welcome to my life!

"see, the person who spins most dies"

[frostywraith]

New Story

Hello. Currently writing a story about a couple oc's and a BBS/Misfitz AU. It takes place in San Diego where one man holds the city in the palm of his hand through his very powerful gang. The story follow my oc's gaining powers after a freak accident and teaming up with some of the BBS and Misfitz boys to try and bring the gang down I also want to warn about a lot of gore, language, and violence throughout the whole story. Hope you enjoy Chapter 1: How it All Started As I lay there on the cold, hard, concrete floor, a mixture of my father, brother, and my blood soaking my clothes I remembered the face that did this to us, to me. The face that held no remorse or guilt. His dark brown eyes and slick combed back black hair, the scar that ran across his jawline, his almost insane facial expressions as he beat us. He thought that I would die in that dark alleyway but all he did was ensure that he would be in the same position as me, only he would die. He would die, that I knew, and it would be more slow, agonizing, and painful than anything he could do to me. This is the start of the story of how 5 losers saved San Diego The memory of that horrid day still haunts me. They day that Micheal Batchman, the ringleader of the largest crime syndicate of the Western United States, had killed my twin brother and father in cold blood. Because my father had missed a payment on our "protection fee", it cost him his life. That day as I lay in a a pool of blood I promised I would kill him for what he'd done. Little did I know two weeks later I would have the powers to do it. My name is Hayden Howlett and this my story The day Micheal killed my family is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. The sun was shining over over the clear blue sky, it was the middle of August and school had just started 3 days ago. I was wearing my favorite Red Nike hoodie dispite my fathers protest and snarky comments from my twin. We went to school as normal, my brother, the athlete of the family went to his early morning football practice while I, the brother with the brains went with my few friends in our corner of the gym, one of which was captain of the football team Jared Batchman, he was a massive geek under that football helmet but I was the only one that knew, the other thing was obvious from his last name, my other 4 friends weren't much but I loved them. Quincy Marshal, one of the few African-american students which gave him his share of "token friend" remarks, anyone who made those were promptly quieted by him. Almost every week he had different designs for the sides of his short black hair. He was like and older brother to me, he was an animal nerd dispite him acting like one of the jocks so I've learned I lot about animals being his friend for so long. Aiden Kasady is my best friend, he was an odd ball at times coming up with dangerous and weird stuff to do all the time, after being his friend for just a year I learned how to put out fires In the most successful and quickest ways possible, he was a quiet kid a so was I so there was no need to separate us as kids but our such similar name's made it nearly impossible to get our names right and still happens to this day Shane Williams is a very lazy kid, we had to practically drag him out of his house but he was a kind hearted and shy kid but around us he was the main person to help Aiden with his stupid adventures and other dumb stuff Max Wilson was quiet and soft spoken, a very small person with a lot of anger that got him in trouble more often than not, that kid is practically my son, he was always up for Aiden and Shane and whatever they could come up with and usually was the one to get hurt so I'm usually no more than 3 feet away from him at all times, he was an jerk but he meant well and cares for the people he's a jerk to. After school my brother and I were walking home and during our conversation my brother noticed a black Porche that had been following us, he grabbed my wrist and took of without a word dragging me behind him as the car sped after us, my brother ran down an alleyway, the car didn't stop it's pursuit pushing its way past garbage cans and old cardboard boxes, just as we were about to exit the alley another car, a red corvette blocked our exit sealing us in the dark alley, three men suddenly exited the car behind us, one pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket while the other two grabbed my brother and I. We we're completely frozen in fear as they grabbed us and forced us into the backseat of the car, the man with the gun sat to my left while Clyde sat to my right. Lights flashed by us as we drove to the edge of the city, people walked on the beach and sidewalks in pairs, groups, or alone, if only someone could see through the black tinted windows that blocked us from the view of everyone outside. "What do you want with us?" My brothers voice snapped me out of my trace, the man in the passenger seat looked back at us "It's not what we want with you, it's what Michael wants with you two" he mocked at us, my brother turned to face me "Isn't that Jared's dad?" I nodded not wanting to speak "what does he want with us?" Clyde asked, very interested in the subject "I'll let him explain it to you two" the man with the gun next to me spoke, joining the conversation. Silence filled the car until we pulled into an underground parking lot of a mansion. "Get out" the driver finally spoke after he parked the car, we complied and exited following the two while the third man with the gun stayed behind us, he led us past a very expensive looming kitchen and towards an elevator and motioned his hand for us to get in, we complied and stepped through the large metal doors into the glass interior. I could only focus on the reflection of the glass in front of me as I stood in between Clyde and the man with the gun, the only noise in the elevator was the ding of the change of floors as we gradually ascended into the mansion. The elevator opened, revealing a sight that made my heart drop, Micheal stood over my dad holding an aluminum bat that was covered in blood, my dad's face was covered in blood and bruises. When he heard the door open he turned to face us, a look of joy spread across his face while my dad has replaced his pain with terror. "Clyde and Hayden Howlett! How good of you two to finally join our little party" Michael sounded pleased, but I could hear the insanity in his voice "Micheal... Please don't hurt them" my dad croaked out, his voice sounded course and dry like he had been screaming for hours. "Oh James, you know I don't make promises" Michael smiled menacingly and pointed to our captor with the gun "Steve, cuff them" the man with the gun complied and put the two of us in handcuffs and threw us to our knees. "Now that you're all together I might as well tell you why you're here" he pointed his bat at my dad "Someone missed their protection payment to make sure a specific crime syndicate didn't fuck with his family" Micheal pushed that bat against his face Our gazes turned to our dad who we could barley tell it was him because of how jacked up his face was. "I-I'm sorry kids" my dad's eyes drifted to the floor In shame, he had accidentally dragged his children into the shit storm he tried so desperately to keep us out of. "Oh you're gonna be sorry James, now who gets the bat first?" He moved that bad motioning to all three of us "How about.... You!" A sharp pain exploded in the side of my head catching me off guard, I fell to the floor as a cry of pain escaped my mouth. My head hit the concrete floor beneath me hard. More pain shot through my side as Micheal brought his bat down on my again and again and again. Blood poured out of my mouth onto the floor, I could feel my ribs cracking under the constant force of the bat. Clyde had somehow broken out of his handcuffs and punched Michael square in the face sending blood out of his mouth as he stumbled back finally letting me breath. "Wrong choice shithead. Steve!" The blonde bodyguard put brass knuckles on his fist and with one square punch to the jaw, sent Clyde into the wall. Steve landed punch after punch into his stomach sending blood spurting from his mouth onto the blonde, Clyde grabbed Steve's wrist and twisted it making it snap. Then delivered a swift knee to the stomach, the bodyguard fell fell to the ground giving Clyde the chance to grab me and rush into the elevator,  flipping Michael off while he pressed the elevator button The doors shut and he quickly got me out of the cuffs "How the fuck did you manage to do that!" I said, still slightly buzzed from the hit to the head "I'm a tough kid HayDog, you know that" he knew I hated that name but because I was too zoned out to care he said it anyway, the doors opened and we rushed to the garage, well more like he dragged me as I crashed into everything, I must have grabbed something because I felt a cool metallic object hidden in my hoodie pocket, Clyde found a car and punched the driver side window and opened it and set me in the seat "You remember how to hot wire right?" He could clearly see I was back from my gaze at the steering wheel. "Yeah, I think I got this" I said as I began messing with the wires underneath. The car stared in a snap as I took off driving through the metal gate and into the streets ahead, we could hear cars speeding after us as I kept driving trying to avoid them, a car that was tailing us suddenly rammed into the back of our car and we spun in circles and collided with a stop sign. Clyde and I scrambled out of the car and bolted down the nearest alley. Two men in black suits grabbed us out of nowhere and held us, the object I grabbed flashed through my mind, a kitchen knife, the largest one in the room, I pulled it out of my hoodie pocket and jammed it into the guys neck, blood spewed out of his throat as he fell to the ground, I jumped on the back of the one holding Clyde and shoved the blade into his neck, forcing him to let go as he met the same fate as his comrade. We got as far as we could until Micheal and two other men blocked our path, I ran at one of the men and tried to stab him with the knife, he managed to get it out of my hand and panted it into my right thigh  sending me to the ground as Michael shoved his bat into Clyde's throat and into the brick wall. "Congratulations kids, you two managed to kill twp of my guys and put my best man out for a while. I would be impressed if it wasn't my men, so now you must pay for killin' em" He rained down the bat onto Clyde beating him senseless and all I could do was watch as shock, panic, and pain froze my blood and veins solid leaving me motionless. What had felt like hours of Micheal taking turns on Clyde, my dad, and myself the searing pain had finally stopped coming. "Well James, pleasure doing business with you, hope we never see you again, mainly because you're fucking dead." It was true, as much as it hurt he killed him a while ago, he had snapped his neck with his bear hands and left him there to stare at us as he beat the two of us senseless. Micheal took off and left Clyde and I to die there in the alley, laying next to each other soaking in blood. "H-Hayden?" Clyde choked out "Yeah? What is it?"I managed to reply "Do you remember my favorite color?" "Of course, it's orange. How can I forget that?" "Wh-What's my favorite animal?" "A Bengal Tiger, you do love cats" I let out a halfhearted laugh "What's my favorite type of movies?" "You love those shit romcoms" We both laughed at that one "My favorite type of music?" "Classical... Clyde what's the point of-" "-What's your favorite color" "Blue," "Favorite animal?" "Wolf," "Favorite movie type?" "Horror," "Favorite music type?" "Rock metal," "You see it now?" "See what Clyde?" "Us you dumbass... we're opposites" "What does that have to do with us dying" "Everything, I'm going to die Hayden. We both know that. So if you're my opposite what does that mean?" "I have to live?" "Yes Hayden. More importantly, you have to kill Micheal. Do it for me and dad... promise me ok?" He reached his hand toward mine as tears streaked down his face I took his hand in mine "Okay Clyde, I'll kill him.... I'll do it for you bro" "Thank you, I love you Hayden" "I love you too Clyde" we were both crying now. Life slowly faded from his eyes as he left me to complete my promise. I'll do it, I'm gonna kill that sick bastard. I made a promise to my brother The world around me grew fuzzy as ask slowly faded from consciousness, the last thing I heard before I blacked out was someone screaming Brock! Tyler! Come help me!

[thegloober]

The Redemption of Dellin Betances [2018 Season Review]

The Yankees have their priciest arbitration class in years this offseason and some big decisions are required

The 2018 season ended far earlier than we all would’ve liked. Now that the season is over, it’s time for our annual season review series, which continues today with Dellin Betances. Aside from post a day Monday through Friday, there is no set schedule for these posts. We’ll write about players when we feel like writing about them, so each day’s review post will be a surprise (even to us!).

(Omar Rawlings/Getty)

Had many folks gotten their way last offseason, Dellin Betances would not have been a Yankee in 2018. He collapsed so spectacularly down the stretch in 2017 that he seemed almost unsalvageable. We’ve seen Betances go through ups and downs for years now, often extreme ups and downs. What he went through last season was the lowest point of his big league career.

Things went so poorly for Betances down the stretch late last season — at one point Dellin walked ten batters in 9.2 innings, and he would’ve walked more had Joe Girardi not had a quick hook — that he was basically unusable in the postseason, which meant a larger workload for David Robertson and Chad Green in October. Would the Yankees trade Betances? Non-tender him? Many were ready to cut ties with Dellin.

Fortunately, the Yankees aren’t the kind to give up on high-end talent, so they stuck with Betances and were rewarded with a spectacular 2018 season, one in which he was their best reliever and again a dominant bullpen force. Dellin went from persona non grata in the 2017 postseason to Aaron Boone’s top weapon in the 2018 postseason. Quite a difference a year makes, eh?

In 66.2 innings this past season Betances posted a 2.70 ERA (2.47 FIP) with an excellent strikeout rate (42.3%) and an acceptable walk rate (9.6%). That is the highest strikeout rate of Dellin’s career — only Josh Hader (46.7%) and Edwin Diaz (44.3%) had a higher strikeout among the 89 relievers to throw at least 60 innings this year — and a walk rate that is far below his 2017 number (16.9%) and career average (11.0%). He was awesome.

This season Betances became the first reliever in history with five straight 100-strikeout seasons — Betances and Hall of Famers Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers are the only relievers with five 100-strikeout seasons in their career — and he jumped into 15th place on the franchise’s all-time appearance list (357). He could move into the top ten next season. Let’s review Dellin’s season.

A Summer of Dominance

From May 19th through September 22nd, a span of 44 appearances, Betances pitched to a 1.74 ERA (2.00 FIP) with 81 strikeouts in 46.2 innings. The numbers are comical: 46.2 IP, 23 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 17 BB, 76 K. Opponents hit .158/.266/.253 against him. Only nine times in those 44 appearances did Betances allow multiple baserunners and only five times did he allow an earned run.

Those dates are not necessarily cherry-picked. May 19th is the day Betances started his American League record 44-appearance streak with a strikeout and September 22nd is the final appearance in that stretch. Here are the longest reliever strikeout streaks in baseball history:

Aroldis Chapman, 2013-14 Reds: 49 games

Corey Knebel, 2016-17 Brewers: 46 games

Dellin Betances, 2018 Yankees: 44 games

Bruce Sutter, 1979 Cubs: 39 games

Josh Hader, 2017-18 Brewers and Eric Gagne, 2003-04 Dodgers: 35 games

Betances set both the American League record and the MLB single-season record this year. His record streak came to an unceremonious end on September 24th, in his second-to-last appearance of the season. He didn’t get hit around or anything. Betances faced three batters and got three quick ground ball outs on eight pitches. The strikeout streak is over. Long live the strikeout streak.

“Honestly, I’m not a guy that puts much attention into stretches or stats, but this is probably the best I’ve felt in a long time,” Betances said in August. “I’ve been feeling good all year. Even when I was going through some stuff early on, I felt like it was just a matter of results changing and maybe paying attention a little bit more to detail and what I need to do to make sure I wasn’t giving up as many runs as I was earlier. I just feel like I’ve been good with my delivery, repeating my delivery and using both my pitches equally, so I think that’s helped me.”

Dellin was not selected for the All-Star Game this season, ending his run of four straight All-Star selections. Betances, Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer were the only pitchers selected to every All-Star Game from 2014-17. Betances could’ve been an All-Star this year though. Even after his early season hiccup, he had great numbers, but pitching spots were hard to come by because the Twins (Jose Berrios), Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), and Tigers (Joe Jimenez) all needed a token All-Star. Oh well. Dellin did not get selected but was still worthy.

The Highest Leverage Situations

Regular season Leverage Index tells us Betances was not among the league leaders in high-leverage appearances. He didn’t even lead the Yankees in such appearances. One-hundred-and-forty-seven relievers threw at least 50 innings this past season. Here are Dellin’s Leverage Index numbers:

Average LI:  1.43 (46th in MLB)

Average LI when entering game: 1.34 (65th in MLB)

Appearances with 1.5 LI or higher: 24 (60th in MLB)

For the Yankees, Betances was second to Chapman (1.90) in average Leverage Index and third behind Chapman (1.56) and David Robertson (1.41) in average Leverage Index when entering the game. His 24 appearances with a 1.5 Leverage Index — anything at 1.5 or above qualifies as high leverage — were third on the Yankees behind Robertson (27) and Chapman (25).

Betances settled in as the Eighth Inning Guy™ early in the season and that meant he didn’t always pitch in the highest leverage situation. Sometimes he’d pitch with a two or three run lead after Robertson or Chad Green entered with a one-run lead an inning earlier. Betances did, however, get some of the biggest outs in the postseason. He was Boone’s middle of the order specialist and that mean crucial outs in the middle innings.

Championship Probability Added is essentially Win Probability Added on steroids. It tells you how much closer an individual play brings you to a World Series title rather than how much closer it brings you a single win. Here are the five biggest outs of the 2018 Yankees season by CPA:

Wild Card Game: Luis Severino strikes out Marcus Semien to end fourth (+0.011 CPA)

Wild Card Game: Betances gets Matt Chapman to fly out for the first out of the fifth (+0.009 CPA)

ALDS Game Four: CC Sabathia gets Ian Kinsler to fly out to end the first (+0.008 CPA)

Wild Card Game: Betances gets Jed Lowrie to fly out for the second out of the fifth (+0.007 CPA)

Wild Card Game: Betances strikes out Khris Davis to end the fifth (+0.007 CPA)

Severino striking out Semien with the bases loaded to preserve the two-run lead is, pretty clearly, the biggest out of the season. That passes the eye test and the CPA test, I think. Three of the next four biggest outs of the season came in the next inning, with Betances on the mound. He inherited runners on first and second with no outs from Severino, and the A’s had their 2-3-4 hitters up. Dellin sat them down in order. He then tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning as well.

“I’ve been waiting for that moment since last year,” said Betances following the Wild Card Game. “Obviously, last year I didn’t finish the season the way I wanted to. So for me to be able to go out there and do that, it’s a dream come true.”

Several pitchers still playing in the postseason have since passed Betances on the 2018 leaderboard, but, after ALDS Game Four, he was top five among all pitchers in CPA. He’s still top ten. Betances led Yankees pitchers in CPA this season and rather easily as well. Here’s the leaderboard:

Aaron Judge: +0.056 CPA

Dellin Betances: +0.050 CPA

Masahiro Tanaka: +0.024 CPA

Aroldis Chapman: +0.022 CPA

Neil Walker: +0.018 CPA

Neil Walker? Neil Walker! Anyway, this is all a very long way of saying Betances got some incredibly important outs this season. He was the team’s best reliever this summer and, in the postseason, Boone used him in what he considered the game’s biggest moments. Dellin was my platonic ideal of a high-leverage guy in October. He faced the other team’s best hitters with the score close. It was awesome.

“Dellin is a stud. I told him before the (Wild Card Game), you may be who I go to in the fourth or the fifth inning potentially, if it’s a part of the lineup that I want you facing in that spot,” Boone said. “I just felt he was the guy and so we got him ready for it and he was lights out.”

A Small Adjustment Pays Big Dividends

Betances did not have command problems last season. He had basic strike-throwing problems. Severino had command problems this year. He threw plenty of strikes but they weren’t great strikes. He left pitches out over the plate rather than dotting the corners. Betances couldn’t get the ball over the plate late last season. It was ugly. Relievers who don’t throw strikes tend to find themselves outside the Circle of Trust™ rather quickly.

Never will Betances be a pristine control guy. He’s not someone who will run a 4% walk rate or something like that. He overpowers hitters with upper-90s fastballs and a wicked breaking ball — it’s actually two breaking balls — and he just needs to be around the zone to be effective. He doesn’t have to paint the corners or hit the knees. Just be around the plate enough and in the zone enough, and things’ll work out. Dellin couldn’t do that last year.

To correct that problem, the Yankees and Betances worked to simplify his delivery a bit, specifically shortening up his leg kick and eliminating some extraneous movement. Here is the obligatory before-and-after GIF. That is 2017 Betances on the left and 2018 Betances on the right.

Last season Betances brought his left knee up high during his delivery. Right to his chest, basically. This year the leg kick was much more abbreviated. Up and down, quickly. Last year it was this clunky leg kick that seemed to slow everything down. Now the leg is up, the leg is down, and the ball is heading toward the plate. The simplified delivery helped Betances throw more strikes and get back to being one of the game’s best relievers.

“You’d rather not go through those (struggles), but with relievers that have pitched a lot, it happens quite a bit,” said pitching coach Larry Rothschild in August. “He’s come out on the right side of that more times than not. His track record is impressive. Four All-Star Games is not something you ignore. It was just a matter of him getting back into a real solid delivery and repeating it. He’s been able to do that.”

Betances was not perfect this season. No relievers are. He struggled out of the gate this season and looked #stillbroken, then, late in the season, he had that back-to-back homers blown save against the Tigers. By and large though, Betances was excellent, and a dominant force at the end of the games. And it’s not like we’d never seen that guy before. This season didn’t come out of nowhere. Dellin has been outstanding the last five years. The dominance outweighs the hiccups and that was especially true in 2018. He was great.

What’s Next?

The 2019 season will be Betances’ final season of team control. He is arbitration-eligible for the third and final time this winter — MLBTR projects a $6.4M salary next year — and I suppose the Yankees could approach him about a long-term contract. Betances is obviously very good and very valuable. He also turns 31 in March and can be unpredictable. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees give him a one-year arbitration contract for next season, and then worry about 2020 after the season.

Either way, there shouldn’t be any (or many, I guess) calls to trade or non-tender Betances this offseason. At least not like last offseason. He was great throughout the regular season and postseason, and other than the general “this guy can be unpredictable” worries, there’s no real reason to believe Betances is about to see his performance slip. He’ll be back in a high-leverage role again in 2019.

The Yankees have their priciest arbitration class in years this offseason and some big decisions are required

Source: https://bloghyped.com/the-redemption-of-dellin-betances-2018-season-review/