Kershaw, Greinke, Beckett, Ryu... All star team of an infield All star team of an outfield If the dodgers don't win it this year, I hope teams will accept that money can't buy championships and stop giving out stupid contracts...
big parties are planned for Wrigley Field's 100th Anniversary on April 23 or 24.
my favourite Chicago baseball party of all time was "Disco Demolition Night" when the 2nd game of a double header had to be cancelled as 50,000 people burned the grass off the field. 10s of thousands of "Disco Vinyl Records" were destroyed and "Long Live Rock and Roll" posters were every where.
On April 01 2014 21:05 SwARmZzz wrote: Kershaw, Greinke, Beckett, Ryu... All star team of an infield All star team of an outfield If the dodgers don't win it this year, I hope teams will accept that money can't buy championships and stop giving out stupid contracts...
in a short series any team can win. you can greatly improve your chances of a playoff birth by spending lots of cash though.. you cna never guarantee a world series win in any individual year.
Wow, had no idea Ubaldo Jimenez went to Baltimore, along with Nelly Cruz. Sucks that we lost Cruz for last year and let him go... Even with the incident, feel like he was a cornerstone to the team. But glad with the addition of Choo, a good mix of power and speed that can definitely add a compliment to Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder.
Our pitching rotation would've been baller right from the get-go had they not all gone down like bowling pins... Yu, Harrison, Holland... Bleh. AND SCREW JURICKSON PROFAR, I LOVED IAN KINSLER.
So how many more years are the Dodgers going to win the offseason before it pays off with a title? It didn't work for the Nats or Jays last year, although I think the Dodgers have a better shot.
Went to my first game of the season, Tigers-Royals. Perfect day for baseball, and great game. I'm loving Ian Kinsler already.
I'm so happy that they expanded instant replay for this season. The Tigers challenged two close calls at first, and won them both. And each time it only took about two minutes for the entire review process.
Yeah, even if the instant replay feature takes time out of the game, it should still be used for the sake of accuracy. No one wants a game to spotlighted entirely on a controversial call, and glad they finally implemented a decent use of technology.
My roommate who's at the Pirates game just posted a picture on Facebook of a guy who ran onto the field during the 6th inning pierogi race, outran the police, finished first in the race, and exited by jumping a barrier and down a tunnel in right field. I assume they caught him, but the picture was hilarious.
On April 03 2014 08:23 SynC[gm] wrote: Yeah, even if the instant replay feature takes time out of the game, it should still be used for the sake of accuracy. No one wants a game to spotlighted entirely on a controversial call, and glad they finally implemented a decent use of technology.
Oh yeah, the classic Jim Wolf vs Armando Galarraga "staredown". When Armando sort of raised his arms up in celebration and put them back down right away because Wolf called the baserunner safe, I assumed that after the brief eye contact they made, that Armando would start swinging... Awesome guy though, it's like, you had history and a moment to behold taken away from you, and you ain't even mad.
I dunno if Galarraga is doing the same as he once did however, though. Last time, I think it was 2 years ago, he got into a fight in the dugout with one of his teammates or a staff member after struggling to get out of an inning.
Also, yay for Robbie Ross on his decent start against the Phillies in his first career start. And lmfao at Johnathan Papelbon...
On April 03 2014 23:51 SynC[gm] wrote: Oh yeah, the classic Jim Wolf vs Armando Galarraga "staredown". When Armando sort of raised his arms up in celebration and put them back down right away because Wolf called the baserunner safe, I assumed that after the brief eye contact they made, that Armando would start swinging... Awesome guy though, it's like, you had history and a moment to behold taken away from you, and you ain't even mad.
It took him like a half second to process what just happened, then he immediately smiled. Every time I see that clip I think "this is the way I wish I would react to bullshit, but I know I take it way worse." The umpire also handled it really well, approaching Galarraga after the game to apologize and admit he got the call wrong, basically in tears. I always thought he had it in his head before the play that if there were to be a close play where the runner was safe, he didn't want to let the potential perfect-game bias his call, and unfortunately the opposite ended up happening.
On a similar note, I read an article today that states umpires basically take that approach with ball and strike calls at the plate. A "borderline" pitch becomes more likely to be called a ball in a 2 strike count, as well as if the previous pitch was a strike. That same pitch is more likely to be called a strike in a 3 ball count, though the previous pitch being a ball seems to have no effect.
btw the big story that impacts the game league wide is the continuing growth of defensive shifts thanks to new fielding data. it's gonna make a big difference not only for player performance but also team performance. oreos shifted a lot last year and that accounted for their better than expected run. teams that run more shifts will have an edge over those that don't
That's been a pretty big topic of conversation from the wing of writers who like to look at baseball as a two-sided game (a revolutionary thought, I know). The Pirates, I believe, shifted the most of anyone in the league last year to great results.
he's incredibly reliant on his location now because his fastball is shit. anything up in teh zone gets crushed and of course flat sliders get crushed too. he was doing well for 5 innings but then lost his location and got crushed
btw not getting jose 'the cuban barry bonds' abreu is gonna be one to regret for the yankees. they would be so much better with a bit more offense.
On April 11 2014 22:39 oneofthem wrote: a bit too blatant lol.
btw the big story that impacts the game league wide is the continuing growth of defensive shifts thanks to new fielding data. it's gonna make a big difference not only for player performance but also team performance. oreos shifted a lot last year and that accounted for their better than expected run. teams that run more shifts will have an edge over those that don't
Yeah the Tigers have been doing it a lot already this season. Brad Ausmus has really breathed some new life into this team.
On April 11 2014 22:39 oneofthem wrote: a bit too blatant lol.
btw the big story that impacts the game league wide is the continuing growth of defensive shifts thanks to new fielding data. it's gonna make a big difference not only for player performance but also team performance. oreos shifted a lot last year and that accounted for their better than expected run. teams that run more shifts will have an edge over those that don't
Yeah the Tigers have been doing it a lot already this season. Brad Ausmus has really breathed some new life into this team.
The change up is the most under-appreciated pitch by non-players. it looks boring. thrown properly it is very effective and a lot easier on your shoulder and elbow than the slider. the slider looks really cool on TV though.
btw despite his phil hughesque one bad inning struggles as of late, CC did have sick peripherals. so his xFIP was pretty good despite having a 6 era. that xFIP is masking his batting practice fastball though, because there's no way his homer per flyball ratio is independent of his own contribution.
he can still pitch but i wouldn't feel confident about the prospect of him going up against a team that can actually hit homers
At least second. Only incident I remember is the one with McCann, but I assume there have been others. When you're going to showboat, you have to be able to deal with people not liking it.
Funny thing was, had he hustled, it was an easy HR.
Pineda just got kicked out for pine tar on his neck during the Sox-Yankees game. And the announcers immediately go to his defense and pine tar's defense.
On April 24 2014 10:06 AgentW wrote: Yeah, your stance seems objective...
If you're gonna do it, don't be so damn obvious.
well whether it's going into 'enhancement' territory or not seems to depend on how much of the stuff is used and for what pitch.
pitchers that rely on sliders could use pine tar to get more spin and get more finger pressure on the pitch. those that rely on slower spin rate pitches like splitters use slippery stuff. but the type of pitch produced by vaseline powered slipperiness is in a class of its own. i guess that's why it's seen as worse than pine tar, which helps with fastball grip as well as breaking pitches, and has less of a 'make unique pitch out of thin air' aspect to it.
the Blue Jays assemble a collection of injury prone pitchers many of whom have never pitched more than 150 innings a year. and, surprise surprise... Blue Jay pitchers are dropping like flies.
Yeah, kept getting notifications from my ESPN app that "Yu Darvish has retired XX batters through X innings." Missed the game but man... Again, he misses an opportunity for a perfect game. Great that we got the W against the Red Sox though, gotta get the ball rolling and pick up momentum.
Is that because of pitchers throwing harder/more inefficiently than in the past though? K rates are up because of the moneyball methodology (striking out isn't as bad of a thing as it was once was thought to be) and batting average and starter innings are down because of late inning specialization. I think I read in a Keri/Verducci article recently that BA in the last three innings of games is at like .215, which would be the lowest league wide average for a full season by far.
starters are indeed throwing faster,(saw some graph of avg velo for 4 seam fastball for the decade on fangraphs, dont have the link atm but there was a spike in 2013-14) and stuff like increased # of relievers on roster, increased reliever innings do enable teams to use starters differently, enable them to go more all out.
stuff like the changing amateur pitching load probably figure majorly into the injury rash, but yea starters are indeed being more max effort.
Its also that more and more pitchers are selling out for velocity. The average fastball speed has been climbing every year for quite a few years now, and so had TJS rates.
On May 18 2014 00:26 oneofthem wrote: starters are indeed throwing faster,(saw some graph of avg velo for 4 seam fastball for the decade on fangraphs, dont have the link atm but there was a spike in 2013-14) and stuff like increased # of relievers on roster, increased reliever innings do enable teams to use starters differently, enable them to go more all out.
stuff like the changing amateur pitching load probably figure majorly into the injury rash, but yea starters are indeed being more max effort.
fewer starting pitchers throwing the straight change. it is an under rated and under appreciated pitch because all it does is throw off hte timing of the hitter. it does not have any fantastical breaking action that makes tv viewers and advance scouts 'ooooh' and 'aaaah' and say "wow that pitcher has `electric stuff` ".
On June 19 2014 17:03 Slaughter wrote: The entire Tigers starting rotation is basically taking a collective shit lately.
On May 18 the Tigers were 27-12, had just swept the Orioles and Red Sox (both on the road), and had the best record in baseball. since then, they are 11-20, and only the Rays and the Rockies have been worse. They've also allowed the most runs in the MLB in that span (179).
Classic baseball experience: For the first time in a long time, hyped about the Seattle Mariners. Over .500, young team, still in playoff contention, feels good. Go with family to see a Mariners game, think: nothing can go wrong, this team is on the upswing Mariners get one hit Lose 5-0 Buy a Mariners baseball cap
Lol, I feel you. One of my younger baseball memories is going to the game where Fernando Tatis hit 2 grand slams in the same inning against the Dodgers.
Kershaw in June: 6-0 with 61 strikeouts/ 0.82 ERA and only 4 walks. Has a current streak of 28 scoreless innings going.
bleh it's the astros. need some yankees leaks. particularly interested in how the fuck they managed to only bid 12m for darvish and let abreu go to the white sox after scoring shit for runs last year
What do you guys think about the Seattle Mariners? Think they're a team that can be a legitimate playoff contender? Or do you think they've reached their peak?
It seems like a lot of pundits think Seattle is over performing
On July 03 2014 02:08 itkovian wrote: What do you guys think about the Seattle Mariners? Think they're a team that can be a legitimate playoff contender? Or do you think they've reached their peak?
It seems like a lot of pundits think Seattle is over performing
TBF it's a toss-up right now. Seattle's biggest issue is that they're so inconsistent, in that all of their players show flashes of greatness but they never sync up. There are a few members of their lineup that are most likely over performing, but they also have multiple underrated players like Seager and Zunino. They have an upcoming series with Oakland right before the All-Star break, and I think they're going to likely judge how they want to treat the trade deadline from that series. I think it's likely that they strike while the iron is hot and gun for the Wild Card.
On July 03 2014 06:59 MassHysteria wrote: OAK mgmt. is just at another level. Their run-differential compared to the rest of the league is just crazzy.
regardless of how good of a gm you are there's still quite a bit of luck involved, because these teams largely rely on player development, and prospects seem to come in cycles.
rays were thought to have an unbroken talent pipeline a couple years ago but they've done nothing in the draft since then, including the one where they had like 9 first rounders or something insane. it's kind of cyclic
the younger the drafted player the more luck is involved.
but, some scouts are better than others... and some scouting departments are run better than others.
also, "Prez of Baseball Ops" should control all aspects of player development from ROokie league up to who manages the AAA team. deciding who to help develop and coach your players is not luck.
Traded Addison Russell and Billy Mckinney. Meh, don't know anything about Mckinney but Addison Russell is like probably an above average starter in 2017.
EDIT: Starter, like starting in the field, I know he's not a pitcher.
I think Samardzija is quite overrated, but I like the move. I like the return they got, even though Hammel is likely gone next year. They'll likely retain Samardzija for another year, but he'll be gone after the next as well. I suppose it's the fact that I don't like gambling on prospects, and they certainly got something tangible to help the team.
trading pitching for hitting .. LOL. so we have 2 sabrematricians trading with each other. 1 played baseball.. the other didn't. did Epstein at least play in college?
i have a question of Pulp Fiction proportions... Lou Gehrig did not want to make what has become one of the greatest speeches in American history.
What did joe mccarthy say to Gehrig on the field that changed his mind and convinced Gehrig to speak on July 4th, 1939?
cubs are still a couple years away at least and that's mainly why they traded their perishable asset. defensive premium position especially shortstops are very valuable, more valuable than pitching prospects who are rather risky.
you can use 'risky' to whitewash over any decision made that includes the trading of a player under 21.
how much longer will it be before Jose Bautista demands a trade? the Toronto GM promised him a lot and has not delivered.
Drew Hutcheson is tipping off his fastball it was batting practise at 94 MPH last night
it was pretty obvious the red sox hitters were waiting for the fastball every time it was thrown, Ortiz made it look really obvious he knew a fastball was coming.
making starting pitcher free agents asking price sky high. meaning the best way to acquire starting pitching is the TBR method.
because of the injuries that are ever present you want pitchers whose medical history you have total and absolute knowledge of... medically, something always gets missed when u acquire a pitcher from another team.
which again points to the TBR method as being the best way to do it.
Hope to see Henry Owens sometimes in sept, boston's farm system has been pretty good, lots of studs still even after bogaerts and bradly jr. got called up. Logjam at catcher though, will be interesting to see who cherington sticks with.
Also thanks based lackey for turning around his career to the point that we basically got those guys for free.
The Detroit Tigers have acquired All-Star left-hander David Price in a blockbuster three-team trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners, a source has confirmed to ESPN's Jayson Stark.
Detroit sent center fielder Austin Jackson to Seattle while Tampa Bay received left-hander Drew Smyly from the Tigers and infielder Nick Franklin from the Mariners, according to multiple reports.
The Rays also received infield prospect Willy Adames from the Tigers, according to reports.
So the Red Sox over-performed last year and now they trade away their 1-4 starters for some veterans. Is Cepedes going to be like Manny in the adventures of left field?
Looks like it's going to be A's vs. Tigers in ALCS at this rate.
Do you guys think it's worth it to lose long games on purpose? Detroit already has starters injured, I'm sure they could've done without using Porcello in relief.
No. Especially with a small division lead like Detroit over Cleveland in that situation. If it was the Angels vs. Red Sox and the Red Sox mailed it in, I guess it would be fine.
Orioles slugger Chris Davis has been suspended for 25 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for amphetamines, the league announced Friday morning. The suspension includes the postseason.
...
Davis has released the following statement:
"I apologize to my teammates, coaches, the Orioles organization and especially the fans. I made a mistake by taking Adderall. I had permission to use it in the past, but do not have a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) this year. I accept my punishment and will begin serving my suspension immediately."
With Oakland plummeting down the standings, all I can hear in the back of my mind is Raynor's voice saying "I'm not the type of guy that says I told you so..but I told you so!"
On September 20 2014 11:03 oneofthem wrote: why do you think they are losing?
Personally, I don't think they were playing over their heads. The numbers at the start of the season don't support that. I think that trading Cespedes was a big part, not because he was a world beater, but because he protected other guys in the lineup. Pitchers don't have to worry about his bat anymore and don't have to give good looks to guys that would have benefited from have Yoenis batting behind them.
Plus they've had a metric crapton of injuries over the past two months.
It's frustrating for them for sure, but Angels fans like myself are thankful
Really cool that KC made the playoffs. I have no problem saying that, as a Tigers fan, I would bandwagon the shit out of the Royals if they made it to the world series. Would be epic.
I don't like baseball anymore but I grew up a Royals fan and it's pretty cool to see everyone around here going crazy over it. KC sports have been completely awful for a long time (minus the soccer team that's pretty new), and it's cool to see the Royals come back to respectability for at least one year. 29 years is a long time.. just like it's been 21 years since the Chiefs won a playoff game. If it wasn't for the worst choke job / bad injury luck I've ever seen, the Chiefs could've got that monkey off their back earlier this year too.
Last time the Royals were in the playoffs teams played on painted green concrete and called it "astro turf". Sabrematricians would carefully separate all the stats accumulated on "astro turf" from the stats accumulated on natural/real grass.
you can't judge a baseball team in a BO1, BO5 or even BO7.
not to get any Royals fans too riled up here.. but any one who thinks the KC Royals were the best baseball team in 1985 needs their head examined. or the 87 Twins for that matter.
On October 04 2014 05:43 Ferrose wrote: It's quite a feat that the Tigers keep making the playoffs with this shitty bullpen.
Just goes to show how spectacular their starting pitching and core line-up is. But yeah - I don't think you can ever hope to win in the post season with such a glaring hole that good teams will shit all over.
I don't care if you don't like baseball. If you've ever competed in a sport at any level, and you watch this Royals team, you'll fall in love with them immediately. Not only are they winning games in the toughest ways but they're enjoying themselves the entire time. There's no nerves in play at all.
I was listening on the radio during work. When I heard them pull Zimmerman after giving up a walk after retiring like 17 straight batters I was like, "This is one of those situations where the manager will outwit himself and pull his near-perfect starter and then the closer will immediately blow the lead." Sure enough, two hits later.
On October 06 2014 09:33 JimmyJRaynor wrote: well, we ain't gonna party like its 1984... the tigers are gone.
Athletics and Tigers looked like the runaway teams at the halfway mark, and both made "for all teh moniez" trades that ultimately didn't work... In fact both teams played pretty uninspired afterwards. Oakland was horrible.
On October 05 2014 15:26 MountainDewJunkie wrote: I was listening on the radio during work. When I heard them pull Zimmerman after giving up a walk after retiring like 17 straight batters I was like, "This is one of those situations where the manager will outwit himself and pull his near-perfect starter and then the closer will immediately blow the lead." Sure enough, two hits later.
To be fair, 9 times out of 10 the closer easily gets the final out. It's just that the Giants are clutch as fuck.
On October 05 2014 15:26 MountainDewJunkie wrote: I was listening on the radio during work. When I heard them pull Zimmerman after giving up a walk after retiring like 17 straight batters I was like, "This is one of those situations where the manager will outwit himself and pull his near-perfect starter and then the closer will immediately blow the lead." Sure enough, two hits later.
To be fair, 9 times out of 10 the closer easily gets the final out. It's just that the Giants are clutch as fuck.
It's really funny. We have two totally polar opposite teams in the Bay Area when it comes to being clutch. On the right side of the ledger, we have the Giants. On the wrong side, we have the Sharks, who are basically the anti-Giants.
On October 05 2014 15:26 MountainDewJunkie wrote: I was listening on the radio during work. When I heard them pull Zimmerman after giving up a walk after retiring like 17 straight batters I was like, "This is one of those situations where the manager will outwit himself and pull his near-perfect starter and then the closer will immediately blow the lead." Sure enough, two hits later.
To be fair, 9 times out of 10 the closer easily gets the final out. It's just that the Giants are clutch as fuck.
It's really funny. We have two totally polar opposite teams in the Bay Area when it comes to being clutch. On the right side of the ledger, we have the Giants. On the wrong side, we have the Sharks, who are basically the anti-Giants.
the Sharks lost to the Stanley Cup champs in 7 , a team that steam rolled the other finalist. the SHarks get a really bad rap for that loss, but the Kings are the best team in the world. the Sharks did not choke, they were defeated by the best team in the world.
regarding baseball, "clutch play" is pretty much a myth.
Kirk Gibson is my favourite "he looks clutch" player though. Never shaves...looks like he just lost a bar fight... always pissed off...that video of him hobbling around the bases, injured, after a world series game winning homer off the best short reliever in the game was just awesome...
i wish clutch play did exist so that i could run around talking about what a "Clutch Hitter" Kirk Gibson was.
pretty much the ideal storyline ws and the ratings are still shit. hopefully it will show them how stupid this small market 'parity = entertainment' mantra is. baseball is a regional sport and needs either homers or yankees to do well.
MadBum got the first World Series shutout since 2003.
The MLB playoff system is now too different from the essence of baseball competition. Two teams with less than 90 regular season wins competing for the world series title is silly.
Better Playoff Format
2 divisions in each league. each division has either 7 or 8 teams in it. all 4 division winners make the playoffs. 4 teams out of 30 make it to the playoffs.
the playoffs is a 4 team round robin tourney where each team plays every other team 9 times. the tourney is 28 days long with 1 off day in the middle.
this is a much better way to determine the world series winner, but it'll never happen. if anything MLB will just keep adding more teams to the playoffs.
What a shock. I'm so sad right now. He was a young guy who had a promising career ahead. RIP.
the news hit me the same way. He had all the promise of a future superstar on a good organization, right when his life was about to get started. Terrible.
The Braves didn't exactly get shafted but good move for the Cards I think. Heyward is a beast and can still improve. If anything I would question their pitching staff for next year, but the Cards being the Cards probably have it figured out already.
bad bad trade for braves. miller is a starter yea, but a 1 pitch starter whose reputation and pedigree is long gone. he's like phil hughes before minnesota
On November 19 2014 06:40 zulu_nation8 wrote: is heyward's arm really that good to get him 6 war with his offense stats?
it does cut down the number of extra base hits he gives up by a huge amount, but with a middling projection on defense he's still going to give you 5 wins just by the underrated offense alone.
no one can trade away pitching for hitting like Alex Anthopoulos can. and now the Jays are picking whatever tomato-cans they can get off teh scrap heap to round out their pitching staff for 2015.
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