MLB Thread: 2013

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541

[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
LMAO on the Angels and Dodgers. Keep spending money and keep sucking some more.[/quote]

Loving it. I did not think it was possible for them to have such a bad start again with their additions and the maturation of trout. The Dodgers are a mess but they have a better shot in the NLwest with that division always going down to the wire. Being nearly 10 games under .500 is just gotta be embarrasing and infuriating for the fans with the type of money the teams have spent.

542

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

Raj hasn’t played a single inning of competitive baseball at any level in his entire life. That is why he resorts to numbers. They are the best way for him to understand the inner workings of the game. Unfortunately for him, he has trouble putting those numbers in their proper context sometimes.[/quote]

That guy is exhausting. I’ve watched you guys go back and forth for a couple years now and I have no idea how you’ve managed to stay sane (assuming you are of course). How he manages to completely misunderstand and misconstrue what has been said is amazing.

Anyway, Braves @ Giants coming up tomorrow, thoughts? Also, what are your thoughts on the McCann/Gattis/Laird situation? And when is Kimbrel going to realize he can’t go with the heater every freaking pitch?![/quote]

Actually, Kimbrel’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch, his location is what’s been suffering. Everything has been down, down, down. His heater needs to stay up. I would like to see him develop a cut fastball though. However, I have been quite satisfied with the Braves bullpen. Everybody is going to have a bad outing now and then. But in general teams have a 6 inning window in which to score, after 6 their chances of scoring goes down.

I need to look at the trending on SF lately, to make a prediction about this weekend. The Braves have leveled off, but they are still a force to reckon with when they are luke warm. I love this team. It’s the best team we’ve had since '96.
It’s not a knock on Chipper, but his salary has always kept us a bat short. We have the bats now. As Justin levels off, I am figuring BJ to start picking up the slack.
And he’s not the best hitter, but when Uggla hit’s a homerun, it’s a beauty.

543

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
LMAO on the Angels and Dodgers. Keep spending money and keep sucking some more.[/quote]

Loving it. I did not think it was possible for them to have such a bad start again with their additions and the maturation of trout. The Dodgers are a mess but they have a better shot in the NLwest with that division always going down to the wire. Being nearly 10 games under .500 is just gotta be embarrasing and infuriating for the fans with the type of money the teams have spent.[/quote]

Yeah, but it’s May. I ain’t going to sleep on either team. I expect both to surge come summertime. Baseball is a long season. That’s the good and the bad of it. 2 months from now, will they be sucking? I doubt it.

544

It will be interesting to see how Zito fair’s against the Blue jays.

Also Melky is on fire right now.

545

[quote]pat wrote:

Actually, Kimbrel’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch, his location is what’s been suffering. Everything has been down, down, down. His heater needs to stay up. I would like to see him develop a cut fastball though. However, I have been quite satisfied with the Braves bullpen. Everybody is going to have a bad outing now and then. But in general teams have a 6 inning window in which to score, after 6 their chances of scoring goes down.

I need to look at the trending on SF lately, to make a prediction about this weekend. The Braves have leveled off, but they are still a force to reckon with when they are luke warm. I love this team. It’s the best team we’ve had since '96.
It’s not a knock on Chipper, but his salary has always kept us a bat short. We have the bats now. As Justin levels off, I am figuring BJ to start picking up the slack.
And he’s not the best hitter, but when Uggla hit’s a homerun, it’s a beauty. [/quote]

I don’t necessarily disagree but it seems that lately his fastball has lost a couple of mph. You can’t put it over the middle of the plate at 94 three times in a row to someone like David Wright (or Mesoraco or Choo) and NOT expect them to put it out of the park. Either locate better or make it be 97-98. Also, if he throws a hook to Mesoraco when it was 3-2 maybe the Reds don’t walk off.

And you’re right re: the bullpen generally being in good shape. It just sucks when you see them do in a couple of weeks what took them all of last year (ex: 3 blown saves). But everyone better get it together starting tonight though the win yesterday helps.

I hope BJ starts picking up the slack because it’s one thing to pay a huge salary and get something (Chipper) but it’s another to pay a huge salary and get NOTHING (BJ so far).

Thoughts on the McCann/Gattis/Laird situation?

546

[quote]pat wrote:

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

Raj hasn’t played a single inning of competitive baseball at any level in his entire life. That is why he resorts to numbers. They are the best way for him to understand the inner workings of the game. Unfortunately for him, he has trouble putting those numbers in their proper context sometimes.[/quote]

That guy is exhausting. I’ve watched you guys go back and forth for a couple years now and I have no idea how you’ve managed to stay sane (assuming you are of course). How he manages to completely misunderstand and misconstrue what has been said is amazing.

Anyway, Braves @ Giants coming up tomorrow, thoughts? Also, what are your thoughts on the McCann/Gattis/Laird situation? And when is Kimbrel going to realize he can’t go with the heater every freaking pitch?![/quote]

Actually, Kimbrel’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch, his location is what’s been suffering. Everything has been down, down, down. His heater needs to stay up. I would like to see him develop a cut fastball though. However, I have been quite satisfied with the Braves bullpen. Everybody is going to have a bad outing now and then. But in general teams have a 6 inning window in which to score, after 6 their chances of scoring goes down.

I need to look at the trending on SF lately, to make a prediction about this weekend. The Braves have leveled off, but they are still a force to reckon with when they are luke warm. I love this team. It’s the best team we’ve had since '96.
It’s not a knock on Chipper, but his salary has always kept us a bat short. We have the bats now. As Justin levels off, I am figuring BJ to start picking up the slack.
And he’s not the best hitter, but when Uggla hit’s a homerun, it’s a beauty. [/quote]

NO ONE’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch. Except for Mariano Rivera’s, but even then, he only threw it about 90% of the time.

And what’s wrong with being down? The mistake is to leave a pitch up, not down. And quite frankly, if you are going to throw the fastball every pitch, even in the high 90’s, you’re going to get burned if you constantly throw it in the same general location. It’s better to be able to pitch at the bottom of the strike zone AND be able to elevate the fastball right above the strike zone, or right in the middle of the zone height-wise, but just off the plate or on the corner on the inside part of the plate. The fastball between the belt and the bottom of the hands on the inner half, especially to righties, is a deadly pitch if you can consistently command the lower half of the strike zone.

Leo Mazzili used to say that the best way for virtually all pitchers to pitch to virtually all hitters was to be able to change speeds with all of your pitches down and away and plant the fastball just off the plate between the belt and the hands. Whether you throw 85 or 95, if you can do this consistently you’ll end up with a career like Smoltz or Glavine or Maddux. Smoltz and Glavine were as diametrically-opposed pitchers on the same team as you can get, with completely different stuff, but they both pitched this way and did so with great success.

547

I will never understand how, even with instant replay, these calls are blown

548

[quote]Anonymity wrote:
I will never understand how, even with instant replay, these calls are blown

Yeah, it happens.

But when they go you’re way, it’s pretty sweet.

549

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
LMAO on the Angels and Dodgers. Keep spending money and keep sucking some more.[/quote]

Loving it. I did not think it was possible for them to have such a bad start again with their additions and the maturation of trout. The Dodgers are a mess but they have a better shot in the NLwest with that division always going down to the wire. Being nearly 10 games under .500 is just gotta be embarrasing and infuriating for the fans with the type of money the teams have spent.[/quote]

How did tonight’s protest (and win) for ANA sit with you guys?

550

We’ll take game 1, thank you.

551

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]pat wrote:

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

Raj hasn’t played a single inning of competitive baseball at any level in his entire life. That is why he resorts to numbers. They are the best way for him to understand the inner workings of the game. Unfortunately for him, he has trouble putting those numbers in their proper context sometimes.[/quote]

That guy is exhausting. I’ve watched you guys go back and forth for a couple years now and I have no idea how you’ve managed to stay sane (assuming you are of course). How he manages to completely misunderstand and misconstrue what has been said is amazing.

Anyway, Braves @ Giants coming up tomorrow, thoughts? Also, what are your thoughts on the McCann/Gattis/Laird situation? And when is Kimbrel going to realize he can’t go with the heater every freaking pitch?![/quote]

Actually, Kimbrel’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch, his location is what’s been suffering. Everything has been down, down, down. His heater needs to stay up. I would like to see him develop a cut fastball though. However, I have been quite satisfied with the Braves bullpen. Everybody is going to have a bad outing now and then. But in general teams have a 6 inning window in which to score, after 6 their chances of scoring goes down.

I need to look at the trending on SF lately, to make a prediction about this weekend. The Braves have leveled off, but they are still a force to reckon with when they are luke warm. I love this team. It’s the best team we’ve had since '96.
It’s not a knock on Chipper, but his salary has always kept us a bat short. We have the bats now. As Justin levels off, I am figuring BJ to start picking up the slack.
And he’s not the best hitter, but when Uggla hit’s a homerun, it’s a beauty. [/quote]

NO ONE’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch. Except for Mariano Rivera’s, but even then, he only threw it about 90% of the time.

And what’s wrong with being down? The mistake is to leave a pitch up, not down. And quite frankly, if you are going to throw the fastball every pitch, even in the high 90’s, you’re going to get burned if you constantly throw it in the same general location. It’s better to be able to pitch at the bottom of the strike zone AND be able to elevate the fastball right above the strike zone, or right in the middle of the zone height-wise, but just off the plate or on the corner on the inside part of the plate. The fastball between the belt and the bottom of the hands on the inner half, especially to righties, is a deadly pitch if you can consistently command the lower half of the strike zone.

Leo Mazzili used to say that the best way for virtually all pitchers to pitch to virtually all hitters was to be able to change speeds with all of your pitches down and away and plant the fastball just off the plate between the belt and the hands. Whether you throw 85 or 95, if you can do this consistently you’ll end up with a career like Smoltz or Glavine or Maddux. Smoltz and Glavine were as diametrically-opposed pitchers on the same team as you can get, with completely different stuff, but they both pitched this way and did so with great success.[/quote]

Normally, I would agree with this, but not in Kimbrel’s case. Mainly because of the book on him right now is a heater, down. Trying to blow past hitters every pitch, a low fastball gives them a longer look, and they know it’s coming. The way he throws, he needs to climb the latter, and go in and out and out and in. Especially, first pitch strike, everybody is looking low, blwo it past their chin. It’s about doing what the hitter does not expect. I do think he should mix it a little more, he has a good change-up. Leo Preached low and mix off of your fast ball, and if you miss, miss low. In the end, I liked Leo, I miss him rocking in the dugout, but he really wasn’t the greatest pitching coach. He was a good manager of pitchers, but with Maddox, Galvine and Smoltz, what are you going to teach? It didn’t matter who the pitching coach was back then.

I think there is one guy who’s fastball is good enough to throw every pitch, Chapman. You can’t hit that shit even when you know what is coming and and where it’s going.

Yeah, Mo’s cut fastball is super human. I want that pitch on our staff. The question is how do you get that late movement like he does? Nobody seems to have solved that riddle. Other’s throw a cut fastball, but few if any have that late movement like he does. Best closer ever.

552

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]pat wrote:

Actually, Kimbrel’s heater is good enough to throw every pitch, his location is what’s been suffering. Everything has been down, down, down. His heater needs to stay up. I would like to see him develop a cut fastball though. However, I have been quite satisfied with the Braves bullpen. Everybody is going to have a bad outing now and then. But in general teams have a 6 inning window in which to score, after 6 their chances of scoring goes down.

I need to look at the trending on SF lately, to make a prediction about this weekend. The Braves have leveled off, but they are still a force to reckon with when they are luke warm. I love this team. It’s the best team we’ve had since '96.
It’s not a knock on Chipper, but his salary has always kept us a bat short. We have the bats now. As Justin levels off, I am figuring BJ to start picking up the slack.
And he’s not the best hitter, but when Uggla hit’s a homerun, it’s a beauty. [/quote]

I don’t necessarily disagree but it seems that lately his fastball has lost a couple of mph. You can’t put it over the middle of the plate at 94 three times in a row to someone like David Wright (or Mesoraco or Choo) and NOT expect them to put it out of the park. Either locate better or make it be 97-98. Also, if he throws a hook to Mesoraco when it was 3-2 maybe the Reds don’t walk off.

And you’re right re: the bullpen generally being in good shape. It just sucks when you see them do in a couple of weeks what took them all of last year (ex: 3 blown saves). But everyone better get it together starting tonight though the win yesterday helps.

I hope BJ starts picking up the slack because it’s one thing to pay a huge salary and get something (Chipper) but it’s another to pay a huge salary and get NOTHING (BJ so far).

Thoughts on the McCann/Gattis/Laird situation?[/quote]

I am not worried about the bullpen, unless Kimbrel is hiding an injury, he’ll be fine. Just needs to make some adjustments.

The McCann/Gattis/Laird situation? I think it’s the worlds best problem to have. These guys are all going to get to contribute substantially through out the year. I think you have to give the job to McCann, it’s his to lose. I think the threat is good for him, keep him on his toes. But Gattis and Laird have been nothing short of amazing. Like I said, I love this team. It’s dangerous as hell.
I liked what I saw last night. We manufactured a lot of runs. I am not against the long ball, but winning with it exclusively is not tenable in the long run. And come in October, where pitching is everything, if you have been swinging for the fences all year, it’s a tough habit to break.

Here is something I don’t understand about big league hitters up against, star pitchers. The key to beating those guys is to get them out of the game, the way to get them out of the game is to make them throw a lot of pitches. If I were a manager, I would have my guys in the first 3 innings try and run up the count and the foul the ball off 20 times. Nothing gets in to a pitcher’s head more than the fact that he had to throw 34 pitches to get out of the first inning. I’d have my guys try to hit 10 foul balls before they take legit swings. That’s what I would do if I saw a Verlander or CC on the mound. Run up his pitch count and get him out of the game early.

553

[quote]pat wrote:
We’ll take game 1, thank you.[/quote]

Yessir, very happy to see that but the Giants will get theirs. Be interesting to see how things go with Fredi G gone for the next two games (daughters graduation is what I read). Won’t be easy no matter what. Tonight should be a good one with Hudson and Cain on the mound.

554

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]pat wrote:
We’ll take game 1, thank you.[/quote]

Yessir, very happy to see that but the Giants will get theirs. Be interesting to see how things go with Fredi G gone for the next two games (daughters graduation is what I read). Won’t be easy no matter what. Tonight should be a good one with Hudson and Cain on the mound.
[/quote]

Good to see Cain string two solid outings in a row together. He looks like he’s back to his usual self again. Now if only Vogelsong could figure out what the fuck he’s doing out there.

Giants have some really solid arms in the system but they’re all down in A or AA ball right now and the two best arms they have down there right now are both only 20, so the Giants definitely won’t be thinking about bringing them up anytime soon. Cain and Bumgarner making their debuts at age 20 were the exceptions to the norm.

555

Dickey vs Zito on Tuesday.

How fitting.

556

Boy, the Giants sure have been taking it to the Braves this series. It’s still only the fifth inning, but other than Vogelsong’s complete collapse during one inning of the first game of the series, the Giants have outplayed Atlanta in every aspect of the game. It’s always good to see the defending champs rise to the occasion against good teams looking to take their title away.

557

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Boy, the Giants sure have been taking it to the Braves this series. It’s still only the fifth inning, but other than Vogelsong’s complete collapse during one inning of the first game of the series, the Giants have outplayed Atlanta in every aspect of the game. It’s always good to see the defending champs rise to the occasion against good teams looking to take their title away.[/quote]

Yep, the Braves were pretty much garbage this series and all props to the Giants (especially the pitching). Took it to 'em and through 'em!

I know it’s a long season but the boom or bust nature of this Braves team is going to give me a heart attack. I’m still waiting for everyone to start working on all cylinders. And boy when we do, that will be one hell of a week of baseball.

(At least both my sons made all stars again this past week and no, I don’t coach them so none of that daddy ball bullshit that is so prevalent in kids sports these days)

558

[quote]rugbgod wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Boy, the Giants sure have been taking it to the Braves this series. It’s still only the fifth inning, but other than Vogelsong’s complete collapse during one inning of the first game of the series, the Giants have outplayed Atlanta in every aspect of the game. It’s always good to see the defending champs rise to the occasion against good teams looking to take their title away.[/quote]

Yep, the Braves were pretty much garbage this series and all props to the Giants (especially the pitching). Took it to 'em and through 'em!

I know it’s a long season but the boom or bust nature of this Braves team is going to give me a heart attack. I’m still waiting for everyone to start working on all cylinders. And boy when we do, that will be one hell of a week of baseball.

(At least both my sons made all stars again this past week and no, I don’t coach them so none of that daddy ball bullshit that is so prevalent in kids sports these days)[/quote]

A lot of their players are strikeout prone, which means that when they’re slumping they’re REALLY slumping. Freeman, McCann, both the Uptons and Uggla are all up there hacking. Feast or famine with those guys.

With the Phillies headed for the glue factory, the Marlins barely resembling a major league team and the Mets still one or two good hitters and another starter away from legitimate contention, the East is there for the taking for the Braves. The Nationals are starting to turn things around a bit but I still think the Braves have a team capable of outplaying Washington over a 162-game season.

It looks like the Cardinals are the class of the NL right now, though. They can score plenty of runs, they’ve got really good starting pitching in Wainwright, Miller, Lynn and even Jaime Garcia from time to time.

The scary thing though is that the Giants haven’t had good starting pitching all year and they’re still tied with St. Louis for the most wins in the NL, and now their starters are starting to string some solid outings together. Their bullpen has been stellar thus far and there was some vague rumor about the Giants perhaps pursuing Cliff Lee in a trade if Vogelsong continues pitching to the tune of an ERA close to 8.00. Remember, his last ten starts or so last year he had an ERA close to 7.00, so he’s really been struggling for a while now, the postseason notwithstanding.

The NL is deep this year, no doubt. Atlanta, Washington, CIncinnati, SF and St. Louis are legitimate pennant contenders with the talent on both ends of the ball to go the whole way. In the AL, the only team that really looks good right now is Texas, and maybe Detroit. No one in the AL East is impressing me at all so far, and I’m not sold on Cleveland yet.

559

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

The NL is deep this year, no doubt. Atlanta, Washington, CIncinnati, SF and St. Louis are legitimate pennant contenders with the talent on both ends of the ball to go the whole way. In the AL, the only team that really looks good right now is Texas, and maybe Detroit. No one in the AL East is impressing me at all so far, and I’m not sold on Cleveland yet.[/quote]

I like Cleveland’s players, but they just don’t have the pitching.

As for the AL East, one thing to note: Boston is having an atrocious May. Regression to the mean?

560

Also Vernon Wells is just going off, he’s literally having a career year in his mid 30s.

His Slash line .295/.343/.530

WOW