[quote]DBCooper wrote:
LOL. Bautista and Encarnacion are totally mystified by those two that didn’t get out. I think the Giants can cross them off their list of potential free agents to go after.[/quote]
Their both having good years, Jose has been just as good as posey this year based on WAR.
But since they’re not free agents anytime soon, yes you can cross them off
I’d be curious to see if they suspend them even though these players never actually tested positive. I’m not saying they didn’t do it, because they most likely did. They will try to get the union to back them and help fight it.
Either way, the Padres are the only team with two players, whoops. Shouldn’t have traded for Grandal, what a joke. Cabrera is a little suspicious. He was up for the Padres a few years ago and stunk it up. Then he got called up last year and all the sudden could hit and led the league in stolen bases even though he didn’t play the full year. If they do get suspended, the loss of Cabrera will hurt.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
LOL. Bautista and Encarnacion are totally mystified by those two that didn’t get out. I think the Giants can cross them off their list of potential free agents to go after.[/quote]
Their both having good years, Jose has been just as good as posey this year based on WAR.
But since they’re not free agents anytime soon, yes you can cross them off[/quote]
You totally missed my point. I meant that when they become free agents I doubt they are going to want to come play in SF after watching them crush balls that probably would have been homeruns in Toronto and were caught just short of the warning track in SF.
Horrible fucking call ump
is Y Puig eligible for All-Star roster?
[quote]chillain wrote:
is Y Puig eligible for All-Star roster?
[/quote]
Relax, you do know what pitchers he was facing right? haha.
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Ban Braun and A-Rod for life.
Braun essentially stole an MVP trophy. Dude was on PCT when he hoisted that motherfucker up.
It’s time for a systematic cleanse in baseball, and it starts NOW.[/quote]
Selig has fucked a lot of things up over the years, but letting Braun have that MVP trophy was one of his biggest blunders.
[quote]chillain wrote:
is Y Puig eligible for All-Star roster?
[/quote]
Kid has a chance at being the next best thing in baseball. Natural athlete, super smooth swing, pop to all fields, hits for avg. Doesn’t seem like there’s anything he isn’t capable of doing at the plate based on how he handled the minors and spring training.
Lets wait for the Dickey/Zito bet to be decided before we do punishment avatars.
Looks like Dickey got the best of Zito today. Their ERAs are getting closer.
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
Looks like Dickey got the best of Zito today. Their ERAs are getting closer.[/quote]
He says he’s finally healthy. Truth be told, due to the other injuries sustained in the starting rotation, they couldn’t afford to put him on the DL.
The injury killed his velocity and messed up his release point.
DB: you were wrong about Yu Darvish.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
DB: you were wrong about Yu Darvish.[/quote]
How do you figure that? I was right about him last year. He was above average but his control issues kept him from being an elite pitcher worth what it cost the Rangers to get him. Am I wrong because he’s had a great start to his second season ever in the big leagues? Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. This coming from the person who talks about track records and all that.
We’ll know if I was wrong or right about him in another 5 or 6 years. For all we know, he might flame out just like Lincecum did. Although I doubt Darvish’ flame will ever burn as brightly as Lincecum’s did earlier in his career.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
DB: you were wrong about Yu Darvish.[/quote]
How do you figure that? I was right about him last year. He was above average but his control issues kept him from being an elite pitcher worth what it cost the Rangers to get him. Am I wrong because he’s had a great start to his second season ever in the big leagues? Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. This coming from the person who talks about track records and all that.[/quote]
so far he’s thrown 279.2IP 3.54 ERA 10.9k/9
That IS a track record, especially if you take into consideration his Japanese career. Unless you expect him to have a bad second half, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. What is a long enough track record? I think 1.5 years straight is plenty but hey lets wait until the end of the season.
He’s on pace for a 6 WAR season which is really really really good. For reference, In Justin Verlander’s 2012 Cy Young/MVP year he had a 7 WAR by comparison.
I don’t remember exactly what you said, but you weren’t confident he’d be that good at all.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
We’ll know if I was wrong or right about him in another 5 or 6 years. For all we know, he might flame out just like Lincecum did. Although I doubt Darvish’ flame will ever burn as brightly as Lincecum’s did earlier in his career.[/quote]
I don’t consider Lincecum a flame out at all. I would take 2 Cy Youngs over a great 5 year span is fantastic for any pitching prospect coming out of your system.
Plus several scouts pegged Lincecum to be a high end elite reliever. By that standard he’s been phenomenal.
meant Verlander’s 2011 Cy Young/MVP year. Not 2012.
Verlander had a 6.8 WAR in 2011 and a 7 WAR in 2012
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
DB: you were wrong about Yu Darvish.[/quote]
How do you figure that? I was right about him last year. He was above average but his control issues kept him from being an elite pitcher worth what it cost the Rangers to get him. Am I wrong because he’s had a great start to his second season ever in the big leagues? Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. This coming from the person who talks about track records and all that.[/quote]
so far he’s thrown 279.2IP 3.54 ERA 10.9k/9
That IS a track record, especially if you take into consideration his Japanese career. Unless you expect him to have a bad second half, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. What is a long enough track record? I think 1.5 years straight is plenty but hey lets wait until the end of the season.
He’s on pace for a 6 WAR season which is really really really good. For reference, In Justin Verlander’s 2012 Cy Young/MVP year he had a 7 WAR by comparison.
I don’t remember exactly what you said, but you weren’t confident he’d be that good at all.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
We’ll know if I was wrong or right about him in another 5 or 6 years. For all we know, he might flame out just like Lincecum did. Although I doubt Darvish’ flame will ever burn as brightly as Lincecum’s did earlier in his career.[/quote]
I don’t consider Lincecum a flame out at all. I would take 2 Cy Youngs over a great 5 year span is fantastic for any pitching prospect coming out of your system.
[/quote]
So, you mean to tell me that you’re claiming I was wrong about Darvish, and then you’re going to turn right around and say that you don’t even remember what I said in the first place? Are you trolling me?
I was skeptical, that’s all. I thought he had a mechanical issue in his windup that needed to be smoothed out a little bit. I was also skeptical of his ability to hold up over the course of a career, which is why we need to wait several more years. I thought that the combination of the slight hesitation in his windup, which essentially forces him to slightly restart his momentum to the plate, his tendency toward high pitch counts and all the innings he’d already thrown would be enough to potentially derail a long career for him.
He seems to have corrected his mechanical issue a bit. He still has the propensity for high pitch counts and that could be problematic, even more so than high innings totals. If he could work the same amount of innings while cutting down on his pitch count, which would mean less walks AND less strikeouts, he will last a long time.
I was also skeptical of his alleged 12-pitch arsenal or whatever people were saying at the time. He definitely has all of his pitches working right now, but the fact is that it is simply very, very hard to maintain control over more than 3 or 4 major league-quality pitches. Sometimes you can get into an extended groove with all of them, like what Darvish appears to have done right now. I also had doubts about how little he seemed to use his fastball in Japan given how good it was. In the majors, it’s all about fastball command and location. It makes it much easier to throw hitters’ timing off if they have to respect the fastball, location-wise. If they don’t respect the fastball then they aren’t going to get caught off-balance when Darvish throws one of his million different off-speed pitches.
But he seems to be throwing the fastball with confidence right now.
And I would argue that Lincecum has definitely flamed out. He’s gone from a 2-time Cy Young Winner with three All-Star appearances, including starting one of the games, and a 2-time World Series champion to a guy who probably won’t get a contract offer from the Giants and is one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball since the beginning of last year. All in less than 2 years. His ERA in 2011 was about 2.7. Last year it was 5.18, which was the highest amongst all qualifying pitchers.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a pitcher in modern history whose flame burned as brightly for the first several years of his career. Doc Gooden or Fernando Valenzuela, maybe. But that flame is done with now.
[quote]Anonymity wrote:
[quote]chillain wrote:
is Y Puig eligible for All-Star roster?
[/quote]
Kid has a chance at being the next best thing in baseball. Natural athlete, super smooth swing, pop to all fields, hits for avg. Doesn’t seem like there’s anything he isn’t capable of doing at the plate based on how he handled the minors and spring training.[/quote]
They said the same thing about jason Heyward.
DB I just recall you weren’t overly impressed with his stuff and didn’t him to bring ace type stuff in the MLB.
Interesting point made on the radio: with the volume of pitches catchers see, why are they such sucky hitters as a whole?
At the very least you should expect low strikeouts and above average contact rates, but that isn’t the case
[quote]therajraj wrote:
DB I just recall you weren’t overly impressed with his stuff and didn’t him to bring ace type stuff in the MLB.
Interesting point made on the radio: with the volume of pitches catchers see, why are they such sucky hitters as a whole?
At the very least you should expect low strikeouts and above average contact rates, but that isn’t the case[/quote]
The reasons are pretty obvious. The position is such a drain on the body that almost all really good-hitting catchers who can play another position competently earlier in their careers, whether it’s at the amateur level or the minors, will move away from catching, especially if there is someone else available who is a superior defender.
The angle that you see the ball coming from catching is nowhere what it is when you bat. When batting, you turn your head toward the plate, but you essentially pick the ball up with the front eye (the left eye if you’re a righty) since you can never turn your head enough to look directly at the pitcher. Your head is also moving slightly as the ball approaches the hitting zone.
The catcher knows what pitch is coming and in what location. If he knew when he was hitting what pitch and what location was coming he would probably hit much better.
Catchers also have much more defensive responsibilities than other players since they work directly with the pitchers. They spend time working on defense and hitting, but they also have to spend some time in the bullpen with the pitchers. This is time that many other players would spend hitting off a tee or some other hitting drill outside of batting practice. The position itself is also such a drain that often times hitting is just harder because the guy is wearing down. You have to be quick to hit well. Catchers can slow down over the course of a season which can hamper their quickness at the plate.