MLB 2014 v. GIANTS LAY PIPE ON MLB 2014 WORLD SERIES STYLE

[Dimitrius]

Speaking of the Mets, I was in Citi Field on Wednesday for the Braves/Mets... and I should've gone the next day!

[TempusVox]

They have more infirmed than than the North during the Civil War, yet despite their decimated ranks, my beloved Reds keep finding ways to win. Used our seats today and cheered Johnny Baseball to win #10, and saw the Cuban Missle touch 103mph as he struck out the side in the 9th. Despite sweltering heat and an hour rain delay during a downpour, it was a great day for beisbol. Bring on the All-Star break baby!! And Go Frazier! in the HR Derby! 

[splent]

So I'm a Cubs fan...

Hopefully this will the be the last year we will be sellers at the trade deadline... I think next year we will start to contend... but this year I just hope we get to 70 wins.

That's cute.

You'll eat your words when Bryant and Baez are called up

[TAC]

Hey Splent, how does Chicago feel about the job Theo has done?

[JayOctavarium]

Lol @ Puig at the derby last night. Such a disappointment.

[Ultimetalhead]

I have no doubt Puig will be a perennial all-star and all-around phenomenal player for years to come, but my god he can be flat-out embarrassing sometimes.

[JayOctavarium]

I've so much about him. People ranting about how amazing he is on Facebook and what not (very common living within The Dodgers' market). Yesterday would  have been my first time watching him hit. Apparently I still have to wait. Lol.


You won't catch me watching a Dodgers game.

[Ultimetalhead]

The Dodgers have such amazing pitching. It's such a shame they have next to no offensive presence to show for it. They'd have a legit run at the world series if they had even 2 more remotely remarkable bats. But, as they say, pitching wins championships, and I'd love to see them make a run for it. I've been dreaming of a Tigers/Dodgers WS matchup for a long time. Both teams (aside from the Tigers this year) have had elite pitching for a while.

Seriously though, watching a Dodgers game would be worth it to see Kershaw and listen to the incredible Vin Scully commentating.

[snapple]

 

[orcus116]

I know Vin Scully is revered but I'd take the SNY crew over just him any day.

[antigoon]

I know Vin Scully is revered but I'd take the SNY crew over just him any day.

https://keithsfundies.com/

[snapple]

Why can't I give it cocaine?

[dparrott]

Dodgers ratings are down 70% this year due to their new RSN.  It must be nice to be able to lose money and not care.  This is a huge payroll team that fought themselves back into first place, and still only 30% of L.A. gets to watch them on a regular basis.  Freakin stupid. 

And yes the Giants tumble helped that, I know. 

Hopefully the Dodgers can make some moves to really pull it together.  I heard they were looking at Papelbon.

[Dimitrius]

Holy shit does the MLB has to start doing something about umpires!!

Here I am just casually watching MLB Now and they are showing the Angels game with Trout batting and then one of the most horribles calls I've ever seen for strike two: a curveball inside that barely missed the ground! A fucking ump show, I can't believe how Trout didn't blow a gasket! (gif to follow once I find one)

[Ultimetalhead]

Yeah, I saw that game live, and the call was interesting, to say the least (awesome because Smyly got him to strikeout right after). Evidently the Angels broadcast was saying that it was actually a strike. But in all honesty, I've been watching baseball all season and this has been the only call so bad that it caused an uproar. One in just over half the season isn't bad at all.

Also Trout has struck out 5 times in the series against the Tigers so far (2 games) lolololol

[antigoon]

GOAT

[Dimitrius]

Trout's striking out a lot more this year than before, he's also been a ridiculous power hitter (.295 ISO) and has basically given up on stealing bases (though he's 10-10 this year).

I don't like this, you can't teach speed! I would love to see him use it while he still has it! Once the legs starts going out he can bulk up and hit homers left and right/morph into Miguel Cabrera.


EDIT: Here's the gif

[antigoon]

WTF

[orcus116]

If we had a dead on shot they ball may have actually crossed the plate in the middle before tailing off AFTER heading over the plate. The location where the catcher caught it makes it look like a clear ball but with its trajectory it could very well have been close. People seem to think where the catcher catches it is where the call is. It isn't. It's where the ball crosses the plate, which is a couple feet in front of the catcher.

Was there a top down view of that same pitch?

[Dimitrius]

I was thinking that, the only it could be was if it crossed the plate, but the framing from the catcher is horrible so it doesn't help.

I haven't found one a top view of it. Here's a plot of the at bat (pitch #5 is the one in question):

[Ultimetalhead]

That graph makes it look a hell of a lot closer than the GIF makes it look. The thing about Drew Smyly is he has a breaking ball that just falls out of the air. It's got TREMENDOUS late-breaking action, on top of some already impressive immediate break. It's some legitimate swing-and-miss stuff. Because of that, I'd imagine it's damn near impossible to tell where it actually is when it crosses the plate. Fortunately, most of Smyly's 11 K's that night were swinging.

[masterthes]

How the hell is that a strike? Did they interview the ump later? That's almost as worse as that one guy denying that pitcher a perfect game

[orcus116]

Calm down, it wasn't that bad of a call. What made everyone question it was where the catcher caught it due to the break of pitch, but where a catcher catches the ball is not that the umpire is supposed to base the call on, just where the ball crosses the plate. I don't get what is so hard to understand about that.

[Dimitrius]

As is technically Sunday, I'd like to take this quick little time to congratulate the HoF members. Congratulations Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, Frank Thomas and Joe Torre.  And congratulations especially to Greg Maddux, who I consider the greatest pitcher ever.

Quick facts about Greg Maddux (which I shamelessly ripped off from an article):

-Dale Murphy was 2-for-34 against Maddux in his career. Both hits came in the same game, a loss to Maddux and the Cubs.

-Maddux started 740 games. In 236 of them, he didn't allow a walk.

-He went to a 3-0 count to five batters in 1997. He faced 893 batters that season.

-He walked the leadoff hitter of an inning in 0.3 percent of the time

-Maddux had 24 quality starts in 25 attempts in 1994.

-He gave up as many home runs in his first five seasons with the Braves (1156 innings) as Bronson Arroyo did in 2011.

And then there's the pitching lines like this July 22, 1997 game against the Cubs: 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K's, 0 BB on 79 PITCHES THROWN WITH 63 THROWN FOR STRIKES

Or if you're like Bill James' game score metric, this one from 2001: 9 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 14 K's on 109 pitches, 76 for strikes.


This on top of all of the stories you hear about how he predicted (to a tee!) batted balls, at bats and foul balls and how he let guys hit one ball out of the park so he can make them expect that pitch on a future at bat and get them to swing and miss because of that!

I love you Greg Maddux, please have my babies!

[Big Hath]

-Dale Murphy was 2-for-34 against Maddux in his career. Both hits came in the same game, a loss to Maddux and the Cubs.

in fairness to Murph (of whom I am an unashamed apologist of the highest order), almost all of those AB's were on the backside of his career in which he had basically fallen off a cliff with regard to his hitting capabilities.

[antigoon]

As is technically Sunday, I'd like to take this quick little time to congratulate the HoF members. Congratulations Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, Frank Thomas and Joe Torre.  And congratulations especially to Greg Maddux, who I consider the greatest pitcher ever.

Quick facts about Greg Maddux (which I shamelessly ripped off from an article):

-Dale Murphy was 2-for-34 against Maddux in his career. Both hits came in the same game, a loss to Maddux and the Cubs.

-Maddux started 740 games. In 236 of them, he didn't allow a walk.

-He went to a 3-0 count to five batters in 1997. He faced 893 batters that season.

-He walked the leadoff hitter of an inning in 0.3 percent of the time

-Maddux had 24 quality starts in 25 attempts in 1994.

-He gave up as many home runs in his first five seasons with the Braves (1156 innings) as Bronson Arroyo did in 2011.

And then there's the pitching lines like this July 22, 1997 game against the Cubs: 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K's, 0 BB on 79 PITCHES THROWN WITH 63 THROWN FOR STRIKES

Or if you're like Bill James' game score metric, this one from 2001: 9 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 14 K's on 109 pitches, 76 for strikes.


This on top of all of the stories you hear about how he predicted (to a tee!) batted balls, at bats and foul balls and how he let guys hit one ball out of the park so he can make them expect that pitch on a future at bat and get them to swing and miss because of that!

I love you Greg Maddux, please have my babies!

Pretty much all of my childhood sports memories involve Greg Maddux terrorizing the Mets. Amazing pitcher.

[Dream Team]

Yeah, it really sucks to be a baseball fan today if you don't get the MLB network. 

[King Postwhore]

Yeah, it really sucks to be a baseball fan today if you don't get the MLB network. 

I'm confused.  Even the home teams in the 70's never had every game on TV.  Now there is a game on every night on TV even without the MLB Network. 

I remember the local TV station cutting in for every Carl Yastrzemski at bat when he was going for home run #400 then they went right back to the local show.

You kids have it made now.  Hell!  Download an app on your smartphone to watch!

[snapple]

Yeah, it really sucks to be a baseball fan today if you don't get the MLB network. 

I'm confused.  Even the home teams in the 70's never had every game on TV.  Now there is a game on every night on TV even without the MLB Network. 

I remember the local TV station cutting in for every Carl Yastrzemski at bat when he was going for home run #400 then they went right back to the local show.

You kids have it made now.  Hell!  Download an app on your smartphone to watch!

Hey! I pay $130/year to watch baseball on the device of my choosing!

[dparrott]

Yeah, it really sucks to be a baseball fan today if you don't get the MLB network. 

It really sucks to be a Dodgers fan if you don't have Time Warner!   

[Dream Team]

Yeah, it really sucks to be a baseball fan today if you don't get the MLB network. 

I'm confused.  Even the home teams in the 70's never had every game on TV.  Now there is a game on every night on TV even without the MLB Network. 

I remember the local TV station cutting in for every Carl Yastrzemski at bat when he was going for home run #400 then they went right back to the local show.

You kids have it made now.  Hell!  Download an app on your smartphone to watch!

Uh, I was referring to the induction ceremonies.

[Cool Chris]

HEY!

WE GOT CY YOUNG WINNERS OVER HERE!

Watching Braves games in the Mid-90s were glorious. Strike outs are cool, but there is something fun about watching a whole line-up just look bad at the plate for 9 innings. 

More fun stories:

* Braves catcher Eddie Pérez tells the story of Maddux intentionally allowing a home run to the Astros's Jeff Bagwell, in anticipation of facing Bagwell in the playoffs months later. Maddux felt Bagwell would instinctively be looking for the same pitch again, which Maddux would then refuse to throw.

* On another occasion while sitting on the bench, Maddux once told his teammates, "Watch this, we might need to call an ambulance for the first base coach." The batter, Los Angeles' José Hernández, drove the next pitch into the chest of the Dodgers' first base coach. Maddux had noticed that Hernandez, who'd been pitched inside by Braves pitching during the series, had shifted his batting stance slightly.

* On another occasion, a former teammate, outfielder Marquis Grissom, recalled a game in 1996 when Maddux was having trouble spotting his fastball. Between innings, Greg told Marquis, "Gary Sheffield is coming up next inning. I am going to throw him a slider and make him just miss it so he hits it to the warning track." The at-bat went as Maddux had predicted.

 
Congratulations Greg and Tom on two stellar careers.

[TAC]

Greg Maddux 

[masterthes]

It's quite remarkable how we beat them in 96. That was an unbelievable team. Respect to those guys!

[Dimitrius]

A's earlier traded for Jeff Sarmarzjia and now it looks like they'll acquired Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes for Yoenis Cespedes.

Billy Beane ain't fucking around this year!