:idea: :arrow: I agree with Sid. West made a mistake. Umpires should be seen and not heard. I don't even care if his opinion is right or wrong. He needs to save that stuff for his tell-all book after his career is over... - Not much going on out here in the Wild West. Dbacks fans have thrown in the towel. The attendance in the opener was only 24,000 and most of them were Dodger Dogs led by Pantone 294. If the Dbacks don't watch out, their stadium will soon resemble San Diego... - Is Noah Syndergaard really injured? He appeared in last week's episode of Game of Thrones. He tossed a huge spear at the dragon Drogon...
Astos lose again to the White Sox and are in danger of getting swept by the worst team in the AL. Tough times for the Astros. They seem to make a roster move everyday, shuffling players up and down from Fresno to take the place of an injured player.
Relax, Terry. This is major league baseball. The Astros can afford a down few days. All teams are having injury and roster problems at this stage of the season. The Astros aren't where they are by luck or happenstance. There is an intangible element to excellence in MLB, be it the manager, veteran leadership, special blend of talent, or a combination of all three. Last year the Cubs had it. This year, the Dodgers, Nationals, and Astros have it. It's as if good things travel from club to club each year. That's the beauty of baseball.
:idea: :arrow: More of the same today. Dbacks fans are invisible; they're simply not there. Dodger broadcasters are calling the AZ ballpark, "Dodger Stadium East." Yu Darvish has now pitched 12 innings for the Dodgers with 20 Ks... The Dodgers payroll contains $110 million to players who're not on the active roster. This is higher than the payrolls of 1/3rd of all teams in MLB. It's astounding how mismanaged the front office was before the current ownership took over. As an example, they're still paying Carl Crawford $21 million to stay home. There was a good article about how the Dodgers have done it in yesterday's Wall Street Journal...
This is a confession. I quit on my Yankees last night inthe 7th inning, trailing Boston 0-4 with two measly hits. I should be forced to turn in my fan card and wear a Mets cap for a week. Shame.
:roll: I'll confess too. I was so sure the Dodgers would win last night, that I fell asleep and missed the Padres big comeback. I read about the Dodgers blowing a late inning lead for only the 2nd time all year in the morning newspaper...
If the Yankees are going to pull off a playoff spot it looks like they will have to do it with a predominantly minor league starting rotation. Today Tanaka joined Sabathia and Pineda on the DL. Pineda is done for the year and it is possible the other two are as well. They have been only getting 4-5 innings out of their starters which is burning up the bullpen. Its a marathon, not a sprint.
I get that, it's just that if you have developed a calf injury half way through the marathon you just slowly fall out of the top runners back to the pack.
Well our Ace looked like an Ace today and stopped the bleeding at 5 games. Beat the Rangers 2-1. Need more game with this type of pitching.
Wow...Astro's pull off the steal of the Summer....getting Clippard from the ChiSox. We're his 3rd team in a month so that must mean he's a hot property right? :roll: :roll: :roll:
He spent the first few months on the Yankees. Pitched well for a while and then , like somebody flipped a switch, every pitch he threw got hit very hard.
Dodgers win #84. 18/21 50 games over .500 for the first time since 1953. 50th home victory. All-time record of 57 consecutive games with at least two extra base hits comes to an end. The next closest team had 33. On pace to win 115.
Saw something last night I have never seen in baseball. The Yankee closer, Aroldis Chapman, has not a dominant year. In the last month he has been really shaky, giving up a lot of walks and HRs, blown saves and losses. Last night he came in with a 5-2 lead needing 3 outs. Strikes out the first guy. Walks the second guy with pitches two feet out of the strike zone. The third guy takes him deep, making the score 5-4. He turns his bac to the plate and squats in the catcher's stance and just stares blankly toward the outfield. Catcher Gary Sanchez trots out, takes one look and signals the bench. Ot comes thr pitching coach who spends a prolonged visit trying to coax him into pitching to the next batter. He finally records the final out. It was almost like he had a nervous breakdown.
So......anybody else curious to see if they raise the mound back up, what happens?.....I'd be very curious.
:idea: re: Aroldis Chapman That guy is playing hurt. Get him out of there! He was already wincing covering 1st, because his hamstring is on fire. This isn't football. A painful hammy will cause ANY pitcher's control to go haywire. The Yanks need to pull him and put in a less talented, but healthy pitcher. re: higher mound I used to pitch on the old higher mound and it was wonderful......for pitchers. The final year of the higher mound was 1968, the worst year for batters in MLB history. Denny McLain won 31 games, and Bob Gibson had the lowest ERA of the modern era. Don Drysdale broke the record for consecutive scoreless innings. (On the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.) Batters generally had the lowest combined batting average in baseball history. I loved it... The theory of lowering the mound was to flatten out the fastballs of three-alarm fireballers like Gibson, Drysdale and McLain. It worked for awhile, but in the long run, all it did was create a generation of taller pitchers. Whitey Ford was only 5'9" and so many other pitchers were under 6'0" too. In modern times, (with a few famous exception) they no longer recruit left-handers under 6'0" nor righties under 6'2". The taller pitchers throw at a severe downward angle that used to come from the higher mound...