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Netzer

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If only statcast had the technology to measure the launch angle and exit velocity of yankee balls that have been hit off of your chin.

Goo Punch
Goo Punch
Hank Chinaski
Hank Chinaski

Good fucking riddance. 

Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55069

Posted
Posted

So Jeff Mathis got a hit (that's crazy in itself, right?) to beat the Dodgers in the 15th inning last night.  What makes this better is that the DBacks were out of pitchers, so Mathis was scheduled to pitch in the top of the 16th. 

Part of a theAthletic.com article:

Quote

Taijuan Walker was sitting in the Diamondbacks clubhouse when catcher Jeff Mathis walked in and rooted through his locker. Hours had passed since Walker had taken the mound at Chase Field for his season debut against the Dodgers. The proceedings were entering the 15th inning; Walker’s night ended after five.

The last reliever in the Diamondbacks bullpen, right-hander Fernando Salas, had been holding the Dodgers at bay as long as he could. He’d already pitched three innings, the longest outing of his career. The cupboard was empty, and things were about to get desperate.

So, when Mathis emerged from his locker with an infielder’s glove, Walker couldn’t help but smile. Mathis was about to pitch.

“We were like, ‘Ahhh, OK. Have fun!’” Walker said.

Mathis made sure it never came to that. Before he could be handed the ball for the 16th inning – in what already had become the longest game in Chase Field history – Mathis won the game for the Diamondbacks with a pinch-hit, walk-off single off Dodgers reliever Wilmer Font.

Two days after his 35th birthday, Mathis celebrated surrounded by a crush of jubilant, exhausted teammates. After five hours and 46 minutes, the Diamondbacks had won 8-7. They didn’t get to watch their veteran catcher take the mound, but they did get a win and the right to get some sleep.

“I would say us getting a win and him getting a walk-off hit is a lot better than seeing him pitch,” outfielder Chris Owings said.

Mathis’ hit off of Font was the product of adept information processing, but it’s incredible he could focus at all on the pitcher in front of him. The challenge facing him on the mound would be much more difficult.

He’d last pitched in 2012, when both he and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo were with the Blue Jays. He had one scoreless outing and one in which he allowed two runs. He was hesitant to reveal his repertoire – “I can’t give you all my secrets, man,” Mathis said after the game – but pitch-tracking data reveals he has a three-pitch mix: a fastball at 85 mph, a sinker at the same speed, and a changeup in the high 70s.

It wasn’t an experience he remembers fondly.

“After I got done with those innings, I’ve never been so sore in my life,” Mathis said.

 

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Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison 9312

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1 hour ago, Fozzz said:

Jansen's velocity is really down.  He could be injured.  

he's still in the 90s and they say it's mechanics and timing.  maybe...but i don't think so.  but i also don't think he's injured.

being a shutdown closer is an attitude, a mental state...a gunfighter.  you gotta believe...know...that each batter is yours.  many a closer has lost their mojo after getting tagged in an important situation.  witness:

101705_pujols_v3_5reas0e8.gif

Lidge was never the same after that bomb.

i think Jansen's got that same monster going on...it's in his head.  and i think TheFlagship is correct.

the Stros broke him.

for now...

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uoftorange

uoftorange 1388

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8 minutes ago, TheFlagship said:

Well Lidge did go to Philly and save 41/41 and come 4th in the Cy Young in 2008.

I don’t know if it’s so much a mental thing or the fact that relievers usually only have 1 elite pitch and if they lose it, they have nothing else to fall back on. 

But it took him a long time to recover and he ended up falling apart again the season after

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Pig Bellmont

Pig Bellmont 8777

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9 minutes ago, uoftorange said:

But it took him a long time to recover and he ended up falling apart again the season after

...after a World Series win. Lidge needed a change of scenery to be sure, but it’s unfair to say “he was never the same”. Your point is valid that closing is mental. Drew Storen is probably a better example of a promising closer broken by the Cardinals in the playoffs 

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APMP

APMP 688

Posted
Posted
Best SS they’ve ever had
And it’s not even close.
Lol why y'all gotta provoke a thread derail by some Jeets or ARod fanboy?

(Does ARod even count as a Yankee SS if Jeter's selfishness and/or Yankee stupidity kept Jeter's butchery at SS while forcing ARod to 3B?)
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UrbanAchiever

UrbanAchiever 283

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8 hours ago, Planet Houston said:

So this is pretty great - tonight’s Cards-Brewers game was the first game in MLB history that started with back-to-back homers and ended with back-to-back homers. 

Random shit like that is why I love baseball. 

Joe Panik had a couple of first evers to open the season as well. First time a player has scored the only run on a solo HR in two consecutive 1-0 games (at any point in the season). He's also the first player to score the team's first three runs of a season on solo HRs.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55069

Posted
Posted

If you can't tell who wrote this, I'm not sure there's much hope for you:

 

Quote

Is there anything better than the first week of the baseball season – assuming you don’t live in the Midwest or the Northeast, or assuming you try not to leave the house if you do?

But as I was saying, is there anything better than the first week of the baseball season? We saw a Panik attack in San Francisco. We saw one 44-year-old (Ichiro) rob a home run and get an infield hit in the same game. And we saw another 44-year-old (Bartolo Colon) do those Bartolo-paloozan things he does. It’s a beautiful thing, ladies and gentlemen.

So let’s take a fun look at some of our favorite wackiness from Week One:

BARTOLO-MANIA

Where should we begin? Heh-heh. There’s only one place to begin. With Bartolo-mania. Where else?

Bartolo Colon – all 44 years, 313 days and 347 pounds of him – started a baseball game this week. In the big leagues. How entertaining is that? We find this fun because …

— This was the 11th team – the 11th – this guy has started a game for. Here’s your complete list of pitchers who started a game for that many teams since 1900:

Mike Morgan 12
Bartolo Colon 11

So our man Bartolo is now one team short of history? Wow. Can we get him traded to, say, the Brewers immediately (so we can also get to see him hit, of course).

— Have you noticed Bartolo has been around a while? Since the day he made his first start, on April 4, 1997, an incredible 1,650 other pitchers have started a game in the big leagues. That’s enough to fill a rotation for 330 teams!

— This is Bartolo’s 20th season in the big leagues. He now plays on the same team as Adrian Beltre, who is in his 21st season. How long have those two been going at it? Colon has faced Beltre while wearing the uniforms of nine different teams.

— Bartolo pitched Monday at the Coliseum in Oakland – for the 38th time. How long ago was his first start there (on July 31, 1998)? In that game, he opposed:

Rickey Henderson – who retired 15 years ago.
A.J. Hinch – who retired 14 years ago and is now on his second managing job.
Matt Stairs – who played for 11 teams himself after that and has now been a hitting coach for two different clubs.
Tom Candiotti – who just started his 18th season as a broadcaster!

— And the very best part of Colon’s start Monday was that it was also the best start by a Ranger all season. The only other right-handed non-knuckleballers in the last 40 years to throw at least six innings of one-run (or no-run) baseball at Bartolo’s age (or older):

Roger Clemens…Nolan Ryan…Gaylord Perry.

Bartolo-mania. May it last another 21 seasons.

THE OHTANI WATCH!

It gives me chills just to type this: In his first trip to the plate in Anaheim of his lifetime, Shohei Ohtani hit a home run Tuesday. Seriously. In real life.

He did this two days after spending his Sunday afternoon as a starting pitcher. And winning, naturally.

Take a second to digest that, friends, because not many living humans have ever seen anything like it. I say that for two reasons:

—According to Stats LLC, he’s the first man to win a game as a starting pitcher and then hit a home run, while starting as a non-pitcher, in a mere 98 years! The guy who did it back on June 13-14, 1921? C’mon, gang. Who else? It was George H. (Bambino) Ruth.

On the 13th, Ruth twirled five innings against the Tigers, hit third, homered twice and then moved to center field after he left the mound. On the 14th, he started in center, hit third again and bopped two more homers. Ah, those were simpler times.

But here’s something Ruth never did (as far as we know): He never threw a baseball 100 freaking miles an hour. Granted, Statcast data was a little sketchy back then. But we’re still fairly confident of that.

Ohtani, on the other hand, had three pitches clocked at 100 mph Sunday. And that elevates him into one of baseball’s most exalted groups – the 100/4-Bagger Club. With the gracious help of Sports Info Solutions, I’ve assembled this list of every pitcher in the last 10 seasons to throw multiple pitches at 100 mph and go deep:

Noah Syndergaard
Stephen Strasburg
Gerrit Cole
Matt Harvey
Andrew Cashner
Michael Lorenzen
The late, great José Fernández

And Shohei Ohtani. Tremendous.

STRANGE BUT TRUE FEATS OF THE FIRST WEEK

It just about defies comprehension that …

—  Dee Gordon hit a home run before Aaron Judge.

—  Luke Maile stole a base before Dee Gordon.

— Pedro Florimón (not a pitcher) made it to the mound before Gerrit Cole (definitely a pitcher).

— The Phillies brought in a relief pitcher (Hoby Milner) who was chilling in the bullpen in his warmup jacket when his manager (Gabe Kapler) got to the mound.

— Edwin Encarnación hit an inside-the-park homer. (Tim Raines hit exactly one of those in his whole career.)

— The Giants scored two runs, total, in a four-game series in Dodger Stadium – and didn’t even lose the series (splitting it, of course, thanks to Joltin’ Joe Panik).

— And George Springer led off his second consecutive Opening Day with a home run – which is cool for many reasons, not the least of which is that Rickey Henderson never led off any Opening Days with a home run.

HAPPY NEW YEAR DEPARTMENT

— The Giants never won a 1-0 game all last season. Two games into this season, they’d already won two 1-0 games

— In a related development, Clayton Kershaw hadn’t lost a 1-0 game in any of his last 144 starts (covering five full seasons). So what did he do on Opening Day? Lose a 1-0 game to those very same Giants.

— Nick Markakis hit no home runs in spring training – and, until Opening Day, had more career homers (165) than any National Leaguer who had never hit a walkoff. So what did he do on Opening Day? Crank a walkoff homer against the Phillies. What else?

— No pitcher hit three batters in the first inning of a game all last year. So what did Marlins starter José Ureña do in the first inning that any team played this season? Plunk three Cubs hitters. Naturally.

— Gerrit Cole got 21 swings and misses in his first start as an Astro. Want to guess how many times he got that many swings and misses in any of his 127 starts as a Pirate? Right. That would be zero.

— Adam Eaton went 5-for-5 in his second game with the Nationals. So how many times did he get five hits in his 433 games with the White Sox? You’ve got it. Nada.

— Kenta Maeda spun off the Dodgers’ first 10-strikeout game of the year. And how many double-digit strikeout games did he have last year? Yup. Not a one.

— In his very first Opening Day as a Yankee, Giancarlo Stanton thundered two home runs. He played in seven Opening Days as a Marlin – and hit a grand total of one home run (in 29 trips to the plate).

— Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson combined for zero multi-homer games for the White Sox last year. So what happened on Opening Day this year? Davidson hit three homers and Anderson hit two. Of course they did.

— In another related development, the White Sox hit six home runs in Kansas City on Opening Day. And how many times did any team hit six in a game at Kaufmann Stadium last year? Right you are. That would be zilch.

— And the Rays didn’t win a single game all last season when they trailed by four runs or more at any point. They went into the eighth inning on Opening Day trailing the Red Sox by four, and guess what happened? They scored six in the eighth to win. Because (repeat after me) it isn’t last year anymore.

USELESS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

— Distinguished gentlemen who never had a two-homer, eight-RBI game as a Yankee: Ruth, Mantle, Maris, Reggie, Berra, Winfield, Jeter.

The Yankee who did have one of those games this week: Didi Gregorius. Wow.

— Here’s to the Nationals’ A.J. Cole for providing the box-score line of the week:

3 2/3 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2 HR … and meanwhile at the plate, he also hit a home run.

A hearty “gracias” to my friend, Doug (Kernels) Kern, for unearthing the answer to the Last Man to Hit a Bomb While Giving Up 10 research project. It was Zack Greinke, on June 10, 2005.

Greinke did that as a member of the Royals, by the way. On a night when he gave up 15 hits and 11 runs. And hit the home run when he was allowed to bat in the fifth inning even though his team was down by six runs. Chances of any of that happening in 2018? Zero.

—Then there was that insane Cardinal-Brewers game Tuesday – the first game in history, according to Stats, in which the first two batters and last two batters homered.

The Cardinals hadn’t kicked off a game with back-to-back homers in 60 years! Curt Flood and Gene Freese pulled that off the last time, with home runs off a young, not yet omnipotent Sandy Koufax, on Aug. 17, 1958.

And the Brewers hadn’t strung together a game-tying homer and walkoff homer with two outs in the ninth in 33 years – since Paul Molitor and Ted Simmons did it on April 25, 1985.

So what were the odds of both of those things happening in the same game? Heck, you’d have a better shot at winning the Mega Millions.

— It took 43 innings this year for any Giant not named Joe Panik to either drive in or score a run. This is a team whose Opening Day lineup, not counting Panik, is earning $104.5 million this season, by the way.

— The Phillies became the first team ever to make 18 pitching changes in the first three games of a season. And they’re up to 22 after four games. If they could somehow keep up this pace, they’d go to their bullpen 891 times this season. Which would break their team record (506) by nearly 400! The record for any team is 607 (by the 2016 Dodgers). In other words, they can’t keep this up.

— Giancarlo Stanton got 27 at-bats against the Brewers last year and hit no home runs. Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, just back in the States from Japan, got three at-bats against the Brewers on Monday and got to show off his home run trot after the second pitch he swung at this season.

— A salute to the Royals for the transaction of the year Monday. They claimed Abraham Almonte from the Indians – and designated Miguel Almonte for assignment to clear space for him on their 40-man/one-Almonte-at-a-time roster. They were the only two Almontes in the big leagues on Opening Day. We can only assume Danny Almonte was in hiding in Williamsport at the time.

— And thanks to Christopher Kamka for uncovering Mitch Williams’ favorite starting pitching matchup of all time – No. 99 in your program, Taijuan Walker, versus the other No. 99 in your program, Hyun-Jin Ryu, on Monday. It was the first game in history featuring two starting pitchers wearing No. 99. Which makes it a record destined never to be broken – unless the Yankees and Dodgers someday retire about 80 numbers apiece.

 

 

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BigOrange1

BigOrange1 6569

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1 hour ago, youdunnf'dup said:

Ohtani with a HR off of Kluber this afternoon. So much for his struggles as a hitter in spring training. Does this force them to keep trotting him out at DH every day he doesn't pitch?

i wouldn't put him in the lineup the day after he pitches, but other than that i'd keep writing him in.

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kevwun

kevwun 15971

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Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, BigOrange1 said:

i wouldn't put him in the lineup the day after he pitches, but other than that i'd keep writing him in.

I think he can handle it as a DH just fine.  It's not any more taxing than the usual routine for the day after starts.  He won't have to be making throws in the field which would be the main issue.  They can mix in a day off when he needs it throughout the year

Edited by kevwun
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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55069

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

Corbin could be this year's Brad Peacock with his increased slider usage.  

And his arm could come flying off at the elbow, like it did a couple of years ago. 

 

I have literally said this since I was a teenager, when I first learned to throw a curve...

1.  Curve balls don't hurt your arm.  Throwing really hard hurts your arm.

2.  Throwing a curve ball really hard (a slider) will really hurt your arm.

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