FireThunder Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 http://grantland.com/the-triangle/chicago-cubs-rebuilding-theo-epstein-javier-baez-kris-bryant-jake-arrieta/ Rany writes about the rebuild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 The idea of Verlander moving to the pen has been in the air, for sure. He took a bit of a step back last year, but this year he has ranged from "solid inning eating mid-tier starter" to "fucking terrible." His fastball has been topping out around 95, which isn't bad, but this is a guy that used to dial up 100 mph in the 8th inning with over a 100 pitches thrown that night (which, of course, might be part of the problem. All the durability and going deep in games and throwing the ball that hard might have just caught up with him.) I'd like to see him take 2 or 3 weeks off now (since he's not really helping much anyway in the suddenly tight division race) and see if he can't come back being at least the pitcher he was last year, if not the the guy from 2011-2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 As part of his report on the new potential Commissioners, Olbermann did a pretty scary report on baseball's declining national popularity with kids. One of the things he cited was ESPN's ongoing tracking poll of "one favorite all-time athlete" for people over 12.No active MLB players crack the top 99. Mike Trout is #100. That is five spots ahead of O.J. Simpson.Lionel Messi is #4Babe Ruth is #18Michael Phelps is #23John Cena is #52 (not sure if that should worry WWE or if they should assume no one thinks of him when asked about "athletes")Mike Trout #100OJ Simpson #105 Part of his argument was that inter-league play killed the willingness of baseball fans to watch non-local games or care much about non-local players. Football fans will watch non-local games. NBA fans will too. But Baseball fans increasingly will not. He argues that inter-league killed the mystique of wanting to see the best teams from "the other league" as a kind of marquee t.v. event that you would tune in for.I don't know about that part, but he made a compelling case that it is the national t.v. money that gets spread around to smaller markets to keep them competitive and that is going to disappear if the national ratings tank further.Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 How many of you guys would have believed me if I had told you in April that by the time mid-august rolled around: The Mariners would have the same record as the Tigers (OK W-L is different but % is the same) and that the Rangers would be worse than the Astros Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man Known as Dan Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Jeff Samardzija since the trade to Oakland: 3-1, 3.08 ERA, .90 WHIP The guy who took his spot in the rotation, Kyle Hendricks: 4-1, 1.73 ERA, 1.01 WHIP. I fully expect people to start hitting Hendricks better when they see him more, but for a guy who doesn't have high end velocity, his start has me incredibly optimistic. He isn't better the. Samardzija (I'm not that silly) but funny how the stats compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Stupid Brewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 I still don't think Shark is a TOR pitcher. He can be very good, but he can be inconsistent. As for Hendricks, the kid is really smart and he soaked up the knowledge of the Maddux brothers really well. So well that he could basically be Greg Jr. I don't know about you, but I would take a good Greg Maddux tribute act in a heartbeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Tigers lose again to the Pirates, this time 4-2. Fans on Facebook praise the starting pitcher, blame bullpen for loss. Their lines: Starter (Robbie Ray) - 5 IP, 4 ER Relievers - 3 IP, 0 ER ??????????????????????????? Today we get the MLB debut of Buck Farmer, who has exactly 1 appearance above single A in his career (one start at AA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Albuquerque allowed the double to Davis that made it 4-2, but that was just insurance at that point in time. Why not get on the offense a little bit? Three hits in the first inning, they TOOTBLAN (kinda) themselves out of more than one run, and they only had multiple runners on base in just two of the final eight innings. FART. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 Tulowitzki officially done for the year due to needing to have hip surgery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 By the time this season is done, he'll have missed over 30% of Colorado's games since his full season debut in 2007. Fantastic player, but that's not a franchise guy IMO. Can't stay on the field, can't help the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 He's nowhere close to Tulowitzki but Brett Lawrie has missed a similar % of time for the Jays since he came up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Sounds like it's down to 2 for who will be the new commish. MLB COO Rob Manfred or Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. The owners are voting today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 There's still time to write in TOny Laru! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 I'd probably prefer Werner tbh. Manfred's been so deep in the commish's office that he'll just be a carbon copy of Selig, but with the potential to be worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Mad Max goes out and throws an "HOLD UP, I GOT THIS" start for the Tigers, gets 5 runs of support - and they STILL nearly F it up. Scherzer goes 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, Ks 14 guys and gets his 14th win. But the Tigers bullpen is absolutely wretched so Phil Coke had to come in and give up 2 runs until Joba could put out the fire. Scherzer had already thrown 121 pitches after 8 so I understand pulling him but...man. With that bullpen, no lead is ever safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Rob Manfred has been elected the new biggest asshole in and ruiner of baseball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 If his first act to announce enforcement of rule 6.02 (d) (1), I will use the extra hour a night to fellate him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipGofern Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 I'm hoping Manfred won't wind up being as corrupt, hypocritical, or vindictive as Goodell. I don't think I could take two commissioners systematically fucking up the two sports I dearly love. In other news, Scherzer tossing 8 shutout innings and K-ing 15 against the Bucs sad little AAA lineup today was the least surprising development ever. I do love how our dumpster fire bullpen continues to turn close games into laughers, tho. But, hey, the Pirates just picked up the Axeman off waivers! Our bullpen woes are solved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 If his first act to announce enforcement of rule 6.02 (d) (1), I will use the extra hour a night to fellate him. There's so many exceptions in that rule that it's essentially toothless. Put a pitch clock on the pitcher and let 'er rip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Ways to speed up baseball games: - any visit to the mound by any player counts as a mound visit - pitchers must face a minimum of 1 hitter after a mound visit (none of this "shortstop comes over, catcher comes over, then the manager makes a pitching change" nonsense) - 3 warm-up pitches for pitchers brought in during an inning - or just set a time clock. You get, say, 60 seconds from the time the signal to the bullpen is made until your first pitch must be thrown. So, hustle in from the 'pen, you get 10 or 12 warmups. Walk in super-slow, you get 2. - reduce commercial time between half-innings (yeah, right) - no commercial breaks on pitching changes during an inning (yeah, right) - the aforementioned pitch clock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Tell hitters to stop stepping out of the batters box after every pitch to readjust their gloves, hat, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 I think every player on the entire field should have stupid routines like that between every single pitch. It would be like some kind of choreographed artistry of crotch-adjusting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 I'd probably prefer Werner tbh. Manfred's been so deep in the commish's office that he'll just be a carbon copy of Selig, but with the potential to be worse. Well, there's no way they'd even consider him for the job (let alone get 2/3 of the owners to vote to confirm him) unless he'd already demonstrated they can depend on him to be exactly this, right? Same for whoever else they might have confirmed. And same for whoever one day succeeds him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Actually based on the stories - Tom Werner would have been far far worse From the NY Times a day or two before the vote Werner has the support of Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, and Arte Moreno, the Los Angeles Angels’ owner, who believe that Manfred has given too many concessions to the players union and want the next commissioner to be more confrontational. The Times also had some interesting stories from the process Selig was in the room for all three presentations and that made things a bit awkward, several of the owners said. As the candidates attempted to show how they would improve the game, some of their ideas were inevitably seen as criticisms of how Selig had run the sport for the past two decades. In one of the sharper criticisms, several of the candidates said that there needed to be more transparency about how deals are made between the commissioner and teams. The candidates also talked about how to make the game more attractive to younger people, how to cut down on the length of games and how to eliminate wasteful spending in the commissioner’s office. “Everyone was trying to be respectful of Bud, but it was awkward,” an owner said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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