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2013 MLB Season Thread
- Thread starter quagmire
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Anybody else catch the head shot Blue Jays pitcher Happ last night? Ouch to say the least.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9252253/ja-happ-toronto-blue-jays-hit-head-liner-stable
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9252253/ja-happ-toronto-blue-jays-hit-head-liner-stable
I heard about it, but don't want to see it. I hope he makes a full and quick recovery.
To me the sound of the ball hitting him almost sounds like a bat hitting a ball. It is that loud...
Oh man, that sounds terrible.
It wasn't pretty. From the last article I read sounds like he going to be fine/doing better.
The Rockies got their first shut out of the year! Held the Yankees to just 4 hits and we take the first game in the series 2-0.
You guys are doing very well this year. We (Giants) are temporarily a half a game up but unless Cain gets on it and Lincecum gets back to prior levels, we are shot.
It would be a miracle if Giants in current shape could do it again so in the bay area all eyes are on the Cinderella team of the NBA, which is the Golden State Warriors. It's 1-1 in Conference Semi-Finals over there.
The Giants have had to rely on some great, late hitting in order to keep their record above .500 and unless a team has their pitching firing on all pistons, there's no path to the postseason. And if our pitching, the slowest on the radar gun in the majors, gets its curves, sliders, and changeups back into form, we have to make sure our hitters can still pull off small miracles on a regular basis. We don't have a Barry Bonds anymore to it takes several hitters to be on during any single game to put together a couple of points. And other than Cain or Lincecum, we don't have any potential MLB superstars. You guys are scary and LA has Kershaw.
I was at the Cleveland-Oakland game last night, front row, center field. Both Cleveland homers landed about 20ft away from me...got rained on but a good evening! The new policy of $4 beer and $3 hot dogs is a good idea.
RE: the disputed call, a few comments.
1. It was definitely a home run. Despite being an eyewitness I couldn't tell for sure at the time but the replay made it obvious. The ball hits one of the railings well above the yellow line.
2. Calls by people for more cameras/a special replay ump are stupid. How far are we willing to go to kill our national sports with game delays and replaying every contested event? There are already far too many commercial/replay breaks in football and baseball in my opinion. Human error is part of sport, and that extends to the refs/umps. Period.
RE: the disputed call, a few comments.
1. It was definitely a home run. Despite being an eyewitness I couldn't tell for sure at the time but the replay made it obvious. The ball hits one of the railings well above the yellow line.
2. Calls by people for more cameras/a special replay ump are stupid. How far are we willing to go to kill our national sports with game delays and replaying every contested event? There are already far too many commercial/replay breaks in football and baseball in my opinion. Human error is part of sport, and that extends to the refs/umps. Period.
The Rockies got their first shut out of the year! Held the Yankees to just 4 hits and we take the first game in the series 2-0.
The series ended a lot better than it started.
I'm on the fence about replays. It certainly hasn't killed football. They use in in basketball as well. And hockey. And tennis has whatever they use to see if a ball is in or out. With so much as stake, I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. And in baseball, there's a lot of other things they can do to speed the game up. I'd rather have replays than a batter stepping out after every pitch and doing laps from the box to the on deck circle.
That said, if they have them they have to get it right. If that was my team in the 9th and we were screwed out of a run, I'd be ticked off. Especially when 1 game in a tight race can cost the division. Or home field advantage.
And on to better things....
The Yanks are in first (by percentage points) and have the 2nd best record in the AL. I know nobody is going to cry for the Yanks (and I certainly don't want them to), but with the team they have been fielding (including an everyday lineup that includes Chris Stewart and Jayson Nix) it's pretty impressive. I'm not sure how long they'll be able to sustain it - but with Granderson and Texiera on the horizon, they can only get better, right?
Yup. Which is never enforced.
Start penalizing with balls and strikes and they may listen. Watching some of these pitchers (IE every starting pitcher on the Red Sox
) stand there for 5 minutes in between pitches is infuriating.Exactly what I say when someone says instant replay will slow things down too much. Especially if there's a 5th umpire behind the scenes that can watch the replay immediately after a close play happens - you'd have a decision as soon as the manager comes out of the dugout to ask for a replay.
Sure, it's not as fun and exciting as a manager and a player arguing with an ump for 5 minutes, but I'd rather get the call right.
The rules in baseball are there for a reason so I agree that it's important to get it right.
But sometimes even the camera, or the ones that track the play, don't get the best angle and the consensus becomes so wrong. In a famous NFL play that was between Seattle and Green Bay, the call for Seattle with NFL cameras watching, pretty much confirmed the outrage against the favorable Seattle call. We all thought Green Bay got robbed and even the president made a comment to that effect. But later analysis of the call and from media cameras showing other angles showed that the call for Seattle, even against what NFL cameras were there to favor Green Bay, was correct. Seattle won that play even though the attention was paid on the replacement refs and not the play itself.
That being said, on the whole, the cameras and instant replay are better than umps and their eyes. What I like is the accuracy of the machine that tracks a tennis serve which is better than the ump or the cameras. One day technology will allow for baseball to make sure all the calls are right.
According to Torre anyway, the umps have access to the same replays everyone else does. So there shouldn't be an excuse as they didn't have a good angle on it because they should have had the same video of it hitting the railing as we saw.
I guess what doesn't happen, but correct me if I am wrong, the umps on the field and upstairs don't have access to local and big network media feeds on the game. My guess is that the NFL has their own replay cameras at the best locations. Now maybe there is a rule that makes all media to have to feed all video to the upstairs umps if they are allowed to film a game, but I am not sure. Somebody here should know.
I guess if I were the NFL, I would allow media to film stuff but then also do it on condition that all live feeds of game were also shared, in real time, with NFL umps upstairs. Maybe that upstairs room if chock full of monitors showing everything that is tracking the game, NFL and media.
Anyway, some technology should be allowed for baseball, don't you think?
The umps do have access to the local and big network feeds, etc according to Joe Torre( heard this on MLB Network Radio).
Cool. But now we need to have more accountability in baseball and get those cameras out there to help get the call right.
Also there is the traditionalist side that doesn't like technology or change. Besides cameras there are certain things I would like, and damn the record books. First of all, use those cameras to "help" the umps get it right.
And for gear, let's say there's a better bat? I used to sell a certain type of official bat of the majors in a sporting goods store, but we also sold certain materials, including aluminum, for other bats. Some players like aluminum and it's kind of weird that they only seem to use wood in the majors. Many years ago it was found that using cork in a bat helped, too. Players are going to cheat, so why not use official cork bats, or bats of any material? We have better cleats for the feet of the MLB players of today, so why not better bats? Sure, carbon graphite should be an option, too. The result would be more hits and for the hits to be more productive, but certain things in baseball as so stuck in tradition. Tennis players have made great use of carbon graphite gear.
The mitts are so much better, even from when I was a kid and the major league players have those. They also have much more access to the most trained doctors and physical therapists, so I don't get the obsession with using the same bat.
The traditionalists in baseball are going to keep technology in the back seat as much as possible.
The series ended a lot better than it started.
While they were close games, the Rockies just couldn't manage to win the close games.
The problem is, the Rockies can't beat good teams. We got swept by San Francisco in SF. Lost series to Braves, Yankees, & Rays. While I don't think that we will be as bad as last year (98 losses) I don't anticipate us being in the playoff hunt.
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Imagine if JA Happ (or any of the pitchers that have gotten hit in the head in the last few years) would have gotten hit with a liner off of an aluminum bat? He may be dead right now. There has been talk for years of switching to wooden bats in the NCAA because the jacked up aluminum bats are too dangerous, but it's a cost issue. I'd love to see MLB donate money (maybe as a part of their scouting budgets because they may get a better idea of pitchers and hitters if they were playing with wooden bats) to make this a reality.
Madison Bumgarner. He's the one Giants' starter who's actually performing consistently well so far this season. I've always believed he has Cy Young(s) in his future.