2016 MLB Season Thread Baseball • Page 105

Cubs shit all over the Bucs. Pirates looked like a AA team.

 

Already posted this in the Parenting thread but love this pic so i'm posting again.

He's not always this happy.

 

Feels almost surreal watching a Cubs team be this good

 

8-0 win for the Mets today. Matz was stellar. It's all or nothing for them I guess with another home run parade.

 

I don't like how it feels :(

 

Haha to me it feels like that quote The Joker had in The Dark Knight about the dog chasing the car and not knowing what to do should he ever catch it. Granted, we have a long way to go before catching our proverbial car, it really is a weird feeling being this good.

 

Can we play the Tigers for the next 100 games?

 

Don't know if anyone is watching the Rays/Dodgers game, but answer me this if you're familiar with Puig at least. Does he often not get into a batting stance when taking first pitches? I've seen him do it twice in this game and he's gone to 0-1 counts both times. Seems kind of counterproductive.

 

Cardinals suck this year. Getting shut out again.

No team in baseball has more 7+ runs scored in a game than the cardinals. No team has more games of scoring 1 run or less than the Cardinals.

 

Steven Matz's first start: 1.2 IP, 7 ER, 1 K, 2 BBs.

Steven Matz's four starts since then: 27.1 IP, 2 ER, 29 Ks, 5 BBs.

Talk about shaking off the rust.

 

Matt Harvey continues to struggle though which is a bummer.

 

at this point it's literally the only thing to complain about as a fan. and even his 'struggles' arent awwwwful. he just hasn't been lights out

 

Nine of ten for the Fish. Is this what pride feels like?

 

I'm not sure about Puig specifically and I wasn't able to find data on rates of swinging at the first pitch, but I do know that some players just have a different philosophy towards hitting and swinging at the first pitch. For instance, my recollection is that Nomar Garciaparra was very likely to swing at the first pitch. The thinking here is usually that pitchers want to get ahead quickly, so the first pitch is likely to be a strike, or very hittable.

Others, like Joe Mauer, and possibly Puig, are super patient (relatively) and would rather get a really good look at the pitcher's motion, release point, pitch movement, etc., thus they rarely swing at the first pitch.

As for not even getting into a batting stance, that's peculiar even if he had already made up his mind about not swinging.

This is the best article I found on this in a very short amount of googling: Swinging at first pitch and game theory

 

Yeah I totally get the differences in hitters about wanting to take/not take those first pitches. Thanks for providing a lot of evidence on the subject too. It just seemed odd that he practically gave himself up for the first pitches in two different at bats. Almost as if he was unaware that the at bat was underway. His body language was super hard to read and confused the hell out of me and the Rays broadcasters haha.

 

Yeah I think I've seen Puig do that a few times. Mark Teixeira drove me crazy last year never swinging at the first pitch.

 

Yeah I get it to some extant but when players literally NEVER swing at the first pitch it drives me crazy. How do you not swing at something right over the plate?

 

it's a strange feeling to say the least. i sometimes miss having capps though

 

Justin Verlander » Graphs » Comparison » » Pitching | FanGraphs Baseball

If you look at their comparison by age, they seem to be aging relatively equally. However, I still think that JV is better now. That JV contract is really ugly, but they both are bad contracts.

 

Reading a piece by The Guardian about baseball today, this paragraph made me laugh.

 

You definitely would not give leicester those odds to beat the braves

 

Sabathia woke up

 

In the most not shocking news...Braves discussing letting Fredi Gonzalez go.

 

What if they hire a manager that makes them suck less and avoid tanking though?