I love baseball, study baseball, spend hours on hours watching it. But some things I don't understand.
If a starter's arm will fall off after 100 pitches, why waste so many between innings? These guys are throwing 90 pitches plus another 50 between innings, albeit not at full speed. So another 20 late in the game are going to result in injury and ineffectiveness? Absolute nonsense.
Why does nobody pitch high in the strike zone? If you miss by three inches trying to put the ball under the batter's belt the ball is now right in his wheel house. Put it three inches above his shoulders and he probably isn't quick enough to make solid contact.
Why not hit the first pitch if it's the one you want? "Money Ball" is a good concept, but how you implement it depends on the situation. If the pitcher is aiming the ball over the plate to get ahead in the count, there are going to be times when the appropriate response is to smoke the ball. And it never hurts to keep pitchers and catchers off balance.
If Willie Randolph is a dolt who needs to lose his job in 2008, and was a genius in 2005 when they won 97 games, at what point did he get stupid? Was a head injury involved? Did he wake up in the opposite of a Holiday Inn and forget everything he knew? Or was he not that smart when the team was winning and the Mets front office has just now noticed?
Why do teams give the ball so often to their fifth starters? With off days in season there are plenty of opportunities to skip that spot, but teams keeping running out guys who are one step from AA. If there was a baseball version of the glue factory, most of these guys would be sent there. Want to win? Pick a rotation, stick to it, and skip #5 at any and every opportunity.
If it is important for teams to carry twelve pitchers to gain match up advantages in late innings, doesn't logic dictate it would also be a good thing to have an extra bat on the bench to turn around the situational pitcher? In which case why doesn't some team go back to 10 pitchers and spend serious money on fastball eating bench players?
Suppose relief pitchers are right. Suppose those cheesy little goatees are intimidating hitters. Who are the psychologically impaired batters who tremble at the sight of poor grooming? I want the name of the hitter who goes to the plate, looks out at a bad case of 5 o'clock shadow and waves helplessly at three 85 mile and hour fastballs.
While we're on the subject of relievers, what's with the entrance music? Welcome to the jungle? What jungle? It's a baseball game! Actual lyrics. "If you've got the money, honey, we got your disease"? What does that even mean? Are they saying closers are infected male prostitutes?
What of all the dedicated followers of fashion who wear their pants down over their shoes? I suppose it is supposed to look cool. What it actually looks like is an old man playing ball in his street clothes at a company softball game.
Who do the umpires work for? Not the people who wrote the book on the strike zone. Today's umpire can't be spoken to, can't have dirt kicked in their direction, can't position themselves to call the actual strike zone, can't hustle to get a fair/foul call right. The pre-1980 umpires would have chewed these prima donnas up and spit them out.
Finally, what will we have to do to be rid of the DH? Steroids are a problem. The designated hitter is an abomination.
first i think the warm up pitches between innings are just that, warm up pitches, not thrown at the same velocity. Maybe the max pitch count is 180 and nobody told us.
As far as Willie Randolph goes. Sometimes players play to, or play above their potential INSPITE of their manager. Such as in 05
Wow, ive never looked at the goatee angle.
I always thought "Disease" was a heroin reference.
Im in total agreement when it comes to the pants, umpires and DH
Dudski-Interesting "bread". I too do not quite understand the obsession with the pitch count. I guess i am just old school. i believe the starter continues to pitch as long as he is effective or the game situation calls for a pinch hitter. speaking of pinch hitters, there should be an award given at the end of each season for the pinch-hitter with the highest OBP with a certain prerequisite for number of ABs.
Canyondave-I agree. How about the Manny Mota award, in honor the Pirate and Dodger great pinch hitter? Maybe there is one already, but I've not heard of it.
The pitch count thing is nuts. Once you've used two relievers in a game you've set a chain reaction of impacting the bullpen in the next game. So, you end up with 12 or 13 pitchers and when your team needs to pinch hit for a #7 or #8 guy the cupboard is bare.
Randolph is the fall guy. The Mets don't have the pitching, and when Reyes isn't playing like HoRam, they're not as good. Randolph is like John McClaren, only McClaren should be fired.
I agree in the warm up pitches they throw, should be counted, whats the use of warming up if your not putting anything behind them. Thats like the 3rd basemen one hopping his pratice throws over to first base and saying don't worry in real play I will really let it rip, and it will fly over your head so be ready for that.
Now the pants. The other day I was watching the White Sox game they had bases loaded. Player on 3rd had above the ankle, second base he was trying to get his folded up so he wouldn't trip over them and on first base he had the long black socks half way up over his claf. Last I knew they all had to match.
PF-It's tough being a manager in NY. Randolph went through last season what Gene Mauch experienced with the Phillies in 1964, and Mauch stayed on for five more seasons. The whole affair is becoming a PR nightmare the longer the Mets hesitate. I think he'll be fired this week or not at all.
Forensic2-I agree with you. The real culprit behind arm injuries is the lower mound. Pitchers don't have the leverage they did with the 15 inch mound, and that has affected mechanics. I wouldn't go back to 15, but I would give teams who want to the discretion to go back to 12. From a business standpoint it doesn't make sense to put the kind of money teams do into pitching and then creation an on-field situation that hurts arms.
