I thought it would be nice to have have an ongoing discussion throughout out the season. Did anyone see Verlander throwing 100 in the bottom of the 9th. It's crazy. He threw over 130 pitches. His fastball started at 91 in the 1st. This year if it continues as it has is full of parody. Mets, Orioles and Dodgers are having solid start to the year.
SI.com released their first power rankings of the season. Link 1. Cardinals 2. Rangers 3. Nationals 4. Tigers 5. Dodgers 6. Red Sox 7. Indians 8. Diamondbacks 9. Yankees 10. Mets 11. Royals 12. Phillies 13. Astros WAR Winning Percentage: .525; Current Winning Percentage: .444; WAR Wins: 5; Current Wins: 4 Lots of teams finish the season with a malpractice-bad .346 winning percentage and come back the next year to return to playoff contention, right? Well, not usually, but that's what the Astros are trying to do. The savvy new front office has assembled a roster of nearly almost unknown players and managed to make them into an almost winning team. They have gone from allowing about 4.9 runs per game in 2011 to only 4.1 this year. Will it hold? Eh, maybe not. 14. Orioles 15. Giants 16. Rockies 17. Cubs 18. Angels 19. Rays 20. Braves 21. Jays 22. White Sox 23.Twins 24. Brewers 25. A's 26. Marlins 27. Reds 28. Mariners 29. Pirates 30. Padres
So, the Red Sox blew a 9-0 lead to the Yankees. How long is Bobby Valentine for that job, ha? Seemingly doing and saying all the wrong things there (on and off the field) in the short time he has been there.
Looking forward to seeing Harper. Maybe he's ready but his minor league stats don't look very impressive for this year. 250 Avg 1 Hr 3 RBIS 20 Games 82 At Bats If Harper is the real deal and Strasburg stays healthy the Nat's games suddenly become must see TV
Saw that yesterday on MLB tonight. Horrible! In other news... Jered Weaver's No-Hitter Jered Weaver threw 121 pitches in his no-hit performance against the Minnesota Twins last night, striking out nine and walking one. Weaver's heat maps show that he kept the ball away from Twins' lefties all night. He threw a mix of fastballs, curveballs, changeups, and sliders. Of the 121 pitches that Weaver threw, only 49 actually located within the strike zone. This isn't surprising as Weaver's zone% is fairly low (45.8% since the start of 2011, bottom 12% of the league). What is interesting is the number of strikes that home plate umpire Mark Carlson denied Weaver. Weaver threw 21 pitches within the strike zone that were not swung at by Twins hitters; only 12 of those pitches were correctly called strikes. Take a look at the correct call heat map: The blue section to lefties down in the zone represents most of the missed strike calls. Carlson simply wasn't giving Weaver the strike at the knees last night. However, you will also notice the large incorrect section outside to lefties. Weaver was actually getting a fairly wide strike zone. Of the 47 pitches Weaver threw out of the strike zone that were not swung at, 12 were called strikes. Two of those strike calls were strike three calls, both to lefties. However, neither of the two were outside pitches. The first came in the 7th to Alexi Casilla - the small blue dot on top of the strike zone. The second was the strike out of Denard Span in the 9th - that inside blue dot. All in all, Weaver lost nine strikes in the strike zone and gained twelve strikes outside of the strike zone. Given the results, he's probably not complaining.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>BREAKING: Mariano Rivera has torn ACL in right knee.</p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/198256944379727872" data-datetime="2012-05-04T03:45:13+00:00">May 4, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Normally, I'm standing up and appluading any Cubs' meltdown, but Dempster's on my fantasy team and he had an awesome outing become a no-decision. What a crappy way for Rivera to go out.
indeed. but he will be first ballot hall of fame, yankee number retired, he will get all due respect. maybe better this way than watching him suffer a precipitous decline due to sticking around to long? he HAS had a long career.
How neat is the prospect of going out as the last player to wear #42 (outside of Jackie Robinson day), being 42 years old with 42 career postseason saves. Sounds like destiny. I do feel terrible for him though. One of the few Yankees I genuinely like. He's been getting it done the right way for 20 years.
The amazing thing is that he hadn't shown a single sign of decline as of yet. There's no telling how much longer he could have pitched.
Man, what is up with Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder? Neither seem to be enjoying the American League.
