I've noticed a lot of great pitchers are like this. Good guys on their off days, but complete a$$holes on the day they pitch.
Verlander is intense. He has a temper too. Not saying he isn’t a good guy off the field, but he is a an insane competitor on it. He is intelligent and a little more articulate than the average player but don’t let that fool ya. He strikes me as the type that would tell you to **** off pretty quickly if he didnt like you.
I've been very surprised we haven't heard more saltiness from pitchers about the ball. Pitchers can be salty about a lot of things. Some are legitimate complaints. Some aren't. If it wasn't for the ball, pitching would be dominating hitting right now. I know batters are adjusting to take advantage of the ball, but would guess the ball is still 90% responsible for homer increase (i.e., increase in Ks nullifies most of the increase in barrels/batted ball).
Yeah, it’s probably for the best that they’re juicing the balls because we’d really have pitching dominating and that doesn’t sell. As I’m sure everyone would agree, the game was at its height in popularity when we everyone was juicing and swatting homers in their sleep. There’s a reason the Home Run Derby is an event. So with that said, really can’t side with the pitchers complaining here. The advance in analytics in the game has benefited pitchers FAR more than the hitters. Hitters weaknesses are widely known and once they adjust, assuming they even can, they’re then hit with whatever their 2nd greatest weakness was prior to adjusting. On top of all of that, you have players being positioned to where you usually hit the ball. Oh and now you get to face relievers regularly throwing 98+ starting in the 6th inning many games.
Not sure where to really put this but I was thinking yesterday during the game that we’ve always kind of held Trout in check. So I got curious and looked it up... Against teams he’s had 150+ AB against in career, or said another way against the AL teams, his lowest OPS against any team is the Astros at .875 and he’s hitting only .253 against us, also his lowest. The Tigers are the only other team he doesn’t have a .900+ OPS against and he absolutely destroys the rest of the AL West.
Right now, MLB is saying the ball is within manufactured parameters and some variation in balls is expected. The juicing is purely coincidental according to them. Granted, MLB's manufactured parameters are basically ball has to be white and round. This year, balls seem to be excessively round. Not sure whether MLB is telling the truth or not, but them not having control of the ball is more scary than them lying about it. I'm for moving mound back about 4-6 inches. Gives the hitters slightly more time to see pitch which should help put more balls in play. I hate seeing poorly struck balls go over the fence.
