Yup. The Dodgers just went into that signing period and signed as many promising kids as possible and the reviews coming out of Cuba were that Alvarez was a massive kid with shoddy knees that could work a count but had a slow bat but power upside. They never even spoke to him and made a lot of assumptions about him. I can tell you that Luhnow has denied it but a lot of teams believed and still do that the Dodgers signed Alvarez for the Astros and intended to make a deal for him. The Astros had a lot of interest in him. Credit to the Astros and especially Oz, who actually met and talked to Alvarez and got a feel for how ambitious he was, how hard a worker and driven he was. Oz was the one that said Alvarez would end up able to play the outfield as well.
No, Ray is typically a two pitch pitcher. He throws a traditional fastball and a slider. The two pitches he threw to Alvarez were sinkers (I’m like 99% sure). You can tell by the decreased velocity (I want to say he was hitting 92 mph on those to pitches) and you can also tell because they cut inside and slightly down. A normal fastball for Ray moves vertically and not horizontally. Sometimes sinkers are called two seam fastballs but when someone says they throw “a fastball and a curve” or a “fastball and a slider”, they are talking about a traditional high velocity fastball, which is gripped on four seams (four seam fastball). We don’t typically group sinker with off sped stuff because the velocity (although there are now some monsters that can throw breaking stuff in the 90’s). Yes he threw back to back sinkers and I think that call by the catcher or manager was a mistake. The goal of throwing that pitch is to sucker Alvarez into swinging and missing or making contact onto the ground. Throwing him back to back just let him adjust. What makes the decision worse is that Alvarez knew what Ray would do, because he knows he is vulnerable to lefties inside.
I don’t know what they called it (I don’t remember them saying). I just know it wasn’t the normal fastball that Ray throws because it didn’t move vertically and was too slow. Pretty sure it was back to back sinkers based on the slide inside.
Dude this is a really strange take. I’m not disputing or asked for a difference between fastball types. And GTFO that the bench or the catcher called the pitch. Even if it’s true that tServais or Raleigh were dumb enough to call the same pitch twice Ray still has final say. It was idiotic for Servais to put Ray in and it was more idiotic of Ray to throw a pitch Yordan was locked in on. My hope is Bregman killed the idea to straight give Yordan the Bonds treatment and we continue to argue how the other team ****ed up. I would like to know the difference between a cutter and a slider though
Not only can he knock that ball out of the park, he can throw that ball across the park. That throw to home plate for the out in the last game was perfection. He's my man!! I love watching him.
Update on the birthday boy that caught Yordan's homer - he got to meet the man himself, who signed it for him, and told him he could keep it... What a legend
What a great birthday. Love how Yordan signed all that stuff for him and took pictures with them. That's awesome.
Interesting to look at his pitches on Fangraphs. Basically last year when he won the Cy Young, he was FB & Slider, but this year brought back the sinker he quit throwing 5 years ago. But at the same time, the average velocity of his FB & the sinker is almost the same, so maybe it is even the same pitch, but pitch tracking is picking it up as 2 separate types.
Pretty sure it is a sinker because of the movement horizontally. You are right though, when you have guys throwing sinkers or split fingers almost or some cases as hard as the classic four seam fastball it can be difficult to differentiate.
Reliving yesterday, boy did I hate how shaky it felt with Montero & Pressly. They got through it obviously, but boy, it didn't feel good. Really need those guys to perform this postseason.
Astros going into Game 3 with McCullers, Urquidy, Garcia, and Stanek all not having pitched in the series and almost the entire staff fresh. My guess is McCullers will have a short leash.
Lance will be great if he can stay away from the walks. Was hoping we could get some Javier for game 3 which makes the most sense post Framber, but I guess we have our plan.
I think t was a sinker but for a different reason. When is was hit he had to have had a SINKING feeling in his heart.
Plan was/is Verlander and Javier pitching in Game 1 so they could start Games 4 and 5 on normal and 1 day of extra rest if needed. Granted, with Javier not throwing as many pitches, if the Mariners some how chew through the pen, but the Astros still have a lead late, I expect Javier to be used over Urquidy/Garcia.
I don't agree with this take. If Servais knew ahead of time that he was going to put Ray in to face Yordan in a critical situation, they almost certainly would have game-planned how they were going to attack him. As Nook said, it was moreso failed execution rather than Ray just choosing on the spot to throw another meatball. I can't figure out cutter movement to save my life. Went down the rabbit hole and watched Driveline baseball videos on identifying the cutter and slider and it's definitely confusing. 6+ subvariants of both pitches. Some cutter variants look more like 4-seam FB's, some look more like sweeping sliders. The differences in pitch variants can equal subtle but significant differences in two-plane movement.
More walks than usual yesterday, but the pen has kinda felt like that all year. Everyone has overall pitched very well but no one seems like the classic fireman who you expect to throw a completely clean inning. Just gotta have faith that they've been very successful and will continue to be.
