Haha, yeah. Through the sixth 16 of his 18 outs had been groundouts, with the other 2 being flyouts. In the seventh he started leaving the ball up and if I remember right all 3 outs that inning were flyouts. Combine that with the two singles to the outfield and you have the reason he got pulled.
You saw correct. Kid's sinker was spot-on today = 16 groundball outs. Outside of Walker's long fly ball, nothing was hit too hard at all until Douchebag Barrett's single. That's his m.o. coming out of the minors; he won't strike too many big leaguers out, but when he'll throw strikes & keep the ball down he can be successful. The book'll get out on him soon, though, and we'll see what happens. Looks like he can be a very good middle reliever.
How bad is Burke hurt? Is this going to be a chronic problem? One that might require surgery? I had a friend whose shoulder used to pop out from time to time, eventually he had to have surgery to stop that from happening. I hope that is not the case with Burke, he was starting to look really comfortable and is a good fit anywhere you put him. DD
listed as day-to-day with a dislocated shoulder. it popped out of place on a swing, which is bad news. that means the shoulder will eventually need surgery, because once it starts doing it on routine motions and plays it is obviously a chronic problem. i hope he's okay but it doesn't look too promising.
Just goes to show that starting pitching is far more important for this team than offense. As Roy O says.... sometimes you just have to win 1-0.
They may be able to identify & lay off the sinker, don't know what exactly. Scouts, players, coaches around the league will spend hours going over video & studying his patterns & tendencies (does he like to throw certain pitches in certain counts, does he like certain locations in certain situations, etc, etc...). The scouting reports these get can be pretty intricate. So he'll have to make adjustments. But you also have to make good pitches. He has to be able to spot the fastball on the corners & down, down, down; and get strikes - or at least regular swings on balls that may be a bit off the plate - on his breaking ball. He was great today, nothing really in the heart of the plate, everything on the corners & down. Will be interesting to see what happens in a game - unlike today - where he doesn't have his best stuff. Consistency is the key to pitching. Buchholz, Nieve, Sampson - one guy's going to the pen or the minors in a week, another one in a couple more weeks, maybe a 3rd if Backe can make it back. If that doesn't provide some competitive motivation, I dunno what would. Hirsh has been completely dominant the past month + as well; they may prefer to have him continue to work on some things though. They know Nieve & Sampson can pitch out of the pen. Buchholz reminds me of Isringhausen. I could see him succeeding with a similar fastball/curveball combo...don't know if his arm could/would bounce back like you'd need from a reliever though, they want to keep him starting regularly in AAA. love to see him stay a starter long-term, though. As an aside, yall can find minor league stat splits (like that Charlton Jimerson gets a hit 44% of the time he puts the ball in play against both LH/RH pitching and that he hits much better with nobody on base) for 2006 here: http://www.brewcrewball.com/special/milb+splits and minor league stats for major league players here: http://www.sports-wired.com/
was following the game all day at work on my cell phone ... man it feels good to win a series again. We need to get back to .500 or better before Roger gets here.
