Pickles

Means line for the night: 3 IP 1 H 1 R 1 BB 4 K So a solid line at least. As an aside, everyone in Norfolk's current lineup has an OPS over 1080. That's silly.

Ha. Missed it. Just tuned in.

No, but too many do.

Was there ever a resolution for Trade Angelos?

That's the spirit.

Your handle is outdated. It's not 2010 anymore.

No it's not. It's a "statistic" the obsures the truth. He started 100 games at 2b, and less as the season wore on, and none in the playoffs. He was not an everyday 2b for the Orioles.

That 141 is extremely misleading.

He started 100 games at 2b, and less as the year went on. He was not an every 2b in the second of the season by any stretch. FG has his defense as terrible; BRef has his defense as above average. I know many prefer FG, and I'm not going down that road, but his defense was not universally panned by the statistics. Now, I will say I believe they thought/hoped he'd be better defensively when they signed him. And that he had regressed out there. He also didn't start a game in the playoffs, so by the time the team was fully formed, he was not the starting 2b.

The defensive stats on Frazier varied. I felt his range was below average, but he made all the plays he got to, and turned a nice double play. I'm not sure it's fair to say he was below average, nor is it fair to say they ran him out there everyday, particularly in the 2nd half.

It's also extremely disingenuous to suggest that giving a sub-par defender an occasional start in RF at Camden Yards is the same thing as running a sub-par defender out there every night at 2b or 3b.

Yeah, I wouldn't criticize him too much for any of those plays. The first play, he made a great effort. The ball in the gap he didn't clean fieldly, but he cut it off, and recovered quickly and didn't give up any extra bases. The last play was the one I had mentioned. It's routine but it still required to fulfill the role the CF is expected to. There's nothing from last night that would prevent me from continuing to let him play out there.

I was impressed with them overall. They sure don't look like a losing team to me.

Was there a particular play? I only saw one he caught, and he charged in and took charge and caught it. It was pretty routing, but he did a good job taking charge, which is the CF's responsibility.

I said Stowers, because I feel he's the most worthy. But what will really be the determining factor is who gets hurt and what does the big club need. And that's truly unpredictable.

The Royals look to be much improved this year.

So clever. And yet, so demonstrably dense that the minutest of details need to be explained to you in detail before you can follow along.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying ma'am.

Because it's things that don't need to be said. Nobody is arguing that the guy just decides before he steps in the box to swing or not. And if you take that literally, that's on you. I thought this was a place for people who knew a little about baseball. I didn't know everything needed to be explained as if I was dealing with those unfamiliar with the game. I'm glad we could focus the conversation on my language, where it matters. Not Cowswer looking like dog shit on low breaking balls.

What we're talking about is guessing. On pitch 1 he guessed if he got this type of pitch he was going to swing. And on strike three he guessed if I get this pitch I'm not going to swing. He does not literally decide in advance of the pitch if he is going to swing or not though. And everybody who isn't emotionally trying to pick semantic arguments, understands that.

In regards to breaking balls. Have you ever been in a batter's box? I'm not sure why you FREAK OUT about the semantics of these things.

Again this is the hyperbolic stuff. I'm not sure why I have to explain everything to you in miniscule detail for you to understand it. Nobody actually thinks somebody decides in advance of the pitch whether to swing or not. What the grown folks are talking about is the guy makes a decision on the first pitch to swing as soon as he recognizes the breaking ball out of the hand, and the guy makes the decision on the last pitch to NOT swing when he recognizes the breaking ball out of the hand. And he was DEAD wrong wrong in both decisions. Your semantic histrionics are boring. All reasonable people know what we're talking about.

Why? I wasn't the only one. I think he was not going to swing at a breaking ball there. Emmet felt the same way. SportsGuy did too in his own way. Thinking he was guessing is a similar statement. I don't know why you keep expecting me to disavow the very sensible things I keep saying in this thread.

Why is my hypothesis about his decision making more interesting to you than his actual decision making? Edit: To be clear, I think he predetermined to take a breaking ball if he saw one because he was tired of whiffing at them.

Why do I have to predict his intentions to criticize them? He watched strike three go down the fing middle of the plate after swinging at ball one six feet outside and in the dirt. Why do I have to be able to prove EXACTLY what he was thinking to criticize those decisions?