Sessh

Davis does not have home run power anymore. It's amazing how much he has lost even physically, but still has gap power. Tie game, way to stick it to 'em!

I love that they are fighting right back. I don't know how that Nunez homer got out, but glad it did.

Everything is up in the middle of the plate. Not what he was doing the previous two starts. Disappointing.

Home plate cam and K zone both showed it a strike. Right on the edge. At least he got three straight outs after the homer.

Not surprised. Eshelman not sharp and Boston looking for revenge after last night. Not a good combo.

An entertaining three part series to pass the time.

Yes I read it. Been awhile since I heard Byung-hyun Kim's name. Mythbusters actually did something on the rising fastball years ago, but it makes sense that submariners would be more likely to pull it off than someone using a more traditional arm slot like Clemens.

Submariners are different. Throwing the ball from a low arm slot up in the zone will certainly rise. The myth is more about creating a rise ball from spin which is not possible since the elevation generated must exceed the weight of the ball and it can only account for about half. Obviously, if you throw a ball from a low point to a high point, the ball is rising on the way there.

Seems the Red Sox are pretty pissed. Bogaearts says it was one of their worst losses of the year. Eshelman better be sharp tonight.

I don't think BA is useless at all. It's incomplete and not as significant as it once was, but not useless. It's hard to hold a .300 BA. Most of Ichiro's hits were singles. Getting 200+ hits in a season isn't useless and it's fun to see hits.

.. of course, I just realized you were probably talking about R5 picks that might be available in the next draft, but hopefully useful nonetheless.

A very limited and sporatic list from a few minutes of searching: Roberto Clemente, Grover Cleveland, Johan Santana, Josh Hamilton, Darren O'Day, R.A. Dickey, Everth Cabrera, Marwin Gonzalez, Odubel Herrera, Hector Rondon, Tommy Kahnle, Justin Bour, Shane Victorino, Jose Bautista, George Bell, Bobby Bonilla, Dan Uggla, Joakim Soria, Alejandro de Aza, TJ McFarland.. for starters.

If it's 115, no one could blame you if you did.

I've never done well in the heat. I'm cold blooded. I like winter. Well, autumn is good, too.

An ice station.. it sure is hot enough. It almost hurt to go outside today in the sun and tomorrow, it's going to be 115 with the heat index. Poor Eshelman. lol

I'm about 70% sure about Santander at this point. One thing I look for personally is whether or not a player can bounce back from their first slump or their first cluster of bad starts and go on another hot streak. That suggests a player capable of successfully making adjustments to the league's adjustments. Santander has done that already and he's playing really well again, so I think it's a very real possibility that he's a legit major leaguer. Tomorrow's starter is another guy who will have to go through the same phase before I can really believe he's got a chance to stick in the majors long term. I'm probably more optimistic than most on that front, though.

Indeed. I really wish he could do that, but I don't know if what he lacks can be taught or not. It was mentioned during the telecast that Broxton has been spending tons of time in the cage trying to get better, so we'll see.

It seems he hit the ball off the left field wall and was still thrown out at first. That's.. kind of impressive really.

It doesn't seem like he quoted Elias, but it does seem consistent with what he has said his plans are to rebuild the organization. He said this during his introduction. ..and he has put considerable effort into building that pipeline by expanding international efforts. If Elias' plan was to make trades to acquire elite prospects, then he was a fool because we had nothing to trade for such prospects. The only way to do that is through the draft and internationally which is what he is doing. So, although he did not quote Elias (that I can find), it sure does seem to be the case here. I am sure Elias would accept an elite prospect in a trade if he could get one, but chances are not likely for that to happen. Even if we could get one, using this method to rebuild the organization is doomed to fail. The draft and IFA signings/acquisitions are where it's at. Who knows how many guys we have now will be part of our future? Some, for sure, but that's part of the fun of this rebuild is that we just don't know who, but players will surprise us.

If those steps were taken, I think it would increase stolen bases which would be a good thing since it would be harder to just go for the long ball all the time. I admit that I am slightly torn on this. I think we just need to strike a better balance between home runs and other offensive strategies. I would say that I agree with what was said earlier in the thread about 70% being the low bar on acceptable success rate. The question is how much to de-juice the ball? I'm not sure another dead ball era would be good, either. See, this is where I think my limits are on analytics because they don't care about the entertainment value of the on-field product. Risk taking is entertaining even if it doesn't always work in your favor and that includes stealing, bunting, squeezing and all the other little things that add spontaneity to the game. I also think that if stealing became widely used again, we'd see more players coming up who were better at it and would not neglect their speed tool. We'd have fewer slower players at least. I think speed has been one of the casualties of HR obsession with analytics now piling on as well and it's something that the game would probably be better off if it had more of once again.

Point taken. :)

Well, obviously I would rather he not get picked off, but if I had to choose between Villar striking out and Villar getting on base and then getting picked off, I go with the latter. At least there's some entertainment value and at least he got on base and it's even better if there were guys on base ahead of him because maybe someone scores or advances a base or two before he gets picked off. Of course, maybe I wouldn't feel that way if we were actually good, but I don't think we'd have any Villar's on the team if we were good and we wouldn't be making so many air-headed outs on the bases either. Anything is better than a strikeout especially when there's more of them than there are hits over the course of a season these days. Fortunately, there aren't many players who make as many mistakes on the bases as Villar does. I find it a better product when they score runs, too. I also find it a better product when I see the team being aggressive and taking chances trying to create scoring opportunities (ie; manufacturing runs), but there should be a balance between patience and aggressiveness. Too much of either can be a bad thing.

Roberts mastered that jumping lead of his. I haven't seen anyone do it better than he did.

Considering that there are more strikeouts per month than there are hits (at least last year there were), that really adds up. It's a worse product. For better or worse, stuff happens when guys are on base. More guys need to get on base. Again, it's a "let's not try because we might fail" approach, but having more strikeouts than hits is okay. The game needs to be made more exciting if there's to be any hope of bringing in new fans.

Being a base stealer alone won't get you anywhere. It's a supplementary skill that will likely make the rest of your game better since being a base stealer suggests a player that will have a quick first move which is especially useful for an outfielder. It would also guarantee the first-to-third thing on your list. I'm not sure why it has to be either/or, though. I'd rather have #1 or #2 that could steal bases as opposed to one that couldn't on the presupposition that this kind of speed improves other aspects of their game.