Brad Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Every away team has won so far. Let's hope this trend continues through tomorrow night ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 I've been having this argument with self-appointed experts on the Royals forum. Home field "advantage" simply doesn't exist in the postseason. And Jim, Pete Rose has simply become insufferable. I cringe every time he chimes in. II'd pay to see The Big Hurt just backhand the shit out of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 I'm watching Hamilton's AB today...yesterday it looked like he was lapsing back into his "halfass swing at everything no matter where it is" thing that was his downfall the last time he was here. That's a dark place for Josh Hamilton.For the Mike Napoli Experiment to continue into post-season would be weird indeed, but it seems to work as long as Nap makes his offensive contributions before he has to engage in meaningful defense. But if Hamilton is slipping into darkness again (baseball darkness, not personal darkness), hey, Experiment on!Pete Rose was just...surrealistic. Going on and on and ON about concussions and stuff, like it was no big deal, why do you pull a guy just because he doesn't feel good, etc. His partners tried to keep him between the lines, he was just clueless and kept going and going and going...I kept waiting for somebody to bring up the Adrian Beltre ruptured testicle story, http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/03/03/getting_into_a_sensitive_area/ but I guess that might have made whatever kind of "general viewership" that was watching squeamish.or worse. But I'd like to see Pete Rose top that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 I was pretty neutral on Pete Rose before, but his commercial during the All Star game was too tasteless even for me. He has really become a major embarrassment. And his behavior on FS1 yesterday made the show almost unwatchable. And we had nearly an hour rain delay last night, so I got quite an earful of his bizarre rants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Giving up outs on the basepaths never a formula for success, especially against Toronto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 (edited) As an outside observer since I have no dog in this fight, two things:Oodor was out, Martin purposely stuck his arm out to get hit. Bad umpiring all around. Edited October 9, 2015 by Tim McG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Lousy umpiring all around indeed, strike zone totally inconsistent, Odor- if out, then only by the smallest of microns under the slowest of replays, but hey, sent to Baseball Gods Office in New York (City) for final call, so... and I don't blame Martin one bit, he did what he had to do, good for him. Dude's trying to win the game by any means necessary. Fullest props to Russell Martin in general. But when both Jim Kaat and Bob Kostas keep talking about how bad the strike zone is, all the way to the bottom of the 14th...I suspect there will be a closer than usual review of this game up in Joe Torre's room.Not an expected outcome, but otoh, none of this has been, and looking for where it might all end is not something for which I have neither nerves nor stomach. Ride the ride until it comes to an end and they come up to your car and pull the bar back.Having said that, seeing Beltre smiling and laughing at and with his team when they finally broke through (and the cosmic symmetry of his replacement being both a guy who contributed to the game going long as well as to it finally getting done, Beltre is the soul of this team, almost literally, and you know that Hanser Alberto wanted nothing more than to honor the man he was replacing on the field that day...if you don't follow this team, it might be hard to realize just how deeply this runs)...that's special beyond words for this guy here. My "true heroes" in any aspect of life, especially sports, is a pretty short list, but Adrian Beltre is definitely on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Odor was out. The replay umps didn't have the guts to make the call.That opened the door to that two-run inning which eventually won the game.Martin sticking his arm out to take a walk was equally inexcusable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 If you want to send a job application to Mr. Torre's office using your guts as a recommending quality, feel free. Hell, you can use me as a reference. Get thos gutless bastards in line, I say! And bring Carlos Gomez in with you while you're at it!Better, though, that you petition for them to get their strike zone shit together. Saw just the tail end of Cubs/Cardinals, but they were barking about it up there too, and apparently with good reason.Russell Martin can play on my team any time. But the Buster Posey commercials can not be beat, especially the one where the dude wants him to deliver the baby and his wife is all NO F-in way. Put that one up for a Clio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I've been watching games a long time and had a pretty good idea of the strike zone. In the last couple of years, with the way they call it today, I have no idea anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 The maxim that it (the strike zone) doesn't have to be right, it just needs to be consistent seems to be teetering, to put it mildly.OTOH, I've seen #16 for Team Viagra so many damn times this week, but especially today, that I'd wager a dollar of your money and two of mine that the real problem is that Viagra done made all the umps go blind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Put it in the books! Mets take game 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 People have been whining and bitching about the strike zone as long as I've been alive. It's a game played and officiated by humans. When taken as a whole, the bad calls that go against you, and the bad calls in your favor balance each other out nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Yes, they have but in over 50 years of watching, there was more predictability to it than there is now. Some calls I saw in last night's Mets game made me shake my head. However, you can't ask for any more as long as they're consistent in calling it the way they do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I suppose, Brad. It does come across as potentially golden age fallacy, though. I also wonder if we had the technology to go back 50 years and watch a randomly selected series or two in HD, if we'd find the same inconsistencies and bad calls. Folks weren't watching games on 40/50/60 inch high definition televisions back then, which makes me wonder: is it the game that's really changed, or just the way we see it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 And BTW, Jose Bautista has to be one of the whiniest little bitches in sports today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 They plot a home plate ump's zone, you know, balls and called strikes: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/dashboard.php?dts=10/09/2015On a good day, the greens and reds will mostly not be intermingled. A pitch or two, sure,Best called gamed from yesterday looks to be Alan Porter's, Mets vs Dodgers. But Vic Carpazza's Rangers/Jays zone was kinda...all over the place:Any one inconsistency is not a big deal, human error. It's in the cumulative where it gets troubling, and even then, if consistent, fine. But this guy had an inconsistent inconsistency, and that's the worse kind of 'em all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Again, needless hand-wringing over human fallability. Plotting balls and strikes is the most ridiculous hair splitting in sports, IMO. Let the pitcher throw it to the catcher, the batter try to hit it, and the ump determine whether it was a ball or strike if the batter decides not to. Done. Throw it back to the pitcher, rinse and repeat. There is really no need to go over it with a fine-tooth comb after the fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Oh, like in Little League? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 So go ahead and replace all umpires with computers and machines.The technology exists to give you the absolute perfection you insist upon. Personally, I'm 100% opposed to removing the human element from any endeavor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Dude, it's a kind of scouting report, not a manifesto. The guy had a bad game, period.The umps get a review of every game, supposedly objective and honest. This guy's gonna probably hear hey, you had a bad game. And he's gonna say, "so they told me". You can believe it that this type of umpiring data is used by teams to look for trends and tendencies to work to their advantage, same as they do with players; and by the ump's employers to do the same to improve performance, same as the teams do with players.Anecdote - I bought tickets to a Rangers game one time and they ended up being right in the middle of where all the other team's advance scouts were sitting (totally accidental buy, but location was great, about 20 rows back from the plate, more or less right behind it). 2011, I think it was, and everybody was out looking to see either who they were going to be playing in September or who they might try to trade for, you know how scouts do, they scout. A bunch of guys with laptops and briefcases and such, all with team logos on them, Cards & Yanks guys looking like they were on an advance mission for Donald Trump or something, poorer teams looking like they were using freelancers, bare minimum, cats taking notes by hand, a few of them. Anyway, you would see damn near all of them move to make notes after EVERY pitch, some of them finding things to look at and notate before and after as well. I was a unique experience watching a game and at the same time watching THESE guys watch a game.I was one seat behind a scout from the twins org, really nice guy, I left him alone until about the third, finally asked between innings, don't mean to disturb you, but are you a scout? Yeah, he was, and we chatted about the niceties of watching baseball for a living, the unpleasantries of traveling, etc, between innings. As the game wore on, I noticed that the Rangers pitchers were not getting the low strike, and I don't mean borderline, I mean clearly and inch or so above the knees and catching some part of the plate. As the game wore on, it was getting kind of obvious, and at one point I asked the guy am I I seeing things or is this really happening? and the guy said, yeah, he's been doing this all week. He's hearing about it.So, hey, people notice. People should notice and people do notice, and people do spread the word. It's not about robots, it's about having the game being played as well as it can be played as best as humanly possible. A bad game is a bad game, simple as that. And if the games keep being bad, at some point, there are repercussions, at least as much as the ump's union will allow. I don't remember his name, but within the last few years, there's been at least one guy let go, and a few others who have been assigned to different crews so they don't get the "high profile" games as often as they did. And they broke up the Angel Hernandez-Joe West Show, thank god.Umps are great, except when they're not, same as the rest of us.And I would definitely recommend finding out where teh scouts sit in your home stadium and try to sit around them for a game. It was a real eye-opener for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Then I guess neither of us is saying anything different. Though, I note a slight hole in your scout story. Unless you meant to say "they've" been doing it all week. And if that's the case, it sounds fishy that an entire crew would be calling balls and strikes exactly the same way day after day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I wondered about that too, but, you know, who am I to interrogate a professional scout in the middle of a game? I uncritically took it to mean either that this crew had been off all week, or that maybe "all week" in the context of where this guy had been over the last few weeks, maybe he had seen this one guy more than once lately and it was becoming a recurrent thing with him.You're right, though, taken at 100% face value, that's a weird thing to say. But he said it, and he said in such a way as I had no doubt that something was being noticed and reported.There's so many wheels turning at so many levels in any pro sports organization, people and things that us fans seldom, if ever, hear about, advance scouting being one of them. The Rangers org started pimping theirs when the team started playing well and getting hitters out who had been thorns in there side, for, like, forever. all of a sudden we're getting these guys out and we start hearing "you can thank than the scouting department for that folks, they're out there blahblahbla and it's paying off!" I had just really considered "scouts" in simple terms, as people who beat the bushes looking for raw talent, but it's only logical that you want to have people out there watching everybody play as much as possible, especially you upcoming opponents for the next 2-3 series.Now, speaking of gigs you don't really think about...how about groundskeepers? Part of me thinks that that might be one of the coolest gigs ever. Working on the yard and free baseball all summer long AND getting paid. Those are three things I very much like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I'm friends with a former player in the Pirates organization. Never made it higher than AA but knows the game, and knows it well. He winters in Surprise and attends all the Royals spring training games, regular season ticket holder, you get the idea. So, yeah. I actually do know about all the things you've mentioned, but you're right that many fans don't. Speaking of talking to a scout, former players at the professional level are also an enormous wealth of information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 do you know any groundskeepers? I'm thinking that might be a dream job for retirement, if I ever get to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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