2011 Baseball Season/Off-Season Discussion

[pilferk]

Btw, what are your thoughts on what happened in the 8th when Girardi was ejected? I think he had a right to be mad that was clearly a swing.

He had a right to be mad, ESPECIALLY in light of the Granderson call (the HPB that wasn't) early.

And it was the bottom of the 9th, no?  Mo had 2 outs, already?

[pilferk]

You heard it here first:

Giants release Tejada and Rowand about 15 min ago.

They're eating about 10 mill for Rowand.

They activated Pat Burrell.

Montero coming up tomorrow for the Yanks....no "Killer B's" coming up, though.

[tim_m]

Btw, what are your thoughts on what happened in the 8th when Girardi was ejected? I think he had a right to be mad that was clearly a swing.

He had a right to be mad, ESPECIALLY in light of the Granderson call (the HPB that wasn't) early.

And it was the bottom of the 9th, no?  Mo had 2 outs, already?

I agree he had a right to be mad. You're right it was the ninth. Forgive me for being tired lol.

[tim_m]

You heard it here first:

Giants release Tejada and Rowand about 15 min ago.

They're eating about 10 mill for Rowand.

They activated Pat Burrell.

Montero coming up tomorrow for the Yanks....no "Killer B's" coming up, though.

That's not all that surprising. The giants right now can't hit a beach ball with wide red bat.

I'm a little surprised neither of the B's are getting a chance to play in the majors for a bit. Not at all surprised about Montero being up with how Jorge is struggling.

[pilferk]

I agree he had a right to be mad. You're right it was the ninth. Forgive me for being tired lol.

Forgiven.

Tired = par for the course for Yanks/Sox fans the day after they play each other.  The games seem like they're NEVER GOING TO END!

[pilferk]

You heard it here first:

Giants release Tejada and Rowand about 15 min ago.

They're eating about 10 mill for Rowand.

Now...forgive me.

They were both DFA'd.  That's not QUITE the same as an outright release....they're going to try to work a trade with someone.

If not trades...THEN they're gone.

[tim_m]

I agree he had a right to be mad. You're right it was the ninth. Forgive me for being tired lol.

Forgiven.

Tired = par for the course for Yanks/Sox fans the day after they play each other.  The games seem like they're NEVER GOING TO END!

No kidding, the night before we have a 2 1/2 hr game against the O's then a 4 hr one against the Sox. The games are worth watching and usually exciting.

[tim_m]

You heard it here first:

Giants release Tejada and Rowand about 15 min ago.

They're eating about 10 mill for Rowand.

Now...forgive me.

They were both DFA'd.  That's not QUITE the same as an outright release....they're going to try to work a trade with someone.

If not trades...THEN they're gone.

What are their numbers? I can't see anyone wanting an offensive player from the Giants who can't buy a hit or a run.

[Falcon]

I tuned in last night via the Boston feed on the MLB Network.

Too long for sure but good theatre - dudes getting drilled on purpose, ejections , you name it.

Nice stuff early on with the young girl with cancer in the booth and the Sox partnership with The Jimmy Fund - pretty cool indeed.

[tim_m]

Good game for the yanks tonight. Got a little tense at the end there but would you expect any less from a yanks/sox game? Burnett looked pretty good tonight. Hopefully the little change to his delivery will make a difference he only had that one bad pitch that gave up the two run home run. Who saw that play in the second inning with Ortiz sliding and ending up two feet from second base. That was funny shit lol. It reminds me of that scene in Major League where Willie Hayes slides two feet away from third base.

[pilferk]

And thus the enigma that is Burnett continues.

He outpitched Lester in everything but score...Yanks left a boatload on base.

He didn't collapse after giving up the HR.

And now, likely, based on that one outing....he'll stay in the rotation and Hughes will see the bullpen.

It was a nice win, though.  Had they lost, THIS one would have been painful.  They had SO MANY opportunities to score!

And yes, I saw Big Pappi come up two feet short...and then have Jeter staring at him, laughing.

I also saw the atrocity that was Nick Swisher bunting with 1 out....completely forgetting how many outs there were.

[GeorgeSteele]

^The key was pulling him after that walk to Ortiz (although that last pitch was a strike; but I guess the Yankees benefited from a more important borderline call at the end of the game).

Burnett did look good, but he's looked good before.  I think the main problem with him is not so much that he's a head case than the fact that he only has two pitches.  He throws a hard fastball with good movement, but nights like last night when he has good command of it are not often these days.  His curveball is great only in flashes, seems that most outings it just looks ordinary.  Bottom line, I'd go with Hughes. 

[pilferk]

^The key was pulling him after that walk to Ortiz (although that last pitch was a strike; but I guess the Yankees benefited from a more important borderline call at the end of the game).

Mo's last pitch was a strike.  PitchFx, PitchZone, and PitchTRAX all agree. 

Burnett did look good, but he's looked good before.  I think the main problem with him is not so much that he's a head case than the fact that he only has two pitches.  He throws a hard fastball with good movement, but nights like last night when he has good command of it are not often these days.  His curveball is great only in flashes, seems that most outings it just looks ordinary.  Bottom line, I'd go with Hughes. 

See, the thing is this:

He's looked good before (as you said)...but then as soon as he gives up one big hit (HR, double, whatever) or things don't go his way (as you pointed out, the Ortiz walk)...he falls apart.

I don't think it's his stuff suddenly failing him.  I think it's his head.  It just can't be coincidence that his stuff suddenly fails him AFTER giving up the big hit and he utterly collapses.  If you watch him...velocity doesn't drop, break on the curveball doesn't change.  LOCATION gets drastically worse (fastballs over the plate or over the catchers head and every curveball in the dirt or WAY outside).

He does throw a change up...though he's using it less than he did early in the season (which, incidentally, was when he was winning games).

I agree with your final conclusion: I'd prefer Hughes keeping the rotation spot...because he's generally more consistent and seems to have his head screwed on straighter.  AJ is not an "answer" in that rotation BECAUSE he's such an enigma.

That being said: I expect Girardi to decide, based off this one run through the rotation, that AJ will stay and Hughes will go to the pen.

[GeorgeSteele]

I checked on fangraphs.com and, yeah, he has thrown a change-up 10.6% of the time this season.  Was surprised to see that until it showed that his avg change-up velocity is 88.2, not that much off his avg fastball velocity of 92.7.  I guess I never noticed he threw it because there didn't seem to be much difference from his fastball.  For the sake of comparison, Sabathia takes an avg 7 mph off when throwing his change-up.

His meltdowns do occur when he gets in trouble around the 6th inning, but maybe he's been getting in trouble because hitters catch up to him the 3rd time around the lineup.  I think his mental weaknesses make the results exponentially worse than they otherwise would be, but even discounting that I think he's no longer quite good enough to get good results on or after the 6th inning.

[tim_m]

With Burnett most of it is mental i think. After he gets hit he gets rattled and gets erratic, but part of it is definitely mechanics you will notice with the little changes last night when he missed he missed down before the change he would consistently miss up in the zone and thats when he got hit hard.

[tim_m]

Another solid start and win from Nova the kid is now 15-4 has won 11 in a row and has his ERA down to 3.89. A few more starts like this and his numbers could be very similar to Hellickson and be without a doubt the favorite for ROY.

[Falcon]

A blurb on Nova from Hardballtalk:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/03/the-greatness-of-ivan-nova-is-yet-to-be-fully-appreciated

[tim_m]

A blurb on Nova from Hardballtalk:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/03/the-greatness-of-ivan-nova-is-yet-to-be-fully-appreciated

Comparing him to Doc Gooden in 84 is pretty ridiculous but his numbers compared to other rookies this season he definitely deserves serious consideration for ROY.

[Falcon]

A blurb on Nova from Hardballtalk:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/03/the-greatness-of-ivan-nova-is-yet-to-be-fully-appreciated

Comparing him to Doc Gooden in 84 is pretty ridiculous but his numbers compared to other rookies this season he definitely deserves serious consideration for ROY.

Agreed, some ESPNNY homer's imagination run amok.

I like Nova as ROY, dude doesn't have the best stuff in the world but he gets outs and wins games.

[tim_m]

A blurb on Nova from Hardballtalk:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/03/the-greatness-of-ivan-nova-is-yet-to-be-fully-appreciated

Comparing him to Doc Gooden in 84 is pretty ridiculous but his numbers compared to other rookies this season he definitely deserves serious consideration for ROY.

Agreed, some ESPNNY homer's imagination run amok.

I like Nova as ROY, dude doesn't have the best stuff in the world but he gets outs and wins games.

Definitely not the best stuff but he's not afraid he goes right after hitters. He consistently attacks the zone and gets ground balls. I particularly like how he can bounce back from a bad inning like his last start. He gave up two runs on two its in the first inning from that point on he shutdown toronto only giving up one more hit.