I’m watching the Brewers and the Mets at Bailout Field right now, and while the new home ground looks very nice from a playing and a general spectator point of view, there’s one aspect of it that i really don’t like.
For almost the full length of the outfield, from the left-field foul pole around to the right field foul pole, the walls are very high. There’s a bit of room where the walls are only 8 or 9 feet high, but for the most part they are much higher than that.
For the vast majority of the game, this isn’t an issue, but what it does is take away the possibility of an outfielder going over the wall to rob a hitter of a home run. And i think that’s one of the more exciting plays in baseball.
I thought the Jays were going to win it in the 9th, with Scutaro on third and one out. Crosby saved Oakland temporarily with his dive at third.
In other happy news, the Yankees have given up 14 runs to Cleveland in the top of the second inning. Wang gave up 8 on 8 hits, and Claggett has allowed 6 on 5.
I was at Wrigley for both Thursday and Friday’s games and the pitching was bad on both sides, but the most remarkable thing was how timely the Cards hitting was and how untimely the Cubs were. They stranded guys over and over again and had RISP with zero and one out multiple times. I really hope that this evens out as the season goes along, but early I’m concerned with the way Derrick Lee is playing. He just looks like he’s slowed down a ton. He doesn’t seem to be able to get around on fastballs any more and his plate discipline is nothing like it once was. Also, Brian Barden is looking like he’s going to be that no-name guy that just kills the Cubs all year.
ETA: Just flipped over the game on Fox today and I just realized how much I wish we could get Gracie calling Cubs games for WGN and dump the guys we got now.
Wow, what a beatdown going on at Yankee Stadium. Indians all over the Yankees 15-2 in the 3rd inning.
Marlins got lit up by the Nationals early but came back to win. Marlins look like the class of the NL East early in the season.
What’s up with the Braves? That was a bad loss today. Coming after being swept by the Marlins, I’m not sure why the Braves are losing so many games. I wouldn’t want to get too many games behind in the NL East this year. It will come down to a last game in September and the games in April count as much as the ones later in the year.
On that note, why was Scutaro running on contact from 3rd with one out? With the infield in, it seems to me that was asking to get thrown out at home – which is exactly what happened.
Mariners made a great comeback last night! Verlander was perfect for Detroit through 4 innings, but then the M’s jumped all over him for 5 runs in the 5th. That was really nice to see from Seattle’s offense on a night when King Felix was having a rough time.
mhendo, The Onion has a good article up about the Mets’ new ballpark:
I am a Yankee hater, but even I felt a little sorry for them with the drubbing they got from Cleveland.
Quietly, in Kansas City, Zack Greinke has 34 straight scoreless innings(going back to last year), including a complete game shutout with 10 K’s tonight.
Lincecum looks like he is returned to form with 13K’s tonight, but got a no decision. His team gave him no run support and the Giants lost.
Traditionally, pitchers start out ahead of hitter in April. That seems to not be the case this year, or else the pitching talent pool is thinner than usual.
I don’t actually know. But he was so good, so consistently that he has left almost every option unused. If they can’t demote him, they can ask him to go down or DL him and put him on a rehab assignment in the minors.
No matter what, something is wrong and he is completely lost. It can’t be the foot injury as he actually looked good in the Spring. So it is likely to be either a new injury or some serious mechanics issue. I am not good at this, but it looked to me like he was releasing too soon.
Wang also strikes out fewer batters per inning than Tom Glavine or Jamie Moyer, and it seems like he’s kind of a mystery to the stats dudes, as pitchers with such low K/9 don’t usually have much long-term success. And he doesn’t exactly have an amazing defensive infield behind him. I would look up his groundball/fly ratio for these 3 games if I wasn’t so lazy (and a Mets fan), but it sure sounded like a lot of balls were in the air. (I say “sounded” because I was listening to the radio.)
I think part of the problem is that the Yankees grounds crew seems to have installed helium instead of air.
To turn to the problems on my side, the Mets seem to have decided that the way to turn Johan Santana into Tom Seaver is to give him as few runs as possible.
Well, I’ve been saying for a few years I thought Wang had no long term future; ask What Exit?, we’ve been debating his value for some time. However,
Wang is exactly the sort of pitcher who can get by, at least for awhile, with a low K rate - a sidearmer with an extreme ground ball tendency,
His K rate has been going UP year after year. 5.1 last year, which isn’t great but it’s much improved, and
There’s a big difference between “not a good long term bet” and “Instatly going from being a decent pitcher to being a comical disaster.”
And he doesn’t exactly have an amazing defensive infield behind him. I would look up his groundball/fly ratio for these 3 games if I wasn’t so lazy (and a Mets fan), but it sure sounded like a lot of balls were in the air. (I say “sounded” because I was listening to the radio.)
I think part of the problem is that the Yankees grounds crew seems to have installed helium instead of air.
To turn to the problems on my side, the Mets seem to have decided that the way to turn Johan Santana into Tom Seaver is to give him as few runs as possible.
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