Too Many Homers
Only this time it wasn’t on the diamond….
The TBS booth was something special last night, for an Orioles fan. I get bringing Cal Ripken into the booth seeing as this is the first time the Birds have been in the postseason in many many years, but how about a little balance up there? I don’t think it’s any bit of a stretch that Smoltz is still a little bent about the Yanks sending him packing back in the 90′s, and it shows in the commentary. A little bit of balance would have been nice to hear; how about Tino or Paulie to go back and forth with Rip? Is that too much to ask? The saving grace was that our Yankees came out on top, sparked by Russell Martin, who was greeted with cheers after barely ducking a fastball to the helmet. In that moment when his shot to left went over the fence you could hear a collective sigh both from the broadcast booth and the stadium. Speaking of the stadium… where did all that orange come from? My guess is they bussed a bunch of extras in from the nearest correctional facility, and judging from the applause at the near beanballs to Martin and A-Rod i’d be right. Their silence as Jim Johnson was smacked around by the Bombers in the ninth was deafening and Yankee fans everywhere loved every minute of it.
Speaking of home runs…
The two most homer-happy teams in the league went head to head and launched only one in the hitter friendly Camden Yards in the series opener, courtesy of the guy who had been DFA’d by nearly every Yankee fan at some point this season. Kudos to the Russ-Bus; the guy has had a few tasty hits this year and has accounted for the only two walk-off hits off the year, both of which left the yard. The Yanks put numbers on the scoreboard in a variety of ways; they got hits, they went deep and even sacrificed a man in from third. I love seeing the opposing pitchers head jerk back like a human Pez dispenser, but it’s cool to see them cross home plate in a variety of ways. RISPFail haunted the home dugout last night and the Yankees sailed on to victory.
Not an ace….
The Big Man came through last night and showed everyone why he gets paid the big bucks. 8.2 innings and two runs against a team that has found a way to win for 183 games, and he did it in style. Over the last few starts (4ER 24IP before last night) CC has found his changeup and he and Martin used it effectively last night, working out of some big jams and keeping the O’s lineup off balance and in check. While it may not have seemed like it at the time, his time on the DL may end up being a good thing. CC is in the midst of a low in innings pitched in several years now, and has had just enough time to get sharp for the October run. Buck had a lineup full of righties out there to try and get the best of Sabathia, but with his change and a nasty slider coupled with excellent fastball command, the Birds never stood a chance.
Baby Bombers…
Baseball America has been releasing their top 20 lists for the various MiL levels and there are some familiar faces making the cut. The trio of Sanchez, Austin and Williams all made the cut for the SAL, and Sanchez and Austin both made another appearance on the FSL list along with Slade Heathcott and Nik Turley. Tyler and Gary came in at 8 and 9, while Slade and Nik took the 17th and 18th spots. Jose Fernendez of the Fish and Gerrit Cole took the top honors. Heathcott has drawn praise from opposing managers as an exciting player and a real gamer, his only real drawback being his durability. His go-for-broke style of play should probably be scaled backa bit if he expects to protect that shoulder of his, which has seen two operations thus far. His tools give him a high ceiling, but his health concerns keep his floor somewhat low. He’ll get his cuts in the AFL this year, which starts very shortly.
A Yankee Legend returns to the big stage…
Andy Pettitte‘s return to the mound happened months ago, but let’s be honest… this is what we’ve all been waiting for. Andy will make his first October start since game 3 of the 2010 ALCS and his first against the Birds since 1996. Andrew Eugene has logged more than a full season of innings in playoff action; 263 to be exact, with a 173/72 K/BB ratio and 3.83 ERA. Andy won’t go down as the most dominant pitcher to grace the big stage, but you can count on him to give you his best. Even when he doesn’t have everything working the man will battle and give his team a chance to win the game. He’ll be battling fellow southpaw Wei-Yin Chen, who has stumbled a bit down the stretch, ending the season with 192.2 IP and a 4.02 ERA, 105 ERA+ and 1.261 WHIP.
Qustions have been raised about wether or not Pettitte will return in 2013, as his year had been cut short by an unfortunate line drive that fractured his ankle and cost him nearly three months of the regular season. Andy went on to say: “I know the competition and the desire to compete is still there, and I don’t feel like I kind of got that itch out from the 70 innings or so that I threw this year. I was expecting to do a little more work than that. But we’ll see. We’ll see how this goes, and then i’ll factor everything probably in”. At this point in the year however, focus is in one place, and that’s on his next start. Tonight Andy will be going for his 20th win in the post season, an MLB record.
Posted on October 8, 2012, in Analysis, Personal Opinion, Player Analysis. Bookmark the permalink. 21 Comments.
Brian D.
fishjam25
jimmytoucan
Matthew B
Delia E.
Dan H.
Matthew S.
Michael P.
Mike D.
Nice recap…..looking forward and mention of the prospects. Good stuff Jimmy T.
Good article Jimmy. I agree that they should have someone from the Yankees in the booth since the Orioles have Cal Ripken. It was all “Orioles this” and “Orioles that”. I may have only tweeted about Cal Ripken twice last night, but my followers were quick to pick up I was annoyed by him for just talking about the Orioles. I just wish that YES Network could have done the ALDS game and if not YES then at least put the game on My9 with the YES analysts in the booth. That would make it so much more enjoyable.
Al Leiter works for MLB…why not use him to offset Ripken?
Matt: Wanted to get a quick blurb in about the young ones, but figured the focus is on the PS right now. I’ll get back to it in November.
Delia: I’m normally pretty good about occupying myself and tuning out the dopes in the booth but even I got a little fed up last night. There were a coupld of “what?!?!” moments there that got my going. Nothing better than to listen to them all put the brakes on when Martin hit that tater.
You should also let everyone know that the AFL starts tomorrow.
With respect to the home run there are 2 reasons there are fewer in the post season first is better pitching and the second is temperature. Too prove temp matters put one baseball in a warm oven for a hour of so an another in the fridge for the same time, then drop them from the same height and see the difference.
Air temperature plays a part in t as well.
With that said, you have the two most HR heavy teams in a hitters park and only one HR hit last night…. The way Hammel was hanging pitches he’s lucky he kept them in the park. Lots of mistake pitches that should have been crushed. His pitch f/x charts show several meatballs left in the kitchen.
But Martin really put a charge into his home run an it barely made the seats. Temp along with better pitching negates home runs in the post season. Which is the big reason the Yankees have trouble scoring in the post season.
Don’t forget about the ball being juiced this year as well.
Actually he didnt. The ball left the bat at less than 100mph and it had a high trajectory. It still woul have left all 30 parks, but it was a lofting HR. Now go to hit tracker online and compare thy with the bombs that Cano hit the other night against the Sox.
You’re making my point…he impacted the ball well but it didn’t get the mph or distance it would have in the summer. It’s like golf ball compression it makes no sense for me to use a higher number ball as I can’t impact it enough for it too make a difference.
Lookat the data foryourself hanky. Hedidn’t impact the ball well. Hedidn’t put a chargeinto it, or hitit at ananglethat wouldget the most distance. Hedid t hitit very hard,and struck it at a severe angle. You also managedto ignore the fact that there were several pitches that they flatout missed; how many foul tips did you see thywent straight back? Solid contact and those leave the park.CC served one upin the eighth and Hammel served a few upearly on.
See you still don’t get it do you? Martin hit the ball hard and didn’t get the result he would have if the temp was higher. With the exact same swing the ball likely would have gone another 15 rows in warmer weather. So again better pitching and cooler weather decrease home runs.
They put the Yankee haters in the booth because the game was done by TBS, they hate the Yankess as does Smotz and Rip! Kaat is the best.
lol,m .. someone final,ly took my 2 year rant and ran with it,……. going solley by the headline
when the hits came last night, threy scored and won
ichiro in the lineup herlps the lineup
actually jim, the homers i was referring to were the three stooges in the broadcast booth last night.
as far as home runs are concerned, the team that hits more in the PS has a .771 win percentage.
going back to Cano being a line to line hitter, you can find the actual data at Texas Leaguers instead of having to guess. Here’s Robbie’s spray chart for this year alone; certainly more than one or two down the left side of the outfield as you can see:
http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/batter/429664/?pitchers=A&count=AA&pitches=AA&from=4%2F20%2F2012&to=10%2F7%2F2012
Homers should go down with the temps, the ball travels 25 feet less at 50 than it does at 75. They won’t hit the near misses out.
You are right Doug, TWASP once hit a ball that shouldnhave gone 500 ft. But it was 40!degrees and it only went 200 ft.
I once hit a ball so hard it almost went over the outfielders head and that was in Africa. The problem was; over 100* in the shade, the ball was very old and soft…otherwise I would have had my first hit over an out fielders head, ever. So yes, I would say heat has something to do with the carry of the ball.
But it’s also A LOT easier to pitch in warn weather so in my experiences things even out. My arm felt its strongest in hot weather.
fishjam…
You were a big time starter, me I only pitched 1 inning at a time. I loved hot weather, I threw junk with one hell of a FB around 100 mph…not so much, more like 80 +. The hard part was changing hands, from 2nd base to LH closer. I had all the fun and you guys had all the work!
Too bad Patrick never hit a baseball…..but he once threw a chess board 100 feet.
Tommy Gun…….”Too bad Patrick never hit a baseball”….show’s what you know. I once hit a ball, that went straight down into a neighbors chimney. We all ran away. Still talked about, over beers, to this day. Take care. Good luck tonight!