2012 MLB Season

[ninersdd]

Um, the Dodgers aren't that good. They are James Loney and Andre Ethier and no one else. There is no offense there. There's more offensive talent in Miami which leads to more RBI chances for Lee, which equals a higher pay for Lee in the end. Throw in the fact that the Miami team is a more "Latin" cultured ball club and that hitting at Dodger Stadium isn't that good especially once the sun goes down. It's a no-brainer why he chose Miami.

You mean Kemp instead of Loney, right? Loney has like only 2 HRs this year.

[cshookemHORNS]

I hate this time of year as being an Astro fan. It always turns out with us dealing away our only decent talent for Minors leaguers who have not even performed well in the minors. I can understand Berkman, Oswalt, and Lee because they were nearing the end of their careers (until Berkman decided to go crazy last year) but Bourn, Pence or

even Bourgeois don't make any sense to me. They were young talented players which is what rebuilding teams need, right?

[BigEd76]

At least the Phils won't be going after any of your players this July...

[pmoehrin]

I hate this time of year as being an Astro fan. It always turns out with us dealing away our only decent talent for Minors leaguers who have not even performed well in the minors. I can understand Berkman, Oswalt, and Lee because they were nearing the end of their careers (until Berkman decided to go crazy last year) but Bourn, Pence or

even Bourgeois don't make any sense to me. They were young talented players which is what rebuilding teams need, right?

I think more then one of those moves may have been salary dumps and really nothing beyond that. Right now Houston is 28th in team salary and that is far from a small market franchsie.

I'm with you as well. You don't give up guys like Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence and get better either short or long term.

[cshookemHORNS]

At least the Phils won't be going after any of your players this July...

No joke. Ed Wade had a special thing about giving Phillies our players with minor return.

[Funky Bunky]

What is it with Texas? They have the major's best record at 50-30, yet when they lose they make it count, i.e. the 21-8 loss to Seattle back in May, and tonight's deficit of 16-0 to Chicago (via a TD pass from Cutler and a trio of field goals for Gould ) is just another example of this trend.

They're pitching is suspect. They're offense is just that good that they can win a lot with mediocre pitching.

This is a bad post.

The Rangers have, by fWAR, the best pitching in baseball, and that's with 3/5 of their opening day rotation and half their bullpen on the DL.

When healthy, there's no staff in baseball I think is deeper and more talented overall. Roy Oswalt probably won't work out the way the Rangers hoped. But it's not like he was Option 1 or even Option 5. He was like Option 8, and only came on as the team looked more and more like a MASH ward.

I haven't been paying too much attention to the Rangers other than in the standings, but I heard the pitching was struggling a bit the past few weeks due to all of the injuries? I guess I should have "worded" my post differently to "They're pitching HAS been suspect", because yeah... when healthy, they have a very good pitching staff.

I remember they had a stretch about a week and a half ago where they gave up 5 or more runs for like 5 or 6 straight games...

[Funky Bunky]

I don't see this mentioned anywhere, but Dan Haren has been put on the DL with back issues.

This is literally a godsend for the Angels! Haren has been horrible for pretty much the entire year, and nobody knew what was wrong.

[NJTank]

Nice Mets comeback in the ninth inning off Jonathan Papsmear tonight.

[ninersdd]

That sucked choking in DC and getting swept.

[The Six]

The Giants are a complete fraud with an inflated record from beating terrible teams.

[Kramerica Industries]

How many times have the Nationals won games where they trailed in the 9th inning or later?

I mean, I thought the Rays had done this a ton this year. Seems like Washington has done it even more.

[Don]

Most walk offs in the bigs this year.

[zpqmaowl]

The Giants are a complete fraud with an inflated record from beating terrible teams.

So are the Dodgers.

[BigEd76]

9th walkoff loss for the Phils and they're now 13 games out. At least Ryan Howard will be activated and start tomorrow night.

[Kramerica Industries]

Just heard a note regarding my above query - Washington is 1-26 in games where they trailed after eight innings?

I suppose the two are slightly different things, because that stat doesn't pass the test. I know they trailed in a game against New York and another one against Arizona, among others. That, ALONE, is two wins of that variety. And given they lead the league in walk-off wins, it stands to reason another win or two came in that form as well.

For what it's worth, I know the Rays have at least six wins of that variety. They did it to the Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Mariners, Yankees, and Red Sox, probably in that order. So that's my measuring stick.

[FiddySicks]

The Giants are a complete fraud with an inflated record from beating terrible teams.

Gonna have to disagree with this. They're playing really well together for what they have to work with offensively (and let's face it, it's better, but there are still some gaping holes in that offense), and the pitching (for the most part) has been really solid. Those back-to-back homers Cain gave up were pretty tough, but that's one way you're gonna beat Cain. He's not going to give up many solid hits, but if a hitter can get ahold of his challenge pitches they're going to go a mile. Really, as long as Cain can keep the ball in the yard, he's pretty much unbeatable.

The thing that makes absolutely no sense to me is why the Giants have Casilla closing over Romo. Sure Casilla throws gas, and that's a huge thing when it comes to closing out games, but he cant locate his pitches and it gets him into trouble quite a lot. Romo's stuff is just wicked and his control over his pitches is phenomenal. He's always done great when he's had to move from the set up role to the closer role, so why not use him in that spot?

[The Six]

Yeah I wouldn't call routinely leaving the bases loaded "playing well." The terrible bullpen can't hold any of these rare leads. The team is being exposed. When the Dodgers are missing their two best hitters, lost 11 of 12, and are still in first place, you know your team isn't as good as it's made out to be.

[CS85]

Deadspin posted gifs of all the MLB umpires strikeout "move." I've always found this fascinating.

Can anyone explain where that originated from and what it means? Is it significant?

edit: found this via google, not sure if it's true:

IIRC (and my baseball history is a bit weak) the hand signals for safe and out (and strikes) developed in the early part of the 1900s. At that time there was a deaf ball player playing in the major leagues so the umpires started to use hand signals for him to let him know their rulings (I can't recall his name but I think his nickname was Dummy). So during his playing days the umpires used the hand signals (crossing the out stretched arms in front of the body and then spreading them apart to signal “safe” and making a fist with the thumb extended and then throwing the fist over your shoulder (like throwing something over your shoulder) for an out (or strike). By the time “Dummy” retired another deaf ball player started his career, so the umpires continued the signals until they became a tradition.

Fast forward to the 1960s and I believe the first umpire to change from the thumb over the shoulder for an out was Ron Luciania (sp?) who started to call outs by punching the air downward with his fist. I believe this evolved into the punch and then pulling back that many umpires use today. Of course all umpires develop their own style of hand signals and their balls and strikes vocal calls. Some are quite varied but the most popular today is what you called “pulling the chain”.

[BigEd76]

Just heard a note regarding my above query - Washington is 1-26 in games where they trailed after eight innings?

The Phillies are something like 0-32.

[RyanB06]

Deadspin posted gifs of all the MLB umpires strikeout "move." I've always found this fascinating.

Can anyone explain where that originated from and what it means? Is it significant?

edit: found this via google, not sure if it's true:

IIRC (and my baseball history is a bit weak) the hand signals for safe and out (and strikes) developed in the early part of the 1900s. At that time there was a deaf ball player playing in the major leagues so the umpires started to use hand signals for him to let him know their rulings (I can't recall his name but I think his nickname was Dummy). So during his playing days the umpires used the hand signals (crossing the out stretched arms in front of the body and then spreading them apart to signal ?safe? and making a fist with the thumb extended and then throwing the fist over your shoulder (like throwing something over your shoulder) for an out (or strike). By the time ?Dummy? retired another deaf ball player started his career, so the umpires continued the signals until they became a tradition.

That's how I remember it, too. Dummy Hoy was the player's name (yes, I looked that up).