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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    The Williams Shift was first used against Phiilies slugger Cy Williams in the 1920s. https://www.mlb.com/news/ted-williams-faced-defensive-shifts-in-1940s-c191605204
  2. ashbury
    As with many counting stats, outfield assists are hard to interpret because they don't keep separate count of how often the runners or base coaches test that arm. That said, I thought Larnach's form on the throw looked good - free and easy with no overthrowing that might lead to the ball sailing. With two outs it was reasonable, maybe, to send the runner even on a shallow base hit, but if Larnach demonstrates an 80 percent throw-out rate on balls hit like that, it will stop.
  3. ashbury
    Look into William Shakespeare. His style is also considered quite good.
  4. ashbury
    So much content! Kudos, Sherry.
  5. ashbury
    Nice to see a sweep by all three minor league squads, minus the rainout. Four or five nights a week would be nice!
  6. ashbury
    Shallow and pedantic, if you ask me.
  7. ashbury
    That team broke our hearts about as badly as any Twins edition did. They had just won the World Series in 1991 in a surprising fashion, but they didn't sneak up on anybody in 1992 and put together a 53-34 record at the ASB, looking ready to compete for another title. They held on for a little while after, but that was the high-water mark for the season, they completely collapsed the following year, and didn't become relevant again for another ten or so. It's all Kreuger's fault!
  8. ashbury
    That 'missile' descriptor in the Twitter feed is a new one for me.
  9. ashbury
    In other contexts the past week or two I've been talking about the importance of "clean innings" by members of our bullpen. No pitcher throws a perfect game every time, not even for one inning. But the fewer the baserunners, the less damage is done when the inevitable home run or error occurs. Yesterday's ninth inning is a perfect case study. If Soto had managed to retire the two guys he walked, Sano would not even have come to the plate to deliver his scorcher, nor would there have been baserunners ahead of him to, ahem, confuse matters. As has been drummed into our consciousness for decades, "Walks Will Haunt."
  10. ashbury
    Robbie Grossman is the gift that keeps on giving to the Twins. He makes a better read on a very catchable flyball and none of the hilarity on the basepaths even takes place. He needs to buy Haase a nice dinner to make up for even putting him in the position to make a poor throw under pressure - there was no pressure on Grossman's attempt to begin with, he just needed to be competent.
  11. ashbury
    Don't get mad at Urshela or Sano for their baserunning. When Coach yells "Last Batter" before the pitch, you just keep going until the other side puts each runner out. You know that ice cream is waiting for you at Dairy Queen.
  12. ashbury
    ... in 3 games at third base and 2 games at second, out of Jacksonville's 18 total - he's 12th on the AAA squad in plate appearances. In the context of this thread being about catching, that's especially telling as to the Marlins' opinion. Sorry to pile on. But Astudillo has approximately zero to do with Rortvedt being here or gone.
  13. ashbury
    Nice to see a counter-example to "Betteridge's law of headlines," discussed earlier at this site.
  14. ashbury
    Wow. That Zuul guy or whatever his name is is unreadable. Talk reason to him in response to his hawt taek, and he just doubles down.
  15. ashbury
    You may love the image he chose to project. Personally, I got a bellyful of him walking to and from his position in LF at the game I watched in Pawtucket a couple years ago. And then there was that brawl in a winter league game. Miami loves him so deeply that he is stashed in AAA, despite their major league catchers batting .171 and .000. (OPS .491 and .154.) So apparently the Marlins are blind to the value that Astudillo brings. But, true, you can't spell WINS without some of the letters of WILLIANS.
  16. ashbury
    Finally! Fun With Numbers that's actually fun!
  17. ashbury
    I was about to say something similar, because I tuned in late due to other activities, and all I saw was the top of the ninth. And I found it compelling, fundamental baseball. I'm repeating myself to say more about the inning itself, but I do wonder why baseball is held to a different standard than other spectator sports. Basketball is famous for being interesting only in the last five minutes, as you say, and even American football is watched only sporadically during a game except for the most diehard of fans until the two-minute warning where you check to see if the QB can put together the needed drive. And I don't begrudge those sports' their following, but the idea that baseball alone must be uniquely riveting from first pitch to final out is slanted. I allow myself just enough paranoia to look at the unholy alliance between ESPN and the NFL, and see where a portion of the constant drumbeat about baseball being sooooo booooooring comes from.
  18. ashbury
    It seems to me maybe you actually don't.
  19. ashbury
    Well said. I feel like adding, the same "criticism" could be leveled against good ol' ERA - at the end of the inning, his ERA for the game is 0.00 just as if he had pitched 1-2-3. Different stats have different purposes, and one big divider is "descriptive" versus "predictive". Even though WPA is modern, for me it sits directly in the "descriptive" category that tries to tell you what happened, in the context of thousands of other games in history where a home team took a one-run lead into the top of the ninth. At the end of that adventure, Pagan collects his winning-probability-added, for getting that clutch final out (and the maybe-more-clutch popout after the string of foul balls). The ninth isn't easy, even if many of the top closers lead you to think so.
  20. ashbury
    Fair question. After pondering for all of ten seconds, I think think I would feel the same way, but would be too polite to post it. I've posted before that I think he's an average reliever at best, at this stage of his career. This game really defines him for me.
  21. ashbury
    I'll throw out an unpopular opinion, that after the leadoff double, Pagan really pitched. Strategically he didn't let the better hitters beat him, and went basically after the #8 and #9 guys when the guys before those didn't get themselves out. He's not good enough to blow them away, as witnessed by the sequence of foul balls, but he went with a plan. It was bend but not break territory, and of course it could have come out much differently, but I want to give Pagan credit. He didn't simply luck into the result he got. He worked hard and smart for it. He had just enough.
  22. ashbury
    "We tell the kids, 'Grandpa has his spells, and if he forgets to take his medications you don't know what he might say. Just smile and tell him you love him.' At least he's not telling them about those so-called astronaut moon landings 100 years ago or whenever."
  23. ashbury
    Dear Forum Friday; I have read Forum Friday for years and years and I have seen people write "I can't believe this happened to me" but I am writing to tell you a story that actually happened to me but I can't believe it happened to me. ...
  24. ashbury
    I'm not gonna judge any team, even one that I hate, on messages from That Guy On Twitter. There are much better reasons to hate the White Sox anyway.
  25. ashbury
    You're gonna make him blush.
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