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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    Who else is looking forward to that June 7-9 series hosting the Yanks?
  2. ashbury
    Having just gone through covid myself (which hardly makes me unique here, or in any audience), I'll just say that in early onset you may still test negative, and the symptoms can be mild enough to make you question your own judgement. In the space of a few hours physical weakness can begin to overcome you. Bundy testing positive right after the game leaves a very wide range of possible scenarios for how that day went. Lacking more information than we have, I'm inclined to give him a mulligan, and hope that he's recovered fully so that his next start can be taken at face value. Sorry, we've gone completely off-topic here. Pagan. Pagan. Right. Yeah, I have the same general problem with him, except as I've said elsewhere, I've chosen to be philosophical about him, and treat his appearances as theater. High theater, low comedy, burlesque - it may not matter which, and I willingly give him credit for the first while accepting it may devolve into either of the other two. But in no case is he killing me. Emilio Pagan's tightrope act is entertaining me. You're entertaining me, Smalls.
  3. ashbury
    Don't know how you got ahold of the team psychologist's paperwork, but it's illegal.
  4. ashbury
    Gordon has proved his worth. And it seems to be pretty minimal, relative to other equally inexpensive options one could acquire.
  5. ashbury
    I'm clicking Like because I don't actually disagree with a word you say. But your response was not really relevant to my point. If he's put in to pitch the ninth, I've resolved to enjoy watching how he approaches his work. And then cheer in the unlikely event he succeeds. But my calm over the process stems from not really seeing this as a championship caliber season. Things change if it starts to look like we can beat the good teams - because I don't think Pagan can. Farting around while disposing of the likes of Baltimore and Oakland doesn't really register one way or the other.
  6. ashbury
    I'll say again, as with the last time he pitched... I don't like Pagan pitching critical innings, in comparison to some theoretical ideal that could be had... but given his limitations, I have some grudging appreciation for his approach. (As long as it works.) In the game thread, I gave the outline of how I expected the inning to go, and except for a flyout to end the game rather than a strikeout (on what should be ball four, I added for amusement) it pretty much went that way. I believe, for better or for worse, he pitches to a plan - specifically he aims to finish the inning before reaching the top of the order. Today the first batter was the #5 guy, and he went after him, but (I infer) only in a way to allow the batter to get himself out. If that works, great, on to the next batter. But he seems always to have an eye toward the next batter, who will be easier. And the next one easier still (not taking into account pinch-hitters), On down to the #8 guy, if he hasn't got two outs yet, then he goes after him. Ditto for the #9 guy with two outs. You can view it as playing with fire, because such a plan involves being okay with putting on baserunners. And quite possibly his game plan is not as I have stated - I'm not a mind reader. But for his past couple of games, it has worked well to check who leads off the ninth, and work out the logistics. A lot easier on the nerves to accept that he'll put a couple of guys on because he doesn't want to give in.
  7. ashbury
    Disconcurs.
  8. ashbury
    Your headline confused me, about a AA debut for Jordy Blaze.
  9. 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
  10. 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.
  11. ashbury
    Look into William Shakespeare. His style is also considered quite good.
  12. ashbury
    So much content! Kudos, Sherry.
  13. ashbury
    Nice to see a sweep by all three minor league squads, minus the rainout. Four or five nights a week would be nice!
  14. ashbury
    Shallow and pedantic, if you ask me.
  15. 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!
  16. ashbury
    That 'missile' descriptor in the Twitter feed is a new one for me.
  17. 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."
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. ashbury
    Nice to see a counter-example to "Betteridge's law of headlines," discussed earlier at this site.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. ashbury
    Finally! Fun With Numbers that's actually fun!
  25. 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.
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