So, What Did I Miss? (4/6/16)

Author by indaburgPosted in awesome alert, Baseball

b3up3g3cuaelpw5I got home in time to catch the final couple of innings of my first baseball love, the New York Metropolitans, as I prepared dinner. They won their first victory of the season against the Royals of Kansas City, 2 – 0. Yes, I am bi-league with strong American League preferences. Sadly, I missed the beautiful Son of Odin, but looking at the score and boxscore, I can see he laid down the hammer: 6 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 9K, 0 Walks. I would call that a Quality Start for the young Syndergaard.

Have I mentioned this is my favorite time of the year? Yeah. I tuned to Sunsports to catch my new love, my true love, the Rays. The Rays won 3-2. What was interesting about the game is that it ended on a

 

 

38 thoughts on “So, What Did I Miss? (4/6/16)”

  1. superior, as always.

    you are 100% right. Bautista would have gotten away with that without review. I don’t know if Encarnacion is out without the ginger flip. it would have been bang bang

    Also, Jon, buddy, take a time out. that shit is ugly.

    the tigers game was…interesting.

    as for my A’s. well, despite the loss on doolittle, at least the bullpen has been solid. it was defense again. this time a poor decision by lowrie to try for a long flip to get the lead runner, eaton. if he concedes second and gets the out at first, fraiser leads off the next inning instead of hitting a three run bomb.

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  2. Not much argument from me. Joey Bats messed this one up, but his biggest sin was giving your boy Forsythe an excuse for making a shitty throw that would have been shitty with no contact made. However, you are wrong on the “ran out of the baseline” comment… Bautista’s ass went right over 2nd base. The irony of the situation is that, without the stupid new rule, Bautista could have slid a foot further to the left and taken the legs right out from under Forsythe with his whole body and been perfectly legal, easily reaching 2nd base.

    Was the contact intentional? Probably. But how many runners throw their arms out or up when they slide for balance? All a fielder needs to do now is make sure he gets “hit” by a stray arm and he too can excuse a shitty throw and get an automatic DP, because now the precedent has been set. Essentially, I don’t see any way that a runner can break up a double play now without running afoul of the new rule.

    “Under the new rule 6.01(j) runners have to make a “bona fide slide,” which involves contact with the ground before reaching the base, attempting to reach the base with a hand or foot, and being able to remain on the bag at the completion of the slide.”

    Bautista did make contact with the ground first, his ass slid right over the bag…but the last part of this is the stupid part… why does a runner need to remain on the bag at the completion of the slide? I’m pretty sure he’s already out.

    Anyway, I have a feeling that this new rule will end up being “modified” by MLB before the season’s over, or it will come back to bite them somehow, as it was totally reactionary and poorly thought out. Can’t wait to see lots of no-doubt double plays overturned because of the neighbourhood play… because if I’m a manager, I’m watching that like a hawk now that it’s reviewable.

    Anyway, bottom line is this one is on Bautista, even though Forsythe fucked up the play all on his own. What would have been really ironic is if Cash had lost the earlier replay appeal on Saunders at first, and would have been out of appeals.

    And yes, Sanchez had a pretty good outing. Once he gets more comfortable with that curve, he’s going to be downright nasty.

    Oh, and you have my sincere sympathies about Tweeter… he’s pretty pathetic at first base, at least judging by the first 3 games. He may be a horrible fielder, but he’s an asshole.

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      1. This so much. The new slide rule isn’t really even in play here. He reached out and grabbed the fielder. That’s against the rules this year just as it was against the rules last year and every year before it. Just like A-Rod is not allowed to smack the ball out of the first baseman’s glove, you cannot reach out, grab a player’s foot, and pull them. You say your arm hit him accidentally? Next time control your body better.

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      3. What if he whispers, “I wish I knew how to quit you.” as he grabs his leg…can he do it then? There have to be exceptions, right?

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  3. In blustery Cleveland yesterday afternoon, the Mookie and Pappy (he yis what he yis) show blew through town and the off-season ‘additions’ to the Forest City 9 ‘contributed’ 14 ABs, 12 Ks and 2 BB. If that line keeps up, I’ll use up my self-imposed air-quote quota by April 24th. The Mighty Truffle continues to slap the ol’ horsehide around, with two line drive singles. I guess, of the new faces, Mt. Vesuvius had the best game; he may have whiffed in his 3 ABs, looking at cheese set tantalizingly close to the edge of the trap though outside each time, but he did have an 11 pitch AB that rattled Mr. Price in the only productive inning for Cleveland hitters. Kluber served up spicy meatballs all day and the Red Sox feasted; Papi better watch his intake, he may not fit into his uni by season’s end.

    1 down, 161 to go. I guess they ain’t going undefeated this year.

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  4. I was highly amused by Gibbon’s comments after the game. Yesterday evening I threw in the sarcastic comment about “Playin’ in dresses.” Today a MLB coach quotes me, much to the detriment of his perceived intelligence. Clean slide, dumb reach, Joey. You got caught.

    Of course the only difference between joey and young boy Correa is Carlos got away with it. Canny baseball – and it had a lot to do with the Astros winning – but I imagine that Hinch will advise him not to get hit in the head with a throw for being inside the baseline. I even semi-bought into Demuth’s explanation. If the pitcher throws it away, maybe he was going to anyway. But let’s not push that one. But otherwise Correa was the monster everyone predicted he would be. I could enjoy this. Now, if he challenges Gomez to step up, all the better.

    I think I warned you about Conger, Indy. If I didn’t, I meant to. He got a ferocious case of the yips in Houston. He can’t throw anyone out; he is even afraid to throw much of the time. I like the occasional lefty pop and the framing. But his defense is the stuff of nightmares. Personally I’m surprised the Rays would trade a full cuspidor for him. But I hope it turns out better for you.

    AND, finally, Moment of Genius #1 in Fantasyball. Last night I sat Kazmir to go with Shelby. Worried about Kazmir’s elbow, but I should have been looking harder at the opponents. Oh, well.

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  5. I don’t really understand why Jay Gibbons felt the need to come out with that misogynistic, sexist bullshit statement. That wasn’t even against the new slide rule. That was interference plain and simple. You cannot reach out and fucking pull the leg of an opposing player. It’s not that hard of a concept to grasp. He was clearly making an effort to interfere with the player, and the fact that MLB allowed it to go on for as long as it did is no excuse. And take that dress comment and shove it up your ass. I know tons of women who can slide hard into second without reaching out and grabbing at the opposition.

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    1. Calcaterra said something probably true. It is most likely a heat-of-the-moment statement that Gibbons is regretting seeing in the papers today.

      Poor excuse. But probably true.

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        2. Am I the only one who sees the irony in you complaining about Gibby’s sexist comment by calling him a dick? 🙂

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        3. That was intentional. 🙂 I called a spade a spade. He was being a massive giant dildo dickhead. Testosterone poisoned mind. What an asshat statement. He deserves every bit of criticism I can throw at him for that comment. He is lucky I was not a reporter when he made that statement because I could not have bit my tongue. “Latina Reporter Goes Off on John Gibbons, Film at 11.”

          Not only is he wrong about his player, he needs to be a misogynist about it? Fuck him.

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      2. I don’t really care. If I were to yell out the some derogatory term and say it’s because of anger, that does not make it right. The problem is this thought should not even be in his head, and it CERTAINLY should not be coming out of his mouth. He should know better, and he absolutely should be issuing an apology and get called out on it. The comment is sexist, unacceptable, and degrading to everyone. You are a grown ass adult and you are responsible for the words that come out of your mouth. If you cannot handle that, then find a new line of profession where you are not required to speak to the press.

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    2. Tell this to every fielder who ever nudged (or outright shoved) a runner off a bag in the act of applying the tag. It works both ways, although it is not enforced both ways.

      As I said, I eagerly anticipate the first managerial tantrum when an inning-ending (or game-ending) double play is overturned because the neighbourhood play wasn’t called and is appealed.

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      1. If a fielder shoves a player off the bag, the rule is still interference. It always has been. Show me one instance where a fielder nudged the runner off the bag that was interference and wasn’t called for it. To equate the two is silly, and to claim they are not enforced is wrong. Bautista broke the rules last night and was called out because of it. But as per usual, when things don’t go his way he has to throw a tantrum, and his manager followed suit. The rules in this instance are pretty clear, and when someone violates those rules, they should be called appropriately. Next time, don’t break the rules and it’s not a problem.

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        1. You are so right Scouts. And I like to see someone who feels the passion.

          If they had nailed Correa yesterday I wouldn’t have liked it, but I couldn’t have argued. His intent was obvious. I just don’t want to see him lose time because he gets hurt doing something like that. (See Springer, George).

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        2. Yeah, Betances screwed that up. He should have planted the throw to first right in the middle of Correa’s back. One, he gets the out on the very obvious interference call, and two, Correa learns that running on the grass is stupid.

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        3. Which is why the rule is stupid. We shouldn’t be encouraging players to plant a throw in the player’s back. It was pretty obvious that the runner was out of the baseline and as a result caused the fielder to mishandle the throw.

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        4. It certainly would be in the ump’s discretion to call it, since he can observe the guy running inside the line. But Demuth’s argument at least has the ring of plausibility. Who’s to say Betances wasn’t going to throw it away?

          But in total honesty I would be inclined to call the runner out in that situation.

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        5. It’s a chicken or the egg argument. We’ll never know if that throw would have been accurate had the runner not been out of the path, but we do know for certain the runner was out of the path, and that’s against the rules. Bad call, but ultimately a judgement call and as much as that sucks, it’s part of the game.

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  6. I was surprised to see Colome tapped to go two innings to finish off the Jays. Degree of difficulty: Expert. He came through, though.

    Cecil blew a nice effort from Aaron Sanchez who looks like this season’s Carlos Martinez.

    Shields defense really let him down in San Diego. John Jay forgot how to judge flyballs last night. Kemp nearly played a flyball into a triple as well. Fielding might be a major problem in San Diego again this season.

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