2010 MLB Season Discussion

[Alderaan]

Meh, 2 runs and 7k's and Hanson gets a loss.

[Moss]

Something Braves fans were used to last year. What, our pitcher went 5-6 innings, sometimes 7, and only gave up 1-2 runs? Easy win! Oh.. the Braves never scored? Oh..

I know >.> and it basically happened last night too.

[Bozo]

I think you guys misread his comment. The way it came off to me was the massive amount of time outs called, mound visits, pitching changes(referring to whoever made the post about 3 pitchers for 3 batters), and it's hard to deny it's true. I don't know about the Red Sox about things like that but in the World Series last year there must have been a mound visit every other pitch and douches calling timeout just as the pitcher is ready to throw(Hi Posada).

I don't think he meant anything about taking a lot of pitches and going into deep counts.

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Yesterday's loss to the Nats sucked. At least it was Zimmerman who beat them and not a weaker bat in their line up... even if the ball was inches fair. Pretty good pitching by everyone besides Kendrick, some hard hit balls for outs but it's not always going to be pretty. Was glad to see David Herndon late in the game, he was saved by some great defense though on Jimmy's play and almost Utley's. Bastardo looks like he's full of energy, dunno if anyone else noticed it but he was fired up coming out of the bullpen and was fist pumping a lot.

[Alderaan]

I know >.> and it basically happened last night too.

Meh, it was like this for almost the entire 90's also when we had players like Rafael Belliard who were pretty much automatic outs. Of course the big 3 made up for it by throwing 2 hour gems every night.

[Akiyama]

Glaus needs to get his feet back, because right now.. he's fairly terrible. Also, grounding into multiple double plays don't really help. Gave up 2 runs and 4 hits.. and still lose. Oh Braves. Where's that 2 out magic from last year?

Also, Heyward's last at bat was terrible.

And Chipper's hurt again, lol

[Cephius]

I think you guys misread his comment. The way it came off to me was the massive amount of time outs called, mound visits, pitching changes(referring to whoever made the post about 3 pitchers for 3 batters), and it's hard to deny it's true. I don't know about the Red Sox about things like that but in the World Series last year there must have been a mound visit every other pitch and douches calling timeout just as the pitcher is ready to throw(Hi Posada).

I don't think he meant anything about taking a lot of pitches and going into deep counts.

No, just.... no.

In the whole 3 game series, there were maybe 2 mound visits from the catcher. Posada went out to Burnett in game 2 after the Martinez homer and Martinez went out to Beckett in game one when he got into trouble. It wasn't any more than normal. Timeouts were called 3 times in game 2, and denied, because Angel Hernandez (the worst umpire in the entire fucking majors) wanted to make a statement. Confusing the hell out of everyone just prolonged the game even more. As for pitching changes, are you fucking serious? Are you really saying that a manager using 3 pitchers for 3 batters is pathetic and shouldn't be allowed because it makes the game longer? That is ass-backwards retarded.

Same thing with Posada calling time out. If the pitcher takes too long to throw the ball, the batter steps out. It's been a hitter tactic for the last 100 years. Everyone does it. Singling out the Yankees and Red Sox is stupid.

So, if it wasn't any of those things, then it must be because both lineups are incredibly patient (Nick Swisher and Nick Johnson saw 130 pitches in 3 games by themselves) and are built to get the starter out of the game and hammer the bullpen. They've been this way forever. Trying to speed up the game won't, and shouldn't, change that.

[Soa]

Singling out the Yankees and Red Sox is stupid.

Their games are 56 minutes longer than the average MLB game, thats why they get singled out. I do agree that the criticism is kinda dumb, but watching them play the last few years there are an excessive amount of mound visits by the catcher and coach, and timeouts taken, etc.

I also never realized this but Posada visited the pitcher 8 times in one inning during game 4 of the World Series last year, according to MLB Tonight. That does seem a bit much in my opinion.

[Bregor]

Also, Heyward's last at bat was terrible.

Yeah you guys got "Uber-Dominant Marmol" instead of "Rick Vaughn Pre-Glasses Marmol." And is Randy Wells really this good? He put up nasty ratios last year but his stuff always looks meh, and his numbers at AAA weren't that great. He went undrafted in my fantasy league, lol. Anyway, it feels good to get off the schnide.

[Cephius]

Their games are 56 minutes longer than the average MLB game, thats why they get singled out. I do agree that the criticism is kinda dumb, but watching them play the last few years there are an excessive amount of mound visits by the catcher and coach, and timeouts taken, etc.

And their ratings are 10 times higher than the 2 hour long pirates/nationals games. This is bad for baseball how?

Again, it's how the teams are built. And their fans don't care. Don't see why it's such a big issue.

I also never realized this but Posada visited the pitcher 8 times in one inning during game 4 of the World Series last year, according to MLB Tonight. That does seem a bit much in my opinion.

World Series, etc. Pedro was taking upwards of 2 minutes between pitches at one point. When the pressure is on in the biggest stage, things slow down.

[Akiyama]

Yeah you guys got "Uber-Dominant Marmol" instead of "Rick Vaughn Pre-Glasses Marmol." And is Randy Wells really this good? He put up nasty ratios last year but his stuff always looks meh, and his numbers at AAA weren't that great. He went undrafted in my fantasy league, lol. Anyway, it feels good to get off the schnide.

TBH, it wasn't even because Marmol was good. Heyward just showed his age and was bad, going for 3 sliders basically in the dirt. Looked like me on All-Star Mode or something in The SHow: 10

[Kang]

They're going to be on sportssouth tomorrow, and yeah I miss it when TBS aired EVERY braves game.

I caught the Braves and Cubs on Peachtree TV last night.

A couple years back here in Ontario, Rogers changed its package to sub Peachtree instead of TBS.

I don't know if you guys get Peachtree as part of a cable package but this just seems noteworthy to me.

[Pringles]

I see the game length argument from a fan in the stands point of view. An average run of the mill fan with a family and a fixed income cab only afford to go to maybe a couple of games a year. As a fan at a game, I wanna see the game go for as long as possible to feel I got my moneys worth from the game. It gives me a more memoriable experience attending a 3hr game rather than a 2hr game that went up and down like clockwork. To me nothing beats standing in the stands watching a pitcher under pressure and seeing them calll time to put more pressure on a pitcher.

And no I'm not just making the argument because I'm a Yankees fan. Yah at home, watching a prolonged game is kind of meh when you got work in the morning and the game is alreay on for 3.5hrs, but if it's your team playing, you're still going to willing give up that extra hour of sleep to see if they get the win. Can always go to bed an hour earlier the next night. And let's be honest, in a game calling time adds a total of what, maybe 10minutes onto the game? What's next to lower game time, will they go back to middle school gym class rules (least where I went) where once you had a total combination of 4fouls and strikes it's an out?

[Cephius]

Mariano Rivera drops the hammer on West:

"It's incredible," Rivera told The Post. "If he has places to go, let him do something else. What does he want us to do, swing at balls?"

"He has a job to do. He should do his job," Rivera said. "We don't want to play four-hour games, but that's what it takes. We respect and love the fans and do what we have to do, and that's play our game."

[Alderaan]

Completely unrelated, but i had no idea Russ Ortiz was still in the league.

[*Shinzon*]

Mariano Rivera drops the hammer on West:

Most people expect the league to take some kind of action against him, we'll see how that goes lol. West that is.

[Jb1210a]

What point of view is West arguing from anyway? It's definitely not the view of Sox / Yanks fans, they draw insane attendance numbers and have great ratings for all their games. I know as a Red Sox fan that sometimes yes the games between the Sox and Yankees may go on too long for the casual fan, but in my opinion it's still very entertaining no matter how long the games are.
It's not that though, Joe West is bitching for the sake of his own personal reasons, apparently he feels that working for 56 minutes longer (on average) is too much for him to handle. His word choice was completely off base, and he put himself into a position of bias if he was to ever draw another Red Sox or Yankees series. Rivera has a point too, why should the players swing at balls?

[*Shinzon*]

What point of view is West arguing from anyway? It's definitely not the view of Sox / Yanks fans, they draw insane attendance numbers and have great ratings for all their games. I know as a Red Sox fan that sometimes yes the games between the Sox and Yankees may go on too long for the casual fan, but in my opinion it's still very entertaining no matter how long the games are.
It's not that though, Joe West is bitching for the sake of his own personal reasons, apparently he feels that working for 56 minutes longer (on average) is too much for him to handle. His word choice was completely off base, and he put himself into a position of bias if he was to ever draw another Red Sox or Yankees series. Rivera has a point too, why should the players swing at balls?

His point is that the league came out and said the Yankees Red Sox and Dodgers all play games that average more than any other team in the league. minutes more on average than every other club in baseball. A lot of mound meetings and constantly asking for time is what causes it. Those teams have a tendency to make games longer and it's a fact. The Umps have no right to argue because it's something they can help avoid, but it's something the league made public knowledge of with the intent of changing it. They kinda had to expect someone to say something.

[Jb1210a]

It's been stated in numerous sources (aside from Posada visiting the mound 8 times in one inning in Game 4 of last years series) that mound visits and constantly asking for time weren't even outrageous, especially in the most recent series. Joe west was quoted as saying "It's pathetic and embarrassing. They take too long to play." decipher that how you want, but many people around baseball are saying that he's suggesting the style of play between both clubs, IE working the count waiting for the correct pitch to hit is what he's arguing about.

I'm in agreement with MLB, the average baseball is game fairly long to begin with and the Yankees v Sox are always long games, no matter what. But if you're going to call them out on how long their games are played, don't try to use mound visits and constant time outs as the problem.

[Soa]

I see Heyward is 0 for 3 with 3 K's today. I watched the last game and he seems way too anxious at the plate and swung at a bunch of bad pitches. Somebody needs to tell him to settle down and look for better pitches instead of hacking at everything he sees.

[Weeks]

He'd be awesome if every pitch was a get-over fastball from a pitcher who couldn't throw strikes.