The Rangers have interest in star Korean infielder Ha-Seong Kim, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports in his latest inbox column. The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization posted the 25-year-old Kim for Major League teams earlier this week.
While Kim has primarily played shortstop to this point in his career, he also spent a good chunk of time at third base this year after the Heroes brought Addison Russell over midway through the season. Kim is also capable of handling second base. As Sullivan points out, Kim checks some boxes for the Rangers by virtue of the fact that he’s a prime-aged player with the potential to provide an offensive upgrade in the infield without necessarily being boxed into one position at the time of signing.
As noted in our Rangers Offseason Outlook, Kim’s versatility indeed seems like a good fit for a Texas club that has openly expressed a desire to get younger. A pair of roadblocks at the two middle infield positions exist in shortstop Elvis Andrus and second baseman Rougned Odor, both of whom are signed for two more seasons. Andrus struggled through an injury-marred 2020 campaign, although he was a serviceable option at his position as recently as 2019 thanks to his strong glovework. Odor’s struggles have been far more persistent, however, and the question of whether the club will move on or drop him to a bench role becomes more prominent with each passing year.
Even if Texas is intent on keeping both stalwarts in place, Kim or Isiah Kiner-Falefa could be used as a multi-position utility piece. A pursuit of Kim wouldn’t necessarily be about winning immediately in 2021 so much as acquiring a long-term contributor, so if the Rangers feel he can be an everyday option at any of third base, shortstop or second base, there’s reason for the team to make a push for him and sort out playing time down the road.
The Rangers, of course, won’t be the only team in the mix for Kim; he’s also been linked to the Blue Jays already and will surely draw broader interest. Kim is an abnormally young free agent option for MLB teams, and after a strong showing early in his career, he’s broken out as a superstar-level performer in the KBO over the past two seasons.
Even as the KBO has become a slightly more pitcher-friendly setting in recent years, Kim has improved. Since Opening Day 2019, he’s slashed .307/.393/.500 with 62 doubles, three triples and 49 home home runs through 1247 plate appearances — including 30 long balls in 2020. He’s walked 145 times to just 148 strikeouts over that same two-year stretch and also gone 56-for-62 in stolen base attempts. Over the past two seasons, he’s been 41 percent better than a league-average hitter in the KBO, by measure of wRC+.
Whichever club signs Kim to a multi-year deal will need to pay a posting fee to the Heroes. That sum is dependent on the size of Kim’s contract and is on top of whatever money he’s guaranteed. The Heroes are entitled to a fee equal to 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM in value, 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of anything money thereafter. Kim’s 30-day posting window began yesterday and will run through 5pm ET on Dec. 25. He’s free to sign at any point during that period and does not need to wait until the deadline to make a decision.
Rangers29 where are you my man? You’re gonna love this!
Could he be Chris M, whose question inspired this piece?
Lmao, I just saw this, and if you could use any adjective to describe my feeling, it is elated. So yes, I love it. Now we just need to make it happen.
Also, I just started posting on a local Texas Rangers blog called Lone Star Ball. It feels weird talking to a new group, I’m used to the people over here. I practically wrote a write-up this morning as an introduction lol. I guess I’ve made my mark over here if I am who people think of when a Rangers rumor occurs lol.
Man, I figured I’d find you here, too.
&, yeah, this would be an “exciting” rumor. Kim is a really fun player, man. KBO games coincided with early morning dove blinds. So I checked out a number of games…at least peripherally?
Anyway, I went out of my way to watch Kim play. I’m a terrible scout & an even worse GM. To be straight up and down. Doesn’t stop me from continuing to post my takes though lol.
Which – in this case – is Ha-Seong Kim is going to be a solid MLB player for someone, man. Speed, power, low K rate, & fields the middle infield well. Lot to like.
Hello Ducky,
Been moving apartments in the far east so I’m sorry I haven’t replied to your message on the Semien thread yet, but will do. Lady wife’s birthday tomorrow so it won’t be imminent!.
@Rangers 29 (fresh with the glow of an answered question on Mark Polishuk’s chat last night) – anyway simply put, you can’t have him. He’d look SO much better in the green and gold. He’d solve problems for us either at 2nd or SS.
Even as an English person I know the maxim about never having enough pitching but does it really extend to middle infielders???
@Ducky – what’s an early morning dove blind?
@ Ducky I’m assuming the early morning dove blind is hunting, but I’m curious where you are able to both watch KBO and hunt lmao. If you get good enough service to be able to stream KBO games while hunting, you’re probably in a fairly busy area. How can you hunt dove in the middle of a city? lol
@A’sfan Idk why, but I get a lot of questions answered in chats. I almost get a question answered each time I get on one. Sometimes I just don’t ask any because I don’t have a good question to ask.
Btw, I think Kim would look really good in the red white and blue. Don’t. Even. Think. About. It. lol
Bonjour, @A’sfaninLondon.
Stay patient while moving, man. :)
No worries. I like those continuing dialogues on long abandoned threads. Looking forward to your reply, serious. & – obviously – best birthday wishes to your better half.
Man.
So I’m an avid shooting sportsman. I love grouse shooting & waterfowl hunting. Because I have licences & permits in a handful of neighboring States I get 5 months of grouse season & 9 of waterfowl.
One of the things I do over summer is to hunt rock & collared doves. Farmers hate them. They’ve offered me compensation more than once. Best times to set up a blind & try to decoy them in is sunrise & sunset.
I like to start my day off this way sometimes before I get buried in that day’s/week’s building projects.
Across the pond, it would be termed “pigeon shooting”.
It is, @Rangers29.
I don’t have to go far to find places to hunt rock & collared doves. About a half hour drive.
Plus, there’s tons of marine technology out there to get WiFi basically anywhere. I’ve had days on one of my boats where I’m streaming the Yankees & Jints *at the same time* while duck hunting.
I remain convinced this is how we’ll spend every Sunday in heaven, man.
& I think he’d look pretty good in pinstripes.
Man I love any kind of bird or waterfowl hunting and wish it was better around Lampasas. I absolutely love hunting collared dove. I need to find some places to go.
My favorite pastimes, man.
I’m not really a pheasant, quail guy? But I love grouse and woodcock shooting.
MN & WI have excellent Ruffed & Spruce grouse (both average over 2 flushes/hour). I just started going to the Sandhills in NE for prairie grouse (Huns, Sharptails, Prairie Chickens), which is a different world but fantastic shooting. Outside of Alaska I don’t know of a better place in the world to be a grouse hunter.
Waterfowling is really good out here, too. North Dakota starts their Canada goose season on August 15th(!). They end spring light goose in May 16th(!). Cranes, Tundra Swan, Mallards, Wood ducks, Sea ducks on the Great Lakes. Snow geese on the Missouri River in winter. On & on, man.
Waterfowl hunting is really good out here.
We only have what’s called a vagrant population of Collared doves in MN. Lotta Rockies though. I’ve had farmers offer to pay me to shoot them. Or to buy my shells. I always decline. But those buckets & bags of farm fresh veggies they leave on my truck? Well, I do take those.
There are a lot of apps that help find places to hunt, man. Not sure if you’ve tried any of those or not.
I have not, what apps are those?
OnX is a good one.
Shows public land. I’ve never hunted Texas. So I don’t know much about their public land policies.
For me, however, I use the heck out of it up here, man.
Lone star ball has a lovely chat, good stuff there. Way better than here..
Lively*
Lively is one way to put it @…Rock.
@Ducky, I normally stay talking on a thread for maybe a day or two after it’s posted and then I and most everyone else moves on from it. Are you talking about the Semien thread that was predicting his price? Because if so, that is a very abandoned thread. Must feel like a private message being that old lol.
Yep.
That’s the one. It’s basically a Vintage Thread at this point. Provides a good forum – however – for a wide ranging generalized baseball/cricket conversation.
I couldn’t stand any ground in a cricket conversation lol. Heck, I could hardly hold a conversation over football which is probably my second most watched sport. I like Saints and Longhorns, and I couldn’t name all the players on either team lol.
Well… I’m not adding a whole lot to the cricket portion. I essentially have one story/anecdote.
But, it is pretty interesting hearing takes from someone who came relatively late to baseball & has never lived in America. Not to get too much into anyone elses business but he comes from a cricket background. Interesting perspective, imo.
I’ve been in Texas, man. I’m assuming you’re a bit of an anomaly.
& Jints, U of MN (in theory – Alma Mater), & Navy (on principle).
I am an anomaly here, but the trick is to just talk about the quarterbacks. Yes, I can speak of Sam Ehlinger or Drew Brees, but I can’t tell you whatever ratings the defensive ends have or whatever stats football uses lol. I’m not a football nerd, but a baseball nerd for sure. Time to start my throwing program as well to start ramping up for my season. I say that as I recline in a chair with my laptop and a bag of chips, but… I need the weight? I’m 5’9 195, and a starting pitcher, so maybe the weight will help. Haven’t played since I gained my last 20 pounds, (not fat) but idk if it will help my play or not.
A pitcher?
Sweeet, bro!
Tell ya…I learned a *lot* about myself out there on that little hill. I always struggled with putting weight on myself. Especially back in high school, man.
I’m not sure what the current thinking is there? Seems some bulk might help generate some power but I worry about excess causing knee &/or hip problems. Probably be best off just listening to your coaches advice lol.
Gotta put the work in though. (That’s the parent in me trying to subtly motivate you.)
:)
Evenings (UK time) Rangers & Ducky…
Have just snuck out to pick up a kilo of tuna (the key part of the lady wife’s favourite dish) so am catching up a wee bit on the thread. Her birthday is my own kind of thanksgiving.
Always had a soft spot for the Rangers because prior to my first baseball trip to the USA in 2012 I was instructed (by my Red Sox friend) to watch (as research) the 2011 World Series. I’m sorry if that brings back painful memories.
I was expecting baseball (this might sound crass) to be a simpler version of cricket. The ball is almost exactly the same circumference but a cricket ball is solid wood in the middle rather than cork and weighs about twice as much. Beanballs in cricket are considered fair game and such is the damage that everyone under 18 is obliged (now) to wear what is basically a crash helmet. I’m amazed that baseball doesn’t offer the same protection. I have a reconstructed left cheekbone thanks to fouling one (in baseball terms) into my own face.
I was blown away by the standard of fielding and in particular the standard of throwing from the infield. It is just nuts (as a decent cricketer) how good these guys are at clutching and timing a throw. When I’ve coached kids teams I’ve always tried to emphasise not to rush – there is always more time than you think there is – but the SS & 3Bs of the baseball world light this up 4th July style.
Anyway I like the idea of watching baseball with one eye & shooting feral pigeons with the other….
I have pretty much been self taught for the past couple of years. I wanted to quit pitching a few years ago until an ex minor leaguer became our little league coach for my last year in little league. He changed a few things I was doing, and I was pitching the fastest I had ever pitched before. I could actually hear the ball pop against the mitt for the first time ever, so since then I’ve pushed myself to learn more about pitching, even building a mound at our house (out of red clay I dug). A lot of what I learn actually comes from Trevor Bauer’s Youtube channel, and he refers to different sources and things to learn about that help a lot. I modeled my curve after Bauer’s, and it has a nice hard drop that doesn’t hurt my arm or contort me any.
As for bulking up; surprisingly, a LOT of leg work. It stops your forward momentum, and acts like a slingshot after your first leg hits the ground. And then a lot of flexibility training, whether that’s yoga or stretching or bands. This is what I’m doing, I’ll probably go to HS camp and they’ll say… NO… Do this… and I’ll just suck lol. No, hopefully I’m helping myself because I’ve felt good even since my arm scare that I had from a lack of warm ups before bullpens.
So long as you don’t mention Kyler Murray we shouldn.t have a problem.
I’m so envious of you being a pitcher – I bowled (in cricket) something called leg spin – which is the dark art – think knucklers – of cricket. So much fun to basically throw a pancake at a bemused batter….
PS Hats off that you dug out your own mound – I’m guessing red clay is ridiculously heavy.
I bowl… but in bowling lol. High game is 244, I’m actually really good at that too.
The clay wasn’t too heavy once a got it in the wagon/trailer attachment for the lawn mower. It’s just tedious when here in Texas, there’s no rain so you gotta put a bucket of water in the hole before you dig and let it soften up. Though it’s not too heavy after it gets off the shovel and into the cart.
P.S… Kyler Murray…. Lol, I actually enjoy watching him play football, it would’ve been hard to watch him play baseball because of… well… the A’s lol.
See?
Now maybe Ducky is just easily amused. But I think that definitely falls under “interesting perspective”.
Uh?
I do find it notable that cricket is played *without* a glove! That ball reminds me of a cue ball, man. Mercy. That’d be like playing football with a sweater instead of pads & a helmet.
Oh…wait…
It’s probably not for everyone.
But when you do go on your Great American Baseball Road Trip, if you are this way I’ll take you out.
This might be a weird take but I’m always happy when a team from my division does well in the post season. For the A.s 2014 was the lost opportunity, but I was gutted for the Angels because they were untouchable down the stretch.
And then the rotation fell apart.
I bear no ill will upon the Rangers or the Angels (we can leave the Astros to one side!!!!) because if you’re better than my team I want you to represent my division & win.
Yeah, a lot of power can be generated from your legs.
I get it. Counterintuitive.
Conversely, some pitchers develop incredible torque through their *opposite* shoulder. Watch Rivera throw. Great example of what I’m talking about.
Bauer is a good one to study. He’s really cerebral about pitching. Also fangraphs has a lot of really good stuff about pitch design. I remember trying to learn from books. This did not always work very well. For example, I tried to throw a screwball by using a curveball grip but rotating my arm the opposite way. Hurt like hell & didn’t work at all
Sounds like you’re working at it. That work’ll pay off. I swear it, man. Also, if you continue to pitch your arm is going to hurt. No way around it, man. Get ready to spend some nights at home with bags of ice & a twelve pack. (Of coke, or whatever, obviously)
It’ll be coke lol. I live in a family of law enforcement. I really don’t plan to smoke (anything), drink, inject… or whatever adjective you want to use for using lol. Life expectant is longer, health is better, no risk of getting in any kind of trouble because of it, and better athletically. I see way more cons than pros for stuff like that. Not worth it.
Good stuff.
I’m a vet. So I’ve nothing but respect for those in law enforcement. Whether that is popular or not.
I’ve always been a bit of a drinker. Even back when I was your age. Honestly, if you never take a sip of booze in your life you’re not really missing anything.
But lots of ice, bro.
Lots & lots of ice…
I hate that supporting law enforcement is supposedly “unpopular” now. I don’t care which party you support, but it is inhumane to think that law enforcement is disrespectful. Bad ones who do bad things get arrested, fired, or demoted just like any other job. They have one of the hardest jobs you can have, they submit their life to go out there are serve each day, and they just get spit in their face by ignorant people that really don’t know… they just don’t know… Lastly, people don’t realize how diverse the police force is. They like to shout out harsh terms like “racist” even though a normal force has Asian, black, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, white, men, women, literally everyone. The most diverse work force out of any job I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to make this conversation about this now lol. It makes me angry/sad to just think about all the people that just hate officers with a passion despite what they do for everybody.
From the mouths of babes, fellas.
I’m not sure how we ended up here. But really good post, @Rangers29. Hat tip to you & your family, man.
Thanks, man. I’m glad people like you exist still, it feels like they are lessening by the hour. Anyways, throughout the day as I’ve been talking with y’all I’ve been working on my school stuff. Assignments, projects, tests. The whole deal. This has been nice, I’ll keep talking, but I just wanted to say I enjoy talking on here. Doesn’t have to be all baseball.
Posting for the first time on Lone Star Ball just reminds me of when I first started on here. This was an out for me to talk and take my mind off of stuff. Now I’m the one that gives other people advice and good words here while over there I’m “wet behind the ears”. Though the people over there are harsher than the people here. Whole different group to talk with. Though one thing did stay the same… my username… lol.
That certainly may be true. But things will swing back the other way. Right now our country is just in a really reactionary phase. As we all get further away from the flash points I think productive dialogues will come back.
Hope so anyway.
I get it, man! I’m a compulsive multitasker myself. Cleaned my shotguns, did some reading, & I’ve been cooking dinner. That’s another reason I’ve always liked baseball. I can do other things while watching or listening to a game. I struggle to do that with other sports.
You are super upbeat & have some good insights. Any baseball blog will benefit from your presence, serious. Game threads can be fun on team specific blogs, too.
I’ll be glad to share some disappointment with some different people now during games lol. Hopefully Sinclair (the company… conglomerate… that owns all the regional fox sports channels) will strike a deal up with a streaming service like Hulu, Sling, or Youtube TV again because we quit cable a while back and since then they’ve declined deals with each one of those providers. I can still find ways to watch the games though…… shh… I haven’t done that before though… it’ll feel weird lol. I could always listen to the radio if I want to though.
I’ve posted on game threads for both the Yanks & the (football) Giants. I don’t really spend any time around – or even really know anymore – other fans of those teams.
So I’ve enjoyed the experience. (note: modern Yankee fans can get pretty hysterical which can be its own version of “fun”)
I pay for streaming. I have a teenage son, so this is completely voluntary on my part lol. I dunno. Just seems like the right thing to do. & I’m truly blessed that I don’t have to worry about finances very much anymore.
Nice to not worry about money huh. Our family has had our fair share of hardship, but the past couple of years has brought good times. Not rich, not even upper class, but better than before.
We had Sling when they had the Rangers channel (FSSW), and when they dropped it we got Hulu, and then they dropped it after last season…. Might be radio or it might be… ARRGH… from now on. I’m the only Rangers fan in the house, and by far the biggest baseball fan in general. My other relatives are Astros fans since we live right in the middle of Dallas and Houston… Austin metro. That’s fun when those series occur.
It is.
Wasn’t always like that, however. When my son & I first started out we lived in 350 square foot studio apartment, man.
I had some good fortune but for the most part it was nothing but hard work, man.
Trust me, though. I’m thoroughly grateful. Good times are the goal. Some of my best memories are from when things weren’t so good financially.
I think something will change as the season gets closer. MLB has to address this. Especially if they have any intentions about growing/maintaining their popularity.
I drove across Texas once. The Mavericks were on a title run & the Rangers were having a really good season. But all anyone was talking about was high school seven man football lol.
Anyway. I’m sure you are as adept with technology as my son is. There are definitely ways to see the games. I’m really not sure what I’d do in your position. I’d like to think I’d just go without watching. But – man – I’m not sure if I would have.
Addiction is a disease my guy lol. I literally change my entire schedule for baseball. Whether it’s workouts or waking up early for a morning update blog. It’s addictive.
Whole lotta worse things in the world to be addicted to, man.
Mornings,
Given the problems of time zones, I had to sleep and thus missed a fascinating discussion covering law enforcement, pitching mechanics, shooting, addictions, the merits of hard work and the availability of games on TV.
I’m pretty lucky in that over here I can pay for mlbtv direct and as an international it costs about $140 a season (give or take for exchange rate fluctuations) which is frankly cheap as chips even though it involves getting up at 4am to watch an A’s night game.
I know I could never work in law enforcement and have only admiration and deep gratitude for those that do. The same goes for the armed forces. We have a really dreadful attitude towards vets in the UK – from what I’ve seen across the pond there seems so much more pride in looking after these guys & girls. Tragically – in the UK – about 25% of homeless males are ex armed forces.
The next great American baseball trip has had to be pushed back to 2022, but Ducky I’ll take you up on the offer! I’ve not been to Toronto, Canada (despite going to the 2013 ALDS games in Detroit where I met Jerry Blevins Dad who is a lovely bloke – I was gutted for him Jerry didn’t pitch in either game), the lady wife hasn’t been to Boston & I want to take in Fargo (for the Roger Maris museum) the twin cities, Phillie (lady wife’s choice again) Kansas City, LA (we had a dreadful experience at LAX on the way to Oakland) and I’ve never been to either Texas or Georgia. It’ll take about 18 months of saving and about a month of our lives.
I also want to head to Utah to clean out a few birdcages and make a small donation (www.gowildlife.org)…
We’d like to do as much of it as possible by train! As you can see the itinerary is a little muddled but we’ve already ticked off a few great cities – I’ve been lucky enough to go to Chicago (I saw Kerry Wood pitch in relief in his last season, who was followed by Rafael Dolis now of the Blue Jays via Japan) and Pittsburgh which is a wonderful historic City that seems to get very little publicity. September night games are on the cold side. .
I’m really envious you guys are/were pitchers because it’s one thing sports wise I’d really have liked to try. The intangibles (like holding runners) teasing the corners, the bluff and counter bluff – it’s all a bit more than just throwing a ball as hard as you can.
Have great weekends
Peter
Thanks A’s. You said you’d have to wake up at 4:00a.m for Oakland night games, so that sounds like about a 9 hour difference from Oakland which would be a 7 hour difference from Texas meaning it should be pushing 5 o’clock over there. I’m to lazy to search it, but I’m probably close lol.
I’ll check in on this thread throughout the day like I did yesterday. I was regularly going back to this article yesterday, so maybe the same will occur today.
Man.
So I used to post over on a Yankee blog. The mods were really uptight. I’d sometimes get the entire thread warned because I led us “off topic”.
It appears I’m just skilled at that.
After 9/11 Americans seemed to remember our vets. That was definitely a turning point. Lately, there has been a bit of an overall reversal. &, we’ve always had far too many homeless warriors here too, man. Honestly, America has some work to do in this regard as well.
Sounds like a great trip!
I’m in Minneapolis. Target Field really is a nice park. The whole state is actually “nice”. For real. Although Rock and Collared doves are considered “invasive species” (meaning: open season, no limits, etc) one still does need to possess a hunting license. Fyi.
I have no idea how someone who’s not from America can get one.
I’m sure the Google knows, though. A non resident license is ~ $100.
Utah has some really beautiful scenery. If you are interested in wildlife the Great Salt Lake might be something you are interested in. Over 30 species of waterfowl live on it.
I didn’t pitch (or play football) past Junior College. Truthfully, in my case it *was* oftentimes “just throwing a ball as hard as you can”. I broke that up with “getting a ball to move as much as you can”.
I probably could have used some better coaching. ;)
You as well.
Francis
Hello Ranger29
It’s an 8 hour time difference but I usually miss the first hour to avoid the possibility of falling asleep at work. I start at between 7am & 8am dependent upon site visits, my teams needs, shift patterns, so extra innings can threaten my timeliness. Mercifully for all there is no heavy machinery involved..
As a throwaway piece of advice (and please throw it away as applicable) – one of my best friends got to play cricket for England and had a 15 year career doing it, although his international career was quite brief. Well, very brief, but I don’t want to belittle my friend. The weird thing was (and bless him he got me a gig playing in Barbados in 2004) he hated it. Absolutely despised what he described as **** coaching for **** organisations where (in effect) the front office ruled the playing staff.
He is now the nations happiest maths teacher.
His take on things would be to trust yourself and pitch the way that suits your physique. In baseball terms he was a premier starter & I was a less than mediocre reliever. He got messed up because his bowling (pitching) action wasn’t perfect but he had the minerals to carve enough of a career whilst he did teacher training.
If you’ve got the desire to dig out your own mound, stick with it,, Live it and dream it. It puts a big dizzy Eric Kratz grin on my face because if I’d dug a hole in the back garden to build a mound my Dad would have crucified me.
Weirdly Ducky when I was in NY in 2015 (we went to the Yankees/Astros wild card game) we stayed 5 minutes from the Holland tunnel. I do crap photography so with the Empire State Building (at least that’s what I assume it was) in the background I was taking all manner of shots and happened on a police & fire station with art graffiti depicting 9/11 on the gates.
I was politely asked what I was doing by a fellow that was a shift worker responsible for the electrics of the Holland tunnel. I’d taken photos of the artwork and we eventually discussed the global impact over a coffee in the station. I’d been to ground zero earlier the same day.
A 20 minute walk to buy cigarettes resulted in a two hour hiatus and near castration by the lady wife when I returned.
But we agreed that if there were any positive impacts of 9/11 – I’d hope that the better treatment of veterans might be one of them. Myself and Gerald at the fire station rather than me & the lady wife.
So, I have kind of a unique work situation. Generally, from some time in early May into September I work like a maniac, man. 3. 4, mayyybe 5 days off that entire stretch (& that doesn’t include phone calls/emails), 70-100 hour weeks. It’s bananas.
The trade off is that I get to pretty much coast the rest of the year. Not for everyone. But I’m a “work hard play hard” kinda fella. I love it.
Why the buildup?
Bro…I haven’t been to the new stadium yet! It’s almost embarrassing to admit. For one, I’m really too busy during the season to make it out. Kinda.
Look, I loved growing up in The City. But, man, when I go back there now (funerals) I just can’t wait to leave, serious.
So in a way, you’re a better Yankee fan than I am!
I appreciate the story. It’s such an emotional one that I just can’t really formulate a worthy response. I can say that I’m glad I read it, man.
So.
Fun weekend around here. The football Giants won. They’re not very good but they are in first place(!).
:)
Ran into some divers this morning. Making a big family dinner. More (American) football on the telly.
Catch ya round, @London. Always good to see a response from you on the board.
I think I’ll start my throwing program today. I have some stuff to work on beforehand, but today seems like a good day to start it. It feels like the season is right around the corner, but we still have about a month and a half to go lol. I’m also doing some independent write-ups on my own leisure over on Lone Star Ball because they have a fanpost section where you can write your own amateur articles. If I enjoy it I might consider doing more, but right now I just have a base down. It’s called “Death of the A.L West”, it’s gonna be a 5 part series about how 2021 will be the weakest year the A.L West has ever seen. It’s an odd topic, but a formidable one nonetheless.
It’s always good to start long term projects on a Monday. For some reason that just always feels right to me.
*Gotta* put the work in. But you know that. Honestly, hearing about you getting ready to pitch this spring makes you the only poster on here that I just may be a little jealous of. Man. That sounds like so damn much fun.
That sounds pretty ambitious. I’m tempted to check them out. If they have fanposts they must be a part of SB Nation. I’m actually on a few blogs there. Same user name.
I can’t help myself. Sorry. But stretch beforehand. Cool down after. And – of course – ice, ice, ice.
Stay up, bro.
I was telling my family the other day that I hated starting projects on any other day except for Sunday or Monday because those days feel like the “starting days” of my week. I thought it was odd, but it makes me feel like I’m actually doing more by starting then… it’s weird.
I’m the same user on SB Nation as well. Like I said the other day, I just started on their “Lone Star Ball” blog the other day. It’s ambitious for sure, and I don’t want to try and “steal” MLBTR’s thunder by announcing it on their popular threads, but I’ll make sure to let people like you and A’s fan know (the first write-up is actually about the A’s). Typically when a commenter at MLBTR tries to say “Hey go look at my channel” or “I wrote this go check it out”, they get taken down (the posts). It’s just disrespectful, so I won’t do that, but I’m fine with going to a thread like this and sharing it with y’all.
I plan to take it show and deliberately, so they won’t be out very soon, but when they do come out I hope they are good. I’m sort of a perfectionist.
Imma start stretching here soon for my throwing. It. Feels. Good. I haven’t played in a while actually because of odd circumstances, but I sure hope to get a head start on this batch. The last time I played I was (surprisingly) the best hitter on the team. I enjoy hitting, but I feel pitching is more of an art form. Something you can master both with and without people.
I’m coming back to this thread several times throughout the day just to check on it, I hope to talk soon, but I actually got stuff to do now.
Yeah, I can’t explain it either. Might just be that I’m conditioned to think of Monday as the first day of the week, or whatever.
I hadn’t thought of that. I do see their point. At the same time, one could argue that anything baseball related is – in general – good for MLBTR. In the end, it’s a great site. So if that’s the policy…
I was just thinking yesterday that if this article is updated it goes back to the top. If our comments get nuked, well so be it.
Uh?
Man, I’ve been called a perfectionist or a Type A personality my entire life. Maybe/probably? But I’ve always felt that if you are going to do something why not put forth your best effort.
I liked pitching because it was more of an individual position than anywhere else. I’m wired like that. WR in football. I kinda like to do my own thing as much as possible lol. Great to hear you’re starting to throw. I’m really impressed that you made your own mound.
Good stuff.
I get email updates. Sometimes they’re a little slow? But it’s the only way I can keep track of anything lol. “Actually got stuff to do now.” There’s another sentence you’ll say a lot, man.
Later date.
Deep breath. Set. Rock. Fire.
:)
Ok, finished up my throwing for the day a few hours ago. I warmed up enough, went out there and threw 60 balls before heading back inside. It’s cold af (as Finland) out there, so ice wasn’t a requirement. In fact, it was hard to stay hot while throwing. I make it sound like it’s -20, but in reality it’s only 50-55 here, but that’s cold for Texas lol. Tomorrow I throw from 45 and 60 feet (90 throws combined). It feels good.
Yeah, temps in the fifties don’t really impress me very much lol. I won’t see a 50° day up here til April.
Good for you, bro.
You put the work in. In a couple weeks it’ll just be a habit. But I can’t lie. Just reading “threw 60 balls” made my poor old shoulder wince in pain.
What made me wince is that in two days I have to throw 125 balls from 60 feet, and the proceeding day is 135 throws from multiple distances. That made me even stumble a little lol. Luckily a rest day is right after that.
I definitely felt rusty though. I have a 6 foot tall backstop and just completely air balled one of the 60 throws right over it lol.
BTW, I am still thinking about doing that one write-up I referred to before, but I came up with another idea today: predicting who the best players of 2021 will be. I am coming up with these write-up ideas just to put out there my baseball knowledge, and hopefully just adding another layer to my resume since I want to get into FO work for a career. It would be especially great if my predictions came true and those players I mention actually perform to my high standards next season.
And now my shoulder is crying.
Man, even when I was good & stretched out I could airmail a throw or two. Or a dozen. Control was not my forte. & command? Well, lol.
I didn’t know that you wanted to work in MLB. Pretty cool, man. One of my sales guys is going to college in order to become a sports agent. I’ve known him for a few years now. I know it’s a really competitive field but I wouldn’t bet against him.
What are you going to major in when you go to college? Statistics? Econ? Management?
Sports management or Business economics. Whichever helps me land a spot in a front office better (probably management).
I am naturally good at writing and communicating, so I already have a head start on others who would be competing against me. People in the business say to try and perfect one thing that you can help an org with and stick with that unique ability. My ability would be to project and evaluate talent (sounds like a scout, but gm is the goal).
Just to test my ability, I’d like you to remember the name Logan Gilbert. A while back I looked at my list of “what makes a good pitcher”, and he met all the criteria. He’s in the Mariners org, and probably has another year and a half before his call-up, but I expect big things from him. Just wait.
BTW, I have a lot of hope for Sixto next season… just sayin’.
That’s awesome.
“A man without a plan is not a man.” ~ Nietzsche.
You want to be a GM, uh?
I see that the criticism of others doesn’t bother you. :)
I’ve been wondering what you meant by getting your name out there. I get it now.
That’s a great goal. Well, I think it is anyway. And, it’s good work if you can get it, as they say.
Logan Gilbert. Huh. Don’t know anything about him. But this promises to be interesting. I like Sixto, as well. Funny. The Marlins got something going on down there in Florida.
I say good for Jeter. If an organization is looking for a good luck charm you could do a helluva lot worse, man.
I’m thinking of names for my “predicting the breakout players of 2021” article. I want to have 5 pitchers and 5 hitters for my write-up, and right now I am just thinking of some guys. I was wondering if you could think of any that I could look into. I don’t want any players going into their sophomore season because more often than not those players tend to be bad. Here’s some names I have:
Pitchers:
Michael Lorenzen
Griffith Canning
Jose Urquidy
Sixto Sanchez (breaking my own rule, I know)
Hitters:
Dansby Swanson
I want to have more than 10 options to choose from by the time I’m done, and I typically have a formula that I follow for these sorts of things So I’ll choose my favorites based on that.
So these days I’m much more of a Yankee fan than a baseball fan. Ya know?
I don’t have a lot to offer at the moment. A couple Yankee players that might fit your criteria; Deivi Garcia & Clint Frazier.
On a more general level you may want to dig around the White Sox & Padres rosters as they are both stuffed with young talented players.
I’ll keep it in mind, though.
Maybe I can think of someone interesting.
I’m just gonna post my names here.
Pitchers:
Canning
Lorenzen
Urquidy
Sanchez
Garcia
Heaney
Riley Smith (D-backs)
Hitters:
Solak
Frazier
Swanson
I’ll just keep adding names when they come to me.
If I think of any more I’ll send them your way.
If Peter sees this I bet he can add a couple.
Edit: oooh, the A’s, man. Puck & Lazardo (I’m not sure if I’m spelling either of those correctly)
I threw the second round of my program today. My arm felt a lot better than it did yesterday. I did it in the afternoon so the sun was still out, and by the time I was done my arm was actually hot. It felt good to just come inside and cool down after that. 90 throws, split between 45 and 60 feet.
Good stuff, big bro.
You mentioned that you are self taught. I just want to really encourage you to be diligent with your stretching before & after throwing. That’s big as far as injury prevention stuff goes.
You probably already know that, but I’m just making sure, man.
Yep, that’s what I’m living on right now, stretching, stretching, stretching. I already feel like I’m getting a head start on the competition. The person I was catching with today was standing uphill from me too (to not be looking straight into the sun), so I was throwing uphill and looking into the sun lol. You might ask why we didn’t just turn sideways, but I have the field measured out at different increments, and I didn’t want to turn it 90 degrees just to not look into the sun. But it’s nice to throw from different angles, it gets my arm used to different positions. It just made the 90 throws feel like 120.
Ok, cool.
We didn’t pay nearly enough attention to it. Good to hear you know the deal.
Sounds like a great way to get you’re work in. Sun’ll be in your eyes when you’re playing sometimes too, anyways.
Might as well get used to it.
Don’t mind me, just adding more names.
Pitchers:
Canning
Lorenzen
Urquidy
Sanchez
Garcia
Heaney
Riley Smith (D-backs)
Kyle Cody
Corey Kluber
Relievers (volatile, I know):
Jose Urena (Yes I think he will move to the pen)
Jordan Weems
Mike Mayers
Kodi Whitley (one of my most exciting names)
Hitters:
Solak
Frazier
Swanson
Joc Pederson
Agree on Urena.
Man. Why is it so much easier to come up with names of pitchers than it is position players?
If you are doing relievers I keep waiting for Loiaisiga (NYY) to break out, too. Fangraphs loves him. Yankee fans do not.
It might be easier for me to look for pitchers because I am one, and just looking at their stuff and their stats, I can pretty much see what works and what doesn’t. Hitters have so many more variable that go into play for them, unlocking power potential, contact rate, line drive or ground ball hitter. Pitchers you could almost just look at and say “Hey he’s good”. It’s almost a science with hitters.
Idk with Loaisiga… His walks per nine and FIP scare the crap out of me. Seems erratic. I don’t watch much Yankees, but he seems like the kind of reliever who walks 3 guy straight just to proceed to strike the next 3 out. When Shawn Kelley played in Texas a few years ago he was like that. Decent era, but he walked tons of people.
I’m just having a hard time coming up with hitters, as well.
Maybe for similar reasons.
On Loaisiga:
Yeah, he can be all over the place. Which is kind of unexpected. The Yanks promoted him from AA, where his walk rate was miniscule. Control was supposedly one of his strengths. His stuff is undeniable, however.
Fangraphs pegged him as the “next Hader”. Which, obviously, hasn’t really been the deal.
Pitchers:
Canning
Lorenzen
Urquidy
Sanchez
Garcia
Heaney
Riley Smith (D-backs)
Kyle Cody
Corey Kluber
Relievers (volatile, I know):
Jose Urena (Yes I think he will move to the pen)
Jordan Weems
Mike Mayers
Kodi Whitley (one of my most exciting names)
Hitters:
Solak
Frazier
Swanson
Joc Pederson
Victor Robles
Gavin Lux
Vlad jr.
I’m starting to feel a lot looser when I throw, in a good way. 125 throws is a lot though lol. Now I just feel like sitting back the rest of the day.
Yeah, that is, man.
Bet.
You earned it.
It’s been a good day today. 150 throws today, and it was in the cold, but the good thing was that my arm never hurt today like it would’ve if I had done this 3 months ago.
And on an earlier post today (the Marlins bullpen article), mlb1225 and me had a conversation about some things I can do to get a head start on my front office career hopes. He gave me some new and useful information I can use going forward, so that was nice. He’s actually in college right nw majoring in sports management as well, so he’s definitely somebody for me to talk to about that.
Good day up here where it’s actually cold & not “cold” (heh) for me, as well.
Is that as many as you’ll make?
Or will it increase even more?
It makes sense that on a board like this you’d run into some fellas that can offer some insight/advice.
150 is the max, from now on it is just a combination of different distances, but it all adds up to 150. Like today I threw 95 from 60 then 35 from 90 and 20 from 60. I have an off day tomorrow (thank god). Now it’ll start mixing in bullpens. I felt good though, so hopefully that keeps up.
Just fastballs?
Just fastballs for the first two bullpens (and they are only at 75% percent effort) then the next two bullpens add a changeup and then the last one is all pitches, all effort. I think they are all only 25 pitches.
Pitchers:
Canning
Lorenzen
Urquidy
Sixto Sanchez
Deivi Garcia
Heaney
Kyle Cody
Corey Kluber
Relievers (volatile, I know):
Jose Urena (Yes I think he will move to the pen)
Jordan Weems
Riley Smith
Kodi Whitley
Richard Rodriguez
Hitters:
Solak
Clint Frazier
Swanson
Joc Pederson
Vlad jr.
I hope you used your off day wisely.
:)
Catching up on stuff, started on my article, and still trying to narrow down this list lol.
I’m sorry if I bothered you, I told mlb1225 that if he wanted to talk about my article, I’d want him to come over to this post because I kind of want to keep it fairly secret. I didn’t just randomly post that to bug you lol.
I was starting to actually get a shin-splint feeling yesterday, so the day off helped a lot today. I stretched, and I’ll probably do it again too.
During my practice last night I also threw some like 50 mph Zack Grienke type eephus pitches. Enjoyed it. I liked just listening to the radio as I go out there and do my thing. Calms me down.
Bro.
If you “bothered” me I just wouldn’t respond, bro. Mlb1225 is a good poster. Whenever I see his posts I read them.
Greinke.
Man.
Do you go to Fangraphs? Great site. Anyway, they have an article on his super slow curve. Also, check *this* out; he sometimes throws change ups harder than he throws his fastball!
That is bananas.
Really makes one think about the categorization of pitches.
That’s good, I hate overstaying my welcome, or over-talking. I few years ago I used to yap all day, but since then I’ve slowed down my talking quite a lot. I still joke around, so I’m not a stone faced being, but I generally speak at appropriate times now.
As for Grienke, he’s an odd dude. Somebody I’d personally like to model my game after. Right now my pitching style is a mix of Lance Lynn, Zack Grienke, Yonny Chirinos, and Aroldis Chapman. Odd mix, but I take a little from each and apply it to what I do. It’s fun to think of myself as this Frankenstein’s monster pitcher lol.
I get it.
I’m a pretty straight up fella. If you have a booger on your nose well I’ll tell you that you have a booger on your nose lol.
&, honestly I enjoy speaking with someone who is actually pitching. Wish I’d had the understanding of it that you do when I was your age, serious. I wouldn’t have gone any further but I bet I’d’ve been better.
You should probably just work on the left handed 105 mph fastball part.
:)
That’s really a pretty crazy mix of dudes. Gotta ask…why Chirinos?
Check out fangraphs, man. They get pretty detailed in regards to pitch design.
Chirinos is a weird one, but it’s because of my splitter that I have. Chirinos has the same one. I like his delivery and how he throws it.
I go to fangraphs when I’m trying to decipher foreign stats like Xwoba. I will look into their pitch design stuff because I like their content, thanks for that.
I couldn’t possibly throw a splitter, man. I did throw a fork ball which is a pitch you don’t really see anymore.
Eovaldi was messing around with one when he was on the Yanks. But it’s one of those pitches (like the palm ball) that has sorta disappeared. Some older school fellas will say the screw ball is extinct. It isn’t. It’s just known as the circle change now.
Speaking of weird pitches with Greinke, I think it’s always fun just to see all the pitches Yu Darvish has thrown in his career. He’s tossed a few eephuses throughut his career. Greinke is definitley one of the most interesting pitchers baseball has had in a while. Do you go on Baseball Savant? Great site to look up expected stats like xwBOBA.
“…it’s always fun just to see all the pitches Yu Darvish has thrown in his career…”
Bro. Need help lol.
Where & how do I see that, too?
Greinke, Darvish, Tanaka are my three current favorite pitchers to watch throw.
Haven’t been to Baseball Savant. Fangraphs, Baseball Trade Values, & Cots. I’ll peep it. But I still have stuff to learn about the aforementioned sites.
I’m probably gonna go throw soon, but it is super cold here today. It’s overcast, so that’s probably why. I might have to wear a heavier jacket out there so I don’t get cold.
I haven’t even looked at my sheet yet, I might have another 150 throw day today.
Hey, Rangers29.
Always good to hear from you and to hear that you’re putting in your work. I’ve watched it become a habit for you. Pretty cool.
Good stuff, bro.
Yeah it’s nice to talk to other people who don’t mind talking too. I guess that also just has to do with having time to talk.
I just got done throwing earlier. 150 again, but this time it was raining halfway through, so everything I threw slipped out of my hands lol. Practiced my splitter motion more though. It had that nice down and to the left drift away from right handed hitters.
Might work on my article this evening.
I get it.
& it’s a pretty low pressure conversation, too. We get back to each other when we can & I don’t have to worry about staying strictly on topic, or whatever.
Honestly, I only have enough energy for 2 or 3 threads a day, man.
I lived in California for a while. So I get what you’re saying. 34° degrees up here. So that rain would be snow lol.
That being said, 150 throws in the rain doesn’t exactly sound like a picnic, man.
You probably noticed, but MLB1225 was here. Have you come up with any more names or is that the final list?
The list is done, in fact I need to narrow down the starters to 5. I want to use stats though just for sake of argument.
In today’s world of baseball journalism, stats are integral.
Let me know when you put it up. I’ll join that blog for the day to read it. I may even leave a comment as a fingerprint of evidence that I was there.
That’d be great. I’ve found out LSB is a nice blog, but there are big headed (veterans) on the blog that think (know) that they are “always” right. There are good conversations nevertheless, especially if you don’t care what people say about you… and you have to be well versed in everything Rangers…
Yeah, I don’t think I’d go there regularly, or whatever?
But…at this point can you fault me for wanting to read & respond to it? Ya know? I’m generally an overly curious fella. So there’s no way I could just ignore it lol.
Yeah, us old guys can be a drag (are you on my lawn!?). But you remind me of my son in some ways. One of them being he’s always been pretty comfortable around any age group. You seem to have that same quality.
You definitely know your Rangers. I’m sure you’re holding your own over there.
No, I didn’t think you were going to comment there regularly, I was just speaking of my experience.
I was moved from public to online school when I was in 5th grade, and I’ve made friends with people way older than me ever since then. It makes me more accompanied to talk to anybody of any age. Baseball is how I was still able to be with people my age. That’s why I enjoy it so much.
The best thing anybody can learn is to have humility. I can have a conversation with anybody because I never feel like it’s a competition to win. I know that I don’t know everything, and if you go into conversations thinking that you do, you won’t be successful. I learn more when I go into conversations open to hearing other people talk rather than thinking I’m the smartest person in the room.
That’s essentially why I’d call myself “Liberal” this isn’t meant to be political, so let me explain. I don’t mean “left”, I mean open minded. People take that word so out of context it’s pathetic. When you hear liberal, you think left-leaning, when I’m really straight down the middle yet I’m liberal in my thinking.
Online education is pretty interesting, man. When all this Covid stuff happened my son’s school went to it, temporarily.
Xavier’s take is that it’s not as much “fun” but it’s way more efficient.
Those are excellent ideals to foster man, serious. It’s really, really rare to run into someone that you can’t learn anything from. And, that certainly can be humbling.
I also don’t really have a political affiliation. I’ve never actually voted for the guy I actually *want* to be president. My entire life has been about voting *against* the guy I care for the least.
Which…as far as a political stance goes is fairly tepid.
Rivalry day here for the NFL. We’re a 3 team household. My girlfriend likes the Vikings, my son the Seahawks (I know, I know) & me the Jints. Seahawks Vs Giants later today. I can’t help myself from believing in miracles lol.
Go Big Blue!
Right now it’s the Saints for me. The past two games have been out of market, but this one finally is. They’re winning despite their hiccups, but it makes me want Brees back lol.
I also had another idea this morning. Instead of making one big article with 15 players and 3 different categories, I’m going to make three articles, one for each category. And I’m also going to post it on several different sites to attract more attention.
The Saints are good!
& the Giants…well…they play in the NFC East. Which is quite possibly the worst overall NFL division I’ve ever seen.
Mercy.
That is some Really Bad Football, man.
You’re not afraid to take on big projects. That’s pretty cool. I’ll be reading it, I’m quite certain.
Just got done throwing for today. I was supposed to go out to 120 feet today, but I got out there too close to dark, so I could only do half the routine. Arm has felt a little sore the past two days, so I’m trying to really slow it down. I’m scared because it’s the same spot on my elbow that made me sit out for a couple of months just before I started the physical therapy stuff. Down near the dreaded UCL region… But if I slow it down a lot and maybe incorporate some more recovery stuff into my routine it’ll be less stressed…
A half busy day today. Lots of assignments to keep me working, so I guess that’s good.
I also have a goal to loose ten pounds before tryouts (granted if my UCL keeps hurting, then I guess that’s a moot point). Eating less than I have for the past month and doing more cardio and training should put me in a calorie deficit, so I’ll probably knock off a lot very quick just by doing that. Along with my throwing.
Ya know, it seemed like you were ramping up a bit quickly to me?
Throwing a baseball is such an unnatural & violent physical act.
I mean, think about this. We could go out & throw a football constantly for eight hours, or whatever & our arms wouldn’t get sore at all.
A few dozen throws with a baseball and you feel it the next morning.
Are you working with someone on coming up with your throwing routine?
Stretching & cardio will help you immensely out on the mound.
1-2 lbs/week is generally considered a reasonable rate of weight loss.
I left you a couple replies on the Sugano thread. Your had some good takes.
The orthopedic elbow specialist in Austin that we went to gave me a physical therapy form to follow for about a month, and then said I could start the throwing program (also a form he gave me) right after that ended.
Despite it being given to me by the doctor (who wasn’t a very good doctor btw) I’ll probably notch it down a bit the next time I go out there. I have an off day from throwing tomorrow, but looking to Wednesday, it goes like this:
60 feet (50 throws)
90 feet (20 throws)
120 feet (50 throws)
60 feet (20 throws)
I’ll go ahead and drop 10 throws off of each increment, and I’ll really focus on throwing the ball a lot slower and more “gently”. I got out there the other day and I didn’t pitch, but I was going through my motion and focusing on my accuracy. I need to just focus on throwing. Getting it there it a clean and effective way.
Alright.
That’s good. That’s really good.
I’ll also add this: even a bad doctor is a much better doctor than I am.
Brilliant stuff, I know lol.
But you hear what I’m saying. I hope.
Yeah, you’ve still got quite a ways to go til opening day, man. Really working on your form & balance sounds like an excellent plan. You can always ramp up later on down the road.
That sounds about right. I – personally – never really quite figured out that whole “accuracy” part. Bro. I threw a no hitter in H.S.
& lost the game!
Mercy. Do you have any idea how many BB’s, HBP’s, & WP’s it takes to give up 8(!) earned?
No?
Well I do.
That’ll teach a fella a thing or two about himself, uh?
Anyway take care of that arm, man.
Deeep breath. Set. Rock. Fire.
I mean, he was probably a good doctor in the knowledge department, but he wasn’t in the P.R department if you get what I’m saying… jerk is another way to say it lol.
I’m trying to get really prepared dude, I mean, I want to be in great shape by the time tryouts roll around in January. But here’s the weird part:
I don’t go to the school… I’ve been going to an independent online school called ischool for the past couple of years, not the public school’s version of online learning. So I’ll probably have to jump through a few more hoops when it comes to even playing for my local high school.
Hopefully it’ll work out though. My cousins moved down from the Dallas area a few years ago, and they live locally too, so I’d also like to play so I could see them more often.
Btw, the no-hitter thing… ouch. The last time I played organized ball was in Little League, but since then I haven played (obvious reason being obvious). But when I played in this game once when it was practically a hurricane. Winds went from 0 – 20/30 real quick, and I was called in to pitch. My coaches would have to continuously tell me to quit throwing off… this is going to be another comment…
Anyways, I came into pitch this game, it was raining and the winds were whipping the tops of the trees. Mind you, my coaches always had to tell me to quit throwing off-speed when I pitched in games because my fastball was that slow. In practice I was probably touching 60-65 (really good for little league), but when I went into a game it just nosedived… I would get really nervous on the mound and essentially choke. But I still threw strikes. I hit one person my entire little league career because I pitched so cautiously.
So I get up to pitch, warmup, and I’m ready. I start off with three “fastballs”, and the first was down. Then I set up another “fastball” to the 2nd hitter. He grounded out. After the second hitter I could hear the coaches saying from the dugout “Throw your fastball!!!”. I didn’t. Instead I kept throwing those slow lobbers, and finally on the two strike count of the last hitter, I grip this weird looking changeup with two of my fingers off the ball like a slip-pitch. And I threw it behind him… Buuut on the way to the plate this ball – by the grace of god I guess – decided to do a crazy Adam Ottavino-esque 24 inch horizontal break, and I got the called strike three.
When I got back to the dugout my coach looked so confused, and all he could say was, “Try to throw your fastball.” lol.
I got results when I pitched then, but it wasn’t because of my pretty, strike out stuff. It was 50 mph lobbers that got hit into the ground. Which I guess work just as good as K’s in little league.
I think I’ve got a plan going forward in my program.
We have some bands at our house that I can go out and use, so I won’t have to buy any and wait for Christmas shipping (jesus). I’m going to follow the Jaeger band routine for two weeks before going back out and starting my throwing program up full throttle after those two weeks.
Here’s the link to Jaeger’s band excercises: jaegersports.com/j-bands-exercises-workout/
They’ve been a very revolutionary business in how they train and develop prospects and young players. In fact, Trevor Bauer was one of their first success stories.
This comment has been all over the place, but essentially, here’s my plan:
Finish up these ten days of my throwing program, but at very minimal effort and essentially slashing it in half.
Then I’ll do their band workouts for two weeks after that with no throwing. (And I’ll keep using the bands even after those two weeks are up)
Finally I’ll ramp up my program again at full capacity and hopefully be ready to go by the time tryouts roll around.
I feel like I’m going balls to the wall with this, but it feels good, it really does.
What’s good, @Rangers29?
I’m a pretty sporadic poster. Took me a minute to get back to you. Up having some espresso, getting ready to go goose hunting. Figured I’d take some time & get back at you.
So much here, man!
With the Covid stuff, my son’s school went online for awhile last spring. It’s a private high school so they actually had a decent system in place in order to work with kids out sick or on vacations, or whatever.
His thoughts are that going to school is more fun, but online learning is much more efficient.
I know up here there are definitely programs in place that offer kids who are home schooled, or attend online schools the opportunity to take part in sports & other after school programs. No idea about Texas because – well – Texas. Ya know? But I do think you’ll be able to take part.
Jeeez, I certainly hope so.
I also think that as a country we’re going to see a *lot* more of this.
Cool that you are really trying to prepare. I never really did that at the levels you are? Sorta just went from football, to skiing, to baseball.
One last thing on the no-no. I felt terrible that we’d lost, obviously. But, man, my teammates felt worse than I did! *They* felt they’d let *me* down.
Man.
Sports, huh?
What a great story, man. & a memory that you’ll have forever. I like the imagery. Also…how the hell do you know what a slippitch is, man? That’s some super old school stuff. Where in the world did you learn about those.
Pitching, man.
Anyone who climbs that little hill is…let’s say different than other ballplayers. Sometimes that manifests itself in pretty outward ways, uh? I’m thinking about guys like Greinke & Bauer.
Bands are good stuff. I’ve used them plenty to increase flexibility (an old guy thing lol) & get in some core work. Just keep working, man. It’ll pay off. One way or another. I swear.
Always good, man.
Have a great day.
I’m out.
It made me shrivel up a little seeing that you posted your comment 7 hours ago. Doing the math, that’s around 4:30… Ouch. I haven’t woken up that early since birth.
I have a good feeling about me being able to play there, it might take some additional paperwork, but that’s no big deal. One of the main things will be the rides though… I don’t drive yet (it would be illegal if I did), so I’ll have to get rides to the field almost 5 days a week. That’s a lot. It’d be different if I went to the school and afterwards just walked out back, but this is a 10 mile drive just to get there each day. I can persuade people though, maybe I can convince some people to let me do it.
Like I said, I feel like I’m almost going over-board with this, but when I want something, I go after it with all I got, this is one of those things.
“I haven’t woken up that early since birth.”
That’s hilarious, man.
I’m a morning person. But I’m having lunch & I think I see a nap in my future. I know it’s not for everyone but I love being in a boat or a kayak with my dogs watching the sunrise over the water. &, I brought back a couple Canada’s.
So there’s that.
Like I said, here in MN that’s pretty standard stuff.
My son is driving (Lord save me lol). But he was taking cabs since as long as he can remember. It was tough growing my business & attending to his transportation. Tell ya though. After school programs & the YMCA, & Park Board saved me. He likes “doing stuff” if you know what I mean. I essentially used those things as a form of after school baby sitting, or whatever.
When I do something I throw myself fully into it, too. Sure that can cause some problems here & there. In my experience, the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
I’m also thinking about this: If I do hit it off in HS baseball and I’m practically a shoe-in for Varsity each season, then when do I work? They have their summer training, and the spring season, and I’ll need to pay for my car insurance then too. I’d have to juggle a lot of stuff, but it’d work way better if I was driving to a brick and mortar school in the first place.
Quite a few items to sort through.
Ya know, all a fella can really do is take care of what’s in front of him & work on those things that he can control.
After that? Well, I’d say it’s in God’s hands. But that’s not everyone’s philosophy.
I decided to completely halt my throwing program on Thursday and pick up the band program because I didn’t want to risk anymore injury to my UCL. I am going to be doing just band work and stretching for the next two weeks until a start a bands + throwing program schedule after that.
BTW, we spoke the other day about how I didn’t know if I could play high school ball if I didn’t go to the actual school itself, and it seems the chances of me not being able to are rising…
These are the eligibility standards of UIL participation (Texas’s high school athletic representation): uiltexas.org/policy/eligibility
They specify being a student at the school, so that puts a huge bummer on that. Plus we don’t live in a big city, so there aren’t other leagues to join.
But there is a bill going through the Texas legislature that would allow “home schoolers” to play sports at their local public school. Though even if the bill passed, it would take effect at the beginning of the 21′-22′ school year, so that’s another year of not playing.
My best chance would to be to talk to the athletic director of the school, get his input, and maybe take some action there. It’s starting to look slim though.
Despite that, I’ll still be practicing and training until I’m able to play again. Whenever that might be…
They used to have us run too. Strong legs. Stamina & endurance. Not sure if that is still recommended or not.
Man.
That kinda sucks.
I was thinking about it the other day & I asked my son. The program out here is actually fairly new. Last couple of years. & MN is always kind of a trend setter with stuff like that.
Yeah, start at the top if that’s where you are going to end up anyway. Getting some input from an AD sounds like it’ll at least give you an idea if there’s anything you can do.
Up here there was concern that some schools/athletic departments would game the system. I can actually see that being a problem in Texas due to how competitive H.S. football is, man.
A fella can only take care what’s in front of him & those few things he can directly control. If it doesn’t work out it was out of your hands. At least you’ll be able to play senior league (not sure what it’s called anymore) this summer & get on a mound for a school next spring.
I’m guessing that’s probably not the happiest thought for you, though. Man, I really hope it works out for you.
& I’m glad to hear that you keep working & you’re staying upbeat.
Yeah, I’ll have to be dragged out of the game kicking and screaming for me to finally call it quits. This ain’t it. And who knows, maybe by the grace of God I’ll be able to play this spring. Just gotta have some hope.
Anyways, after my band program is over in 2 weeks I’ll start my throwing program up again as if I was going to be playing this season. If I don’t play I will still go out and pitch “games” every 5 days or so to feel like I’m in season. I’ll get tips from coaches and such, and I’ll probably buy Jaegar’s year long throwing routine for 25 dollars (well worth it, they do some great stuff).
Baseball has kept me connected to people since I left public school, and it ain’t disconnecting me now.
That’s exactly it, man.
Stay on your square put the work in & you’ve done what you realistically could.
It sounds simple. Indeed, sometimes it even is. But certainly not always.
Baseball has been one of the true constants of my life, serious. One some level it’s been with me since really before I can remember. Once it’s in your blood, man…
I applaud what you did on that last thread about the whole name change stuff. I’m open to conversations, but once they start to challenge me with these bogus situations and whatnot I’m out. Or they’ll just try to say you’re making stuff up and make themselves look good (it doesn’t). Nice to hear some other people views on issues though. Kind of why I’d consider politics as a career because I am really good in conversations, but man….. that is cut throat stuff.
Thank you.
You conducted yourself very well, too. I had a hard time not jumping in when I saw some posters trying to “recruit” you to one “side” or the other.
I just wanted to say “back off…let him make up his own mind”. But that wouldn’t’ve been necessary. You will make up your own mind about this stuff & it definitely appears that you’ll have given it careful consideration.
To be clear, I don’t really have a problem with Cleveland changing their name one way or the other. I just feel I’ve quite a bit of experience with Native Americans & that it’s just simply not that big of a deal to them.
I certainly could be wrong.
I could be dealing with a very select group. But I don’t think this is anywhere near as sketchy as “Redskins”.
I have a tendency to turn sharp tongued New Yorker at times & I’m *really* trying to curtail that. So much of it is purely in jest. But it’s not taken that way always. In the end, it really doesn’t appear to be very helpful. It’s kind of a batting average thing.
I’m working on it.
I’ve never seen America so divided. Almost everything becomes a heated debate. Lord. We’re on a damn baseball site. Ya know? I honestly don’t ever really even want to talk politics, man. I served a couple tours for this country & after that it was pretty much, “peace out. I’m going to do my own thing now”.
I do have some real concerns about the country you & Xavier are inheriting. But he’s a good kid. So are his friends. & I don’t necessarily want to label you as a “kid”, or whatever. But whatever you want to term yourself you’re a good one of those, too.
Lol, I love the little Politically Correct bit at the end there.
Yeah, I do make up my mind on all decisions and try not to sit there and argue misinformed. I do like the debates though… makes me feel like I have a little pedestal I can stand on and speak my views from. I’m also pretty good at letting the other side know I’m listening and that I don’t hate them I just disagree. That’s what people don’t understand. Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I hate you. It means I disagree.
Oh, and the article they linked was about the Redskins controversy, not about this. I was trying to tell him to link me an article that supported what he was saying about the Indians thing. Not just the baseball side, but also just calling Natives “Indian”, but of course he would say “OH YOU DON’T BELIEVE IT… RACISM” when I really just want to see some sources he informed himself from.
Never once did I say anything about me knowing how Native Americans feel or anything like that because then they would’ve asked ME to link an article showing where I found that when it would really just be guessing (what Marlins was doing). That’s part of having smart debates is not letting the other side coax you into a corner to try and go for the jugular.
All I said was that I think the Indians should change their name because it makes Americans look stupid having a major American sports franchise being incorrectly named. That’s all. There isn’t an article in the world that I had to do research over to come to that conclusion because it’s my opinion. In Marlin’s case, he was assuming that most of the Natives don’t like being called Indians (a very plausible thought) though I could still ask him where he learned that because he didn’t… he presumed it.
I love coming into debates as a teen with people thinking they can “over-take” me and I just go for good point after good point. It feels good.
Thanks for letting me know about Baseball Savant. Man, I keep forgetting about it. Good stuff!
Also I don’t know why I’m not getting email notifications. I hit the key every time.
Huh.
I’m not too big on “political correctness”. It almost seems like an oxymoronic phrase. I wanted to convey that I think you are a “good kid” w/out using the word “kid”. I can definitely hear my son telling someone that he’s “not a kid”. Ya know? Now, I can get away with that with him because he & I go – ya know – quite a ways back. Generally, however, I actually refer to him & his friends as “young men”.
Exactly!
That’s really become lost. One of the truly great things about living here is that we are allowed to express different opinions. When I served my tours I was in places that if you disagreed you got lined up against a wall & executed. There is absolutely no hyperbole in that statement, man.
It is completely literal.
Gosh. I don’t need to ever see anything like that again. No one does. It’s unfortunate. I really thought this stuff would ease up after the election. It has not. That’s what really bothered me about Marlins response. He & I were on opposite sides of some issue or another over the summer. But we treated one another with respect. It was at a time when it seemed every thread was getting shut down.
Although an overall agreement never seemed possible I thought we’d reached an accord of mutual respect. Kinda bummed me out.
Ya know?
Here’s the thing that I wouldn’t post on that thread but I firmly believe is valid. The use of the word “Indian” by Native Americans reminds me of the way an ugly slur has been adopted & disempowered (apparently that word doesn’t exist…yet I find it appropriate) by the black community. I’d get destroyed if I posted that. But that’s actually the type of straight up conversations that will actually help us all understand one another.
Yeah, I did read it, too.
& I freely admitted that “Redskins” is a horrible name. Just awful. & in the capital no less.
Jeeez, now *that* looks really, really bad.
There is real power in being skilled at debate. How to clearly make your point while avoiding all the pitfalls of logical fallacies. At the same time respecting your adversary & conveying that respect. It’s not an easy thing. I get frustrated & impatient.
You have a great posting style. & there are tons of us older fellas who just love your enthusiasm for all that’s good about baseball. & you take us back to when we were lacing up the cleats & climbing that little hill. That’s the type of stuff that should really be fostered. You & I are separated by (if you use 20 years = 1 generation) nearly two generations, man. We’ve talked about a lot of different stuff but always at the heart of that dialogue is baseball.
I think that’s pretty cool. Pitchers have always been a little…let’s say quirky. You fit right in with us lol.
Those of us that have been here for any length of time know that you’re no pushover. But you are somehow always respectful.
Hey, you can call me kid if you want, in fact, I don’t really care what you call me. I’ve never been one to get bent out of shape over what people call me… Btw, if you want you could just call me Danny lol. Name’s Daniel, but everybody always calls me Danny. It’s fine.
I feel weird giving out just my name on the internet like this because you always see those PSAs about like “Creepy old dude goes to prison for being a creepy old dude” granted what’s a name going to do to anybody lol. I’m not giving out an address and direct coordinates to my house for crying out loud.
It also don’t feel right to say that I am 2 generations away from you lol. I’ve always been around and really grown up with people decades older than me, so I feel like peers to them a lot of the time. It’s odd, it really is. It messes with my psyche when I go up to somebody exactly my age and say that they’re my peer. It just feels odd. My family says I’m 15 going on 50 lol.
I also wanted to talk about the other site I have started posting on because it is a MONSTER unlike MLBTR. You have to essentially earn your keep over there. They don’t mess around with anything. Well, some of them do. I have began to “befriend” a few who have the same sense of humor as me, but we are all in a little group that gets ignored by the “big guys” of the site that think they know everything lol. Like a HS clique.
I’m more “bold” over there than I am over here because people always love to call me wrong for stuff that hasn’t even happened yet. That’s not to say I’m a mean person over there, I just share my opinions about the game and most of them aren’t well received by the “big guys”. I’ll put a link to the thread that I posted on today where I rubbed what I said before in everybody’s face because they have done the same to me.
I guess one of the good things about SB Nation is that the comments never close. I don’t get vulgar over there, but you can say some “edgy” stuff over there and get away with it. Everything is taken lightly though because they all know it’s just for fun.
The link to what I said this morning: lonestarball.com/2020/12/14/22173978/mlb-rumors-to…
I love the group over there, but maaan is it way different than over here. If this is PG-13 then that is TV-14.
Well, you know.
I didn’t think you were the type to freak out about it, or whatever. Just trying to be respectful.
Oh, man.
That stuff scares the hell outta me, man. I’ve talked with my son about those things, too. You two have both grown up around the internet. So I have to believe you’re both fairly saavy. Just keep your safety protocols in place. There are some really terrible people in this world.
“15 going on 50.” So we *are* peers then lol. Actually, that does make some sense. I mean, you *are* a baseball fan. Which stereotypically attracts a fairly older group of fans.
I’ve posted on a few SB Nation sites. Big Blue View (Giants), Bad Left Hook (boxing), the actual SB Nation site. I also used to post at Pinstripe Alley (Yankees). But over the summer (well it would have technically still been spring) the staff basically led a purge of all the posters who didn’t agree with them. Myself & a bunch of other posters were banned. Bro. I’ve never even gotten a warning posting anywhere else. Bonkers. I saw that the editor of the site was recently fired. I’m assuming it was for that. Once I saw how everything was going over there I took a bunch of screenshots. I sent them to SB Nation. Well…technically my son sent them.
Really unfortunate that some folks feel the best way for them to operate is to simply eliminate anyone with a differing opinion.
I guess it is what it is, though.
I’ll check it out. I think you’re taking a good approach. No reason to limit yourself to one specific forum. With baseball stuff I post over on Fangraphs sometimes. I gotta be in the right mind frame because those are some *very* serious fellas. Best be bringing your A game.
Right now you’re just exposing yourself to as much about baseball as you can. That’s good! Good way to pick some stuff up, man.
I’ll check it out, man. Alright. I’m going grouse hunting today. Got a new pup I’m breaking in. I spent a pretty high draft pick on him. He definitely shows a lot of potential. But right now he’s green as a shamrock, kinda clumsy, & is still just a little piece of a dog. I have high hopes that he’s going to grow into an All Star. But he needs a lot of seasoning. My retriever is helping with the training. But what he needs more than anything is to just be in the woods or on the water as much as possible.
Alright.
This time I’m going to check both boxes as for some reason I’m not getting any email notifications for this thread.
Afternoon/Mornings,
Guys – apologies to butt in but I had an eloquent response lined up earlier that got ruined by a power failure.
Really enjoy your posts (as you both know) but you have an eloquence that both projects thought and consideration and projects who you are as people. And that’s difficult enough with the spoken word and much harder in the written word.
My previous post was a lot more eloquent but given I’m on a quick break at work I have to be a bit more concise.
@Rangers Danny – I was more than disappointed to read above that you might not be able to play high school level baseball because you are home/self schooled. There are (educational) plusses and minuses to home schooling which you’ll be far more aware of than I am because I’ve only seen one side of it. But as a cricket player as a youth I wanted to play against the best players. I didn’t care what school you did or didn’t go to, my attitude was a bit was Lenny Dykstra. (Without all the other stuff!) I don’t care who you are, I want to beat you on that park. And if you beat me, I’ll beat you the next time. Or the time after that. You should be able to experience that. And it is a massive disappointment that you might not be able to immediately. It is a challenge to take that disappointment and to believe that when you get an opportunity – and you WILL – well – that you will thrive. It won’t be for lack of effort.
@ The Duckster – having been in a few mixed race relationships and having been privileged to enjoy cultural social events I wouldn’t have seen otherwise – I agree with your points from the (other) thread. I think there are times when people will be offended if they want to be offended. If I display innocence, they might perceive it as ignorance. If I display inquisition again it might be taken as accusation. And there are reasons for those perceptions.
But I’ve only ever learned through asking questions. We seem to be heading to an age of utter polarity and yet with the instant access to learning that we have, it seems insane. Insanity was a bit of a feature of the last century. It’s a much longer story for a later date but one of my grandfathers was lucky to escape WW2. Without that, no Mother, and no me. And he was a god loving conscientious objector because of his father’s experiences in WW1. Alongside the death of four of his uncles.
Anyway I’ve got to get onto the last slog for an hour and get her done at work. I hate leaving loose ends because 90% of a day can be ruined by 10% of laxity at the end of it. Took me a long time and a lot of mistakes to learn that. Might explain my “career” to date.
Take care brethren.
And with a take from abroad it’s our international correspondent Peter from London.
:)
Always good to hear from my favorite cricket player.
Yeah, if you want to kick over enough rocks & grub around in the muck one can always unearth something that can somehow be construed as negative. Usually, I just feel some sympathy for fellas like that.
“Utter polarity”. Poignant phrasing. I’ve never seen this country so at odds. I’ve never lived in a dichotomy. Always a continuum. Black & white has never appealed to me not has it seemed very accurate, either.
It’s all just shades of grey.
I’d certainly be interested in hoisting a pint or two with you & swapping stories. Always good to hear from you. Nothing but good wishes/thoughts your way.
See ya when we see ya.
I know I haven’t posted over here in about a week though I’m back.
I got finished with my band training last Thursday, and decided to take an off day for Christmas the following day. The ensuing day I picked up my throwing program again (this time at full go), so thats what I’ve been doing the past two days or so. Besides that I’m just enjoying my break.
(Btw, Merry Christmas)
Gonna have some talks with some local HS coaches this week about if I can play or not. All I want is a definitive answer. I hate the in-between of not knowing. Gotta keep working though, you never know when the chance might come.
Anyways, earlier you said something about baseball savant, so I was just curious what your question was on that. Btw, I dont know everything about it, but I could probably help. Its a cool site for sure.
Thanks for the heads up on posting this.
A couple weeks ago for some reason I had a comment that was…I can’t remember the exact wording? But it was being reviewed by mods, apparently. It took like 18 hours, serious. There was no problem with it, but since then my notifications have been wonky. So I don’t get them all the time anymore.
Which is weird.
& a belated yet sincere “Merry Christmas” to you & yours, man.
Jeeez…that two weeks went fast, huh? Seemed like you ramped up really quickly last time? Dunno. Might wanna bear it in mind. Or not.
:)
Yeah, it’s tough continuing to work hard without any kind of certainty. You’re sticking with it, which I think is the important thing. TX just needs to put the program in place. It’s not as simple as it sounds though. Some folks are just always trying to game the system, man.
Gotta make sure the safeguards are in place for the sleazier side of high school sports.
Ya know?
On Savant:
Do you know where or how I can find information on pitchers tunneling & extension?
Merci.
Always good, Rangers29.
I seriously have no clue about the tunneling though I do want to find a place where I can document it. As for extension… that should be on Savant because that’s easily measurable. I’ll have to go looking though.
I just bought some good cleats today so that I quit slipping when I throw. It just feels good to be able to work like I play. And to not slip and bust my butt.
I got the email address of the head coach of the HS, so tomorrow I’ll talk to him through email about if I can play. Gonna be an eventful week. Never stop working though.
Btw, I’ll ask the Savant questions to mlb1225 too. He is essentially who I want to be 5 years from now. He knows his stuff. Probably the smartest guy on this site.
Yeah, I’ve seen graphs for a specific pitchers tunneling by pitch. I just never paid attention to where they were coming from.
I would think extension would be there too? Can’t seem to find it. My son’s my tech guy, ya know? I only hit him up in true emergencies lol.
Cleats!
Awww, man.
Bro, I remember getting so stoked up about things like new cleats & wrist bands for football & baseball, man. My son’s football cleats are amazing. So light, bro. They remind me of track shoes, man.
After I became responsible for my son, I quit playing flag football & softball. Part of it was certainly time related. But I also quit skiing & riding motorcycles, too. Part of that was just not wanting to risk getting hurt doing something like that.
I got back on motorcycles a few years ago. But my days with the others are more than likely over. Meaning, I’ll not be getting a new pair of cleats again ever, probably.
Best wishes on that (direct communication), of course.
If it’s alright I hope you let me know how it goes either way. Know that I’m rooting for you. I think I speak for pretty much all MLBTR on that. That’s probably the *only* thing, uh? But we’re all Rangers29 fans, man.
MLB1225 is a fantastic poster.
Love his style.
Never trolls. Always stays cool. & yeah, really well versed & knowledgeable, man.
Alright.
Catch ya round, bro.
Afternoons fellas, hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a rewarding New Year worthy of your efforts.
Been largely quiet MLBTR wise what with some work some play and trying to get hold of all the extended family in what is one step away from a total lockdown in London. It isn’t being wholly enforced in any way shape or form so I’ve had a few spontaneous serendipitous meetings with friends outside who coincidentally had a flask of mulled wine too. We fed some of the cutesy birds that also coincidentally make for good eating, Ducky.
Rangers – I had a bit of an epiphany on your behalf, because as the Duckster says, we’re all hoping you can play. What about videoing yourself purely as a sales tool. There seem to be yes/no/maybes about whether you’ll be allowed to play. But could you get a friend or family member to video you doing a showcase? Starting out with pointing out the mound you dug and built yourself. It’s a really powerful opening move and illustrates your determination. I’m sure it’s not unique but any coach knows talent without application and determination is worthless.
(So is the chest thumping determination without talent that I watched a few mates break their bodies that over coaches seemed to adore but there is a happy medium there somewhere…)
This might be a cheesy epiphany but the more you can show makes it more likely a rule could be massaged in your favour? Do any of these high schools also offer correspondence courses/tertiary learning “out of hours”? .Just a thought, however misinformed or old ground it might be…
And a great chance to catch up on Serbo-Croat calligraphy.
I read your thoughts/notes on tunnelling and it’s a similar thing in cricket. If you could look up James Anderson’s best moments on you tube you’ll get the idea that the two are synonymous. I’ve always tried to draw similarities between the two games – as you know – but I i think tunnelling just illustrates that the later a ball breaks, the better. Cricket wise it’s the same – the earlier the ball starts “moving” in cricket terminology – the easier it is to adjust.
I’m a big Sonny Gray fan (it’s an A’s thing I know – Ducky you might not get this! – (Danny – one of the best games I’ve ever watched was Sonny’s CG to scrape us over the line in 2014 a 4-0 win vs your Rangers) and similarly a big Stephen Vogt fan – Vogt described Gray as being the hardest to catch because of the late break. I guess – in really simple terms – if you’re going to deceive a batter you’re just as likely to deceive a catcher.
As you guys know I can’t add much to the minutiae of the debate. I’m happy that way. Regardless I did try the initial “idiot tries to pitch” in my warehouse. Sadly no cameras. Warmed up with the slightly heavier cricket ball. Hit the gallon paint can (empty!) 4 of 10. And then the baseball…. Utterly impossible to control. Got it to rise. Didn’t believe that was possible. The grip was all four seamers until my last attempt was a cricket combi top spinner. Nearly killed one of my (in)subordinates.
I too need to do a showcase for comedy value.
Anyway – much more importantly – Happy New Year….
Peter in London
First: Happy New year, fellas.
’20 was a test for us all. You guys seemed to have navigated it fairly well. I give myself a B. Got my company through it. Could have done better. Here’s to a fantastic ’21, uh?
Second…man, how cool is this? Ya know? We’ve a teenaged pitcher, a fella in his 50’s that certainly “pitched”, & an actual Cricket bowler discussing baseball/pitching/some bigger stuff.
Hat tip to both of you, serious. My son obviously grew up on the internet. Don’t know about you Peter, but the whole notion of being friends with someone I’ve never actually met is… foreign?, to me. This doesn’t seem to get in my son’s way.
I think it’s an one of those age things.
That being said, I am very grateful & proud of the way that I’ve connected with you guys. It’s really cool. So just wanted to thank you two. Not going for sappy or cheesy or whatever. Just expressing my sincere gratitude.
I’d be a tad leery of eating the pigeons from Trafalgar Square or wherever. :) But I’ve a dozen French recipes for pigeon that live on farms. It’s interesting… if I refer to it as pigeon no takers. Yet if I call it rock dove I get compliments.
Words, man.
Uh?
I’m not sure if you’re using tunneling in the same way as we are. (But I do always watch the YouTube videos you suggest…honestly not sure if I’m seeing it the same way as you do?) The way we’re using it is in regards to the release point a pitcher uses for his different offerings. I hope I’m explaining this ok. Rangers29 can probably help.
In essence, the closer your release point is from pitch to pitch is good. It’s a form of old school deception. As pitchers age, it becomes harder to keep this point consistent. Verlander is a good example. Early on, everything came from the same point. Now, his release point for his breaking ball is significantly lower. Meaning, it’s easier for a hitter to pick up.
The term that’s typically applied to when a pitch moves is commonly called “action”. & you definitely nailed a *great* example of “late action” in Sonny Gray. (side note: Gary Sanchez is routinely tasked with catching one of the most difficult staffs in MLB. A fact no one seems to ever mention.)
I’m a Sonny Gray fan. Good pitcher. Didn’t work out with the the Yanks. Happens. I don’t buy into the “he can’t pitch in NY” narrative. He just wasn’t comfortable with the pitching coaches. When he got back to his former college pitching coach he went back to being a Really Good Pitcher.
Pitchers & I’m assuming bowlers are…I dunno what word to use here. Weird? Not weird like kickers in football? But it’s such an individual deal that it lends itself to a lot of individualism. If you guys are unfamiliar with Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. Please. Google him & check out some videos. Classic pitching weirdness.
I’m going to second London’s “advice”. Those are all pretty good ideas. A completely different approach than I would have thought of.
You add a lot, Peter. The Cricket/Baseball parallel is one I’ve been aware of. But interacting with a former bowler is sort of a jackpot. Plus you class the joint up!
Is a “top spinner” similar to an “over hand (or “12-6″) curve”? Also, if you were at 60’6″ & hit a paint can 4 outta ten that’s substantially better than I would have done. Ever. Heavens. I’ve tried to drill a guy in the ribs (easy now…called from the bench)…& missed! Obviously, many times I was trying to throw strikes & hit the batter.
Control wasn’t really my thing.
Always good, Peter & Danny.
Francis in Minneapolis.
This isn’t a reply to your comment, Peter. This is just a list of the pitchers for my write-ups that I want to post here so I remember them:
David Peterson
Joe Musgrove
Andrew Heaney
Sixto Sanchez
Michael Lorenzen
Oh hey Ducky! Didn’t notice you commented the same time as me. I’ll read yours right quick right now.
Yeah, that’s weird.
To throw a couple pennies in:
Like Musgrove a lot. MLB1225 sold me on him. Sanchez looks like a stud.
As for you Peter, I do wonder if I could happen to just practice early tryout at the HS and just not play games this season. It has crossed my mind.
As for the mound, we just had a big cold front come through for the past couple of days, so I’ll have to rework my mound when I get back home. Though I would like to post a YouTube video of my bullpen or something. Maybe I’d stick with it and post more…
To build on the “tunneling” notion, it does seem to me like you described it perfectly with Gray. Essentially it is just making all your pitches be released from the same arm slot each time so that they are all on the same trajectory till they break as they get close to the plate (i.e Gray, Verlander, Strasburg). So that if you drew a line of all your pitches coming to the plate, they’d all be in the same “tunnel” (or “shot group” as I’ll refer to it) until they all broke different directions getting closer to the plate. Unpredictability.
I want to watch more cricket clips now that you have started suggesting them. The crazy “knuckle-ball-esque” one you showed the other day was just cool. I love funky pitchers, so I imagine I’ll be drawn to funky bowlers as well.
It feels odd to say “bowlers” in the cricket sense because I actually bowl, myself… just, when I’m bowling. People have even told me that I’m better at bowling than I am at baseball which is amazing to me (though it is easier if you have the right technique and equipment). I’d also love to film me “bowling” in the cricket sense, and see how I do. I doubt I would be very good, but I tend to surprise myself sometimes.
Great talking to you Peter, Happy New Year!
It’s funny because I thought of you (Ducky) as being more of a Frank because you are… well… Frank lol. Francis is a good name though, fairly close to my original thought.
Ducky- This part of your last comment made me laugh: “It’s interesting… if I refer to it as pigeon no takers. Yet if I call it rock dove I get compliments.
Words, man.”. Not to get political, but modern day politics teeters on that exact though. Phrasing. People like to hear some key words and despise others even if they have the same meaning. It’s funny how that works. It’s funny how the brain works.
I emailed the coach yesterday though I still haven’t gotten to recording myself pitching yet. Between a cold front coming through and raining all week, and me happening to get a slipped disc in my back today, I haven’t been able to pitch at all.
Kind of a sucky week though. Lots of staying inside. Though our neighbor managed to set some of his 20 acres on fire the other day, which is… interesting… to say the least. Nobody hurt, no houses burned, just a lot of smoke and sirens echoing.
Lads,
I’ll explain this a bit more tomorrow, but thanks for the giant rabbit hole. Enjoyed it immensely (with the exception of Mark Fidrych’s premature death) but massive fun to play ferret. We are talking the same language about tunnelling but I don’t think I’m using the same language. Where you guys speak of break, my word is swing, or movement.
One of the best examples of what is termed “swing” in cricket is Simon Jones vs Michael Clarke….
Jones was a bit Fidrych like in terms of a career ruined by injury – but try this ludicrous piece of bowling….
youtube.com/watch?v=ue0ghB6Z_C4
I’ll catch up properly tomorrow – and apologies for the briefness again – couldn’t help laughing at the incredible natural goofiness of Fidrych, which led to Ron LeFlore, and then the games of the week on you tube (which included Fidrych’s CG vs the Yankees) and ultimately Bucky Dent being on the Rangers bench in 6-5 Rangers win over the Yankees.
youtube.com/watch?v=UXgr4FUsUGk
Oh yeah, this game is worth watching for the baserunning. That’s the only spoiler alert you’re getting.
Dan,
Hope the idea was worthy, but additionally your tunnelling ideas are only going to impress a coach. As a cr*p cricketer I was continually coached by enthusiastic amateurs. Well meaning but clueless. By the time I was about 16 I knew more than them. Wrong way about going about this point but if you’re investing your time in mechanics, tunnelling., real constructive thought about your art – you’re way ahead.
Throwing an evil thought into the mix – did either of you think about catching? Need an arm. Need intelligence. Need to be tough as old boots.
Take care and happy New Year both.
(My grade for 2020 was a C – sadly covid has killed my lady wife’s business – (and I can’t describe my own helplessness on this one) so I’ll take a C for survival.)
But hey – take care – and smile & we’ll catch up soon
Peter
Yeah, I guess I can be.
I’ve always liked when I post “quite frankly”.
Phrasing & perception are huge, man. I’ve definitely offended a Lola Granola or two due to the fact I hunt. But, *no one* ever defends turkeys.
I’m convinced it’s because most people think of them as “ugly” or whatever.
How’d you slip a disc, bro?
Ouch…
Anyway, worst case scenario & you’re in peak condition to throw in Little League. (looking for silver linings)
Yeah, that does sound exciting. Glad no one was hurt.
Yeah, Fidrych heckuva story.
But his mound antics/presence. Good heavens. Talking to the ball…man. Pitchers are all a little wacky? But Fidrych’s kinda the pinnacle of pitcher nuttiness.
That’s a screw ball! In the first video. I mean we call that type of sweeping pitch a “screw ball”. “Breaks” – if you will (cuz you already have, uh?) – towards a RH hitter from a RH pitcher.
I played catcher my sophomore year of high school. It was my way onto the varsity squad. Never done it before. I’d – also – never do it again. I played football (& baseball all the way through Junior College), skied competitively, have studied boxing & martial arts my entire life…look, I’ve done a lot of pretty challenging stuff athletically. Not always to the best results or whatever?
But, anyway… catching was the absolute most difficult thing I’ve ever undertaken athletically. It is a terrible position! I hurt that entire spring, man. & I was 16 lol!
Mercy.
Catchers sort of need to enjoy discomfort. I can think of no other way to say it. It hurts lol.
A “C” ain’t bad. I hate hearing things like about what happened to Mrs A’sfaninLondon. I understand not being able to help. Sucks.
Alright. Somehow the Giants are *still* alive, man. Do me a solid & root Eagles tonight fellas. Wouldn’t mind a few more weeks of my football season.
Y’all stay up.
I’m watching the game right now… Lets go Eagles, I guess. I don’t have much of a say in whether I like the outcome of this game or not cause my Saints are already in the playoffs. I can just sit back at this point.
I threw a bullpen today and actually got it on video. I didn’t know this either, but I pitch exactly like Kirby Yates. It is freaky how exact my motion copies his… and I don’t even try to do it. If you are unfamiliar with his motion, just look up his highlights. Holy crap, it’s so weird cause I wasn’t even trying to.
I found out that it actually wasn’t a slipped disc in my back, it was my ribs. One of my ribs was out, but I felt the pain in my back. It still ain’t 100%, but that doesn’t stop me from balling out.
As to your point Peter, I do feel advanced over most of everybody else with all of the studying I’ve done on pitching itself. I’ve read pages of data on it and have definitely watched hours of video on it. Lots of stuff to learn, but I can just look at video of my pitching now and diagnose what I need to change. I feel like a pitching doctor. That’s a better nickname then the one I garnered when I used to play little league (cup)… don’t ask.
I have never tried to be a catcher even though I think I’d be a good one. The reason being is that I broke my knee when I was 4, and I had my last surgery on it when I was 8. It stunted the growth plate in my left knee, and I had to take a lot of steps to get back to where my legs were the same size again. I’m fine now, but that is something that I do not want to re-injure. Same reason I don’t play (American) football lol.
Btw Peter, that story about your wife’s business… well that just sucks… It’s crazy how something so physically small (Corona), can make such large impacts. Part of it is overreacting, and the other part is an actual health scare… both are happening simultaneously. Just never give up on whatever you’re wanting to do. It sounds cliche, but it really is the best advice I can give.
Well… I’m not sure you were rooting hard enough. ;)
Ah, well.
Really, going into the season my hopes were that the Giants would be playing meaningful games in December. & – hey – all of the sudden the Giants have the brightest immediate future of anyone in the NFC East.
Really missed Saquon though, man. One damn game. Good luck to the Saints. I’ll be watching very little football. Until September, uh?
That’s pretty interesting.
I read an interview with Yates last year where he credits a few talks in the pen with Tanaka as when his splitter began to improve.
On splitters: my stars. Can you imagine throwing one of those? I can’t even hardly grip one right. Let alone throw one, man.
It’s pretty awesome that you’re using video to critique your outings. I know sports & baseball have changed a lot from my time playing to my son’s. Plus, he doesn’t play baseball. So I’m not altogether sure, but it definitely seems to me that you’re following a pretty advanced path.
Unless it’s a desperate situation, stay away from the catchers gear lol. With any type of knee issue? Well, run from playing catcher don’t walk. Smart not to play football, man.
If I’d’ve known about all the CTE stuff I don’t think I would have let my son play.
My girlfriend before my current Belle was convinced I have CTE. She presented a more than viable argument, too.
Full speed ahead, lads.
Always a pleasure, serious.
I throw a splitter too lol. I told you I was scarily like Yates. It’s such a beautiful pitch, just so mesmerizing to watch it do what it does. I could watch hours of splitter compilations and I wouldn’t get tired of it. So distinctive too. Just a great looking pitch.
So I got a reply from the HS coach about if I can play this year, and he said no, inevitably. He wasn’t that blunt about it, and we had a conversation back and forth about it, but ultimately, it’s a no.
Though that isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. I kind of like the idea of training myself for another year, alone, and seeing how I hold up against athletes who go to every practice and training session. A fun little experiment. Lots of video, training, and bullpens to come.
I want to be a starter, but I think the most pitches I’ve ever thrown in a game was 32, and that was in little league. My goals for 2021 is to find out what my top velo is, and hopefully be able to throw 60-70 pitches in an outing.
I also expect that when I go back to HS ball next year that my bat will be a noodle lol. I’ve dropped my hitting work like a rock for developing my pitching. I used to be a good hitter, but I expect that taking 2-3 years off from it will massively effect it lol.
Lots to look forward to, and I’m hoping for a good 2021.
Evening lads (my time zone as usual)
I’m going to have to slowly to go back in time to your last few posts across the thread largely because I want to try and keep it conversational rather than reply individually which would break the idea of the conversation.
And I like the conversation.
Dan, I had to giggle a little bit at your description of your neighbours pyromania but share the Ducksters thoughts that I’m glad no-one was hurt. Reminded me of when a neighbour of mine tried to rid his loft of a wasps nest (yellowjackets?) and set his roof on fire. Talk of the town (or the neighbourhood) for a week or two.
First off – thank you – and I mean thank you – to both of you – for your kind thoughts with regard to the lady wife’s business and it’s demise. Street food stalls aren’t going to survive this tomfoolery. It’s sad but inevitable. We’ll try again. we’ll try just as hard. We’ll just have to wait a little. The loss of money p*****s me off but the loss of effort and endeavour hurts more. I knew (and the numbers supported this) that we, well she, was on the right track (or close to it) and the effort (and her work ethic is supreme) she’d put in (I’m just the eye candy and I work elsewhere) it is the hardest part.
But sincerely I appreciate your genuine sympathy.
Moving on…(onwards and upwards)….
Going back in time to Fidrych – I just found him (and obviously you were young but saw it in real time Ducky) to be completely genuine. A kind of purity. He loved what he was doing and did it his own way. The “let the kids play thing” would have applied to him ten fold. The hand sculpture of the mound, (we mess about where the edge of the rubber would be) the talking, it’s not that unusual in cricket… Eccentric English idiots, I know…
.Guess we’re all rooting for the Saints…. I can’t support the Vegas Raiders (I had a loose affiliation until they were clearly angling/arguing/justifying a move). Two sport stadia are a relic and it’s probably best for all concerned. I watched once in late Sept – when I was in Oakland – the efforts to transform the coliseum from NFL back to MLB (maybe 2014) and it was a logistical nightmare. We got married in Vegas but stayed in Henderson – again lovely people in Henderson – and Dominika (lady wife) loved it, but Vegas for me (I’d been before) well twice is definitely enough.
Sorry about the Giants!
Flitting back to the catcher conversation I honestly think it’s the toughest position in (supposedly) non contact sports. I boxed (badly) as a kid, played rugby for 7 years at school – and loved it – loved the tackling – but agree – as a catcher – you’re a guide dog. You’ll feel the pop and know what is working. It is so ridiculously under-rated. And the catchers that don’t get smashed make by far the best managers because they’ve made a living tactically once already
Dan, I’m sorry about your news and that you won’t be able to play. it’s sad. It also seems a bit silly to discriminate against somebody who is home schooling just because they’re home schooling. We live in age where you really should be able to pick and choose so long as your education reaches a certain standard. And exam results reveal a certain standard. But hey, work on that mound, and throw rocks….
Meant to get further through the thread. Ducky I’m a keen ornithologist but a believer that hunters trim off the excess. Certain species (especially in crises) are a little too dominant – and the ferals (rock doves is so polite) are just a P in the A and need management. As do Canada geese for example. In the UK (and I love birds of prey) we have a terrible awful record of exterminating birds of prey. Whereas if you culled (not to excess) the problem species you wouldn’t need to worry about the falcons/eagles because they’re so specialised and thus so scarce.
A chat for another day.
Take care
Peter
Good evening, fellas.
Been away. The weather turned a bit foul so I spent a few days in Nebraska. Prairie grouse. Went through Chicago on my home. Picked up a “new” motorcycle. ’68 Triumph Daytona. She’s a beaut, serious. & I’ll drive an actual Grand Prix vehicle to…I dunno, the barbershop or whatever.
Love cafe racers, man.
I could never grip the ball right to throw a splitter. I did throw an Olde Schoole pitch called a “forked ball”, though. Less drastic but similar grip. It’s not a pitch you see very often anymore.
It behaves more like a two seamer than a split finger, though.
On Yates –
I’d like to see the Yanks sign two relievers. He’s one that’s one my list of hopeful targets. See if Hal decides to spend this winter.
I’m proud of the way you’re handling this, Danny. I hate to say this, but I’m pretty bummed that you won’t be able to play.
But you’ll be able to play little league though, right? (Not sure what they call it down there at your age…senior league?, Pony league?) That’ll get you on the mound at least.
Ya know, we didn’t have pitch limits. We had innings limits. Which is how a fella can labor through six innings of 8 earned runs & no hits, uh? Lots & lots & *lots* of pitches lol.
60+ seems like a pretty good goal. That would have gotten me through…a couple innings? ;)
But you’re much better informed than I was.
I’ll be interested to hear what your velo is. I could hit the mid 80’s. Man. Can you believe that was actually considered to be a good fastball?
Zounds.
Once I discovered pitching I didn’t have near as much interest in batting. You can always get some hacks in at a cage. But, Ohtani’s are really rare.
Guess I focused more on Danny.
I’ll get back to you in a bit, Peter.
As always, good to hear from you guys, man.
Good evening, fellas (Part II) –
About a month ago, I reread this thread myself. It’s definitely entertaining! Covers a *lot* of ground.
But baseball is always somewhere in it.
My story doesn’t involve fire?
But.
Years ago I ran a remodeling crew. I dropped the guys off at a job site & started them off. Eliminating a large chimney that was no longer in use was part of the job.
So I set one of my guys to tearing it down.
Well.
He started from the…*bottom*! Lol.
Chimney came down ahead of schedule. Which is good! Not so good was the enormous mess left behind.
I think most pitchers talk to themselves on the mound. Fidrych was just rather…overt about it. I didn’t see him during his rookie year. Saw him throw once during one of his comeback attempts. Feel like I missed something there.
Was curious if you played any other sports. Rugby. Mercy. Pads, Peter. You’d be amazed.
“Seems like I’ve been fighting my whole life through…
A girl would giggle & my face would turn red…
A guy’d laugh & I’m bust him in the head…
I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue” ~ Johnny Cash.
Boxing?
So, having the name Francis was a bit of a problem at one time. As soon as I could join wrestling & boxing programs I did. I never got good at either one. I did – however – get better than someone who’d had no training.
By middle school no one said, “Francis is a girls name!”, anymore. So there’s that.
Snow geese are another one. We get 4 months out here where we can bring down as many as we can in any way possible. The population of these birds has exploded. To the point where there feces is destroying a pretty delicate ecosystem. Hunters help to keep things in balance.
At least that’s the idea & intent.
I spent a couple years in the Bay Area. A’s & Raiders fans are (were?) just simply some of the best fans out there, man. Don’t like the Raiders in Vegas. But I understand if.
Far too many stories like yours & Dominika’s (beautiful name, btw) lately. So many small businesses were just crushed. I’m not a doctor. Or a scientist. Just a fella on the internet. But I do go places. I do see things & talk to people.
From what I see, the fear of Covid is much more destructive than the actual disease itself. Which has been no joke & zero good times.
As always (Part II) good to hear from you fellas.
Quick aside Duckster…
Is the bike the 500 or the Tiger Daytona?
Made at Triumph (either way) in my home town (Coventry) – a late Uncle worked there when the Daytona was being produced….
The Tiger Daytona. The bike that ruled the Isle of Mann for a few years.
She’s rebuilt (i.e. electric start, no more Lucas Electric, doesn’t leak oil, etc) & “semi-restored”.
Bless Coventry!
Earlier this year I traded my Street Triple (I’m in my 50’s…I have no need for a street fighter, man) for a new 2019 Bonneville t100. That’ll be my highway bike.
The imported motorcycle market is like the reliever market. It’s definitely a saturated buyer’s marketplace & great deals abound.
Just be safe out there. My entire family has dropped riding motorcycles because of several deaths that have happened to people close to us because of riding. Lots of stupid people out there thinking that texting and driving is a skill that ages well through practice.
As to what you said the other day Ducky, I can’t play in any other league this year. I guess that’s just one of the cons of small town life, but I haven’t been able to play in LL in two years now. I’d love to play this year, but my best bet is to just keep doing what I’m doing at home.
It’s crazy how much hate is spreading throughout America right now. The thing that happened at the Capitol yesterday is probably the biggest event I’ve ever seen in modern history. I was glued to the TV as the videos and photos came in of people breaking windows and doors down. The guards weren’t ready. Of course people are going to try to blame it on the president (if I say his name my comment gets awaited moderation), but it wasn’t his fault. People in the crowd just incited violence and it all happened so quick it’s pathetic.
I am kind of curious what people in the UK are hearing and thinking about America right now though. I’ve always wanted to know how we’re perceived to foreign countries, so I think in this polarizing time, it would be interesting to ask. I’ve always thought that the rest of that world thinks of us as “Crazy Americans” which just amuses me.
Great talking to both of you as is always.
Just about to leave work but I’ll reply quickly Dan/Duckster…..
This might be drivel, because it’s gotta be quick….
Thing is that over here people don’t see the US as 50 different countries under an umbrella as I do. My perception might be wrong but – to me – theirs is more wrong. One of the things that first attracted me to baseball was that it is like an American social history. Again, this is simplistic, but the near apartheid that existed (or to me seemed to exist) has been slowly slowly righted.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still ongoing but I know what I see and I know we’re trying to go in the right direction. The same is true for my own country. Which recently voted out of a union. Dan – you made a passionate coherent constructive comment (way back) about (amongst other things) diversity within law enforcement and your family’s involvement therein, and the same is true now. Sadly the GOP has been hijacked by the popularist.
I don’t have a problem with which way people vote – I’m a believer (especially in the US) in voting for the statesman, regardless of which political party they represent. So I can see why Reagan beat Carter, (charisma, human touch, actor) I liked George Bush senior (again a man I’d describe as a statesman of integrity) whereas I’d lose Clinton, George Bush jnr, I was pro Obama but disappointed because he was so conservative.
The thing about the current orange haired gentleman is that he has contrived to empower & embolden the (lunatic) fringe. The world looks towards that bloody beautiful statue of liberty (and I wept when I walked around it) because that it what it was meant to be – liberation – however misguided – as a beacon of the free world. That’s a hell of burden. It’s been misused/misguided (Vietnam) but it’s effing difficult to play world policeman. Just as hard to be small town cop.
I’m much closer to Sean Doolittle than to the orange haired gentleman. My one final point would be that it’s a whole lot easier to label basket cases as such when you haven’t got a basket case as king of the castle.
And that’s a massive shame, because without the US support 1942 onwards my country could look a whole lot different.
Apologies because I had to rattle this out in 5 minutes flat. Point was – we’re feeling your pain. We yearn to see you as brothers, not idiots…
Lads,
Apologies if the quickly rattled message was a bit strong. I really didn’t have time to edit & censure my typing fingers. Idiots was wrong (and looking in the mirror!!!!) both wrong and inaccurate.
But the line about feeling your pain was true.
We all need friends not enemies right now.
So for giggles
youtube.com/watch?v=-fUL75TeNrI
The greatest Australian film ever,,,,
✎ Edit –
It’s ok about what you said, it was hardly offensive versus some of the stuff you’d hear either side call each other right now.
Despite what the news might say though, a lot is changing, and a lot is changing quick. This week might be the biggest week in American history this century, and that’s not an understatement nor a good statement. Censorship was the theme of today, and you can call me officially scared. When you start censoring one side, and only one side, bad things happen. Really bad things. (I’m not just referring to the T-man’s Twitter situation. There are other things going on too.) And it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. That’s the bad part.
T-man actually reminds me of y’alls Boris guy. Paves his own path, doesn’t take crap from anybody, and gets stuff done (no matter what people think). I’m probably ignorant in saying that, but just from his actions (Boris’), they seem alike.
I don’t want to make this discussion political, so unless you have something else you’d like to add, I’ll return to our regularly scheduled baseball/cricket programming. I have just been wanting to talk to other viewpoints lately because I feel like people are too stubborn to even talk about anything going on in the world now, and I’m trying to prove myself wrong about that matter.
Great talking, Peter.
Good morning, fellas.
I’ve been spending as much time as I am able to in the woods or on the water. At least I understand those places. Well…about as well as I can, anyway.
I will echo Danny’s sentiment in regards to what you posted, Peter. I’d love if what you posted was some kind of hallmark of offensive. Mostly because it wasn’t. My goodness but does America need some decent dialogue. Heavens.
I feel terrible about the country you (Danny) & my son are inheriting. You guys have a much harder path than what I had. My generation didn’t go out of our way to screw everything up? But we’ve done you no favors.
I loathe actions born from anger &/or fear. Sadly, those emotions are rampant currently. I also detest censorship in any form.
As someone who voted for the current (soon to be former) president I am really disappointed in recent events. We all really need to move on.
I’m just not seeing much desire to.
Ya know?
This extreme polarization is untenable. I don’t see many efforts being lent to finding common ground. The frustrating thing is that common ground does exist. It’s there!
Now, it may take some work to uncover? This thread is a great example.
& now look where we’ve landed. Censorship? Man. I legitimately fear an armed uprising. That is not America. So rather than contemplate all this I’ve been choosing to just get away from it all as best I’m able.
I spent a couple years in Bosnia as part of the UN Peacekeeping force. (Ironically termed as there was simply no peace to be kept.) I’ve seen my share of violence, man. I’d say more than my share, but I don’t want to come off as whiney.
@Danny
On bikes, yeah I hear ya, man. Been to more than one funeral due to them. Couple things: first I put a little over 3K miles on my Speed Triple in 5 years. & of even more importance I’m 53. Not 23.
;)
Also, I guess I’m pretty surprised that you’ve no access to LL. Since my son plays tennis for his spring sport I really don’t have much idea about the current state little league baseball. My son abandoned the sport at the T-ball level.
Thanks for showing that level headed dialogue can exist. I appreciate you fellas. Very much so.
Morning Ducky – you’re either up very early or very late Or both.
Dan – I’ve got a degree (not much used!!!) in politics & economics. Specialties – avoiding environmental catastrophe and narco-economies in Latin America (basically drop the debt as a conclusion) and the opening up of post communist eastern Europe & Russia to capitalism. (By the way I’m hoping this week isn’t the worst (or most significant) this century because of 9/11. Hoping…)
But before majoring – constitutional law. It’s why the film (The Castle) strikes just a personal chord, but if you can get to watch that film (as linked earlier) I promise somewhere it’ll bring a smile.
Which is what our conversation has done for me throughout.
Ducky – I hate censorship in any way shape or form because it suppresses debate. We might not agree but I want your voice heard as much as mine. Censorship is futile because it adds fuel to the fire rather than extinguishing it.
Dan – Boris (over here) reminds me more of Bill Clinton than the current incumbent. (Trouser antics, let’s say)….
Ducky I was at the end of my degree when the break up of Yugoslavia was occurring. The united slavic state was a “reward” for WW1 loyalties. No irony there. I cannot imagine what that was like. I’ve heard stories (from UK servicemen) of peacekeepers having to exhume mass graves. I’ll leave it there. Thank you for your service just doesn’t and will never cover it.
Which US General was it whose instructions about the liberation of Nazi concentration camps (kind of invented by we British in South Africa) – instructions to record everything because some day someone will deny everything….
Anyway, I agree Dan – let’s head back to BB and wish profound peace and happiness for this still shiny new year. And some pitching for you.
Saddened to hear of Tommy Lasordas passing but the stories put a smile on. The video of him vs the Phanatic is Muppet Show funny. He wasn’t in any way perfect but a few of the things I’ve read made me laugh.
The off season (apart from a few obvious anomalies) seems like a scratched record at a tea dance. I can understand why most teams are loathe to commit when attendance (at least in spring) is unlikely.
The current MLBTR debate (other than quality merchandise) seems to be about pine tar. Now you blokes are better versed in grip (especially as my workplace curveball narrowly avoided both the unprotected lighting and an unprotected colleague) but I don’t actually have that big a problem with it. (Like the video and the analogy Dan of the Rangers prospect going to his belt more often than a fellow after four servings on thanksgiving)… I can understand why batters would use pine tar – George Brett’s outrage as a smiling sideline – because you don’t want to inadvertently let go of the bat and kill someone along the 3B line. I think that so long as the substance doesn’t alter the action on the ball (it’s a fine line I know) and avoids accidental beanings (I once broke a batsman’s arm when I was a quick bowler before graduating to the cricketing equivalent of a knuckler and separately had my own cheekbone broken) I honestly think it’s fine. But you’d know more about spin rates – but it’s intriguing to me because the RPM spin rates (size matters darling!) achievable on a cricket ball (with a diametric seam) are pretty much exactly the same on a baseball. The human wrist and fingers can only impart a certain amount of action.
Oh and apart from all this, I’m peeved Robbie Grossman is headed for Detroit.
Great weekends guys and slightly more editing than previous….
Peter
PS – Ducky – If you youtube Fred Bibnah (& maybe demolition) you’ll find a colleague’s kindred spirit. A very special British lunatic….) And finally Francis – are you of Irish origin?
Oops – typo – Fred Dibnah….
Blimey – a final reply to myself.
You mentioned tennis – it’s the closest you’ll get to cricket in a lot of ways – except the hardness of the ball, when you’re receiving. Roughly same height, same kind of angle off the deck, similar pace.
When I was trying to be a serious cricketer, I had a friend who was a serious tennis player – I’d be his practice bunny with obvious benefits to us both. We’d play three sets for £10. I had to win six games in three sets to win the £10. Seems like a fair handicap, it wasn’t. I won about twice in twenty matches and believe me, that tenner was hard earned. I certainly never won a set off him.
It helped us both – I’d go “all in” on the ones I could actually reach and weren’t blown past me – and he bought the refreshments afterwards. Well the winner bought – and I don’t remember buying that often! And when he served/volleyed my entire game plan was to hammer the ball as hard as I could at his body. Especially the vulnerable bits.
When you’re 6-0, 6-1, 5-1 down, smashing your mate in the trouser region is remarkably good for the soul.
Good evening*, fellas.
Oh gosh.
Up early. I’m a morning person that really only needs about 6 hours of sleep/night. Needed even less when I was younger.
I’m just not that guy anymore. Since I became a single parent I think I’ve been “up” that late twice. Once was last April when my partner, his wife, a couple of our field reps, & myself put a 30 hour day in converting our entire sales operation to being completely paperless. A Covid thing.
I’m not much of a tech guy? But I can do busywork, make espresso, & sit on hold with tech support at All Star levels.
You’re educational background is of particular interest to me. My son right now is planning to study Econ, Math, Global Business, & Spanish. I’m wondering if I could give him your email address, please? I think he’d be interested in asking you some questions. He’s a good kid. He & Danny have a lot of similar traits.
I remember thinking how beautiful the Balkans were. & how you could tell it had been a civilized land for a very long time.
A few years ago, my son was thinking about a military career. He was talking about Annapolis or the Citadel for college. That’s the only time in my life I’ve ever really talked about what happened, what I saw, how it effected me. Took a few hours & a bit too much bourbon. But I wanted him to really understand. If it was going to be his path then so be it. I’d support it & be proud as hell. I also wanted him to have a thorough understanding of what the word “service” actually entails.
What really sticks with me is how truly awful we can be to one another. When I enlisted I’d graduated college & pretty much had; All The Answers To Everything Ever.
Ya know?
Turned out I was quite mistaken.
Wherever this thread goes I’ll probably continue to participate. I feel I benefit from the perspectives you guys are providing. & let’s face it. There’s not much actual baseball news to discuss. But I’ll follow where you guys lead.
To me, Tommy Lasorda *is* the Dodgers, man. Certainly remember him in the dugout in the World Series. We got him twice. He got us in ’81 though. In the end he was a passionate baseball lifer. You hear stories about him as a very old man chastising Angels fans.
Awesome.
If I live that long one of my requests will be to retain that level of fire & intensity.
Baseball lost a real character, man.
So when I was learning to pitch Gaylord Perry was winning Cy Young’s, pitching in All Star games, & in general being an ace.
& it was common knowledge he threw spit balls.
I set out to learn more.
It just wasn’t really viewed as “cheating”. Rather, it was more viewed as guile & gamesmanship.
Ya know?
First.
A “spit ball” is not an actual pitch. Here’s how I learned to use it. You add a little Vaseline to 3-5 seams on only one side of the ball. Then you throw your breaking pitch. As pitchers & bowlers I’m sure you guys intuitively understand what that would do.
It changes the center of rotation.
So your slider or curve or whatever has more bite. I’ve no problem with pitchers using a substance for grip. If – however – they start applying it directly to the ball then you are giving them an unfair advantage.
I’ve told you guys about how awful my control was. So I never actually threw a spitter in-game. Extra break was just that much harder to control. But…if my control had been better?
Yeah.
Probably would’ve.
Grossman was a pretty nice player out here for the Twins. Guy gets on base.
So when are we going to get a deluge of deals? Pitchers and catchers report in about 5 weeks. I wonder if we’ll see a slow thaw or a sudden hot flash.
I’m actually adopted, Peter.
So I’m really not sure? I was raised by French Catholics.
When my son was doing his family tree as a school project I noticed that there was only one branch for me. I asked him why. He said, “You’re adopted, dad. You’re a genetic dead end”. Well… yeah. But how ’bout a little tact, bro?
So when my son was younger & I was growing my company the YMCA & Park Boards saved me. Luckily, my son always liked to do stuff. But, honestly, the Y & the local parks were essentially good, safe, & very inexpensive baby sitting.
That’s how he got into tennis. It’s all at once his least favorite sport yet his best.
I had a roommate who had a similar arrangement with me & chess. Never thought of throwing my king into his nether region, however. There is a lost opportunity. To this day I despise chess, man.
I recall when I used to take my son to the park and volley with him. The last time we did that he volleyed with me. Ya know?
He also beats me at one on one basketball now, too. No matter how much I cheat & ugly up the game.
“Winner buys” is a great policy.
Stay up, fellas. Catch you next time.
*I should probably learn** what time it actually is in London
**Yikes! It’s almost 4:00 AM!
I guess it’s my turn to share… (Not that my story will equate to anywhere’s near the magnitude of either of y’alls, nor should it. But I’ll share my side nonetheless.
I don’t know where to start… Maybe that I’ve had more surgeries in my life than I have fingers. Breaking the growth plate in my knee, and several skull surgeries when I was an infant. Those surgeries have now caused me to have ridges down the middle of the top of my head (not noticeable since my hair is covering it).
I think what has effected me most though is when I moved to online homeschool. All the friends I had up and to 5th grade were gone, and I went from being around people my age everyday to not seeing them for months at a time. The times I did go out, it was into the city to bowling alleys etc. That’s where I made my new friends… adults. All of them. The only time I ever saw any of my friends my age was during…
Baseball season. Hence my love for the game. I am not bragging when I say this, but I cared more about being out there than anybody else on that team. Every step was took with effort, and every word was said with purpose.
The main reason I had to go to homeschool was because of my little brother’s who had just been born a year prior to that. My mom couldn’t handle them by herself at home while my dad was gone at work. She has a very bad back from an injury she sustained while working the Sherriff’s department plus M.S which she has been diagnosed with two years ago. She needs help, so that was the main reason I got pulled.
About my future… Once I get my signing bonus from the Rangers, I’m wanting to fly both of y’all down to Austin lmao. I still got a ways yet until that lol. But Peter, on one of your trips to the US, you need to come to Austin. The greatest city in America (I’m not biased at all…). Great food, great people, great culture, great scenery, great nightlife, a great college. That reminds me, if you want a fun sports experience, go to a Longhorns football game. Even if you don’t know much about football, or even don’t care about it, that’s one of the best sports watching experiences you can have. One of the greatest things I’ve seen live.
About my real future though, I want to get a Sports Management major and a minor in Business economics. The GM dream is real. But I also have a fascination with Politics. I’m really good at debates with anybody. I just want to be in the unique position of trying to persuade people’s opinions for a purpose, not just for BS sports arguments on a public forum. I feel like I’m going to end up getting into politics somehow, but I just don’t want to be some scummy lobbyist funded d**khead. I’d hate if I let money sway my opinion that much. I live in a family that has learned to live off of crunched salaries comfortably without lavish buys. I’ve learned from that too.
Great keeping the conversation going guys. Btw, I agree with Francis, baseball news is slow right now, and I really like the outside conversations we’re having despite that.
Lastly, I know I said it before Francis, but thank you for your service. I just feel like saying thank you for your service isn’t enough. Some stuff is just more than words.
Sunday morning and I wake to read two incredibly profound poignant messages.
(I can’t add much other than to say I’m genuinely in awe of both of you. Brave just doesn’t describe it. To either of you. Dan – the paragraph – which finished – every step with effort, every word with purpose – was brilliant. Hold that, keep that and use that.)
Myself and the Duckster can have a game of chess to decide who pays for the flights to watch your debut .
In comparison to you both I’ve had it easy.
So lets go with chess, for a moment. My grandfather (ex-boxer) loved chess. Didn’t want me to box. He got his wish I swung rather than boxed. Played chess against him for like – for ever. Never beat him til I was about 14. And the moment I beat him for the first time – sea change – was a moment I won’t forget. He knew and I knew.
Duckster – Peter_Myton@hotmail.com or myton@ppg.com. Hopefully I won’t get moderated on these. Yes, I sell paint for PPG (based in Pittsburgh.) I’m trying to get them to renovate all the negro league murals across your country. There’s a beauty in Pittsburgh (5th Avenue) and a pretty good one in Boston. My God did I love Pittsburgh. Xavier is welcome to e-mail me – I can point him towards my niece who has a Spanish degree, and me for the economics/business part of the equation.
Re: the murals – I might need your help to do this – PPG as a company are incredibly conservative – whereas I just want to do a “good thing” so the global power of baseball – well – simply put, let’s try and do a good thing.
Genetic dead end – thanks, son!!!! I might have been tempted to enquire where that leaves the next branch, but I guess that’s where tact intervened.
Take care remarkable people
Peter
Dan,
I’ve tried and failed to reply communally but believe me, you are a remarkable young man. If you’re caring for your Mother, building your own mound, working your own programme, overcoming surgeries, avoiding your neighbour’s pyromania. I doubt I’d have been able to fight against those odds.
Apologies for the pyromania reference, again….
Back along in one of the previous messages I mentioned that given an opportunity, you will thrive. No reason to change that comment.
Where’s your pitching programme at now?
*Chess?!*
Aww, man.
Can we play tennis or one on one hoops instead?
If it’s chess I’ll just knock my king over now.
Danny –
Your story has remarkable power. It pales not in the least in comparison, serious.
We’ve had a few of these pieces to work with? But now you’ve provided enough to complete the entire picture.
Did you happen to watch Liam Hendricks close out the White Sox in games 2 & 3 of their series this year?
It was amazing, man.
Statcast will tell you that he threw the two hardest fastballs of his season during his game 3 outting. Indeed, he threw the two hardest pitches of his *entire career* that day. What statcast does not tell you is that he threw 59(!) pitches the day before.
There is no Fangraph for the way between pitches he stormed around the mound, growling, snarling, muttering, cursing, indeed even screaming as he got his exhausted arm & body ready to set, rock, fire: Just One More Time.
So…why am I bringing this up, uh?
Because what Hendricks showed that day is that thing we call “heart”. And you can’t chart or graph that. It is something inside of someone. It’s something that you are either born with or not.
“I’m not bragging when I say this but I cared more about being out there than anyone else on that team.”
I bet you did.
Because you have heart, man.
I rarely ever read a post more than once. I’ve read yours 3 times, man. It is inspirational. Anyone who wants to talk crap about your generation should be forced to read this.
I cannot tell you how impressed I am by your comportment. How impressed I am by your values. & – the biggest one – by your *actions*. I can’t help but tip my hat to your parents, as well.
They’ve obviously done things right with you, man.
Like Peter, I too believe in the end your perseverance will pay off. You’ll climb that mound.
On that note, I appreciate your input on that, London. It got me thinking the right way. I was contemplating throwing an unhelpful tantrum.
Danny speaks the truth about Austin. It’s definitely a Great American City.
Peter (thanks for the email address, for real) –
My grandfather (WWII vet) was probably the biggest single influence on my life. Even though I was the adopted grandkid I happened to also be the only one who shared his interests; baseball, football, hunting, fishing. The older I get the more I slowly morph into him. Interesting nature vs nurture case perhaps.
Regardless, I bet we could swap grandfather stories for hours, uh?
I studied architecture in college. Then the Marine Corp taught me engineering (their version). Anyway, I love building, buildings, & structures. Bridges restore my faith in humanity. & Pittsburgh is the city to check out bridges.
Thank you, Danny. I’ll accept that on behalf of all the great men and women I served with.
Sunday, fellas.
Got the dogs out for a…rabbit walk – if you will – this morning. Football is on. My son, his friend, their girlfriends, & my girlfriend are all here. I’ll be watching a little? (No Giants = Not Much Fun) But mostly I’ll be putting together a big family meal starring black duck, grey grouse, & sturgeon. Love cooking a big Sunday dinner. I tend towards French recipes.
Always good.
“No, dad. There’s nothing weird about making friends on the internet.” ~ Xavier
He’s not wrong. Ya know?
Later, fellas.
Peter – You asked about the progress of my program the other day, and I figured that I’d answer it now, along with other things.
My throwing hasn’t been halted whatsoever. But the SNOW that we got yesterday stopped it nevertheless. Yes, we got two inches of snow yesterday! Two! That might not seen crazy to a northerners, but that is like a blizzard here. Schools close, things are canceled, and unless you are an essential worker, you stay home. I only did band stuff today because I want to slowly introduce myself again rather than rushing back after a couple days off. Tomorrow I will throw again.
I want to buy Jaegar’s 25 dollar year round throwing program book soon. Not only does it detail year round throwing and training, but it also details some of the specifics of their training. Very detailed. Jaeger has been the advancement of the sport for a while, so reading into their work is some of the best training I can do.
Francis – I’m not sure what it is, but Grandfathers are some of the best influences anybody can have. Maybe it’s how casual it is to be a Grandfather or maybe it’s the flexibility there is to be able to see your grandchildren whenever you want.
Some speak of old war stories while others just pass on life experiences in other ways. Weird how they always seem to be cornerstones in the raising of youth.
Good evening, Danny & good night, Peter.
I like when Peter uses spellings like “programme”. It makes me feel kinda classy.
Good to hear that you’re continuing to throw. A lesser man may have chosen to sulk.
I just don’t really know how to react to 2″ of snow facilitating a slow down of any type. Generally up here we’d refer to that as something like “Tuesday morning”.
;)
Kidding aside, it seemed like you really ramped up in a hurry last time. Are pitchers still encouraged to run, Danny? That was definitely a part of how they tried to prepare us.
But training methods – particularly for pitchers – have gotten so much better.
Googled that book.
Yeah, that seems like a young pitchers Bible, man.
Once again, I’m going to recommend checking out all the great pitching articles on Fangraphs. Loads of stuff. The pitch development series is really cool.
It’s interviews with different MLB pitchers about how they developed a certain pitch. I’d’ve loved to have something like that available in the olden days.
But obviously I was too busy walking 10 miles to school. Everyday. Uphill. Both ways. ;)
Sounds like you have a grandfather in your life, as well.
Also…dear lord. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of actually *being* one lol!
Got some things happening in baseball, fellas. I think Hendricks signing will start the reliever market – at least – moving. Hope the Yanks get in on some of that action. So many quality arms available. Doubt we’ll ever see this sheer volume again.
Alright, fellas.
See ya when I see ya.
Be good & do good in the meantime, uh.
There’s quite a few points to cover in that comment, but I’ll hit on all of them lol.
The snow was really cool (literally), and that was only the 2nd time in my life that I have experienced that much snow before. Great every time.
As for running… There’s a lot I could cover on that front, but right now I don’t. I do aerobic stuff like jogging and sprints, but rarely will I ever run after throwing. I find it to be a good pre-throwing warmup, but as for doing it afterwards, I don’t.
It’s interesting because coaches will say that it helps to flush the lactic acid from your arms, but it really doesn’t help too much? It is essentially just cardio work while your body is already sore. Trevor Bauer explained it well here: youtube.com/watch?v=KMvdWv0wwno
I have realized that I get most of my information from Youtube, but that’s because that’s where I spend most my time when watching guys like Bauer or stat guys like Foolish Baseball. This year I want to spend more time reading information along with watching videos on what I want to learn.
That leads into your recommendation of the fangraphs pitching development articles. I will have to check those out very soon. I love the mix of pitches that I have now, but there’s a big difference between “good” and “elite”, and I want to be elite. The first thing I want to cover is consistency. Consistent deliveries, release points, motions, arm actions, and pitch consistency. My accuracy is already pretty good, but that’s something I can hone in on as well. Though after consistency, that’s when I’ll hit on the velo and break along with things like pitch axis. Getting really in-depth – I hope – will provide me with a lot of “followers” once I get into HS pitching (not social media followers, but philosophy followers and people who understand what I’m trying to accomplish).
I have a really good grandfather in my life. In fact, he lives just a mile down the road from us and I go over there quite often. He’s been my role model from a really young age, and he respects the way I work more than anybody as do I towards him. That is a shared feeling between us.
There’s several other topics I’d like to hit on in this already long reply, so I’ll get to them since I have the time:
Mental reps: This is one of the main contributors to success that you can have, and what’s funny is that it can’t be tracked. It’s like the Yips or having heart, it’s an un-trackable variable to attribute to somebody’s play. The best example of this that I’ve seen is in ex… (sadness) Longhorn’s quarterback, Sam Ehlinger. Ever since he was 4 he wanted to be the quarterback of the Longhorns, and one of the main things he did growing up was just picturing himself in that position. A title game, the national championship, throwing completions, touchdowns, the whole ordeal. He did this his entire life until he became a Longhorn and started actually doing those things. Mental reps are a large contributor to success although it gets forgotten in the fold.
I also want to wake-up earlier… I’ve said this for a while, but I really want to start waking up at around 8:00 and getting my day started hot… though typically 11:00 is the start of my “hot” morning lol. I’d want to get my workout stuff accomplished earlier in the day if I got that opportunity too, but I just never start it. That’s one thing that I am not steadfast on… sleep. I have a weird schedule, and that’s gonna have to change soon if I want to get more done.
This was a long reply, but I hope it came out well. It wasn’t edited either, so if I said too instead of to somewhere don’t harp on it lol.
Great talking with both of y’all as is always.
I’m not a grammar cop. I try to make an effort to proofread/edit, but I see times when I’ll post “your” as opposed to “you’re”.
I was going to post the entire quote but it’s too long. Check out what Marcus Aurelius has to say in regards to correcting others grammar.
No reason not to take advantage of what’s available on YouTube, man. Bro. I wasn’t expecting to become a parent. Ever. Therefore I was woefully under- prepared.
True story; I learned to change diapers from YouTube videos. Great resource. Take advantage of it. Mercy. So very glad changing diapers is in the rearview.
Anyway.
I missed snow & cold when I lived in California. Just can’t imagine not seeing it.
The thought process behind jogging for us was that it helped build lower leg strength & helped build endurance. When you’re ball starts sailing high pitch after pitch that’s *not* your *arm* that’s tiring. It’s your legs. Counterintuitive I know. But that is one thing that remains as true today as it did 40 years ago.
I was taught that there’s no such thing as running too much as a pitcher. To be honest I’ve never cared for it overly much. But I did it. Seemed to have helped.
I’m going for a two for one here:
My grandfather had a million stories. He told me one when I was really young that parts of have stayed with me forever. It was about some old Pirates pitcher. Apparently he was a county boy. He had no access to actually play baseball but he had a huge love for the game.
He hung frying pans(!) from tree branches(!) & would practice pitching to those. He could even do it in the dark(!) as he could hear(!) his pitches hitting the cast iron.
I don’t know exactly why? But I’ll never be able to rid myself of that image.
Makes me happy you’ve got a good grandfather in your life, as well. I bet you’re good company for *him*, too. Sounds like you two have a great relationship.
The term I’ve used for that is “positive visualization”. Flakey Phil Jackson was a huge proponent of it. Jordan speaks about how it really helped him elevate his game. Steph Curry swears by it also. There is definitely some meat on that bone.
I’ve been wondering when it would begin to surface in other sports.
I definitely knew how to sleep in when I was younger. Don’t forget, you may actually still be growing. Need your rest really bad during those times.
Always a pleasure, fellas.
Real quick…
I wanted to ask if you had a grandfather in your life, too. I was worried that might somehow be out of line.
I just want to say that sometimes I’m about as socially graceful as Trevor Bauer.
If I ever actually offend either of you two, please realize I absolutely had no intention of doing that & that I’m good with you y’all letting me know I did.
As far as not offending anybody goes, you are doing fine. If I compared you to some others on this site you’d seem like a poet. That’s definatley not something to worry about on your part.
Btw, I love some of the stuff I’ve seen over at Fangraphs about pitch development so far. My (oddly) favorite pitcher also has a segment on there talking about his changeup: blogs.fangraphs.com/dylan-bundy-cory-gearrin-and-d…
So much stuff to look over and apply to my own game. Thanks for telling me.
(Hey, and my favorite pitcher is Cory Gearrin… weird, I know.)
I love that series. Tons of first hand accounts/info.
Of course!
That is a weird one. I remember being marginally excited when the Yanks picked him up. Gotta ask…why?
The reason I like Gearrin is because whenever we traded for him, that’s when I started becoming a deeper baseball fan in general. I think it was about two years into me watching baseball that he got traded from SF to TEX, and I just loved the thought of seeing a new player on the Rangers. That’s also about the time that I started trying to pitch, and I just loved his funky style. The weird arm slot, the hard break, everything. I loved watching him. It felt like that “new toy” type of player.
I have also been reading over a lot of changeup stuff, and I have gotten some really good ideas. There was one asking Degrom where he learned his changeup and he said it was from Johan Santana. Santana told him that the way you know that you have a good changeup is when you can throw long toss with it, and it doesn’t reach your partner because of the spin. That’s a really interesting cue that I will definatley use. I also saw that Gearrin’s changeup grip is really close to mine, so I’ll try throwing his in long toss and seeing what happens.
So much more stuff to try.
Danny Bigheart –
What’s going on?
Gearrin pitched decently for the Yanks in ’19. I was kind of excited when we picked him up. He’s another of those spin rate darlings.
I think he was with the Twins last year.
The first trade I recall is when the Yanks sent Micky Rivers & Sparky Lyle to…the Texas Rangers! Ugh. I was 10 & pretty devastated as those were my two favorite players at that time. I can neither confirm nor deny that – contrary to the popular saying – there may have actually been some crying in baseball that day.
My first encounter with the “baseball is a business” thing.
Santana had one of the most devastating change ups I’ve ever seen. I saw him throw out here a few times. Dude could sling it, serious. & that change just floated & disappeared up there. I cannot think of a better change up to emulate.
And when you run out of things to try you can hang your mother’s frying pans from tree branches & throw at them in the dark.
;)
Is it disheartening to you that I have no idea who those two guys are? lol
I think my first “baseball is a business” feeling was the diminishing of Prince Fielder. I loved Prince Fielder, and seeing him hit upper deck tanks at the old Globe Life Park is what made me fall in love with the game. So majestic, so powerful. Then this happened: youtube.com/watch?v=cMKwULpTbUg
I will still say to this day that, that moment was the saddest moment in baseball history. I hope to see one of those two boys next to him be in the big leagues one day though.
Santana had a brilliant changeup. He needs to be a HOF, it just sucks that injuries shot him down. He wasn’t bad when he had to leave the game, he was just injury riddled. The veterans committee should let him into the hall though. Another HOFer – in my eyes – is Cole Hamels. He had a really long, solid peak, and he has always been a consistent performer outside of that too. He’s just so underrated that I think he’ll have to get on by the vet’s committee as well.
Btw, the cast iron idea is a no by me chief. lol
I do have some innovative ideas floating around in my head right now outside of my training. The main thing I want to do this summer is to get my name floating around the baseball community a little bit more, and not just as Rangers29. I might create a Youtube channel, start writing fangraphs stuff, a lot of things. Something I am wanting to study though is WAR. I want to – and I know this sounds ambitious – fix WAR. WAR is such a polarizing stat that there are more than one version of what should be the same thing. I want to fix whats wrong with it, and really pinpoint a player’s value with that stat.
Really big ideas, but I’ll need help on some of them too.
Go easy on me lol.
I actually had a couple hours of work to do today, man.
Nah.
But that was the team I grew up with. The Bronx Zoo clubs. Chemistry? How bout fist fights in the dugout. That team was wild, man. 4 pennants 2 World Series victories, though.
Chemistry is called “winning”.
Don’t know if you are much of a reader? But there’s a great book about that team called ‘The Bronx is Burning’. It’s actually pretty relevant today on a social level.
I’m not going to assign homework? But I will strongly recommend it.
I remember Prince’s father. I was actually at the game when he recorded his first & only stolen base. Real shame how Prince Fielder’s career ended. Seemed so sudden.
I just don’t know about Santana as a HOFer. Maybe? Honestly, I’ve lost complete respect for the hall since Selig was voted in while the greatest ballplayers of my generation are ostracized & vilannized. Absolute joke. & the reason I’m pretty impatient with baseball writers in general. I’ve a theory. It’s rather unflattering towards the BBWA.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! lol Yeah…I get it.
WAR will always be an estimate though, won’t it? Ya know?
Anyway, we’re getting your life’s supply of snow up here today. I’m going to try & slip a couple hours of some hunting in this afternoon.
Later, bro.
Stay up.
Lads I’m really sorry to be so reticent in replying but I appear to be dealing with something untoward at work.
I’m responsible for 5 territories and have just inherited a 6th. Let’s say I’m dealing with Jackson Rose territory. Next to Bonds pin cushion point.
You’re intelligent. Apols, want to talk about pitch mirroring
Lads I’m really sorry to be so reticent in replying but I appear to be dealing with something untoward at work.
I’m responsible for 5 territories and have just inherited a 6th. Let’s say I’m dealing with Jackson Rose territory. Next to Bonds pin cushion point.
You’re intelligent. Apols, want to talk about pitch mirroring
Will respond eloquently on Sunday when I have time to make a response worthy of your constructive comments.
Apologies again lads but it’s really difficult right now
Peter
Man.
& here I was grumbling because I actually had to suit up for a couple hours this week.
That’s a significant increase, Peter. From a volume viewpoint that’s an increase ~ 16.5%. Which would simply have to create some kind of strain. I actually don’t even need to meet the fella who could shrug that off.
So I get it.
& – of course – it’s not only a matter of volume either. Right? Gotta sprinkle in a little Murphy’s Law every so often.
Thanks for checking in.
Haven’t seen you on any of the boards so I was hoping all was well.
I still am.
Sounds like you’re working really hard these days. Looking forward to hearing from you again.
Mirroring is a pretty fascinating topic.
I have real mixed feelings on it. It seems to be a furtherance of the the Tampa Bay Ray’s-ing of all MLB pitcher development.
Stay good.
Peter – I have finals this week and I thought that was strenuous. Don’t burst a blood vessel doing what you’re doing. Luckily you get Sunday off, and hopefully you get time to rest up then.
Btw, me and Francis were talking earlier about who our all-time favorite pitchers were, and I figured I’d say my all-time favorite players – at each position – here.
Starters:
Lynn
Kluber
Verlander
Bauer
Woodruff
Relievers:
Cory Gearrin
Johnathan Hernandez
Aroldis Chapman
Jason Grilli
Liam Hendriks
1B:
Prince Fielder
2b:
Jose…Altuve
3b:
BELTRE!!!
SS:
Tulo
LF:
Yelich
CF:
Trout
RF:
Bonds
C:
Napoli (though Sam Huff might dethrone him soon)
Very recent, but I like all of those guys. Btw, imagine just how good this team would be… nasty!
A little early then.
Dan – good luck in your finals – I think you should (mostly) stay off here – other than for soundbites (Mum jokes) so you can get your head down & study. I was up at 5am to get out and study the forensics. Territories is a big big word, but it’s really paint shops/stores. Honestly, it’s not a biggie.
If I can choose my list: And it’ll be heavily A’s centric. Weird eh?
Starters – Sonny Gray, Zach Greinke, Tommy Milone (known to A’s fans as Chilled to the bone/the fraudster) RA Dickey (the devil threw an 89 pitch CG shut out against my lot) Dennis Eckersley….
Relievers – I’ll see your Aussie and add Grant Balfour, Rollie Fingers, my fellow longhair Hader in Milwaukee (without the tweets) Jerry Blevins (personal) and I agree – Aroldis….
Infield – I’ve gotta have my Matts (Chapman & Olson) on my corners – I tell you what Matt Chapman (a ludicrous gamer) is going to get an equally ludicrous contract in a couple of years. I’ve got to have Jeter at SS. I know, I know, not the greatest defender but I’ll take his intuition in hitting, brains, heart all day long. 2B is so difficult, but I’ll have Roberto Alomar over Biggio Snr….
Outfield…. I’m a bit spoiled – I’m gonna stick with players I’ve watched live or online. In left Cespedes (healthy) centre I agree Trout, and I want the much maligned Judge on the right. That one’s for you Duckster…
Catcher – wowsers – I want Thurman Munson’s moustache. Actually I’ll have a 6 man rotation so Wainwright & Molina. Because it’s BB heaven to watch those two guys. You can’t steal signs because they’re aren’t any. Nod, set-up pitch.
DH – DAN YOU MISSED DH!!!! I’ll go Papi…. narrowly over Khris Davis.
Take care. catch up later.
“Honestly, it’s not a biggie.”
Stiff upper lip & all that, aye?
It’s almost cheating doing this as a Yankee fan.
Starting staff:
Guidry
Pettite
El Duque
El Tiante’
Tanaka-san
Bullpen:
Rivera to close. Sparky & Goose as multi inning firemen. Jeff Nelson & Britton to set up. Mike Stanton second lefty. Dick Tidrowe as long guy. Ramiro Mendoza Swiss army knife.
C – Munson
1b – Mattingly
2b – Willie Randolph
SS – in a surprise development: Didi
3b – Nettles
UTIL – Brian Doyle
Outfield was really hard to narrow down.
I’d have HOF corners in Reggie (love Judge…but; Reggie, ya know?) & Winfield. Gardy in CF (another really tough call. Loved Rivers & Bernie so much, man). Roy White 4th outfielder.
DH:
Giancarlo Stanton
Bro.
That club would win 120+ games, serious.
My DH? Nellie Cruz all day long.
Francis, I really liked you including Bernie Williams on the list. He is – Hot take – the most underrated player in baseball history.
I’ll post a longer reply later, but I just wanted to say that right quick.
Just swinging through to wish you fellas a happy Sunday.
Jeez – I missed Rickey Henderson, but other than Eckersley, Thurman Munson, Biggio, Alomar and Rollie Fingers I either saw (live) personally or watched on TV/On line – live – all of the others.
And Rickey vs Trout is a difficult one. Rickey could steal a rabbit off a mink without the mink noticing or at least being able to react…
I’ll take Yusmeiro Petit as the long man. I watched rapt in a bar in SF in 2014 (after my A’s had let me down – and to be fair there was something small ball special about the 2014-15 Royals) as Petit worked about 7 innings in relief in that 16/17 frame lunacy against the Nationals. His strike out of Harper (& Harper’s tizzy fit & subsequent ejection – to be suckered with two identical “high” curves remains the ballsiest bit of pitching…. One of the bar guys (on a split shift) served us a couple of beers & was astounded we were still there and lucid four hours later.
“You’re not from round here, are you?”
It was too engaging to be able to drink too much.
There was a bar lady with a magnificent pair of accessories (I think they’d been paid for) but nevertheless best stiff upper lip
Just looked it up. Petit pitched six with one hit – three walks – one intentional. It went 18 innings (I remember 6hrs 37mins as a game time)
Will post more sensibly later.
Happy Mondays
Peter
Got to see Ricky bein Ricky when he played for the Yanks.
You ain’t kidding. Mercy what an unrepentant thief.
Those Yanks teams get hammered by a lot of our fans. They were really good squads, though. Yanks had the second most wins in baseball in the 80’s. Alas, no Wild Card games back then so they stayed home.
My retriever got into a scuffle over a mallard with a mink once. She brought the duck back…sans head & neck.
I really like Petit as an addition to the Yankees pen. He’s one of the guys I’ve zeroed in on.
I bet you are a blast in the pub when the game is on the telly.
Back at you. Have a great Monday, fellas.
I’ve had to take several spastic breaks from my program lately, but I’ve still been able to work around it quite often and find time to get outside.
I think I fixed something though! If my command wasn’t already good before, well then now it is almost pin-point. I introduced a Max Scherzer-esque arm swing into my motion as I lift my leg… well… see for yourself here: youtube.com/watch?v=GosjPR6ZXeA
That makes my arms stay in a fluid motion with my legs as I go through my delivery causing me to be more consistent each pitch. Before my arms would be inconsistent as I went through my delivery (that might’ve even caused some kind of pitch tipping that I didn’t know about). But this way I have to consistently have those arms moving in a fluid pattern each time. I love it.
That has also caused my leg lift to be higher (something I’ve wanted, but haven’t ever been able to figure out how to do comfortably). It has also ticked up my velo 1-2 mph. I don’t have a radar-gun, but I can just tell. Some things are almost sensed.
I’m going to be out of town this weekend where there’s no internet or phone connection, so I’ll not be able to get on then, but I won’t be hurt or anything.
Nice talking.
It’s amazing how much can be done by just a simple little mechanical tweak. We see it in MLB all the time.
Rich Hill changed his grip, messed with his delivery & rode that to tens of millions of dollars. Adam Ottavino is another one. Sonny Gray reunites with his old pitching coach & he’s a Cy Young Caliber pitcher, again.
Look how many times JA Happ has reinvented himself. Nathon Eovaldi…the list is enormous.
Do everything you can to emulate Scherzer, man. He’s a HOFer, serious.
Hope finals went well for you, Danny. Didn’t see you here much. Thanks for the heads up on the trip.
Somehow, my “worried mother” gene got activated by parenthood, man. I’d’ve noticed you were gone.
Enjoy being away from electronics. I’ve invested a bit into staying “connected” via some nautical equipment. Man, when all is said and done, I have faster service in the middle of nowhere than I do in the city.
Which is a…mixed bag, shall we say.
Good to hear from you.
See ya when I see ya.
Ah bollox – Henry Aaron.
It’s actually my birthday today and for some stupid reason I took the day off. Which of course happens to coincide with a covid outbreak at one of my stores, which meant I had to join a 40 minute conference call involving the organisation of a deep cleanse of a store, warehouse etc.
And then Henry Aaron. Whose eulogy (on here) dissolves into a discussion about Bonds & PEDS. I don’t often think a comments off is appropriate but reading it has depressed me a tad.
My best evers are still Henry Aaron and the clean guys. Having taken amphetamines (I was a very naughty youth) I can’t imagine greenies – regardless of whether he took them or not – helped anyone other than as a pain reliever, and they’d have had to be very mild. Double espresso mild.. If you’ve tried to play 7 hours cricket on a hot day with an amphetamine hangover (I’d been to a dance club all night the night before, so no sleep) – let me tell you it’s not pretty.
Anyway,
Ducky, you mentioned Rich Hill. If you guys can access his story on the Players Tribune it is well worth a read. Khris Davis and his throwing yips is pretty good too.
Ducky was I right about the bronx is burning book?
Dan, there’s a really good article on the athletic about seam shifted wake which makes sense to a cricketer, Can cut & paste if you like? Dan Straily comes across as particularly intelligent in the reasoning…
And by the way – Dan – you mentioned Max Scherzer – he’s for me – continually refined his motion. If you go back to 2013 play offs vs A/s/Sox his body of motion was all acceleration. He is so much more fluid now.
And I like the idea of frying pans hanging from a tree in the dark. Perfect for muscle memory….
Yeah, that’s a drag. 20 consecutive seasons of 25+ home runs. Just a machine, man.
“Honestly, it’s no biggie.”
Until you have your birthday interrupted, uh.
Gotta say happiest of birthdays to you, Peter. From the first time we started posting back & forth I’ve absolutely enjoyed it. Hope you are having a great day man, serious. Besides the unwelcome intrusion of work & life.
Sometimes we – & I include myself here – at MLBTR just…man, we suck a lot of the time. I can’t say it any other way lol. Haven’t been here all day. 3° but I went in search of grouse anyway. With the border to Ontario being closed grouse season ends for me this month.
The birds are pretty savvy or lucky or both this time of year. We (dogs & I) didn’t even flush one. Brought back a fat little cottontail though. He’s destined for a cassoulet.
Anyway.
I’m actually one of those pro-peds guys. Let’s actually do some research on the long term effects. Have these guys set up their cycles directly with a doctor’s & trainers help, & clean up & standardize the manufacturing process.
Look.
I played football & baseball in the 80’s. If you weren’t running gear you weren’t doing it right. I don’t really know how else to say it. I discovered that the side effects were things like; looking my best, feeling great, & being able to play my hardest every day.
Those are pretty strong temptations.
I’ve never actually been able to resist them. & I look at some of benefits all of the new non-steroids PEDs bring.
Peptides & SARMS not only for muscle growth but recovery, & healing, as well. Nootropics which aid mental focus, memory, attention span, spatial awareness, etc. At the Rio Olympics, everyone was taking Noopept (since banned).
Where is the line drawn with PEDs?
Cortisone is a corticosteroid. Literally in the steroid family. How about injections of B-12 on game day? Massive amounts of antiinflammatories. Heck, couldn’t oxygen on the sideline be considered a PED?
It’s interesting where people draw their moral “lines in the sand”, uh? I would consider amphetamines to be “drugs” & therefore something to be avoided. Primbolan or Test-prop or HGH? Not at all.
Ya know?
Danny –
You live your own life, but I’m going to discourage you if I can in regards to PEDs. Seeing as I’m a single parent – I made peace a long time ago that I’m just going to be a complete & total hypocrite sometimes. There’s really no getting around it, man.
The best I can say is that at least I’m aware when I’m taking a “do as I say not as I do” position.
Rich Hill is such a great story. Almost out of baseball. Hanging on the fringes in independent leagues. Kept working, working, working…& then he’s signing $50+ mil contracts.
Sweeet.
Peter, help me. I can’t find what you were talking about in re “The Bronx is Burning”.
Wish I could remember the name of that pitcher my grandfather told that story about. Just goes to show that innovation & desire go a long way.
As always, good to hear from you fellas.
Well, I’m about to make off to our wifi and phone connection-less ranch in North Texas. About a 3 hour drive, and we’re leaving at 8:30. Gonna be a long night. When we get up there it’ll be time to start working on the new cabin we’re building. Y’all be safe, I know I will be. It’s nice getting away from the internet for a while – especially during these trying times. Stay safe.
Enjoy it, man.
I’m maybe weird but that all sounds like a great time, man.
Catch you soon, then.
Dan,
That sounds like a great weekend. – we’re still locked down at the minute, so I’m missing not being able to escape into the country. Any building consultancy needed – I recommend the duckster.
Frank,
I’ll kick off by suggesting there’s a difference between being hypocritical and experience. Me wanting my nephew not to make the same mistakes that I made isn’t (for me) hypocritical. It’s nurture.
On the PED thing I couldn’t be more diametrically opposed. Would like to chat this one over a few cold ones, but it’s just anathema to me.
This is where I’m likely to contribute as a hypocrite.
I was massively into athletics as a kid. But you knew what was going on. The East German “women” were in a category of their own.
Mate – I’ll try to distil this down really quickly without saying “I’m right, you’re wrong…”
To me mate, it’s like saying, you’re a better player than me but because I can afford a better “conditioning” program than you, I’ll get the contract.
So you have to go down the cheap route of (say) pig steroids – with untold side effects in order to match your better talent against mine.
Taking the legalised route further….
At what point does a team’s chemistry department become more important than it’s scouting?
Are you willing to say to your grandson – kid you’re brilliant – but you’re already 12/14/16 years old – time to roll your sleeve up?
I can’t do that. I know that’s not what you’re describing but it’s what it extends to with kids in the Dom Rep as an example. Juice or all that talent you’ve worked since birth will be wasted.
I just can’t say that……
Apologies, that might have been all a bit over emotive, but my real point is that once one person is doing it, everyone has to do it. Which is where it caused problems in the first place.
And I’m not comfortable with it being one step from “You’re letting yourself & your team-mates down if you don’t….”
You clearly know a lot more about this than I do – so apologies for my – aaaaargh – help me zombies! – phobia – and it is an interesting or challenging philosophical discussion. Especially by the very nature that detection will always be one step behind “crime.” Especially where you draw the line.
All a bit cops & robbers – but I’m wanting Kojak to win. With a bit of Hill St Blues.
No apologies necessary.
It’s one of those slippery slopes, man. So I get it.
There are just so many inconsistencies, though. Creatine is banned in the NFL… but not NBA or MLB. Maria Sharapova (be still my beating heart) banned for mildonium (which I wholeheartedly endorse – harder to stay sharp the older I get, man). But LeBron could use it.
Anyway, the real benefit is in recovery. Check out some of the new peptides & SARMS such as BPC 157, TB 500, LGD, etc. Used in conjunction w/ HGH & maybe a really mild steroid like proviron & perhaps the timeframe for TJS recovery becomes 8-10 months instead of 14-16.
That would be a big deal. Ya know?
For players, teams, & yeah fans.
I dunno.
I realize that this isn’t my Most Popular Take Ever, or whatever. I just see the usefulness of them & don’t buy into many of the counterarguments. Of course I don’t think kids should do them.
But when they’re done growing? I think there should at the very least be an an open fact based dialogue. As of now there’s nothing like that.
Happy Tuesday.
Hey guys, I’m back from the ranch (as I have been for a few days now), but I just wanted to hop back on.
It was nice getting away from it all, but I have came back to a crowd of people (really just one poster with 15 accounts) who thinks I am a 40 year old acting as a highschooler, and he just keep screwing with me. Here’s the link to it: mlbtraderumors.com/2021/01/brewers-among-teams-sho…
Really pathetic and stupid, but at least I know who I am.
No! Rangers29, I think I speak for most of us when we say it’s like you’re cheating on us here at MLBTR!
Wait, come to think of it that may come across a bit strong. ….
Let’s bring him in. Get rid of Odor.
Let’s be honest, most teams are probably interested to some degree in Kim.
I’d like to see a GM say “I expect we will pay more for him than anyone else”.
Anything else, likely, won’t matter.
Closest you’ll get is “we’ll be there till the end”
These are negotiations after all
Rangers interested so they can avoid the full rebuild and firing of Daniels?
he is 25… could easily be part of a rebuild
DAAADDDDDYYYY!!!!!!! What’d I say!!! hmmm YES!
This is probably our shoot-for-the-moon transaction for this year!
I’d take it
Honest question as I don’t follow the Rangers much: do either Andrus or Odor have any trade value at this point? It would seem to make sense to me for the Rangers to try to move at least one of them, whether or not they can land Kim, but I know that both have trended downwards in recent years and have contracts that other teams might not want to take on.
Both have very little value, but Andrus is the better player. Odor should be the one to go, whether that be via release waivers or a trade. We’ll have to eat his contract either way, but I don’t think he has much trade value even if we do unless we eat another bad contract (Eovaldi). Andrus was SUPER unlucky last season. Every ball he hit deep into the gap was caught on amazing plays, he’ll be fine next season, so I’d keep him, but he doesn’t have hardly any trade value because of his contract… no matter what he does.
The Rangers would have to pay most, if not all, of the remains balance of the contract to get any prospects of value.
A team would have to be in a win-now scenario to gamble on Elvis or Odor.
Daniels should have been replaced long ago. It’s mind boggling that the Rangers have not moved on from this man.
It’d be great if when reporting stories, MLBTR could remind in the article what the prediction for said free agent (team/contract). Maybe it’s been done in some and I’ve missed it. Either way, thanks for the info/updates.
In fact, I think their prediction was Texas for Kim (mine as well).
Yeah, it was (mine, too), I didn’t remember what his predicted contract was, which is the meat and potatoes I’m looking for while maintaining the laziness of not having to click the link.
I might be a crazy-man, but I think the predicted contract was 5 year 40 mil. I think. Which seems awfully cheap, but good for us.
I would imagine that does not include the posting fee, right?
I don’t think it does, but alas, I’m to lazy to look.
why would he go to a re-building team if other teams are willing to offer similar contracts? he goes to the angels where he will play at ss in the best infield in the game.
Same reason anyone signs with a team: $$. It’s $$, playing time, and contention. The Angels aren’t really any better in those regards than any other middling team, except they have an undisciplined owner who can outbid just about anyone.
Angels are a bad example as they are always bad.
He’ll go to whoever pays him the most money. A rebuilding club who views him as a long-term play may very well be willing to pay more than a win-now club who considers it a risk to plug him into an everyday role when there are more proven MLB options available.
Money, team culture, city culture
Have other Asian players excelled on that team or floundered when they came over?
Ohtani could be a selling point, or a turn off. Maybe Kim wants to be his own star here
If they’re signing a 5-7+ year deal& money is similar, he’s signing where he’s happy
Both have negative trade value. Both owed ~$28 MM over the next two years. If they were FAs this offseason, Odor would be a camp invite guy and Andrus might get a $1 MM or 2. They are both bad-contract-swap candidates, but in actuality I’d just rather keep them for depth this season and move on next season. I’d cut Odor today but ownership will never do that.
Mariners dont have anything real solid on the horizon at third after seager departs, as far as i can remember…or second base really for that matter either.
Could imagine Dipoto making at least a pitch to him.
I really wish the Red Sox would get in on Kim. They have an obvious need for a starting 2B — unless they feel Chavis can actually take a big step forward next season. And any time you can sign a guy with as much talent as Kim seems to have when he’s just 26 years old means you could be acquiring a core player for 5+ years. In my opinion signing him would solidify their already strong offensive core and could be enough to really set themselves up for a dominant offensive unit going forward with a very solid young core. The only issue I guess is if they feel that Jeter Downs really will be their 2B of the future I suppose signing Kim would mean creating a roadblock to Downs future playing time. But to me, the opportunities to sign a 26 year old with as much potential as Kim has doesn’t come around often — so if I were the Sox I’d seriously consider it. They could always try Downs in the OF — or package him in a trade for young promising pitching which they desperately need.
Jays make a lot of sense if they are willing to pay what it costs. Fits the timeline, they currently dont have a 3rd baseman (Bo or Biggio could slot there if he wanted to stay SS or 2B) and the new found Korean connection of Ryu.
Judging the defensive numbers we have, Kim is the 2B, Biggio 3B.
He sounds like Kike Hernandez with a better batting eye and possibly better bat. I treat oversea numbers like AAA.
Wonder if lad is gonna take a long peak. Lindor and Arenado are sexy to get article clicks for writers. But Kim is the type of value Friedman actually prefers
@Rangers29
I like your the positive posts and thoughts you express on this site. Keep it up. It is invigorating to have someone post positive comments on the team you love even though times have been rough lately. As far as posting on Lone Star ball good luck. The other folks that post on that site like to tear into one another and generate lots of negativity. I’ve been reading posts on that site for several years and when I read the comments I just shake my head. Some of the commenters are just there for shock value. Anyway keep up the upbeat comments.
He checks all the boxes.
Not to be confused with Yugoslav pugilist who boxes all the Czechs.
I realize it’s in the KBO and not the ML but ANYONE who walks more than they strikeout at any level… is a very impressive toolset. Even if his power doesn’t quite translate in the US (30 in KBO last year might be higher than what he can do in the ML) — I still think that a guy with that kind of power potential who can also make enough contact to walk more than K — is someone who will be able to adapt and be successful in the majors. I think this kid Kim is a legit long-term core piece for whoever winds up signing him. As a Sox fan I obviously wish it will be them — but given their current roster construction and Jeter Downs in AAA as potential long-term 2B – it seems unlikely they’ll make a major play for him… but one can still hope right?
I’m obviously not a Sox fan but it isn’t impossible to imagine Deavors being the first baseman and Kim going to third downs at second
I do agree the walk to K ratio makes me more confident His offense of skillset will translate to MLB
Addison Russell is an interesting name in the article as he seemed to have supplanted Kim at SS over there. Russell too will be looking for a comeback though he would likely need to take a minor league invite to training camp.
Rangers could use the offense. Gallo is fun to watch but he can’t do it alone
Russell is little chance of coming back, I watched him play a lot and he seemed to struggle in the KBO with his bat. Of course his defence is still ok and he’s still only 26 years old.