Anthony Franco
- Hey everyone, hope you've enjoyed your week!
- Darragh's off today so I'll have to wrap this up right around 4:00 Central to move to news coverage. Let's get going
RAGBRAI
- How do you see Brewers SP lining up in a five game series?
- Does MeGill make it back to Milwaukee next week?
Anthony Franco
- On the rotation: Peralta, Woodruff, Priester, Q with Misiorwoski available in relief (especially on Quintana's start when they'll have a really quick hook)
- Pat Murphy said that Megill threw a bullpen yesterday. Believe Adam McCalvy reported that they're targeting the 16th (beginning of the Angels series) for his return
RoxTalks
- Thoughts on the Valdez-Salazar situation?
Anthony Franco
- I'm skeptical that Framber deliberately crossed up his own catcher so he could nail him in the chest, but not showing any level of concern after it happened because you're pissed you just gave up a grand slam is a bad look
- Salazar did his best postgame to downplay it, as did Joe Espada. I don't think it matters much for the Astros' season but it doesn't reflect well on Valdez even if it is a one-off situation and I imagine he'll have to answer questions about it from some teams when he gets to free agency
?
- How/why is Roki Sasaki so bad? I know he's hurt but he has been equally as awful in OKC
Anthony Franco
- The command is not good and I think most people (myself included) under appreciated how much of a problem his fastball shape -- very low spin that leads it to play below its velocity at the top of the strike zone -- would be an issue. That's easier to get away with when he's pumping 98-101 as he was for most of his time in Japan than it is at 95-96
- He's still talented and I think there's a chance he can succeed the way Hurston Waldrep is for Atlanta by leaning so heavily on the split, but he's more of a project than I expected. Obviously doesn't help that he's been working with diminished stuff while fighting shoulder problems the whole time
Safeco Field Redux
- I'm curious: How often do you think game announcers err when thy call a pitch; that is, is what they identify as a slider actually a sweeper or even a curve? And while I'm here, does a knuckle curve act differently than a standard curve?
Anthony Franco
- Yeah I think this happens all the time. Backup sliders can look like changeups, breaking pitches blend together so much that it's very difficult to differentiate slider vs. sweeper or curve unless the pitcher's throwing them at a 4-5 MPH velocity differential
- A lot of times a pitcher will call a breaking ball something different than the pitch classification systems will. "Sweeper" vs. slider wasn't even really in the lexicon until a couple years ago when Statcast tried to get more granular in splitting the deGrom slider from the 81 MPH pitch that you'll get from a low-slot lefty specialist
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Grisham? Look at the years before he had Judge, Stanton and the Short Porch to lean on. Bellinger? Short porch again. If the Yanks aren’t willing to pay him I hope the Rays are smart enough to remember the tenures of Castellanos and Nelson Cruz . Anyway the last two weeks Mangum and J. Lowe have been excellent.
I see elsewhere here Fairbanks should pack. Again. With Janssen and Kim off the books the team can afford to at least wait and see how it goes next year before trading him. Worked with Kim!.