topper09er

Seems like all Segura does this year is hit grounders to the left side

I didn't count Tony Armas and the non-full 1981 season. But he can get an honorable mention for 1984, 43 HR .300 OBP

Wow, love to see a guy take an 89 mph straight fastball for strike 3

Kingman? Yes, 1982 Mets, 37 HR .285 OBP.

Pedro Alvarez led the league in HRs last year, 36, with a .296 OBP. Who is the only other player to lead the league in HRs with a OBP < .300?

Alvarez career: vs RHP .247/.318/.485/.804 vs LHP .201/.273/.337/.610

This will not happen, they will slowly make it worse by expanding it and make it more automatic etc. They will overract to something that screws the Yankees because they were out of challenges, so then you will get 2 or 3. Then Derek Jeter will be screwed on a play that is not reviewable, so they will add it. Everyone here knows how ESPN and the average fan works, sometime this summer the bottom line will say something like: "Big Papi's walkoff double foul but New York out of challenges, Jeter outraged." The one thing football has is the play clock which forces the coach to decide without slowing the game down, but in baseball this stall tactic will be abused more and more. You dont even need the manager, you can just have the batter step out/pitcher step off for as long as it takes for the "signal" from the bench. At least in football you lose a timeout (but all football coaches are too dumb to understand why timeouts are valuable so this has not actually changed anythign) so there is a penalty for a bad challenge in theory. In baseball there isn't anything. Right now you will gain a very minor competitive advantage to stall on EVERY close play to ensure you maximize your challenges, people will realize this and do it. It is not happening now, but when a manager is hammered this summer for leaving a challenge in his pocket that upon one angle in 10x slow-mo was shown to be wrong they will start using them more. It already takes too long, they really should have a 1 view on one camera policy. If you can't immediatley tell it was wrong from any view just move on. The more these are shown on ESPN the longer they take (just like in football which is starting to become an auto-commercial break) because the guy making the call doesnt want to look bad when after 7000 views some ESPN analyst got a screen shot that the call was wrong by an 1/8". Then the reviewers will want to see an obvious call 100 times to confirm, but a close call 1000 times to be sure they won't be blamed.Right now it is going quickly compared to football because there hasn't been a major replay "trending topic on the lead", but it is already taking too long. The way these work is the last person to know the outcome is always the ref/ump. The TV viewers and commentators know right away and have to wait. I wish they would be firm that the point is to overturn obviously bad calls, and acknowledge that there still in fact will be incorrect calls by the ump upon extreme review but addressing these is not the goal of the system. Then the guy in charge can't get balmed and wont feel the pressure to review in from every possible angle 10 times. Instead they say this but in reality are concerned with ESPN spotting any error that is made. And of course the actual worst part, all excitement is lost on close plays because of the fear of a review.

We might have the best collective changeop in the history of bullpens

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Hellivision/fresh_prince_of_belair.jpg

Weeks all top half, lunging out and pulling an outside pitch for a "hit"

Seems like Lee gets to 0-2 on everyone

That was the first inning this series, in fact since the 6th on Sunday, that we did not get a hit. 22 straight frames with a hit until now

http://michaellouiscalvillo.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/michaelscott.jpg

Henderson is lucky Nix is taking, he just threw a very straight 92 mph fastball right down the middle on 2-0. Not a good long term strategy

Our Wang is getting such little use we may have to bring Donovan Hand back...

Wang?

It wasn't that great of a catch, plus he took a bad first step

Should have left Thorny in to bunt and start the 9th

Judge not lest ye be judged. It is what it is. Forgive and forget. At the end of the day none of us know Braun on a personal level. He plays for our favorite baseball team and is providing entertainment. Baseball is not, ever was, nor shall ever be a "pure" game. I am over it and don't really care, I'm glad we gave him a standing O on opening day. But I totally understand away teams booing him and I don't think its hypocritical that they have Ruiz but boo Braun because of the extensive, over the top lying Braun did.

I love Braun, as you can all see by me calling him a stud, but we have to admit he went a lot farther than regular old PED users. Watch his press conference from 2012 knowing what you know now.

Braun is a stud

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ryan Buckner

Can RRR resist the squeeze?

Maybe bobbled in the glove?