Thundercat32

I apologize if this has already been posted. I was following this thread last week the night before & the night of the draft (some very enlightened folks in here, very cool), but I had login issues. Now, I'm all set. Has anyone seen this Medeiros article on Baseball America, yet? (link: http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/judo-star-medeiros-is-a-hit-on-the-mound/). I had heard him compared to Chris Sale before, which to be honest wasn't thrilling because there are folks that take issue with Sale's mechanics. However, in this article Medeiros is quoted saying "I like to watch Bumgarner because his mechanics are similar to mine," Medeiros says, "And I like to watch Sale to see the way he uses his slider that has similar break to mine." That's exciting to me because Bumgarner receives positive reviews for his mechanics, particularly the repeat-ability... Eh, hold the phone. I scrolled up & watched the Perfect Game video that SRB posted. If you freeze it at multiple points during the delivery, you see his delivery starts out Bumgarner-like, as the foot strike phase of his delivery begins, but then Kodi starts mid trunk rotation (generating a REDONKULUS amount of a torque, which is just awesome!) & yet he holds the ball back as far as possible dragging the elbow behind & almost using a "whiplash" motion to the plate. As his head turns & his eyes come towards the plate, the ball is still towards the glove side of his head! Now, I'm still very much an amateur pitching mechanics analyst (a rank amateur in fact), but I've never seen that before. It doesn't seem like it can be that great for the elbow to continually be stretched out like that, but I could be very wrong on that. One thing is for sure, Kodi Medeiros & Madison Bumgarner do not have identical deliveries. Here's Bumgarner last night vs the Nats as his mid-trunk rotation has begun during his torque phase: http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p103/Thundercat32/MadisonBumgarnerTorquePhase.png Notice how Bumgarner's wrist is perpendicular to his elbow and how his shoulders remain in line. At this point in his delivery his right hip & shoulder are nearly at a 90 degree angle with home plate, 85 degree angle maybe. And he has the baseball directly behind his head. Here's Medeiros from the Perfect Game as his mid-trunk rotation has begun during his torque phase: http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p103/Thundercat32/KodiMedeirosTorquePhase.png Notice how Medeiros left arm is making a "V" shape as his right hip & shoulder are well past the 90 degree point with his target, home plate. Medeiros' eyes are actually turned slightly more towards home plate than Bumgarner's are & yet the baseball is still towards the glove side of the back of his head. That's remarkable to me. His shoulders pulled apart in a "U" shape like they would be if he were doing a fly press workout with dumbbells. Well, I don't know that means anything, other than what we already knew Medeiros has some work to do, but it's fascinating to me. Oh and I'm very high on Medeiros from everything that I've read. I think the Brewers took him at 12 because they believe they were getting a potential Bumgarner/Sale & I'll trust their scouting over my naked eyes any day. The stuff is really nasty too & if he's as good an athlete as the scouts say he is, then he should be able to clean a lot of this up too. Edit: I should point out that both pitchers are not in the exact same point in their deliveries but as close to it as I could get without the aide of slow motion video. I paused the video multiple times on both pitchers & I never saw Bumgarner with the baseball to the glove side of his head & I continually saw that occuring with Medeiros. So, I still think this displays a current flaw in Medeiros' delivery.

fwiw, washington has been quoted as saying it was a misread, and harold reynolds said last night on the mlbnetwork he was sitting right above the right field wall here it was hit (and they showed him on tv to back it up) and there was no way anyone could of gotten to it. i believe his exact statement was "i don't care what it looked like on tv i was watching it come right at me and that ball was smoked! nobody gets to that ball." edit: i guess i should say, i personally think cruz mis-played the ball and harold reynolds tends to overstate things (a lot). at the same time, that was a difficult play and easily could have been more difficult than it looked on tv. i tend to think ichiro comes up with that ball, but it's not like you can give cruz an error on the play. also, cruz is an up and down fielder (with an absolute cannon for an arm see here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19892427), but hart is more of a down and up fielder if you know what i mean. this is pretty interesting too: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19899037

The "claw" is the one I have seen that I think look similar to the "beast mode" (except, of course, just one hand). "Ducks on the pond" looks like AZ's "snake bite" (or whatever they call it). the rangers kinda started the antlers & claw thing in '10... so really it's not "the claw" that's similar to the "beast mode", it's the "beast mode" that's similar to "the claw".

excepts when it comes to love

there ya go fellas, lets keep the positivity going!

lets try and climb back from the ledge fellas. the brewers offense was 11th in the mlb this year, and the cardinals pitching was 12th (good, but it's not like they throw verlander every game). have some faith my brothers! let's get this s.o.b. back to miller park and take our chances.

bucksman4, not trying to be augmentative but i was curious what the actual head to head numbers were. 2011 vs STL 9-9 2010 vs STL 8-7 2009 vs STL 9-9 2008 vs STL 10-5 2007 vs STL 7-8 2006 vs STL 7-9 my personal opinion is the cardinals have had about a dozen horseshoes wedged up their hindquarters the past 2 months and as with any cinderella the clock eventually strikes midnight.

i don't know about that. 9-9 head to head this year and i remember seeing a graphic recently that the brewers have more than held their own with the cardinals over the past 3-5 seasons. if i remember correctly something like 9-9 this year, 8-10 the year before, 9-9 the year before, 7-11 the year before, 10-8 the year before, something like that.

who's in our bullpen that can provide long relief if needed?

a3uge, yeah but 2 outs though

jjfanec, yeah you're absolutely right, but when the guy "protecting" you is batting .138 in the postseason i think i'd be tempted to force it, so maybe that's what prince is doing. topper09er, yeah that makes sense too. i guess that was just sorta my take. i mean, for one he sees the reaction by morgan and kotsay to the ump's strike zone and he sees ball 1 called strike 1. then he's gotta be thinking rickie is struggling we need some runs.... i gotta make some happen. or maybe you're right on the money and he just lost his plate discipline and that look was sort of a tip of the hat to lohse.

i honestly think prince thinks he has to swing at balls because there's not much chance anyone is going to produce runs behind him. at least that's what i thought his facial impression after the strikeout said. sorta like he was trying to say "i wish i didn't have to be swinging at that... sigh"

since when did mark kotsay become more than just your 3rd pinch hitter off the bench??? i mean, seriously is ron roenicke ever going to stop over-thinking things?

it's disgusting to read people bag on prince fielder now that it's apparent he's leaving. flat out it's sour grapes and it reeks of my hot ex girlfriend is moving on without me, but somehow life is gonna be better off for me. i also think the we all knew this was coming sentiment is a bit hindsight. yes, if you asked me to pick will prince be back next year or not i would have said no. but i still had hope and i do find it surprising that prince is saying this is probably his last year, at this point of the negotiating. which that means he's not really open to coming back to milwaukee no matter what melvin and attanasio do. not only do i find that surprising, actually shocking, because i thought prince was at least indifferent to milwaukee it's also just bad business. there's not a huge market out there for prince this offseason. i'm not even ruling out the red sox or yankees who both would jump at the chance to let him dh for them, but i don't know if they're going to outbid each other to the tune of 8 yr 200 mil. it's about a 3-5 horse race tops and fielder just took one of those horses out of the race. no gm is going to believe he's really going to sign with milwaukee at the end of the day, so he can't use them for leverage. which in the end is good news for us, because we know where we stand and we can go out and use that money elsewhere without being held hostage by fielder's decision. still, i'll be sad to see him go and i've only been a brewers fan for a season and a half. prince was probably the single most attractive part of becoming a brewers fan for me. i think it's pretty difficult not to like the guy. the only thing that isn't likeable about him is his agent.

??? Why is that a question? Braun is bad. Yeah he isn't the absolute worse, a disinterested Carlos Lee is worse. But Braun is a terrible fieldernah not braun, i'm puzzled why you think the consensus is kemp is a poor defender (in centerfield).

???

hey fellas, i thought some might enjoy this post i made on another brewers fan forum "boy that's a good one cash. i'm not sure it shouldn't be cliff lee, but it's unlikely the writers give it to a pitcher. especially since halladay would take away votes from lee. not that writers would vote for halladay for the mvp also, but they might not vote for cliff lee for mvp under the logic he had "help". i think fielder might take away votes from braun and maybe he should. i also think justin upton deserves some consideration. it's an odd season for mvp though. most of the best hitters aside from braun, fielder, or upton are on teams that won't make the playoffs. for example, lance berkman, albert pujols, matt kemp, joey votto, mike stanton, and troy tulowitzki. and of the 4 playoff teams only the brewers have a dominant offense. ryan howard is 22nd in ops in the nl. dan uggla might deserve a mention, but i say might because he sucked ass for the first 4 months of the season and the braves were still on pace for the playoffs. his end of the season numbers will be impressive, but he didn't spur his team onto victory. braun on the other hand has an excellent case as you mention. currently .992 ops first in the nl. but my favorite stat from braun is in the 37 games weeks has missed to date. his triple slash during that time is .356/.413/.610 for a 1.023 ops! in those 37 games he has compiled 33 runs 7 hrs 26 rbi 12 sbs and the brewers have gone 29-8. now that's just beastly. as for prince, his triple slash over those 37 games is .303/.392/.528 for a .920 ops. but prince's ops is .947 for the season so he didn't necessarily kick it into another gear. even tho his counting stats for those 37 games are 26 runs 8 hrs 34 rbi 0 sbs. maybe the most impressive note for braun is his increased run production and jointly increased stolen base production in the 37 games weeks has missed. in these 37 games braun has scored 34% of his season total in runs and has stolen 39% of his season total in sbs, in only 26% of the brewers total games to this point. just take a look at his stolen base log during that time. note he's 12 of 14 in steal attempts (86%, 84% on the season) aug 5th w 8-1 @ hou, top 4th 6-1 with 1 out braun walks steals 2nd, fielder k's, mcgehee lines out aug 10th w 5-1 @ stl, top 3rd 1-1 with 1 out braun walks steals 2nd, fielder doubles him home (next batter mcgehee grounds out, betancourt singles, hairston jr. flies out) aug 13th w 1-0 vs pit, bot 7th 1-0 with 2 outs braun singles steals 2nd, fielder intentionally walked, mcgehee k's aug 15th w 3-0 vs la, bot 7th 1-0 with 0 outs braun singles steals 2nd, fielder grounds out braun advances to 3rd, mcgehee intentionally walked (??? mattingly), betancourt pops out, wilson grounds out aug 19th w 6-1 @ mets, top 1st 0-0 with 2 outs braun reaches on an error steals 2nd, fielder singles him home aug 21st w 6-2 @ mets, top 6th 1-0 with 0 outs braun singles steals 2nd, fielder singles him home (next 3 batters retired in order). then top 8th 3-2, with 0 outs braun singles and advances to second on a fielding error (lol mets) steals 3rd, hairston jr. singles him home aug 23rd w 11-4 @ pit, top 2nd 5-0 with 2 outs braun doubles steals 3rd, mcgehee homers. then top 6th 7-2, with 1 out braun walks steals 2nd, fielder doubles him home aug 24th l 0-2 @ pit, top 4th 0-1 with 1 out braun singles steals 2nd, fielder k's, mcgehee walks, betancourt grounds out aug 26th w 5-2 vs cubs, bot 3rd 0-2 with 2 outs braun walked steals 2nd, mcgehee k's aug 31st l 3-8 vs stl, bot 1st 1-2 with 1 out braun singles steals 2nd, fielder flies out, braun picked off taking off early for 3rd sept 4th w 4-0 @ hou, top 4th 2-0 with 0 outs braun singles caught stealing 2nd of the 12 steals, 5 steals led directly to runs and he scored an additional time on a casey mcgehee homer. 8 steals came in a 1 run or tied game at the time, another steal came in a game the brewers trailed by 2. 7 of the steals came with 1 or 2 outs and prince fielder at the plate, 2 more steals came with 2 outs and fielder having just been retired. obv, braun has little confidence in anyone not named prince fielder to drive him home which i think is wise and also optimal. not to mention of his 14 attempts i can only really question one. aug 31st vs stl, getting picked off leaving for 3rd early with 2 outs is pretty bad. also, on july 28th the first game without weeks the brewers had a .5 game lead on the cardinals, a 1.5 game lead on the pirates, and a 5.5 game lead on the reds. fast forward to sept 7th and those numbers go 9.5 game lead on cards, 14.5 game lead on reds, and 19.5 game lead on pirates. geez, how can you not give the mvp to braun? and i didn't even set out with that thought in mind. the first 2 paragraphs of this post were just my first impressions thinking about the mvp discussion. once i started looking into the stats for the 37 game absence from weeks. i'm convinced the mvp deserves to go to braun."

What are you talking about? Do you really think Barahas' hit was catchable?I think he's saying that Hairston was busting his ass on the play but it never seems like Braun does the same in the field. Not saying it's true but might look like it. yeah pretty much, i mean braun has 23 steals we know he has the speed to get to some of these fly balls. his speed rating on fangraphs far exceeds what his range rating is, and that doesn't make sense. it only makes sense when you watch him play in the field and watch how he loafs out there. we're not taking about a 275lb beast out there like carlos lee, we're talking about a legit 30/30 candidate. fangraphs range runs above average (uzr) for the past 3 yearsbraun lee-13.3 -12.5-3.4 -8.4 -0.8 +4.8 over the 3 year period braun has allowed 1.4 more runs than average due to his poor range than carlos lee. does it make any sense carlos lee should cover more ground in left field than ryan braun? incidentally for the last 3 years braun's speed rating has been 5.9, 4.4, 6.4 and lee's 2.3, 2.3, 3.5. a slower, bigger man is covering more ground in left field than braun.

What are you talking about? Do you really think Barahas' hit was catchable?eh that's a hard question to answer. do i think someone like ichiro suzuki with speed and defensive ability would have caught it? yes. do i think braun going at 100% would of got to it? no probably not, but his effort was poor (and i want to use another adjective in front of that, one that refers to relieving one's self, but this is a family website). on the replay you can clearly see him behind down to pick up the ball and he's using the urgency someone would use to pick up a piece of trash. not someone who's trying to throw out a slow runner at 2nd base. is this some great crime? probably not, even tho it should be. 90% of major league players take a play off here and there, but none of that excuses the fact braun sucks in the field and it's maddening to watch his half ass efforts going after balls. he plays like a $100 million dollar premadonna out there who can't break a nail going after a fly ball.

how is it braun has 23 steals, but looks like he's out for a light morning jog chasing down fly balls? yet jerry hairston, jr. was busting his ass to get to that grounder back up the middle from carroll like his next paycheck depended on it. god i wish they could dh braun he sucks ass in the field.

why replicate failure?

lol somebody needs to tell brian anderson and bill schroeder they're on national tv now

i never noticed this before, but estrada's delivery is eerily similar to dan haren's

rofl, i can only get the astros feed. so on the braun check swing they show the 3rd baseline view of the check swing and go to break.

it's a terrible system no doubt. fortunately, if you're smart and know what you're looking for. there are alot of equally terrible gms who leave players sitting out there like it's a yahoo fantasy baseball public league.