pitchleague

My wife and I were talking about this topic in the car this morning: Based on pre-season expectations, which team has had the most disappointing season? I'd probably put the Cubs and Mets as a tie for first, as everyone and their grandmother were basically giving each team their respective division titles back in February. The Cubs, however, didn't hit and score runs as expected and their pitching has been just "okay" instead of "awesome." The Mets were beseiged by injuries and pretty much killed their chances. Oh and both teams were plagued by poor play. I'd probably place the Brewers third, only because I'm a homer. I'm sure there is probably another team ahead of them. Where would you rank teams based on their expectations and how things turned out (thus far)?

Pretty sure Uecker and Provus both said, during the game, that the latest offer was $17 million, so naturally, I assumed that the final offer went DOWN from that offer they had reported. It is Uecker, though, so he was probably just throwing numbers out there. I took it as golden word.

4-year deal they say. Well good for him, I guess. Wonder how much pressure there was from Strasberg to Boras as the offers kept going down (reportedly $17 million during the Brewer game).

I haven't seen any "injury history" to it but it seems like it would make complete sense if you ask me. Throwing a fastball overhanded is hard enough on the arm, I can not believe that throwing it sidearm can be all that healthy for your elbow joint, either. Curiously, here's a list of side-arm throwers in MLB, according to wikipedia: "Sidearm pitchers are fairly rare, but many have succeeded in the major leagues, including Scott Feldman, Pat Neshek, Scott Sauerbeck, Dennis Eckersley, Mark Eichhorn, Javier López, Jake Peavy, Dizzy Dean and most notably Walter Johnson." Yep, some of those threw side-armed but not Feldman. Or Peavy. At least not that I know of. Eckersley did as a reliever but I don't recall when he was a starting pitcher for the Red Sox or Cubs that he threw side-armed. Walter Johnson did, but not much video really exists of him except for him throwing side-arm while warming up prior to games, so who knows how much side-arming he really did? I'm just saying, as a lefty who tried it a few times in high school, after about 40 or so throws like that, my elbow was hurting. Nothing major, of course, but I went back to regular overhand throwing. And, yes, someone is bound to argue that "you were just some high school player, not a major league player." And, while this is true, I still can't bring myself to believe that a manager, pitching coach, trainer, or team physician would not cringe a bit if a side-armer told them they want to be a starting pitcher. Seriously, I can't think of one side-arm throwing starting pitcher in the major leagues in the last 10 years. Ah crud, I just did. Byung-Hyun Kim. But his starting pitching was disastrous (pretty much led to him being out of baseball) and he did it only part time (most remember him as a reliever.) Here's more names of current side-arm/submariners in MLB, according to Wikipedia: * Chad Bradford of the Tampa Bay Rays * Randy Choate of the Tampa Bay Rays * Daniel Davidson of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim * Joey Devine of the Oakland Athletics * Pedro Feliciano of the New York Mets * Brian Fuentes of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim * Sean Green of the New York Mets * Byung-Hyun Kim is a Free-Agent * Mike Koplove of the Pittsburgh Pirates * Javier López of the Boston Red Sox * Carlos Marmol of the Chicago Cubs * Jay Marshall of the Oakland Athletics * Cla Meredith of the Baltimore Orioles * Matt Miller of the Cleveland Indians * Peter Moylan of the Atlanta Braves * Mike Myers is a Free-Agent * Pat Neshek of the Minnesota Twins * Darren O'Day of the Texas Rangers * Josh Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox * Clay Rapada of the Detroit Tigers * Chris Schroder of the Washington Nationals * Brian Shouse of the Tampa Bay Rays * Joe Smith of the Cleveland Indians * Joe Thatcher of the San Diego Padres * Ehren Wassermann of the Chicago White Sox * Brad Ziegler of the Oakland Athletics * Shunsuke Watanabe of the Chiba Lotte Marines * Lim Chang-Yong of the Yakult Swallows * Chong Tae-Hyon of the SK Wyverns * Liao Yu-cheng of the Brother Elephants Notice that every single one of them is a reliever.

not sure to answer that but I would much rather have Harper than Strasburg. He looks like more of a sure thing, to me. Okay, I guess I could answer that after all: ALOT of coin, particulary including a whole lot of zeroes to the left of the decimal point.

. . . and you just jinxed yourself. That is pretty surprising, though. You are correct.

I would think that 6+ innings per game of side-armed deliveries over a season would completely ruin his arm. This is probably a big reason that you only see relievers using this pitching style. Stetter would have to go back to the minors to re-learn a "regular" windup and stretch. And that would take upwards of a year or more.

yeah, now that we got back to .500 the (temporary) goal needs to be "start building up the record". Win every series, with a sweep here and there; get to 5-10 games over .500 and then we'll talk about being "in the race." There are just too many teams above us right now. Unless we win series with some sweeps included in there, it's virtually impossible. Yes, I know this is easier said than done.

that is correct. I believe the Football Freaks site is doing a Madden 10 PC mod again, though, for Madden 08. Probably won't be out for a good month or longer.

I was at Chili's and didn't see this. Was Yount, perhaps, a little "tipsy" when he said this? I'm not accusing him of being "Rick Sutcliffe" in the booth; I'm just curious.

as an update . . . We got our D-backs-Brewers tickets in the mail yesterday. Two games are in behind the D-back dugout on the outfield side, row 22 (but the rows start with row 10). One game is behind the Brewer dugout on the outfield side in row 14. Each ticket has a face value of $34.00 so I think this is a pretty nice score of six tickets. Pretty happy. My wife does not agree that we should use the saved money (we were going to splurge on one game in the seats right down by the dugout [i.e. $100+ seats]) and get like a suite in the downtown hotel. But we'll just go with our regular place of lodging. I guess it finally paid off to bring groups of 200 school kids down all those years.

I'm shocked that nobody has put up their own "review" of the game yet. Too busy playing, I guess. How many of you took the day off (i.e. played hooky) to get and play the game?

Is that the one with Tommy Lee Jones? If it is, I saw that a while a go and it was a good show. Probably about 3 1/2 stars from me.

I think my wife needs to sleep on the couch tonight. Thanks, dear.

I gotta be honest, I was quite confused when the Padres weren't plunking our guys with pitches in the 9th inning. Joe Torre (and probably Tony LaRussa) would be so disappointed in Bud Black for not playing ball "the right way" in a blow out. (I'm not sure if that should be in blue or not, so I'll just leave it be.)

I suppose one could theorize that he's beginning to press at the plate and try to drive in runs rather than set up Fielder. Maybe the pressing comes from his comments about the team last month and he's trying to do something about it. I'm grasping here, of course, but who knows?

Can you elaborate on this? I don't understand. Thrown out at first? What do you mean?

I'll second that, peavey. I know a ton of people who got out. Of course, they are a lot closer to retirement than my wife and I, so it kind of made sense. We stuck with it and kept buying with our quarterly dividends going right back into reinvesting in more shares. So, assuming things continue, we actually stand to make more money than we lost.

First of all, you completely fooled me with the thread title. I was almost positive it was for a link to an Onion article about Craig Counsell not going out to clubs etc. but rather staying at home. On topic, I barely could see the play through my patio window due to the sun glare, so I don't know if he was safe or out (should have went back inside and tivo'd it on slow mo or something), but I do know that I was quite in disagreement with sending the runner from first on a double into the short left field corner of Enron, er, Minute Maid Park. Sure, we all know that Carlos Lee is a hack in left field, but Counsell doesn't have the wheels that he once had (he's still fast, but not like in his hey-day), and the ball was picked up only 315 ft. from the plate. A quick throw to Tejada made things elementary since we all know that he does have a gun for an arm. Bottom line is: one out, runners on 2nd & 3rd with Fielder coming up and Cameron up next (or was it McGehee?) OR two out, runner on 2nd with Fielder coming up. I'd choose the first option--especially since it's the first inning! Sure, sending the runner sends a great message to the team and the opponents but he better be safe otherwise the message is, "Hey guys, we're going to make dumb mistakes and run ourselves out of a ballgame." Luckily, Jason Michaels (enters game at .196 with 1 HR) decided to make the play at the plate completely moot. I can't believe we just threw him BP meatballs. "Oh, this guy stinks. Let's just lob them in there and get to the next hitter." *WHAM!* "Gosh, darn it all, that didn't work."

Sorry for the "misleading" thread title. But I was wondering if anybody else out there in BF.net-Land remembers this game show from the late 70s-early 80s. When I grew up I absolutely loved that show (and Clubhouse POW, but that's another thread for another day), probably more than The Price is Right. Funny thing is, I remembered the show like it was yesterday except for the name of the show until this summer, when I made a late night search for anything that I could remember of it and I found so much information that I didn't remember/know from my child hood. (i.e. Back then, I didn't know the show was so controversial.) Anyways, I'm sure most of you will pass on this thread since this is from some "old fogey" (man, I'm 36 and I'm probably considered an old fogey by most on this site), but this has got to be one of the greatest games shows of all time. BTW, I've been trying to incorporate something like this in my classroom for years. Maybe finding out all this information on the show is my inspiration to get it done this year. edit: grammar

that's the thing. Our August schedule looks to be in our favor. It's our September schedule that I'm looking most forward to. If we are "for real" we'll find out then. And if we're not, it's 2010-City here we come. I'd much rather have a September that is meaningful--win or lose--than one that is completely pointless. August holds the key.

this, at least the second half anyway, is the my vote for post of the year! Wonderful stuff!

aw, darn it all. You mentioned Hardicourt and then the memory was jogged to the reunion two years ago. Yeah, I've heard of it. I just have not have the avenues that others have had to find said book. I probably need to "borrow" a copy from one of my Brewerfan.net brothers/sisters.

Ugh, don't defile my post by mentioning Beast light. edit: Of course, I mean Beast light--the Beer. Not Beast Light--the BF.net poster

Not sure how official this is, but. . . . . Talked to my D-Backs group sales rep today. Told her "no" to the school field trip thing in September. She then asks, "well, can we treat you to a game? Are you interested in coming down?" Of course, I had been planning (and looking on Stubhub) on going to D-Backs-Brewers next month. I gave her the dates we were "planning" on going to games. Turns out, it looks like (not sure, but sounds promising) that the D-Backs are comping me and my wife the entire Brewers-DBacks series next month. Lower deck, dugout section (that's what she said, at least). So I'm pretty pumped about that. Don't really care about the seats--if they're free and in the lower deck? *DING! DING! DING! We have a winner! I'll keep you posted if this is, indeed, the case. The tickets are already, supposedly, in the mail. edit: spelling and grammar