Ongoing 2013 MLB Thread

[Nasty_Magician]

I posed this question on the Mets board, mainly because I'm really bored at work:

Random outside the box thought that would never happen, obviously I see us opting out of Johan's contract at the end of the year. Would it be possible for Johan to go the John Smoltz route and have a revival as a closer? It won't happen because he'd make significantly less as a closer than a starter but I think career wise it could be a great move for him.

In order for Johan to be effective he needs to get velocity on his fastball so that his changeup completely baffles batters. The guy cannot stay healthy long term, his shoulder/elbow whatever else will continue to give him problems. In order to try and preserve his arm and allow him to get velocity, why not shorten his workload? Have him close out games instead of pitching 5 innings every 5th day? Just a random thought.

 

[BigDDude]

I posed this question on the Mets board, mainly because I'm really bored at work:

Random outside the box thought that would never happen, obviously I see us opting out of Johan's contract at the end of the year. Would it be possible for Johan to go the John Smoltz route and have a revival as a closer? It won't happen because he'd make significantly less as a closer than a starter but I think career wise it could be a great move for him.

In order for Johan to be effective he needs to get velocity on his fastball so that his changeup completely baffles batters. The guy cannot stay healthy long term, his shoulder/elbow whatever else will continue to give him problems. In order to try and preserve his arm and allow him to get velocity, why not shorten his workload? Have him close out games instead of pitching 5 innings every 5th day? Just a random thought.

That would seem to be the smart way to go there. My guess though, and you kind of alluded to it, would be that ego & $$ would get in the way of this becoming a reality.

Same thing for different reasons, I also think that Tim Lincecum should be made a closer at this point.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Hopefully the injury to Tulo can cause the Rockies to start sliding in the standings, paving the way for a CarGo to the Mets deal. Then sign Ellsbury in the offseason and all of a sudden a huge weakness turns into one of the better outfields in baseball.

 

[Chef99]

Hopefully the injury to Tulo can cause the Rockies to start sliding in the standings, paving the way for a CarGo to the Mets deal. Then sign Ellsbury in the offseason and all of a sudden a huge weakness turns into one of the better outfields in baseball.

On paper that looks great, but that's a pretty big injury risk, don't you think? Not that someone like Stanton is Iron Man, but still...

 

[Nasty_Magician]

On paper that looks great, but that's a pretty big injury risk, don't you think? Not that someone like Stanton is Iron Man, but still...

Meh, Ellsbury's 2 major injuries in his career came on pretty flukey, weird plays, Carlos Gonzalez, can't say I know a ton about his injury history.

 

[Tigertowner68]

That would seem to be the smart way to go there. My guess though, and you kind of alluded to it, would be that ego & $$ would get in the way of this becoming a reality.

Same thing for different reasons, I also think that Tim Lincecum should be made a closer at this point.

Making Tim Lincecum a closer makes good sense.

The guy still has filthy stuff. On the downside, he has bad control these days. He has lost the great command that he displayed prior to last season. Bad control is a death sentence to any aspiring closer.

 

[BigDDude]

Making Tim Lincecum a closer makes good sense.

The guy still has filthy stuff. On the downside, he has bad control these days. He has lost the great command that he displayed prior to last season. Bad control is a death sentence to any aspiring closer.

I don't think control is really his problem or issue. I think it is a deeper issue of not always being able to duplicate his mechanics, which leads to his control problems. In the pen, he would both have more time to work on this, and, would likely be able to add a few MPH back to his fastball, having to only throw 2-30 pitches every other day or so.

I REALLY think it could work, and would work out well for him.

Still, I also don't see it happening.

 

[Tigertowner68]

I don't think control is really his problem or issue. I think it is a deeper issue of not always being able to duplicate his mechanics, which leads to his control problems. In the pen, he would both have more time to work on this, and, would likely be able to add a few MPH back to his fastball, having to only throw 2-30 pitches every other day or so.

I REALLY think it could work, and would work out well for him.

Still, I also don't see it happening.

Thanks for straightening this issue out. Mechanics is a much more accurate statement about what Lincecum's issue is.

The Tigers have to carefully monitor Max Scherzer for the same thing. He throws from a 3/4 motion most of the time, and if he varies much from that angle, he gets hit hard just like Lincecum does when he cannot duplicate his mechanics.

 

[romeo212000]

Watching the skanks vs O's. lol at Brett Gardner's water pistol for an arm.

 

[apachef4]

We should start a thread of the ignorant and foolish stuff that Harold Reynolds says.

[MEDIA=twitter]345639616361148416[/MEDIA]

Ah, I miss firejoemorgan.com.

 

[HammerDown]

Ah, I miss firejoemorgan.com.

Joe can't go 3 minutes without some mention of The Big Red Machine.

 

[romeo212000]

We should start a thread of the ignorant and foolish stuff that Harold Reynolds says.

[MEDIA=twitter]345639616361148416[/MEDIA]

Harold Reynolds is an idiot. I cannot stand that guy.

 

[Jets201]

Damn my Yankees have become a joke!

 

[powerchord86]

You know what grinds my gears? Having the MLB package to watch on my computer and not being able to watch your in market team. Anyone out there know of a way around this?

:help:

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Speaking of Anna Benson:

Anna Benson arrested, charged with assault against ex-big leaguer hubby - MLB - Sporting News

She's a good egg this one.

 

[romeo212000]

Everyone keeps talking about what a good division the NL Central is but all I see is the three best teams getting their asses stomped by the A's and Rangers while nobody pays any attention to them.

 

[bone3421]

Everyone keeps talking about what a good division the NL Central is but all I see is the three best teams getting their asses stomped by the A's and Rangers while nobody pays any attention to them.

and throw in the yanks,red sox,etc

rangers will beat the top teams but we lose to blue jays,astros and seattle

 

[soxfan1468927]

Everyone keeps talking about what a good division the NL Central is but all I see is the three best teams getting their asses stomped by the A's and Rangers while nobody pays any attention to them.

Hmm you may be on to something. Here are the divisional standings in games played outside of the division:

AL East: .590
NL Central: .544
AL West: .479
NL East: .469
AL Central: .461
NL West: .457

However, here are the standings with games played outside of the division against teams above .500:

AL East: .559
AL West: .439
NL East: .417
NL West: .415
AL Central: .414
NL Central: .410

 

[soxfan1468927]

and throw in the yanks,red sox,etc

rangers will beat the top teams but we lose to blue jays,astros and seattle

While the Rangers are 6-3 with a +2 run differential against the Yankees and Red Sox, they are also 15-7 with a +31 run differential against the Astros and Seattle.

Blue Jays I agree with, but I would say along with Toronto, Texas's worst losses have come against the Cubs (losing 2 out of 3), White Sox (losing 2 out of 3) and splitting series against Milwaukee and Minnesota.

And while the Rangers are 2nd in baseball in winning percentage against teams above .500 (Braves are first), they are just 19th in winning percentage against teams under .500 (around the same winning percentage as the Brewers)

 

[soxfan1468927]

Everyone keeps talking about what a good division the NL Central is but all I see is the three best teams getting their asses stomped by the A's and Rangers while nobody pays any attention to them.

And those top three teams (Pirates, Cardinals, Reds) are ranked 1st (Reds), 4th (Pirates), and 5th (Cardinals) in all of baseball against teams below .500. They are the top 3 in the National League.

While the Cardinals and Pirates are still great against teams above .500 (6th and 7th in baseball, 2nd and 3rd in the NL), the Reds are 26th in baseball (.367) and 13th in the NL.