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2019-Whenever Misc. Grab Bag Thread

Denmark’s Andreas Christensen with an absolute bomb against Russia in their 4-1 win. Their 3 goal win, combined with Finland’s 3 goal loss to Belgium clinched 2nd in the group for the Danes and advancement to the knockout stage.

 
Yeah, he was great last night as well. 15K with only one mistake to Terrell Tatum, but State's *freshman* pitcher, Sam Highfill, gave up only two hits. The Pack's defense was very good again, but they didn't really have to be thanks to Highfill's excellent pitching. Also loved seeing yet another 9th inning double play get turned by the defense. It's been a fantastic run so far.
 
Yeah, he was great last night as well. 15K with only one mistake to Terrell Tatum, but State's *freshman* pitcher, Sam Highfill, gave up only two hits. The Pack's defense was very good again, but they didn't really have to be thanks to Highfill's excellent pitching. Also loved seeing yet another 9th inning double play get turned by the defense. It's been a fantastic run so far.
.... from:... Apex HS! WOOT!
 
Sam Highfill’s postseason, from Andrew Schnittker, who is the Canes Country managing editor, but has been covering the team all season for Inside Pack Sports

 
I saw Highfill pitch earlier in the season and he was ... fine. I've seen his last two starts and somehow or another the guy is now throwing what they call a heavy ball. Batters make contact, but but looks like they're trying to whack a medicine ball into play. He didn't have that earlier, so either Highfill has figured something out in his delivery or he's just hot at the right time.

Oh, and in case you think I only complain about NHL officiating ... what a random freaking strike zone from the home plate Ump. Way to set the box, blind man.
 
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I saw Highfill pitch earlier in the season and he was ... fine. I've seen his last two starts and somehow or another the guy is now throwing what they call a heavy ball. Batter make contact, but but looks like they're trying to whack a medicine ball into play. He didn't have that earlier, so either Highfill has figured something out in his delivery or he's just hot at the right time.

Oh, and in case you think I only complain about NHL officiating ... what a random freaking strike zone from the home plate Ump. Way to set the box, blind man.
Didn’t see it, but multiple tweets said that Leiter had a much bigger strike zone than Highfill.

Speaking of incompetent, I saw that Angel Hernandez was trending on Twitter last night. I chose not to go down that rabbit hole.
 
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Oh, and in case you think I only complain about NHL officiating ... what a random freaking strike zone from the home plate Ump. Way to set the box, blind man.
Brutal, he was Angel Hernandez level bad and that is pretty hard to do without trying.
 
Didn’t see it, but multiple tweets said that Leiter had a much bigger strike zone than Highfill.
I didn't see one pitcher having a bigger zone than the other so much as I saw an Umpire who never established either the line at the knees or the line at the letters. Consequently, either team could have felt screwed ... and been correct. On the other hand, the hitters knew he was all over the place and they never got comfortable either. It was classic rec. league level balls and strikes work ... from a guy working the College Freaking World Series. Even the NHL watched that and thought it was bad.
 
LOL. I was actually going to mention Angel Hernandez yesterday as an example of complete incompetence that somehow is still allowed to continue working.
 
Speaking of incompetent, I saw that Angel Hernandez was trending on Twitter last night. I chose not to go down that rabbit hole.
OK ... I'm stuck on what's going to be a 2 hour hold with Disney Cruise Line so I looked. LOL ... he was a menace working at 1st base last night. You never know where he'll strike next ... he's like a D level comic book bad guy. If that guy could skate, he'd 100% be working the Conference Finals in the NHL
 
OK ... I'm stuck on what's going to be a 2 hour hold with Disney Cruise Line so I looked. LOL ... he was a menace working at 1st base last night. You never know where he'll strike next ... he's like a D level comic book bad guy. If that guy could skate, he'd 100% be working the Conference Finals in the NHL
Is “the mouse” filling up his ships these days?
 
Rob Manfred makes Gary Bettman look competent.

This is one pitcher’s reaction to being checked for “sticky stuff”. It mirrors Max Scherzer’s reaction when he was checked.

 
Boohoo to bazillionaire pitchers for minor inconveniences. Blame the hundreds of cheaters for creating this situation. Its not the umpires' fault.
 
Boohoo to bazillionaire pitchers for minor inconveniences. Blame the hundreds of cheaters for creating this situation. Its not the umpires' fault.
Minor inconveniences? There is a series of posts on the other thread about how baseball is unwatchable, this is supposed to help? There are also posts about “calling the rulebook”. When is the last time you saw the strike zone called by the book? Is one an extreme reaction to the other? Maybe. What’s the difference between MLB telling Rawlings to change the ball and what pitchers are doing? And it’s not going to help, someone showed that a combination of sweat and rosin allowed him to stick the ball to his inverted palm. Both are legal substances.
 
Most of the checks are between innings when there is a stop in the game anyway. Once they fine Joe Girardi for the extra check of Max Scherzer from last night that should put a stop to that.

Its always been a rule that you cannot apply foreign substances to the ball except for rosin. Sweat would be legal in theory are well, you can rub the ball with your hands. Umpires could always do an intrusive search of a pitcher at any time, there are ample examples of this happening in the past, so its not like the concept being applied here is new. Pitchers will adjust quickly and once they do we will see 2 things happen, spin rates will drop for a whole lot of pitchers (that is already happening just in 2 days) and MLB will relax the searches a bit.

It already is helping, there will be substantial spin rate reductions across the league. Pitchers will become a little more hittable. There is a big difference between the extra grip rosin and sweat gives you than what Spider Tack or some of the suntan combos pitchers have been using without penalty for a while now give you. Spider Tack was created to allow Strongmman competitors to not lose grip of the massive boulders they are carrying around in competition (actually created and sold by a competitor that lives in this area). I've heard it gives you quite an amazing grip of just about anything.

No one is taking away rosin and sweat which has been and will still be legal. Its just the "other stuff" that pitchers have been using that allow them to easily throw 95 MPH sliders and sinkers and 100 MPH fastballs with such incredible spin rates that their movement is unprecedented.
 
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And it’s not going to help, someone showed that a combination of sweat and rosin allowed him to stick the ball to his inverted palm. Both are legal substances.
It'll never be a fair contest between pitcher and batter until they outlaw sweat. And Rob Manfred is just the man to do it :0)
 
Jomboy has a nice breakdown video on this topic from late May that did a great job of explaining what the issue is.



Check it out, it's not too terribly long at 11 minutes.

I don't know why the league can't just monitor spin rates during the game. If a pitcher is all of sudden hitting on or getting near 3000 RPM with their pitches, then do a check. Letting an opposing team's manager get into the head of a pitcher is absurdly dumb, but when does that ever stop a league office from their super genius coyote level plans?
 
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