Play Ball! the 2013 Baseball Thread

[Keyrock]

Nice win for the Sawx last night.  More importantly, it was great to see Lester pitch well again.  That was one of his best outings of the entire season.  After getting off to a good start, Lester had been decidedly mediocre over the last couple of months.  He looked like an ace on the mound last night.  That's the Lester the team is going to need in October.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

Sawx called up Xander Bogaers to the majors yesterday.  Bogaerts is a shortstop and generally considered the Sawx top prospect and the reason why they were able to trade away Iglesias without a second thought.  Bogaets is the youngest player to play for the Sawx since Dwight Evans some 40 years ago.  Middlebrooks has been hot since getting the call back up, so it's unlikely he'll be losing any playing time to Bogaerts, more likely it will be Stephen Drew splitting time with Bogaerts.

[Guard Dog]

The Rays resigned Delmon Young. Ugh... not this again.

[Keyrock]

Good win for the Sawx today against arguably the best team in baseball, the Dodgers.  More importantly, it's the second straight dominant start for Jon Lester.  He pitched 7 1/3 and gave up 1 ER, last time out it was 8 1/3 with 0 ER.  Last time it was against the Giants who are pretty ****ty this year, but now he backed it up with another dominant start against the hottest team in the majors.  Once upon a time Clay Buchholz was arguably the best starter in the majors and Lester was a dominant #2 that would have been an ace on 95% of teams.  Since then Buchholz has been injured and Lester fell into mediocrity.  Now, Lester is showing signs of ace form again and Buchholz is scheduled for a rehab start tomorrow.  Combine that with Lackey pitching quite well, he pitched a great game last night, with a 2 run shot being the only blemish, but lost because he got no run support, ZERO, and Peavy having pitched well in 3 of his 4 Sawx starts (with only 1 win to show for it) and you potentially got a fantastic 1-2-3-4 going into September and October.

 

On a side note, Xander Bogaerts got his first hit in the majors today.  Also, this brutal road trip is 1 game away from being over.  The Sawx have spent 15 of the last 18 games on the road and have 1 more road game to go before going on a 9 game challenging home stand that will do much to define the ultimate AL East standings.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

 

What's going on here?

[Keyrock]

 

What's going on here?

That's some damn good reflexes.

[Guard Dog]

Just a heartbreaking loss to the halos tonight. Couple that with the Sox routing the O's and it was a bummer of a night.

[Keyrock]

The Sawx just completely demolished the O's with Victorino having a monster night (2 HR, 7 RBI).  Another good sign is Napoli heating up as of late.  He's well known as a streaky player and this certainly wouldn't be a bad time for him to go on a hot streak.  The starting pitching has been really good lately too, even in the 1 loss in San Fran and the 1 loss in LA.  The Rays loss was a bonus I was not expecting.  Still a month to go and things are too close for comfort.  It's going to be an exciting September.

 

On a side note, hopefully Buchholz fares better in his second rehab start today than he did in his first.  The most important thing is no setbacks, though.

[HoonDing]

 

Could Japanese top teams beat a MLB team?

[kgambit]

Could Japanese top teams beat a MLB team?

 

If the MLB team is the Houston Astros my money is going on Japan.     

 

Rangers win on a walk-off balk. Tied with Detroit and a 1/2 game behind Bosox for AL best record

Baring a total collapse, the NL races are over - only thing up in the air is who wins NL Central 

Edited August 28, 2013 by kgambit

[Malcador]

Not enough roids.

[Keyrock]

 

Could Japanese top teams beat a MLB team?

As impressive as that is, they cut the gif off too early.  I want to know whether she threw a strike, or even reached the plate.

[kgambit]

 

 

 

Could Japanese top teams beat a MLB team?

As impressive as that is, they cut the gif off too early.  I want to know whether she threw a strike, or even reached the plate.

 

 Yes and no (high outside)

 

Full video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeo6QMcbW4

 

She was South Korean (rhythmic gymnast Shin Soo-ji's)  not Japanese

Edited August 28, 2013 by kgambit

[Keyrock]

 

 

 

 

Could Japanese top teams beat a MLB team?

As impressive as that is, they cut the gif off too early.  I want to know whether she threw a strike, or even reached the plate.

 

 Yes and no (high outside)

 

Full video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeo6QMcbW4

 

She was South Korean (rhythmic gymnast Shin Soo-ji's)  not Japanese

 

Nice, thanks.  That's a lot better than most people do throwing out the first pitch conventionally.

 

Edited August 28, 2013 by Keyrock

[Leferd]

Yes, a Japanese team can beat MLB teams. Given a small enough sample size, they can even beat the out over a series. If you insert them into the AL or NL, will they be able to come out with a .500 plus record over a 162 game season? Nope.

 

Then again, Japanese teams have won the WBC and Little League World Series against strong international competition.

[Keyrock]

Yes, a Japanese team can beat MLB teams. Given a small enough sample size, they can even beat the out over a series. If you insert them into the AL or NL, will they be able to come out with a .500 plus record over a 162 game season? Nope.

 

Then again, Japanese teams have won the WBC and Little League World Series against strong international competition.

 

Agreed, given a single game scenarion, a Japanese team could conceivably beat any MLB team, because **** happens.  I'd even give them a somewhat reasonable chance to beat a team like the 'Stros or Marlins in a 7 game series.  They'd get smoked in a 7 game series by any of the contending teams.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Keyrock

[Hurlshort]

Japan is a great baseball country, but lets not forget that the best players in Japan often go to the US to compete, while the US players that go to Japan are usually struggling to make an MLB roster.

[Leferd]

Great piece of long form sports journalism on Japanes baseball.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9452014/pitcher-tomohiro-anraku-future-japanese-baseball-espn-magazine

 

I disagree strongly with some of their practices but can understand why they do it.

[Guard Dog]

Japanese teams play small ball. Single, bunt, single. They tend to have a smaller strike zone too. A MLB team vs a NPB with a Japanese umpire would give up a lot of walks. But would also score a lot of runs since the average fastball in the NPB is 88-91 mph. They throw a lot more breaking pitches but good hitters can figure those out by their 2-3 AB. 

[kgambit]

 

 

 Yes and no (high outside)

 

Full video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeo6QMcbW4

 

She was South Korean (rhythmic gymnast Shin Soo-ji's)  not Japanese

 

Nice, thanks.  That's a lot better than most people do throwing out the first pitch conventionally.

 

 

 

http://www.audiomicro.com/tracks/dialog/548599  This opens in a separate window

Edited August 28, 2013 by kgambit

[Keyrock]

Nice come from behind win for the Sawx tonight.  No matter tomorrow's outcome, they'll take this series from the O's, but if they can sweep, they can effectively eliminate the O's from the AL East race.  Hopefully the Lester that was super dominant the last 2 times out shows up again for that game.

[HoonDing]

Clark Kent found new job?

 

Edited August 29, 2013 by Drudanae

[kgambit]

Not a good week for Minnesota's Trevor Plouffe

 

First Yu Darvish makes him look sick on this:

(That's a 61 mph curveball and Plouffe is way ahead of it ....  lol)

That's just NASTY! 

 

 

and then there's this:

 

Edited September 1, 2013 by kgambit

[Keyrock]

Not a good week for Minnesota's Trevor Plouffe

 

First Yu Darvish makes him look sick on this:

(That's a 61 mph curveball and Plouffe is way ahead of it ....  lol)

 

 

Holy **** he got clowned on that curveball.

[Keyrock]

Sawx get the sweep today and have taken 5 of the first 6 on this home stand.  Starting tomorrow they have a tough series with the Tigers.  Hopefully they can keep the lead they've built up for the coming week so they have a bit of a cushion heading into the series at The Trop that will go a long way toward deciding the AL East.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Keyrock