SIAP.......the video of this pitch in the story is amazing. No spin at all.

Angels pitcher Robert Coello's mystery pitch leaves hitters muttering under their breath - Yahoo! Sports

The Rangers are taking out their frustrations on Brandon McCarthy. After losing in extra innings on Sunday to the Mariners in walkoff fashion, then losing both games of a doubleheader to Arizona on Memorial Day, the 2nd game also a walkoff, then having yesterday's game rained out, they chased McCarthy in 2 2/3 after scoring 6 runs. He'd given up 1 earned run in his previous 24 innings.

I've been throwing that pitch since I was in little league. My dad taught it to me when I was young. I was actually throwing it to my nephew the other week. Its not as hard to do as an actual knuckle ball, especially for someone like me who chews their nails like its going out of style. I know I threw it a few times at various levels. My dad was always one of the coaches, so I had a bit of leeway with what I could get away with on the mound (though never try a real knuckle ball submarined, you will get yelled at). Seeing as my fastball topped out in the low-mid 70s as a freshman before quitting for soccer, something tells me I didn't have a future throwing the ball in the pros.

I just always called it a y-ball.

Now that the Wings season is done I can continue with my "fire Jim Leyland for fuck's sake" campaign.

The Tigers are such an underachieving team again this year and it falls on Leyland.

I expect you know a lot more about the Tigers than an outsider would but its hard for me to understand the underachievement of going to the World Series last year, the AL championship the year before, and currently in first place in their division with one of the best records in the AL. Define underachievement.

Perhaps my expectations as a fan are too high, but for a team that has arguably the best pitcher in baseball (Verlander), the best hitter in baseball (Cabrera), and one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball, one would think this team would run away with the weak-ass central division title. Much like last year, this team struggles with mediocrity and is barely above .500 at this point. Last year, they had to practically run the table at the end to win the division, and that only happened because of the Chisox meltdown.

Leyland isn't necessarily a bad manager, but he certainly isn't a great one either. I would take Girardi, Bochi, or even Joe Maddon (Tampa Bay Rays) over Leyland any day.

But like I said, perhaps my expectations as a fan are too high. *shurg*

Mitchell Boggs up to his old tricks.

No chatter about the Royals coaching shake-up? Not surprised the idiots are gone, but the move to name Brett the interim coach certainly was a huge surprise around this area. Never thought he'd take that step.

Yea, i read somewhere where he (Brett) said "sometimes homeruns kill rallies." Somebody explain that to me.

Tigers lose 3 of 4 to the Pirates. Way to go guys.

Cardinals and Royals resuming at 4am est. Wonder how long they'd play if this went into extra innings.

I thought they had put a rule in place a while back that prohibited starting a new inning past 1 AM local time... I guess I either had that way wrong, or they repealed it.

No, you're referring to the comments two days ago from the former hitting coach who was fired one day later when the comments hit the press. I boldfaced the comment that was hammered on the airwaves and lead to his firing. Only thing more amazing is that they actually reassigned this guy to the minor leagues after the comment. Why would you want him teaching your prospects????

Yost tries to tamp down controversy over hitting coach Jack Maloof's comments - KansasCity.com

dola

Pretty funny article here as well. Talks about the crazy comments from Royals managers right before they were fired and how Yost has had similar comments of late.

When things get bad, Royals managers say and do the darndest things - KansasCity.com

You realize the Pirates have the second best record in baseball?

Reds/Pirates this weekend should be a good one. This is the Reds 2nd road trip to Pittsburgh, after already putting in 2 road trips to St. Louis, and having neither of those teams come to Cincy yet. Reds are 2-7 on the road vs. STL and PIT, and 11-7 vs. the rest of MLB on the road, and 31-14 vs. the rest of MLB overall.

That hitting coach was absolutely right. If you don't have home run power, and you try to hit home runs, you end up popping/flying out. You should be doing exactly what he said, stay down on the ball and try to hit line drives.

Plus the rally killing comment makes sense, pitchers pitch differently with men on base, if you have the bases juiced and hit a HR, you get the runs, but the pitcher can now pitch differently. Can't think of many situations off the top of my head where getting 4 runs is not a good things, but I can come up with a couple.

No, it doesn't. That's basically the silliest baseball thing I've heard those year - the fact that Larry Bowa was spouting that crap makes me even more convinced of its wrongness. As one wag on twitter put it, claims HR's kill rallies is like claiming getting laid reduces your chances of having sex. The goal is to score runs offensively, and hr's are the quickest way to do so.

That reminds me of a friend I used to play hockey on the Sega Genesis with. Whenever he was shorthanded, he would intentionally give up a goal so he could get back to even strength. He thought that was a good strategy.

No, not really. Even if he pitches differently, no runs have crossed the plate. If you're down 3, and lead off the inning with a HR, it's not rally killing. You're down 2. Your chances of winning have gone up a lot more than if you're down 3 with a man on first. Chris Welsh, one of the Reds broadcasters spouts this drivel too. It's bullshit, plain and simple.

You're right if the players don't have homerun power. But the Royals have homerun players in their lineup. Gordon is a 20-25 HR guy. Butler should be challenging the Royals HR record every year, yet suddenly has a power outage when these idiots started as batting coach. Moose and Hosmer are guys who can hit for power who have been transformed to players hitting singles to the opposite field. I'd take an Adam Dunn or Rob Deer from some of these guys over a .260-.270 singles hitter any day.

You must've been watching the Indians game Wed. night also... he talked like going from 5-1 to 5-2 in the 9th was a bad thing.

I'm not saying that I agree 100%, but there are a fair number of times where the bases get cleared and suddenly the pitcher locks down the side. Again, unless you're down by more than 5 or 6l, I take the HR. if you're down by more, I'd rather keep plinking away.

Touchdowns kill drives 100 percent of the time. Stupid touchdowns.

Of those three you mentioned (Hosmer, Gordon, and Butler), they have a grand total of 3 seasons of more than 20 homers in 17 combined ML seasons. That doesn't show much power.

I'm sure that's just the fault of the hitting coach(es).

lol

It honestly is at some level. The coaches that were just fired were the ones that trained these guys all through the minor leagues.

All three have had much more expected of them. One or two duds is normal. A whole system of top-flite power talent becoming singles hitters is a trend.

Yes, but it doesn't mean the Tigers should be losing 3 of 4 to them. Especially with that lineup and payroll. It just reeks of more underachieving by this team.

With the long delay between series, Gary Bettman turned his attention to other Pittsburgh teams...

Look at the Reds. Guys come to the majors and they NEVER get better.

Well Verlander isn't exactly pitching like the best pitcher in baseball right now (he's still great, but not at his usual heights - its still early). But what do you mean about barely over .500? They are 4 games behind the teams with the best record in the American League. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Also sneering because you lost to the Pirates ("with that lineup and payroll") because of what you expected the Pirates to be, seems reminiscent of teams sneering at losing to the Rays a few years back. Teams that are making their move and are young will naturally have a lower payroll.

Not sure what Verlander's problem is, perhaps that massive contract is in his head now, I dunno. The point I was making is that the AL Central is a sad sack division yet the Tigers are struggling with Cleveland for 1st place. If not for the Royals' flaming inferno, that division would be even tighter right now.


I'm not sneering at the Pirates, and no offense (I feel for Pirates and Cubs fans, trust me the Tigers were awful in long stretches) but when Pittsburgh actually wins something then perhaps they will get some respect. Leading their division and having a top record at the beginning of June is not as impressive as being in that position in September. This could also be true with the Tigers floundering at this point in the season I suppose, but once again, with the high payroll and players they have come lofty expectations and right now they are not delivering.

FWIW, I wouldn't mind seeing the Pirates do something this year. It would be nice to have a different team involved for a change.

lol well played SR....well played

Btw, you realize this is a Cleveland team which is much better than the ones of the last few years. They are 4th in the AL Runs per Game, league average in pitching Runs per Game.

Yes, the Indians were idiots for letting Choo go to Cincy, but all the bullpen arms they got in that deal have done very well for them, and they replaced Choo's production by getting Swisher and Bourn.

The Official 2013 MLB Thread
 

Welsh says that all the time. It's moronic.

His problem is he faced a pretty good Cleveland team twice, a pretty good Pittsburgh team, and a pretty good Texas team. Doing that 4 games in a row will probably knock down a pitcher's rate stats. Meanwhile the teams babips were 200 points higher than the previous 7 games. His walk and strikeout rates were pretty much the same, so it seems he just had bad luck against those teams.

I'm going with the theory that breaking up with Kate Upton ruined Verlander.

Why he would put him there in that spot is beyond me. Back to AAA he goes.

I missed that the family friend got called up by the Royals. He's starting behind the plate tonight against the Rangers.

Strasburg lifted with apparent arm injury after just 2 innings vs Atlanta
Stephen Strasburg pulled after two innings with apparent injury

edit to add: WaPo says it's a back issue rather than an arm/shoulder issue.

I just assumed Strasburg just got sand in his vagina again.

Giants should just not bother with traveling as they are awful on the road.

Starting pitching continues to be a big issue and now the bats are ice cold as well. I can't believe that they are still 2 games over .500

Great win for the Braves in extras!

This word, underachieve, I don't think it means what you think it means.

I know you were (are?) a Yankees fan, so you might have missed that decade plus or so where the Tigers were beyond awful. Leyland has been the best manager the team has had in ages. They went to the World Series last year and ran into a red hot buzz saw of a team in the Giants. They made it the American League Championship the year before and are currently first place in their division.

Yes, expectations are very high, as well they should be given the talent and payroll of this team, but it's June second right now and the Tigers have pretty much lived up to expectations the last couple of years.

They'll be fine.

Though you should be streaming Detroit sports talk radio. There are others around here in that campaign.

Matt Latos already has seven no decisions.

And anyone can have J. Broxton. For free.

Bizarre play in Reds-Rockies game where Helton lines into a double play by hitting the ball after it hit the plate. Play wasn't ruled a double play however. Strange play called wrong. Luckily, it didn't affect anything.

Fair enough. I grew up in Michigan and I remember very well how shitty this team was after Sparky left. With that being said, I sure hope this team turns it up a few notches because getting to the World Series is great but does it really matter if you are being swept or losing in 5 games when you get there?