2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

Marty Foster Fun Fact: He is married to the daughter of Midwest League president George Spelius, who used to invite MWL umpires over to his home for dinner with him and his wife, Nancy. During the offseason, the Fosters live across the street from the Speliuses in Beloit, Wisconsin.

That said, that was a terrible call.

 

Go, Nats fans!
Maybe his name is RALPH.



This lovely picture comes to us courtesy of Noah Scialom, who shot it at the Oriole's home opener. There's just so much to like about it: the stream of vomit frozen perfectly in mid-air, the soft glow of the oncoming twilight, and the caring look of concern on the face of the puker's friend—who seems to have no problem with getting puke splattered all over his pant leg and shoe.

http://deadsp.in/ZfcwZs

 

Not sure what the answer is but it looks like the ball is knee-high as it crosses the plate and only then does it dive low and outside.

Serious question: Does the ball have to stay knee-high into the catcher's glove or is it a strike soon as it crosses regardless of where it lands?

 

Yeah it doesn't look like a strike to me but it hardly seems egregious enough to merit a suspension. There will be at least 100 worse calls in MLB this season, including one I saw last night when Sergio Romo struck out Todd Helton in the ninth.

 

If it passes through the hitter's strike zone and crosses the plate simultaneously, it's a strike regardless of where it lands.

 

From this angle it looks like it takes a nice little bite out of the front-right corner -- through the zone -- before diving. Would be nice to see the overhead shot. Seems like an effective pitch but who knows.

 

I guess the telling things are that (a) Foster admitted he blew the call and (B) even Nathan was surprised, mouthing the word "wow" after he got the strike call.

 

The side-on view at about 1:20 here shows it below Zobrist's front knee. It's at best level with his back knee, with his leg at maybe a 50-, 55-degree angle.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130409&content_id=44287208&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

 

If you have to analyze it to that degree, it's probably not nearly the perversion of decency that it's being sold as.

 

Greg Maddux is laughing at everyone right now.

 

Except that even the pitcher was surprised it was called a strike and the umpire admitted he got it wrong.

 

Yeah. It happens. A lot. As I said, it happened in the ninth inning of the Giants-Rockies game last night.

But we have calls for suspensions and public flogging here.