MLB 2014 season thread

Felix Hernandez has 15 strikeouts through seven innings this afternoon at Tampa. He has thrown 100 pitches exactly. The Rays have four hits and one walk.

If he keeps the record in play through eight, he could end up with a hell of a pitch count going for it in the ninth.

Edit: Forgot to mention, the game is tied at 0-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth.

 

Pawtucket's Chris Hernandez had a no-hitter busted up in the seventh by Joey Votto, on a rehab assignment.

 

They pulled Felix after seven, but the Ms tag Grant "Gascan" Balfour for five in the ninth and Seattle wins again.

Mariners hanging around in the NL West, despite Robinson Cano losing his power upon arrival in the Pacific Northwest (he is hitting in the .330s, however).

 

Using slash lines, home run totals and dependent counting stats as basis for criticizing Mauer shows a relative lack of sophistication.
Saying Joe Mauer sucks at baseball and saying he isn't worth $23 million a season are two different things.
He has also had three pretty serious injuries, all different in nature.

 

Nastiest stuff in the west.

 

Using dependent counting stats and home runs would be a mistake. The former is beyond his control and the latter was never his strong point, the fluke of his MVP season aside.

The slash line is more useful. It shows a deterioration in his play. He is not nearly as productive as he had been and now he isn't the same contributor defensively, either.

 

An advanced stat which I'd been in the dark about, and I really like now that I've looked at it for awhile, is Bill James' Game Score for starting pitchers. It looks like a deeper version of the quality start.

 

Sign No. 4385 that it might not be your team's year: you give up TWO grand slam homers in the span of three innings. Way to go, Twins.

 

Critics accurately predicted when the asinine contract was struck that he would tie up a ton in payroll.
The Twins tried going with a stars-and-scrubs approach and won a division title with the model.
Then they realized the scrubs manning starting positions not only suck, but are unplayable.

 

I didn't say anything about Mauer's home runs. But he's not hitting doubles this year either. He's a singles hitter, and if he's not hitting .330 (which he's not), he's fairly useless, particularly now that he's a first baseman and not a catcher.

 

Random thought recently while watching MLB Network go around the ballparks to show live look-ins at pregame exercises. The other day they showed BP somewhere and talked about how so-and-so team is facing a strong lefty. The BP guy is throwing righty behind the L-screen.

So you get to thinking ...

I don't know if this would be a radical idea but you'd think that because hitting lefties is harder by nature that they'd turn the L-screen around and use a lefty for BP so that hitters can adjust their minds for the game.

 

That makes far too much sense. It might cause hitters the embarrassment of striking out during BP instead of grooving their home run swings.