MLB 2014 season thread

Question for regular viewers of Cubs telecasts. Is Len Kaspar a total house man or just some of the time? I heard him on a radio show last week say the front office has done a good job of surrounding the superstars with platoon players.

I cannot name a single superstar on that team.

 

A better explanation.

 

The A's finally decided to go heavy in the closer market when they traded for Jim Johnson, who won $10 million in arbitration.

And now the A's are showing why their decade-long belief of not paying for a closer was the way to go. Johnson has blown two saves (badly), has an 18.90 ERA and is out as closer.

http://blog.sfgate.com/athletics/2014/04/10/jim-johnson-out-as-as-closer-hes-not-surprised-by-move/

 

Yes and no. They also traded for Johnson because they knew he was on a one-year deal and they could either (a) trade him at the deadline, or (b) get a compensation pick for him when he left via free agency.

But yeah, either way it blew up in their faces.

 

It happens to tall pitchers too. All pitchers have a high burnout rate.

In every season, around 15% of starting pitchers will either have a catastrophic injury or a massive reduction in effectiveness.

 

It's a recurring story around the site: Kids playing ball all year, learning too many pitches before their arm can handle them, and an epidemic of Tommy John surgery.

 

Except Lincecum has never had anything structurally wrong with his arm. He's just steadily lost velocity and effectiveness in the last couple of years.

 

Point taken in Lincecum's case, but like we're starting to see in other sports, how much of what we're seeing throughout the game is a result of overuse?

 

Lincecum is confounding because he has the ability to look great. Five times last year he went at least six shutout innings, including a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts. Another six times he went seven innings and allowed one or two runs. So that's a third of his starts that he is as good as anyone in baseball. And after a 2012 season when he was the worst starting pitcher in baseball (by ERA), he was incredible as a super-reliever in the postseason, allowing one run in 13 innings. (He got rocked in his one appearance as a starter even then.)

I don't know if it's mental, if it's drugs or if he should just jump to the bullpen now. But I don't think it's your garden-variety wearing down.

 

Pitchers have been burning out their arms for as long as they have been throwing overhand. It's not new.

 

He came into the season saying he wasn't going to try for strikeouts as much anymore. And his first two starts have been nearly identical. He gets his tits ripped off in the first inning, goes back to the heater and strikes out 5-6 guys in the next three innings. But his pitch count is so inflated because of that bad inning, he's out before five complete.

 

Right. But usually when it's gone, it's gone, and it doesn't show up again every third start.