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Post by kaybli on Sept 4, 2024 16:01:23 GMT -5
Let's knock around our old friend Elvodia!
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Post by JEGnj on Sept 4, 2024 16:41:17 GMT -5
Another Prime game not watching. Thinking about putting a fire outback and catching some of it on the radio. Still frustrated over last night's disaster.
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Post by ill636 on Sept 4, 2024 17:30:09 GMT -5
No Wells. Is he hurt?
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Post by JEGnj on Sept 4, 2024 17:45:50 GMT -5
Got hit on wrist 2 nights ago. Xrays negative but day to day. |
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Post by bigjeep on Sept 4, 2024 17:56:14 GMT -5
This season is flying by! Its that damn pitch clock!  |
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 4, 2024 17:59:40 GMT -5
Maybe tonight is when Judge breaks out of this little funk he's in. The games are more entertaining when he's raking.
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 4, 2024 18:03:37 GMT -5
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 4, 2024 18:19:48 GMT -5
Gil's strikeout stuff could playout in the bullpen.
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Post by inger on Sept 4, 2024 18:41:47 GMT -5
Gil's strikeout stuff could playout in the bullpen. Gil could wind up being “Righetti’d”…it might be the best for him… |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 4, 2024 18:43:54 GMT -5
In the series finale, the Rangers start veteran righty and ex-Yankee turned sometimes Yankee-killer Nathan Eovaldi. He pitched against the Yanks in the series in New York 3 weeks ago, but the Yanks made him work hard, throwing 81 pitches in 3 innings before leaving early with "tightness" in his left side. He didn't have to go on the IL, and made his next start. As the Yanks have already faced Eovaldi before, there's no need to rehash his career, so an update to his season is in order. Since that game, Eovaldi has made 3 solid starts; the best one was the last one in which he went 7 shutout innings giving up just 1 hit, walking 2 and striking out 10. The caveat there is that it came against the historically inept White Sox. Before that, he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings in a win against the Guardians, and 3 runs in 7 innings in a no-decision against the Twins. He's given up 14 hits, 6 earned runs, 3 BB and gotten 21 strikeouts in the 20 innings of the three starts since he left early against the Yanks. On the season, Eovaldi is 10-7 with a 3.60 ERA in 10 starts. In 140 innings, he's allowed 117 hits, 57 runs, 56 earned, 18 HR, and 32 BB while striking out 139. His WHIP this season is an outstanding 1.064, 5th in the AL among qualified starters. In the components of that WHIP, he's 9th in fewest hits per 9, and 7th in fewest BB per 9. He's also 9th in the AL in K/BB ratio.
Eovaldi has made 18 starts and 3 relief appearances against the Yanks before tonight's start. He' 4-5 with a 3.61 ERA, with complete game shutout. In 104 2/3 innings, he's allowed 100 hits, 45 runs, 42 earned, 13 HR, 20 BB and struck out 96. His WHIP against New York is an excellent 1.147, and the Yankees team quadruple slash line against him is .249/.290/.406/.696. His last start against them was the 1st game of the Saturday doubleheader after the Friday night rainout. He struggled with his command, allowing 6 hits, 3 runs (earned) and 2 walks with 4 K's in just 3 innings. Torres got a RBI single in the 1st, and Wells got him for a 2-run double to right center in the 3rd. Rodon went 5 2/3 shutout innings despite walking 5 and got the win in an 8-0 shutout.
Repertoire: Eovaldi is has been a 5-pitch righty ever since he junked his sinker after the 2018 season: fastball, slider, curve, splitter and cutter. The fastball acts like a sinker almost; far less rise than average but gets elite "run"; 8th most among 406 MLB pitchers who throw a 4-seam fastball. The cutter gets average drop and considerably less break than average into left handed hitters. The splitter has above average movement in two planes, down and also in on righties. The curve has below average drop and break arm-side. He uses the slider about 3 times a game; it has more or less average drop and break. Run values: the FB and splitter are sizeable plus pitches, the curve is a sizeable minus, which is why Eovaldi uses it less than his top three pitches. His cutter and slider are more or less neutral in terms of run value. His FB velocity used to be elite; it's above average, but no longer elite. The FB spin is below average. The curve spin is 4th lowest among 223 pitchers in baseball who throw the pitch. His extension used to be near-elite, now it's just a bit above average. His chase rate is close to top 10% in MLB. Eovaldi's hard hit is above average this season, the average exit velo is a bit above average. His barrel rate is slightly below average now. His line drive percentage is about normal, the groundball percentage is well above average at almost 50%, and the flyball and popup percentages are well below average. In spite of the flyball and popup percentages, his HR/FB rate is well above average, the 6th highest among 62 qualified starters, but his BABIP is below average, and his strand rate is slightly better than average. The three "luck factors" are close to cancelling each other out and his ERA estimators are in close agreement that his ERA should be about 3.90 rather than the current 3.60. He get considerably more swinging strikes than average but fewer called strikes than average, so his CSW is a bit above average. The pitch mix for this season to date: fastball averaging 95-6 about 38% of the time; splitter 88-89 about 31%; cutter 91-2 about 15%; curve 77 also about 13%; and slider 86 about 3%. Since facing the Yanks the first time, he's using the cutter a bit more and the curve a bit less often.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 4, 2024 18:47:45 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: We hit this before, when Eovaldi pitched against the Yankees 3 weeks ago. Of about 40 Nates or Nathans in MLB history, the best hitter was Nate Colbert, who put up 173 HR and 520 career RBI in a little over 1000 games playing for, among other teams, the original Padres of 1969. He made three NL All-Star teams and finished 8th in the MVP vote in 1972, when he hit 38 HRs and knocked in 107 runs. Eovaldi is the best pitching Nate or Nathan. The 2nd best is pitcher Nate Robertson, who pitched rotation for the Tigers briefly in 2003 at the end of the season in which they were the last team to challenge the 1962 Mets as the worst in modern MLB history. The 2003 Tigers went 43-119. That got the Tigers the #1 pick in the draft, which they used to select Justin Verlander in 2004. Verlander made his debut in 2005, and thanks to a superlative fast rebuild by David Dombrowski, the Tigers won the pennant and made the World Series, just three years after that historically bad team. Robertson was there for all of it. He finished 8th in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2004, but never really broke through as a quality starter. His best season was for the pennant winning team in 2006, going 13-13 with a 3.64 ERA, accounting for 3.4 of his career total bWAR of 4.4. The only MLB player with the last name Nathan is Yankees' doormat, Joe Nathan, the closer for the Twins who was a key culprit in their inability to beat the Yanks in even one postseason game during his career. Nathan is the one and only Eovaldi in MLB history.
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Post by donniebaseball23 on Sept 4, 2024 18:48:50 GMT -5
Our long, regional nightmare is (sorta) over? |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 4, 2024 18:48:51 GMT -5
The Yanks match Marcus Stroman against Eovaldi. The story of his season is now familiar: two excellent months followed by two bad months, followed by several sessions with Mark Blake and others to tweak his delivery on some of his pitches, resulting in the current 4-game run of success: 3-0 in his last 4 starts with a 2.35 ERA. On the season, Stroman is now 10-6 in 26 starts with an ERA of 3.81. In 139 1/3 innings, he's allowed 136 hits, 66 runs, 59 earned, 18 HR, 57 BB and struck out 102. His seasonal WHIP, despite the recent success, is still well below average: 1.381. His current strategy is also well-known: baffle opposing hitters into chasing a kitchen sink full of junkballs: sinker, slider, cutter, slurve, curve, splitter, and an occasional 4-seam FB. He's canny and battles hard, and he's keeping his head above water lately, despite the fact that he no longer has remotely enough stuff to challenge hitters; he has to set them up and make them chase for soft contact and what swings and misses he can get. Still near the bottom of qualified starters in most hits per 9, most BB per 9, fewest K/9 and lowest K/BB ratio.
This is Stroman's 7th career start against Texas; he's 3-3 with a 5.34 ERA in the first 6. In 32 innings, he's allowed 31 hits, 19 runs (earned), 4 HR, and 14 BB with 24 K's. His whip against them is a poor 1.406, and the Rangers team quadruple slash line against Stroman is .258/.338/.400/.738. His most recent start against Texas was the first of the 4 good starts in a row. He made it through 5 innings on 89 pitches, giving up 4 hits, 3 BB and 1 ER, despite striking out just 1 batter. The Yanks built the big lead and watched in horror as Cousins, Kahnle, Leiter and Holmes worked very hard to blow it, but Holmes hung on by his fingernails to save Stroman's 8th win of the season and first win in 7 weeks.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 4, 2024 18:50:25 GMT -5
Yankees' lineup vs. Eovaldi:
1. Torres (2B) is 9-41 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 8 K and 3 GIDP
2. Soto (RF) is 2-3 with 3 BB and 1 K
3. Judge (CF) is 12-30 with 2 doubles, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K, and 3 GIDP
4. Chisholm (3B) is 1-4 with 2 K
5. Stanton (DH) is 9-33 with 2 doubles, 4 HR, 11 RBI, 2 BB (1 IBB), 12 K, 1 sac fly and 1 GIDP
6. Rizzo (1B) is 8-22 with 4 doubles, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB 5 K, 1 HBP, and 1 GIDP
7. Volpe (SS) is 0-8 with 4 K (Hey, Boone, why not give him a day off here?)
8. Verdugo (LF) is 1-7 with 1 BB and 1 K.
9. Trevino (C) is 2-10 with 1 RBI and 1 K,
On the bench: LeMahieu is 16-50 with 2 doubles, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 K, 6 BB and 2 GIDP; Cabrera is 0-2 with a sac bunt; Grisham has faced Eovaldi once and walked; Wells is 1-2 with a double and 2 RBI
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Rangers' lineup vs. Stroman:
1. Smith (SS) is 1-3 with a BB and 1 HBP
2. Langford (LF) is 1-2
3. Lowe (1B) is 1-5 with 2 K
4. Garcia (DH) is 0-3 with 2 BB
5. Jung (3B) is 0-5 with 1 K
6. Heim (C) has never faced Stroman
7. Taveras (CF) is 0-2
8. Duran (2B) has never faced Stroman
9. Jankowski (RF) is 2-9 with 1 double, 4 K and 1 sac bunt;
On the bench: Kelly is 1-4 with 1 K; pitcher Jon Gray is 0-2 with 1 K; Semien (2B) is 7-17 with 3 BB, 2 K and 1 GIDP; Seager (SS) is 3-10 with 1 double, 1 RBI, 3 BB, 2 K and 1 GIDP
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 4, 2024 18:51:31 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Yanks were stymied by Andrew Heaney and Jose LeClerc for the first six innings while Carlos Rodon had a single hitter (Jung) beat him for a HR on one FB inside, a decent pitch, but they trailed 1-0 going to the 7th. Then they staged a fine comeback, getting the tying run in a grounder by Trevino and taking a 2-1 lead on a soft single by Verdugo. In the 8th, Volpe got a single with 2 outs and the bases loaded to score two more, and it looked like they were on their way to a nifty comeback win. Then the suspect Yankee bullpen got into the act, with Jake Cousins getting into trouble and giving up a RBI single, and Tim Hill getting him out of the jam, but giving up a sac fly to make it a 1-run game. The Yanks got two on in the 9th but couldn't tack on. In the bottom of the 9th, anti-closer Clay Holmes was brought in and got the first out on a grounder to 2nd. Then he hung a sinker to Kelly who singled. Holmes threw 18 more pitches after that single, and perhaps 3 of them were worthy of a major league pitcher, much less a legit closer...the pinch runner stole second, the pinch hitter Smith walked. Marcus Semien walked on 5 pitches, and the bases were loaded. In the Langford at bat, Holmes got not one, but two called strikes on pitches that were not in the zone, but he couldn't finish him, bouncing no less than 3 pitches for balls, before hanging a slider that Langford belted for a walkoff grand slam. Holmes blew his 11th save and took the loss, dropping to 2-5 on the year. turning a nice comeback win into yet another harrowing, devastating loss. Walter Pennington pitched into and out of trouble in the 9th, getting his 1st major league win. The Yanks "have no one better" than Holmes, but at this point it simply does not matter; he cannot continue to be the closer. It's time to bite the bullet and drop him to a lower leverage role in the pen and close by committee if necessary. This....stuff...has to stop, and it has to stop NOW.
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