2013 MLB Season

[KMRblue1027]

It's not all doom and gloom in the minors though.

Crawford and Sandberg have superstar upside but are in Short-A ball.
Franco is at AAA and has a A+++ bat if he can hold it at 3rd base. Asche is serviceable and MLB ready.
If TJ can still catch he's a avg defense ++Power catcher.
Morgan is a solid #3 starter who is about 90% ready.

Also their are the more fringy guys
Biddle is a number 2 starter if he stops walking 4 batters a game.
Kelly Dugan, Rupp, and a few others are solid bench players to fringe regulars.
Plus studies have shown that the Phillies minor league system is very pitcher friendly so any of these fringy position plays could hit better in a minorly hitter friendly ballpark like CBP.

 

[choxorn]

Don't get me wrong. The Giants aren't in a good place, but at least they aren't:

Rockies
Cubs
Brewers
Mets
Phillies (lolGM)
Marlins
White Sox
Twins
Blue Jays
Yankees
Rays

The Mets and Twins actually have decent farm systems, and the Rays have the ability to conjure good players out of pixie dust.

 

[schlaufuchs]

The Mets and Twins actually have decent farm systems, and the Rays have the ability to conjure good players out of pixie dust.

Those prospects are a fair ways off iirc, and the system has changed to work more against the Rays (and the A's). The Rays are a good team right now, but they're going to lose Price in the next two years, and I'm not entirely convinced they have the farm system to keep themselves competitive after that.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Those prospects are a fair ways off iirc, and the system has changed to work more against the Rays (and the A's). The Rays are a good team right now, but they're going to lose Price in the next two years, and I'm not entirely convinced they have the farm system to keep themselves competitive after that.

Price is gonna be flipped this year. One of the big market teams like Texas is gonna trade their version of Myers again. It's an endless cycle with the Rays magically making pitchers than selling them off.

 

[El Justo]

the phils have some okay prospects. i like franco. but they can't plug holes at the big league level with guys from down below. amaro gets a bad rap. yeah, he's struck out over the last year or so. but he landed some premium players for dirt cheap (halladay, lee [twice], oswalt). something should be said of that. not one player traded in those deals will ever come back to haunt the phils.

 

[classical_hero]

A case of the droppsies for St Louis.

 

[dgfred]

Deadspin has an article showing Lester with a 'strange blob' on his glove... and a clip showing him slyly touching the spot before a pitch in the 7th.

I would have thought it was just a glove defect until I saw that .

No wonder he was throwing darts.

 

[El Justo]

 

[schlaufuchs]

Deadspin has an article showing Lester with a 'strange blob' on his glove... and a clip showing him slyly touching the spot before a pitch in the 7th.

I would have thought it was just a glove defect until I saw that .

No wonder he was throwing darts.

QUICK! To the PITCHf/x data!

 

[SamSniped]

I miss Victorino so much.

Don't worry, we're happy to have him

 

[Darkness]

Interesting ending of game 3 last night! Strange way to walk off for the Cards, but IMHO Joyce and DeMuth made great calls in high pressure situations.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I can understand if Sox fans didn't like it. Just like I didn't much like the reversed call in game 1 - still was the right call, though.

 

[shadowplay]

I didn't see it as obstruction myself (and I am not pulling for Boston, btw). It looked to me like dude got laid out on the ground during the play and the baserunner simply tripped over him. I think thats his own fault, but I'm guessing the rule doesn't stipuate that it has to look intentonal.

 

[say1988]

Intention is irrelevant. It is the duty of the fielder to clear a path for the runner.

The rulebook even specifies this exact situation, fielder is lying down as a result of attempting to field the ball, as obstruction.

 

[illram]

It's a judgment call, the rules leave a lot open to the umps, and the umps should not end a world series game on something that they admit, according to their judgment, was impossible for Middlebrooks to avoid absent teleportation off the field. Craig was way off the basepath, had his hands on Middlebrooks to prevent him from getting up, and ran into his midsection and arguably got in his way when he was catching the ball anyway. Both players got tangled up and to give the Cards the win is ridiculous, especially after their own crappy baserunning blunders.

Salty made a dumb throw, Middlebrooks made a bad catch, ultimately it is their fault to put the game in the hands of the umps, but the umps deciding a critical game 3 game in the bottom of the 9th on that kind of play is just wrong.

There is no comparing this to the obviously wrong call in the first game, please.

 

[say1988]

It's a judgment call, the rules leave a lot open to the umps, and the umps should not end a world series game on something that they admit, according to their judgment, was impossible for Middlebrooks to avoid absent teleportation off the field. Craig was way off the basepath, had his hands on Middlebrooks to prevent him from getting up, and ran into his midsection and arguably got in his way when he was catching the ball anyway. Both players got tangled up and to give the Cards the win is ridiculous, especially after their own crappy baserunning blunders.

Salty made a dumb throw, Middlebrooks made a bad catch, ultimately it is their fault to put the game in the hands of the umps, but the umps deciding a critical game 3 game in the bottom of the 9th on that kind of play is just wrong.

There is no comparing this to the obviously wrong call in the first game, please.

If there is a non-call and the Red Sox win that is just as much the umpires deciding the game as making a call. And to top it off it would have been them deciding them game by incorrectly calling the play. The "let them play" and "don't decide the game" mentality is disgusting, deciding not to make a call has just as much of an impact on the game and can be just as wrong as any call.

That was a cut and dry obstruction call. From the rulebook:

"After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the "act of fielding" the ball. For example: an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed the runner."

There is no question that if Wwstbrook had not been there Craig would have scored. That was the correct call.

 

[illram]

OK. First and foremost, Salty and WMB put them in this bad situation with a sloppy catch and throw play. See ball catch ball guys, fundamentals. And no if you let them play and the Sox win, that is the players deciding the game, not the umps on a 50/50 judgment call that Joyce made when he was not even watching the full play. From his own admission he just saw Craig fall over and called it "instinctually" which is BS.

With that said look where Craig took off from.



He ran over Middlebrooks who is lying about a foot off the bag. It looks like he raises his feet to actually get them out of the basepath. He actually runs on the grass, out of the basepaths, at first because he took off from so far off the bag. If the ump can use his judgment to make that call, which he can under the rule, he shouldn't end the game on that, of all plays.



Better angle. Joyce isn't even looking at him at this crucial point, WMB is trying to get up and Craig is using him to get up himself so he can't move. Basically what you have here is a situation where any errant throw taking the fielder off the bag is going to award the 3B runner home plate, which is absurd. If I'm the Cards I know I just stole a game basically.

 

[say1988]

Was the fielder in the way of the runner? Yes.

Was the fielder actively in the process of fielding the ball? No.

Would the runner have been safe if not for the fielder? Most likely, yes.

It doesn't matter if the fielder tries to get out of the way. It doesn't matter if the fielder intentionally tried to obstruct the runner. All that matters are the three questions above. The first two have clear answers and the third is pretty clear.

And not calling this has just as much of an impact on the game as calling it. To say that an incorrect non-call doesn't affect the game is stupid. "Let them play" is one of the stupidest ideas in sports.

 

[choxorn]

Basically what you have here is a situation where any errant throw taking the fielder off the bag is going to award the 3B runner home plate, which is absurd.

Well, yeah. If Craig doesn't trip over Middlebrooks then he scores easily. If he does, then it is, by definition, obstruction. It doesn't matter if Middlebrooks couldn't get out of the way, he was still lying in the basepath (or at least, close enough to it that it could be reasonably expected a runner might be there). It doesn't matter if Craig was pushing off of Middlebrooks. The fact is, this was, by the rules, obstruction.

Don't blame the umpires. Blame Salty for making that throw in the first place (there was no way even a perfect throw would have gotten an out there), blame Middlebrooks for not catching it, blame Uehara for giving up a double to Craig in the first place, blame Farrell for not Double-Switching when he brought Workman in. But the umpires made exactly the right call here.

 

[illram]

To end the that game on that call is a gut punch. A blow for blow game called on total slop is always going to be a problem. This isn't some let them play principle this is about that game and that call that the ump doesn't even see entirely when he makes it. Does everyone get ejected when they call balls and strikes? Do second baseman always have their foot on the bag when runners are called out on double plays? Baseball is full of judgment calls. We will see what the baseball gods have to say about this.