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MLB - Official 2012 Season Thread: Where Curt Schilling & Marlins will never find us.

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Haven't really been paying attention to how any of the teams in baseball have been doing record wise as of yet. I just looked at the AL East standings. Was substantially surprised. Even though it probably won't happen, I would love the Orioles to just troll that entire division the whole year.
 

newjeruse

Member
Had a chance to see Sox #1 pitching prospect Matt Barnes today. Here's my write-up:
Matt Barnes impression:
Overall: Clearly is not challenged by the low-A competition. He could probably cruise using his fastball alone. Facing the 1st batter in the 3rd inning, he threw 3 straight fastballs down the middle (91 mph then 93 mph then 94 mph) for three straight swinging strikes. When hitters were able to make contact, they mostly pounded weak groundballs into the ground. He has a clean and easy delivery reminiscent of Luke Hochevar.

Fastball: Sat 94-96 in the first 2 innings and 92-95 over the rest of the game. He also showed a limited 2-seamer which he used as a show-me pitch in the first pitch of some AB's. He showed good control, the ability to hit the catcher's mitt and throw to both sides of the plate. 3 times in the game he should have struck a batter out on a good cross-arm fastball which wasn't called a strike. His fastball didn't have much movement and he rarely threw it down in the zone. He has a tendency to throw his fastball on one plane. That wasn't a problem today and obviously this season, since his velocity is enough where he can still blow it by hitters. But more advanced hitters will drive those balls he leaves up. Nevertheless, sitting 94-96 is impressive enough in its own right. Exhibiting above average control with that type of velocity clearly has been the ticket to his early success.

Current Grade/Future Grade: 60/65

Curveball: His curve was erratic for the entire game. Yes, he snapped off a couple curveballs with nice depth. One of them should have been a called strike three, but it fooled the umpire. Other than those handful of curves, Barnes was having tremendous difficulty locating the pitch. He has a tendency of flying open early, which causes drag on his throwing arm and slows it down. The result were several tumblers with little deception and a lot of curveballs spiked in the dirt. I don't know if this has been a tendency for him all season, but his curveball looked below average to me today.

Current Grade/Future Grade: 40/50

Changeup: Barnes' changeup was his most surprising pitch to me. He used it exclusively against LHH's, but he seemed much more comfortable throwing it than his curve. He started out several AB's with his changeup and one time threw it for the first two strikes of the AB. He overthrew it once which led to him pounding it into the dirt on the cross-arm side of the plate. But every other time he kept it on the outside third of the plate and it either led to swings and misses or weak contact. He doesn't get a tremendous amount of fade, but enough to miss the sweet spot of bats.

Current Grade/Future Grade: 55/60
 

Branduil

Member
Saw the highlights of the latest Angels' loss. Incredible.

Also, why do the Indians use the Mario-grabbing-a-coin sound effect when they score?
 

sangreal

Member
“He’s got a real low-grade strain. We’re probably looking at more than a few days, but I’m not saying it’s a DL. We’ll have to see how it progresses in the next few days. He had an MRI and it’s just a real low-grade strain. … We won’t (add an outfielder) before tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

fuuuuck

Please call up an outfielder. Cannot handle more Ibanez in the field
 

Prade

Member
Man... You know what this inning should have been over before Helton even came up. Rauch got robbed on a beautiful strike called ball.
 

rekameohs

Banned
This year doesn't seem too bad with YOTU....yet. There was the Dodgers triple play and the Rangers fake bunt I guess. But so far, it's mostly been Year of the Blown Save
 

McNei1y

Member
This year doesn't seem too bad with YOTU....yet. There was the Dodgers triple play and the Rangers fake bunt I guess. But so far, it's mostly been Year of the Blown Save

Nats have had some YOTU in the first weeks but not so much recently. Now its just the team losing games.
 
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