Transmogrified Tiger

three at bats materially changed by blown calls, all of them against the Cubs get it together Vanover

lol Fox's overhead camera just showed off how garbage their pitch trax is

lol at the static images used for Schwarber and Coghlan

Something is going on in that region, that's for sure.

It's on regular Fox, Fox Deportes, and FoxSportsGo Are any of those on Sling Basic? They are not. If you don't have a cable login, you'd need to use an antenna to pull in Fox, or go somewhere that would be carrying the game.

What a lazy, lazy article. Coghlan v. RHP in 2014: .362 wOBA in 296 PA Coghlan v. RHP in 2015: .355 wOBA in 397 PA Coghlan v. RHP in 2016 to his DL stint: .240 wOBA in 195 PA Coghlan v. RHP in 2016 post DL stint: .370 wOBA in 51 PA What's the indefensible short sample we're reacting to now?

I also think that he might be saving Contreras in case Schwarber comes up to face Miller. Given his rust and his numbers against lefties last year, it might make sense to PH for Contreras (or Soler). But of course if you PH the DH spot, you lose the DH spot for the game and need to PH there the rest of the game or hit with the pitcher. Hence having 2 quality bats off the bench in Willy and Georgie. You only lose the DH if the DH takes a defensive position, you can pinch hit for the DH as much as you want without the pitcher having to hit. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/rules_regulations.jsp

I probably would've started Contreras(neither Kluber or Contreras had much of a platoon split this year), but Coghlan being in the lineup is fine. Not sure why Coghlan is in RF though, I guess they anticipate more balls to LF with the righties facing Lester. Or just more familiarity for Zobrist since he hasn't been in the OF a ton.

and Bryant in RF? If they haven't deviated from Bryant at 3B and Javy at 2B for Lester's starts yet I don't think they'll start now, but certainly not impossible.

[tweet] [/tweet] I'd put pretty good odds on that surprise being Contreras in LF.

So Kipnis is going to try to play on this: (not Bauer-gory, but spoilered to be safe) EDIT: It appears she deleted the tweet, but Kipnis' ankle is so swollen it looks like someone stuffed a baseball in it.

It will stream on FoxSportsGo. You do still need a cable login though.

Also, and it's hard to believe this needs to be spelled out, exit velocity is a measurement of how hard the ball is hit, which can proxy to how well Schwarber is timing pitches in the AFL. If he had gone 2 for 3 with a broken bat single and a bloop double, that'd be less positive than his actual result of a hard hit groundout and a double down the line. Or in other words, exit velocity is simply putting a finer point on the eyewitness accounts talking about Schwarber grounding out sharply, or smoking a double to RF.

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I believe Marmol was in that class. IIRC his slider was the most unhittable pitch in baseball. It's just that good sliders break arms. Peak Marmol was close, he had a 2.55 ERA and 2.01 FIP in 2010, and even in that peak year he walked 6 guys per 9. He wasn't close to that performance with any consistency though, if he had done that for 3+ years then sure, but that's not what happened unfortunately.

I don't trust those AFL exit velocity readings, they said Eloy put one at 119 but that 5 others from the same game were 110+. Even with a hot gun on statcast though, he has to strike the ball well to get that reading.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=schwaky01&year=Career&t=b#lineu Over 80% of his plate appearances at the MLB level have come at #2.

Also, the roster spot Schwarber would be taking got 1 plate appearance in the NLDS and 0 IP in the NLCS. The opportunity cost is very, very small.

The Indians have a deep offense, 6 regulars have a wOBA over .340. For reference, the Cubs had 5 over .340 including Contreras. They have a mix of speed guys who have a bit of pop(Ramirez, Lindor), outright sluggers(Santana, Napoli, Naquin), and Kipnis who does a little of everything. They led the AL in stolen bases and baserunning value, which could mean that if Lester doesn't keep Rajai Davis(and Ramirez/Lindor to a lesser extent) off first base, the NLCS narrative could be very real like it was for Hamilton and Villar. Their rotation is Kluber and a bunch of misfit toys. Kluber is very good, but more 2016 Arrieta than 2015 Arrieta. There is no Kershaw or Hill in the Indians rotation. Trevor Bauer performed like Jason Hammel this year and he cut his finger off with a drone. Salazar has great stuff but he's been hurt for a 6 weeks and was terrible for longer than that before getting hurt. Josh Tomlin is American League for Mike Leake. And by ability, Ryan Merritt would be more at home getting September starts for the Reds than pitching in the ALCS. Their bullpen is nightmare fuel. Miller incinerates righties and lefties and goes for innings at a time. Allen is their nominal closer and strikes out a ton of guys, if you saw how good Thornburg was for the Brewers this year, that gives you an idea. Shaw is Strop-ian in effectiveness. And for days that their starters don't go long, Otero(AL Tyler Clippard) and McAllister(think 2015 Cahill) suck up innings. Long story short: Work the starters hard but don't forget to score on them, their bullpen is deep enough to manage a 7 game series. Let your pitching and defense do the work it has been, there's no Rizzo or Bryant in this lineup but they don't run as many easy outs as LA and SF either.

I'm extremely unworried about Schwarber's health being an issue, it's 100% about if he's actually going to be able to hit major league pitchers so soon. It sounds a little like he not only just started facing live pitching last week, but that until he was cleared on Monday he hadn't been doing any serious swinging at all. As Kyle likes to point out, 5 weeks of spring training is overkill, but Schwarber hasn't been training like most players are in January either, and 1 week with all the live pitching coming against prospects that are at AA(at best) isn't the same as facing the Cleveland pitchers awaiting him. More to the point, putting Schwarber on the roster instead of La Stella/Zastryzny is easy. Putting him in the starting lineup instead of Coghlan or even Soler is far trickier.

If he can't hit in the AFL he's sure not gonna hit Corey Kluber, I tell ya what

yeah I guess the Taxi Squad rules just don't matter, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You are correct, anyone saying that Schwarber is going to play in the AFL today is wrong.

I would be very surprised if an International Draft applied to NPB players. The current bonus pools do not, and the reasoning(IFA's are not yet professionals, NPB players are) is the same if you go from pools to a draft for IFA's. The posting/FA system could change again, but that would almost certainly be independent of an IFA draft. The Koreans and the Cubans are in professional leagues, would they be exempt as well? It seems like a giant waste of time if the international draft isn't even going to cover all international players. I really wish they'd just leave it alone and let the players keep getting paid what they're worth. Yes? My understanding is that the purpose of the international draft is to add fairness(read: curb spending) on the 16 year old IFAs, not to act as a catch all for any player who isn't drafted in the stateside draft. With the Cubans there's been some flip flopping on whether they qualify, but that ambiguity has never extended to Asian countries, most especially NPB.

I would be very surprised if an International Draft applied to NPB players. The current bonus pools do not, and the reasoning(IFA's are not yet professionals, NPB players are) is the same if you go from pools to a draft for IFA's. The posting/FA system could change again, but that would almost certainly be independent of an IFA draft.