The B1G Piece wrote:ffs, CLIFF LEE, I am speechless

WheelsFellOff wrote:Good. I absolutely hate guys with long hair.

When hitters begin to show signs of age — swings and misses, foul balls and weak ground balls on pitches they used to crush — they start to “cheat,” as it is said within the game. The term doesn’t mean what it sounds like and has nothing to do with taking drugs or using corked bats. What’s meant by it is that players make adjustments. A hitter will look for a certain kind of pitch, or “eliminate” parts of the strike zone and decide to swing only at, say, a pitch on the inner half, below the belt. He makes an educated guess about what a pitcher will throw based on years of experience in the game. It amounts to making a swing plan in advance, and it’s more common among older hitters who cannot respond as quickly to what they see.

One night in Miami, at the home ballpark of the Florida Marlins, I sat behind home plate with a scout for a big-league team, whose job it is to observe and report on the tendencies and weaknesses of future opponents. He had recently seen a game involving the Phillies, whose 39-year-old left fielder, Raul Ibanez, was slumping. The scout figured Ibanez would revive, at least somewhat. “He’s one of the biggest cheaters out there,” he said, meaning it as a compliment.

swishnicholson wrote:The Sunday New York Times Magazine had an article on Derek Jeter this past weekend. Not all that great-it's general conclusion was that players performance fell off as they got older, and that this was happening to Jeter. Not exactly earthshaking. I'm sticking it here though, because of the comments about Ïbàñæω:

One night in Miami, at the home ballpark of the Florida Marlins, I sat behind home plate with a scout for a big-league team, whose job it is to observe and report on the tendencies and weaknesses of future opponents. He had recently seen a game involving the Phillies, whose 39-year-old left fielder, Raul Ibanez, was slumping. The scout figured Ibanez would revive, at least somewhat. “He’s one of the biggest cheaters out there,” he said, meaning it as a compliment.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:So he needs to call back that guy who gave him the HGH before the 2009 season?

The B1G Piece wrote:Halladay - 10-3, 2.40 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 7.69 K/BB, 1.13 BB/9, 8.70 K/9, 7.49 IP per start
CLIFF LEE - 9-5, 2.66 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 4.41 K/BB, 2.00 BB/9, 8.78 K/9, 7.18 IP per start
Hummus - 9-4, 2.49 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 5.14 K/BB, 1.69 BB/9, 8.68 K/9, 7 IP per start

Team Leader in bold.

swishnicholson wrote:The Sunday New York Times Magazine had an article on Derek Jeter this past weekend. Not all that great-it's general conclusion was that players performance fell off as they got older, and that this was happening to Jeter. Not exactly earthshaking. I'm sticking it here though, because of the comments about Ïbàñæω:

When hitters begin to show signs of age — swings and misses, foul balls and weak ground balls on pitches they used to crush — they start to “cheat,” as it is said within the game. The term doesn’t mean what it sounds like and has nothing to do with taking drugs or using corked bats. What’s meant by it is that players make adjustments. A hitter will look for a certain kind of pitch, or “eliminate” parts of the strike zone and decide to swing only at, say, a pitch on the inner half, below the belt. He makes an educated guess about what a pitcher will throw based on years of experience in the game. It amounts to making a swing plan in advance, and it’s more common among older hitters who cannot respond as quickly to what they see.

One night in Miami, at the home ballpark of the Florida Marlins, I sat behind home plate with a scout for a big-league team, whose job it is to observe and report on the tendencies and weaknesses of future opponents. He had recently seen a game involving the Phillies, whose 39-year-old left fielder, Raul Ibanez, was slumping. The scout figured Ibanez would revive, at least somewhat. “He’s one of the biggest cheaters out there,” he said, meaning it as a compliment.

Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez: "The thing that really strikes me about him, especially for such a veteran, is that he looks really antsy this year when he's hitting with runners in scoring position or the game on the line. He looks like he can't wait to get the at-bat over with."

Halladay is on pace for a fourth straight year with at least 17 wins and an ERA lower than 2.80. Only five pitchers have done that in the past half century: Sandy Koufax, Jim Bunning, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer and Randy Johnson.

The B1G Piece wrote:Halladay - 10-3, 2.40 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 7.69 K/BB, 1.13 BB/9, 8.70 K/9, 7.49 IP per start
CLIFF LEE - 9-5, 2.66 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 4.41 K/BB, 2.00 BB/9, 8.78 K/9, 7.18 IP per start
Hummus - 9-4, 2.49 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 5.14 K/BB, 1.69 BB/9, 8.68 K/9, 7 IP per start

Team Leader in bold.

ek wrote:the halladay road start stat is the one that consistently blows my mind

etched Chaos wrote:

ek wrote:the halladay road start stat is the one that consistently blows my mind

It's also the single stat that is never brought up in 'Halladay is awesome' articles. It seems the only time its mentioned is during his road starts by T-Mac. The guy goes nearly 60 (hope that;s right) starts of 6IP+ on the road and no-one is bothering to mention it outside of the Phils own TV Crew? Crazy.

Phillies ace Roy Halladay, who was making his first career start in St. Louis, allowed just four hits over six innings, striking out five and allowing one earned run. The right-hander has gone at least six innings in each of his last 62 road starts, the longest active streak in the Majors.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

etched Chaos wrote:

ek wrote:the halladay road start stat is the one that consistently blows my mind

It's also the single stat that is never brought up in 'Halladay is awesome' articles. It seems the only time its mentioned is during his road starts by T-Mac. The guy goes nearly 60 (hope that;s right) starts of 6IP+ on the road and no-one is bothering to mention it outside of the Phils own TV Crew? Crazy.

It was mentioned in the mlb.com writeup from the Cards game last week, but even then it was presented almost as an afterthought:

Phillies ace Roy Halladay, who was making his first career start in St. Louis, allowed just four hits over six innings, striking out five and allowing one earned run. The right-hander has gone at least six innings in each of his last 62 road starts, the longest active streak in the Majors.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_06_21_phimlb_slnmlb_1&mode=recap&c_id=phi

Well I guess that's a fair writeup... if by "longest active streak in the Majors" the writer meant "ridiculous and historic performance over the past several seasons."

Yankee Joe DiMaggio collected 3 hits, including a double. The center fielder has gone 56 straight games with a hit, the longest active streak in the Majors.