Monday Bird Droppings

and you’re just asking for the hard fouls. If he even tried to stay on his feet, he’d be the best in the world. Until then, he deserves every bit of his negative reputation

I would want him on the team for sure, but that wouldn’t stop me from cursing him everytime he flops and eventually hurts the team with his antics.

A couple of things to keep in mind: on four-seam fastballs, it seems that for righties, the more negative the number, the greater the horizontal movement; for lefties, a bigger positive number is better. Two-seam fastballs should have even more horizontal movement than four-seamers, and they should have a significantly smaller number for vertical movement (even though it’s still positive, that indicates sink).

And the way that Pitch F/X classifies pitches can be questionable. From what I recall, last year, a lot of Bergesen’s two-seamers which didn’t move as much were labeled four-seamers, and a lot of his slower sliders were labeled curves (even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t throw a curve). That sort of stuff is very common, since (as far as I know) they don’t make any pitcher-specific adjustments to the pitch-type-determining algorithm. Sometimes it’s really helpful to look at the game charts on FanGraphs to get a better idea of what pitches are being called.

But, for the record, take everything I have to say about Pitch F/X with a very large grain of salt, because most of what I think I know is just inferred from looking at different pitchers’ data and comparing that to what I see when they pitch.

It’s been awful, but I don’t think there have been that many. The “blown saves” statistic doesn’t just refer to the ninth inning, from what I recall.

We need better, younger players, including in the bullpen, to be sure. Looking at our wins and losses is part of what is wrong with our front office.

Yes. If the kid who’s actually WON at the ML level shows very little evidence of being able to repeat that, sure we jerk him around more than the guy who has the potential to be a long-term solution. Results matter when they are repeatable – not when they are aberrations.

As far as it helping the clubhouse, every player in that clubhouse knows that Bergesen was pushing his luck at the ML level and every player in the clubhouse knows that Tillman is an actual prospect. They understand this situation just fine.

Should we have a team of David Ecksteins who can’t actually do shit but play the game the right way?

Jones might someday learn the zone and how to play defense, and be a star. Someone like Matt Angle or Ronnie Welty knows the zone and how to play defense, but will never ever be able to get around on a 95 mph fastball or crush a hanging breaking ball. You can’t succeed at this level without tools unless you are Jamie Moyer – a one in a million type player. There are lots of guys who are 5’9 and who are awesome at basketball. They aren’t in the NBA.

The Toronto Star is reporting that he was DFAed. In the end, it doesn’t matter for us. I have mad DFA rules knowledge now and the Jays will pass him through waivers and nobody will claim him because of his contract. Once he clears waivers, the Jays will send him to AAA because he hasn’t accumulated enough service time to decline being sent there.

Purke, Cole, Rendon are all on my radar (and Rendon is, yes, the front-runner)

In fact, I generally think that I think the opposite.

That said, I think the O’s like pitching prospects more than hitting prospects, and I think that any team with the #1 pick could theoretically fall in love with Cole, Purke, or Gray.

still fits the bill of ton of promise/talent and no delivery. Plus he had a license plate that said 24ktarm.