A Thread For Starting Pitchers That Are Doing Really Well

that wd make no sense.

Overturning would basically be making perfect games more important than WINS, WORLD SERIES, etc. It would open a Pandora's box. Which is why I half-expect Beelzebud to do it.

It's probably the best happy medium. They shouldn't overturn the call.

xpost

man this Joyce dude is a class act tho

By call I mean safe/out, not hit/error.

Neyer:

The only way overruling Joyce works is if there's a rule in the books that can reasonably be applied retroactively. You might not like it, but if Selig announces a rule next Monday afternoon and applies it retroactively to the 2nd of June, he'll at least have the weight of authority on his side.*

* Granted, even this would open up a huge tub of smelly earthworms. Wednesday night, a few hours after Jim Joyce took the stage, the Twins lost in the 10th inning to the Mariners on a play that might well have been overturned with the benefit of video review. And how many more game-changing plays might be reversed, with video review, between now and next Monday afternoon?

But an "interim" decision would set a terrible precedent, because this theoretical "interim" might last weeks or months or years. Does the commissioner really want to be in the position of overruling umpires every time an umpire blows a call that might have changed the result of a game? Or simply changed a player's statistics? (Because that's all that happened Wednesday night in Detroit: a player's statistics were very slightly affected.)

http://wxyt.cbslocal.com/2010/06/03/jim-joyce-right-after-he-robbed-armando-galarraga-of-a-perfect-game/

― Andy K, Thursday, June 3, 2010 11:21 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this guy sounds like he sweats when he eats

he might be breathing that heavy because he's choked up. that and it sounds like they interviewed him in a diner.

i swear i wrote that before i got to the forks and knives rustling part. that made it even stranger.

Joyce was crying as he walked onto the field -- looked like a wreck. (It's OK -- he only has to call balls and strikes today.) Galarraga, owner of a new Corvette, handed him the lineup. Heard what sounded like mild booing.

Bill Klem woulda kicked an ump's ass for crying

does anyone have rules/documentation of this "best interests of baseball" clause? same one Selig used to defraud the Expos owners during contraction?

it is entirely amorphous

sort of like what constitutes "a swinging strike"

Oden (Motown)

I've a theory--I think the controversy around last night's game will give Galarraga fame beyond that of say Dallas Braden. Many baseball fans can tell you Haddix had the 12 perfect innings, even if he didn't throw one of the twenty perfect games. Fewer could tell you Jim Bunning had one of the twenty. What do you think?

Klaw (1:07 PM)

Love this point. Wish I'd thought of it. 20 pitchers have thrown perfect games - how many can you name? How many from before you were born? I could have named Haddix - or Floyd Bevens, if you want to extend this - but when I tried the perfect games quiz on sporcle I got fewer than half of the ones from before I was born.

mike in MN (mn)

The fascinating thing to me is that people are more upset over a call that didn't effect the outcome of a game, than they are over the calls last post-season, or the call in the Twins' game last night. A perfect game or not, the outcome is what matters most, yet the stink over this is much larger than the stink over calls that effect who wins.

Klaw (1:08 PM)

Also very true. The Walk Like a Sabermetrician blog has an excellent post up on this very subject. "It was a perfect game!" is not a counterargument. More important calls are blown every October, yet there's more hue and cry over this than there was over Eric Gregg's NLCS-altering strike zone.

Fay Vincent on whether Selig should reverse call: "It would be very popular. But I think time and history would show it would be a mistake."

first point is bullshit--wouldn't any pitcher rather have the perfect than be the guy who just missed? who cares "how you're remembered"

second point--it's an extreme situation because it was the last out. it's not really complicated why people are invested in this. "there are more calls blown...." isn't a counterargument either.

My Facebook friends who have recently "liked" Armando Galarraga and A Million Bajillion Strong to Recognize Armando Galarraga's PERFECT Game and otherwise pay no attention to baseball would LOVE IT.

I'm going to start a group called Let's Build a Time Machine and Go Back to the Top of the Ninth Inning of Armando Galarraga's Near-Perfect Game and Make Jim Leyland Pull Renterian Range Guillen, Shift Santiago to 2B, and Place Everett at SS.

Dude got a Corvette. ISSUE OVER.

http://cmsimg.freep.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C4&Date=20100603&Category=SPORTS02&ArtNo=100603028&Ref=AR&Profile=1321&MaxW=320&MaxH=300&Q=100&mime=jpeg

Went up prior to copyediting, apparently.

Baseball comissioner Bud Selig said he would look at the game's umpiring system and the expanded use of instant replay, but would not reverse the blown call that cost Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers a perfect game on Wednesday night.

"While the human element has always been an integral part of baseball, it is vital that mistakes on the field be addressed," Selig said in a statement. "Given last night's call and other recent events, I will examine our umpiring system, the expanded use of instant replay and all other related features."

Selig said he would consult with baseball's labor unions and the game's special committee for on-field matters before announcing any decisions.

Selig also praised umpire Jim Jouce, whose blown call in the bottom of the ninth cost Galarraga the perfect game, as well as Galarraga and Tigers manager Jim Leyland for the way they handled the situation.

i just realized a decent dallas braden snub would be for girardi to pull in galarraga as a reserve for the all star game.
wouldn't hurt the ratings either.

This has done more to humanize umpires than anything I can remember

A Toledo man who shares his name with a major league umpire received harassing phone calls after the ump made a botched call during a Detroit Tigers game.

Fans who were upset about the call, which prevented a perfect game for Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga Wednesday night, heard the umpire was from Toledo, so they looked up Jim Joyce in the phone book.

The Jim Joyce they found was the wrong one.

Joyce told WTOL-TV the calls were pretty vulgar. He also says he had to cancel his home phone service to get the calls to stop.

no one should have a home phone these days, anyway

I have no plans for anything but, til I DIE!

POSTS VERY MUCH IN CHARACTER

even my 67 yr old mother has switched over to just a cell!

well, tell her not to call me :)

Hi Cole Hamels

was about to mention. only thu 5 thus far tho.

Hole Camels

"it's official!"

no-no and shutout all gone with one swing of the bat.

C'MON COLE, KEEP MISSIN' THE CORNERS

:(

he's on my fantasy team; you wouldn't understand.

wade leblanc yo

o i understand TOO WELL

ok I lold

http://i44.tinypic.com/dxjnr8.jpg

I'm too young to remember McLain's '68--I started watching baseball in '70--so my frame of reference for a "fast start" by a starting pitcher is Wilbur Wood in '73, Gaylord Perry in '74, and Randy Jones in '76. (The real purpose of that last sentence: the opportunity to say "I'm too young".) I still remember SI's dramatic "Threat to Win 30" Jones cover. Anyway, here's how they all stack up against Jiminez as of June 13:

Wood: 14-6, 2.51
Perry: 11-1, 1.33
Jones: 12-1, 2.10
Jiminez: 12-1, 1.16

I mistakenly had it in my mind that '72 was Perry's great start. A few others while I'm at it:

McLain: 9-2, 2.19
Carlton, '72: 7-6, 2.83 (he proceeds to win 20 the rest of the way!)
Guidry, '78: 10-0, 1.57
Gooden, '85: 9-3, 1.67
Clemens, '86: 11-0, 2.28 (does not lose until July 2)

There are probably a handful of fast starts just as good the past 40 years; I just checked the most famous seasons that came to mind. It's close, but Jiminez has to place first on that list. If you take into account where he's pitching, it's no longer close.

I just realized--McLain proceeds to win 22 the rest of the way.

Through 5 1/2, both pitchers in ChiVsChi (Lilly & Floyd) have no-hitters going

Now through 6 1/2

my, what an intriguing game to turn on in the 7th

yep, this is awesome. Last (only?) game where both pitchers had no-hitters through 9 innings was also in Wrigley Field, in 1917 (Hippo Vaughn of the Cubs vs. Fred Toney of the Reds)

Well, there goes Floyd's no no

any mention of Hippo Vaughn is the evening's highlight

Fred Toney's lurking great-granddaughter is crying a tear right now