things I learned about in baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love baseball

The question was well-intentioned--in my mind, I was complimenting him as a manager--but I can see now where Bobby Valentine the player could take offense, especially if his sporadic playing time later had more to do with injury.

Thought this would be a good thread to post this and hope others share as well.

Just proves I watched way too much baseball and need a life:

https://i.imgur.com/4uZrPpL.png

I’m jealous I haven’t had mine

Til willie mcgee is a 34 win player

I was watching an old episode of Chris Rose Rotation with Lucas Giolito earlier and during this episode he dropped a piece of info that had previously been hinted at by other players but only today confirmed: most players don’t wear cups

Ranked list of Red Sox starters I want to see in Pittsburgh in order of preference:

1. Bello
2. Sale (if good)
3. Kutter Crawford
4. Giolito
5. Sale (if bad)
6. Pivetta

We are seeing three games so I have a 60% chance of seeing Bello at least. When I complained about not knowing who the starters would be more than a week in advance my better half was like, who cares about who the starter is? But wtf can you really expect from an Astros fan.

Things i learned about baseball this week: it’s really really really really really really really really hard to hit a ball.

Went to a batting cage in Akihabara yesterday to try hit a few dingers. First time I picked up a bat since I was 11, and back then it was just primary school softball for one session of Physical education. Good lord that ball comes at you fast. Managed to get the bat on a handful and put one or maybe two in the air with a few of grounders and a few foul-tips along the way. This sport is impossible and anyone hitting anything above 62 mph is a God amongst men. Wife was getting itchy feet after three rounds; thus ends my baseball career. Figure I’ll stick to watching

Sadly there were some Americans putting on a good show in the cage next to me during all of this. At least they were polite, giving me some grace probably due to the Aussie accent

In LL, our grade 6 (11-12yo) #1 pitcher was this massive country boy whose FB was clocked at 80mph... but was wild af, which worked to his advantage as most kids we faced were absolutely terrified to be in the box with this aggro manchild throwing straight gas at your head at ~3/4ths of the distance of an MLB mound.

I had to hit against him during practice and I only got one XBH hit off him (oppo bloop/dying quail).

lol i think the most i was ever overwhelmed -- to the point where i kind of had to decide to swing ahead of time and hope i could stop myself if it was a ball -- was against n1ck v1zz0cca as a 12yo in LL on a 45-foot mound

on the bright side, i guess, there was no need to worry about anything off-speed

If you want real fun go into the 80mph+ cages. I think it’s easier bc the ball doesnt move as much and it’s easier to track from launch to bat

^frmr hockey goalie advice so ymmv

Aubrey Huff update: lmao

Occasionally I’ll stumble down a rabbithole Twitter conflict goldmine.

Today’s is fantastic:

Retired MLB player calls out girl for thirst trap video. Turns out he had slid in her DMs on Christmas Day and he’s married.

He deleted his account. pic.twitter.com/Nf4o6oR5BQ

— Jack Raines (@Jack_Raines) January 1, 2024

The whole Aubrey Huff thing is both wildly funny and sad. In Joan Ryan’s Chemistry book which covers the 2010 Giants, she writes about Huff. Like, you can see a real person under the bravado and she did so:

Not everyone sees the thin layer of paranoia that coats certain clubhouses, but Aubrey Huff did, and right away. His history and personality had conditioned him to expect it. He reflexively scrutinized teammates’ words and tone of voice for the subtle derision, the hidden agendas. He was still in many ways the uneasy, awkward kid in Mineral Wells, Texas, whose father had been shot and killed at the apartment complex where he worked as an electrician. Aubrey was six years old. On weekend nights during high school, he preferred the batting cage behind his mobile home to the minefield of teenage social life, swinging the bat beneath the floodlights long after his mother, grandmother, and sister had gone to bed. He was the most valuable player at the three-thousand-student Vernon College in north Texas before transferring to the super-competitive baseball program at the University of Miami. He felt like a sheltered hick among the brash, frat-boy athletes. He adopted an arrogant, hard-partying, sarcastic alter ego he called Huffdaddy. That’s the person I met when he arrived at the Giants’ spring training facility in January of 2010.

I happened to be in the hallway when Huff arrived at the Giants’ Scottsdale, Arizona, ballpark for his first day of spring training. He strutted toward the clubhouse like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever: shoulders back, chin up, grin wide, as if crowds might part to make way. This was Huffdaddy, the swaggery guy with armor around his insecurities. He was girding himself for a fourth new clubhouse in five years. He stuck his head into a side room where coaches were drinking coffee around a conference table. “Aubrey Huff,” he announced to each man, circling the table and shaking hands like a seasoned salesman. In the clubhouse, a few other early-arriving players were changing out of their street clothes. Huff knew they’d be well aware of his reputation as a shitty teammate. He set down his equipment bag at his locker and braced for the chore of introducing himself to men who might be less than excited to have him on the team. He was stashing deodorant and shaving cream when pitcher Matt Cain appeared with his hand out, welcoming him to the squad. Then Tim Lincecum came by. One by one, players greeted him. “There was an aura in the air, the way everybody talked to each other,” Huff said later. “The way everybody looked at each other. It just felt so much different than anything I’ve been a part of.” Later, he watched as players from all different backgrounds squeezed shoulder to shoulder around a table in the middle of the clubhouse, slapping down cards in high-stakes games of booray and hearts…

By the end of spring training, Huff was periodically joining the card games and lobbing sarcastic Huffdaddy remarks across the room. But he kept a safe distance. He knew he was just a replacement part and operated as he always had, like an independent contractor loyal only to himself. Early in the season, however, that changed. The Giants were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in San Francisco. Huff crushed a pitch to the right-field wall. As the ball caromed past the fielder, he rounded first and made for second. Already gasping for air, Huff tapped second and headed to third. His eyes bulged at the sight of the coach leaping wildly and waving him home. He chugged down the line and slid across the plate with the grace of a sandbag, completing one of the most entertaining and least likely inside-the-park home runs in history. Teammates swarmed Huff in the dugout, roaring with laughter and slapping high fives. Huff sank onto the bench, red-faced and heaving, but also laughing. Someone handed him a cup of Gatorade. Young third baseman Pablo Sandoval fanned him with a towel. In the clubhouse after the game, the barbs and howls erupted all over again each time the TV showed replays of Huff’s runaway-beer-truck trip around the bags. The funniest digs came from Huff himself. “That’s when I felt finally that I was really part of a team,” Huff said later. “I finally felt part of the guys.” …

Over time, he began to feel an ease he hadn’t known since, well, maybe ever. He became more open to the everyday signals of trust and became more trusting, more accepting, and less self-centered in return. His life outside of baseball was a mess — he was still drinking and popping Adderall, and his marriage was still crumbling — but with his teammates he could be the person his teammates seemed to think he was. He began arriving at the park early and leaving late. He rediscovered his power at the plate and led the team in doubles, triples, and home runs. Most surprising, he found teammates gravitating to him for advice or a laugh, as if he were a leader. “They’d ask me about things,” he said, “and that had never happened to me in my life.”

Epic Huff content not expected but very appreciated!

It’s the use of a personal kind of dumping ground thread, the Aubrey Huff multi paragraph post I apparently had in me 🫡

this is kinda funny ('huffdaddy') but good lord

imagine having to create a whole new persona for yourself simply to not be an asshole. and then still utterly fail

The book says he was intimidated by Pat Burrell who was the real deal ito being a huge jock, and later they became friends and Huff was influential in Burrell being picked up by the Giants in 2010, where he flourished, became a leader of that team and hit like 18 home runs from June onwards. Yet even though Burrell was meant to be quite crass and such, he was also known to help younger players and gave money to SF’s homeless and so on.

Burrell arrived in the clubhouse seeming not a bit humbled by his failure in Tampa Bay. Broad-shouldered and square-jawed, he commanded the attention of every room he entered. His good looks and regal bearing brought to mind the prince in Beauty and the Beast, though he was princely in few other ways. Like Huff, he had a vulgar bent that stood out even by baseball standards. But he had a reputation for playing hard and smart, for being a winner. He blossomed in his new environment, just as Huff had. He rediscovered his passion and energy. He radiated confidence. And the clubhouse, like the superorganism it is, absorbed that passion, energy, and confidence and became something new. Not radically so. More of a shift, the way a dinner party changes when a particularly charismatic guest arrives.

Burrell would round up teammates for pregame stretching with an old-fashioned “C’mon, boys!” When the team lost, he let no one hang his head: “We’ll get ’em tomorrow.” He slung an arm around the bench players about to pinch-hit in a tight game. “You got this,” he’d say matter-of-factly, more reminder than exhortation. He pushed the players to look out for each other. After a Giants pitcher struggled through a long inning, wearing himself out throwing way too many pitches, Burrell barked at upcoming Giants hitters, “You have to take pitches! Give our guy time to catch his breath!”

Was talking to my friend about missed calls and I had to tell her about this legendary bungled call from the 2nd base umpire here. Posey himself thought he was out! Yes, The Lincecum Game isn’t The Lincecum Game without those 9 scoreless innings and 14 ks, but that miserly Giants offense would have wasted it if not for this utterly hilarious missed call!

https://streamable.com/yast4i

https://i.postimg.cc/W4q31WPT/IMG-4044.jpg

For some reason, I thought I’d posted about Gregor Blanco’s catch in Matt Cain’s perfect game before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu2wRJoDVH0

How did he read that play to get back in time?

"And this is hit out into the alleyway," announced Duane Kuiper, his voice charged with alarm.
The flight of the ball offered no hope. The sight of Blanco, racing over from right field, did.

"A long run for Blanco..." Kuiper continued, "and Blanco's gonna dive...and he MAKES THE CATCH!"

Blanco was the right fielder, but the ball wasn't caught in right field. When Blanco skidded on his stomach to a stop on the warning track, he wasn't far from straightaway center. Years earlier, the Giants figured out before anyone else that it made sense to play the right fielder well off the line at AT&T Park. But Blanco's positioning was flat-out ridiculous. He wasn't supposed to be there, and yet there he was, holding aloft the little white prize so that umpires could see it.

"Everybody kept telling me, What are you doing, playing there?'' Blanco said. "Coaches told me that with Schafer, play a little more to the gap. I think I played a little (farther)than that.

"Melky caught his ball. I told myself, You have to catch this one, too. In the dugout, Bochy turned to bench coach Ron Wotus and asked if he'd ever seen an outfielder make a catch in that part of the field. They were in agreement. Neither had.

gyac are you ready for things I learned about in fantasy baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love fantasy baseball?

Are you trying to recruit me to your league, Mr Shasta?

Yes! And massive thank yous for recognizing me as the rightful founder of the league!

don’t do it gyac it’s a trap

do NOT listen to that other person, he will try to convince you to watch endless Red Sox games! ...a fate that will end in tears (and boredom).

Steve Shasta my literal dn refers to a Red Sox prospect in double A and I have tickets to watch the bad team play three games at pnc in April, it’s way too late for that.

But also, I may pass, I don’t play fantasy anything and it seems too involved for me, I can barely make myself play immaculate grid when I get into a rut. Have you asked mookieproof? Clemenza?

Back to Matt Cain's perfect game. I did miss the game live but was recording every game so I had it on DVR and watched it later. I also own every World Series box set and they included that game on one of them.

Thanks for the memories gyac!

You saw the ten year retrospective video about the game right?

No, link

I had to clear 7gb off my phone to install an update today, so I ended up deleting or moving a load of photos. While I was doing that, I kept coming across what I’ll kindly call “baseball debris”, pictures and assorted junk I picked up and kept on my phone since late 2022, I guess? Anyway you know what they say about one (wo)man’s trash and all that, but this really is just…stuff. Putting behind the hide tag cos why not. 99% SFG, ofc.


Bryzzo A Softer World comic

https://i.postimg.cc/vmtvPpSw/IMG-3875.jpg

ASW Fenway:
https://i.postimg.cc/pdHZJ2CB/IMG-3904.jpg

Classic outfield prank:
https://i.postimg.cc/MKfmkcrD/IMG-4018.png

Dress up like Pablo Sandoval Day, Buster Posey edition:
https://i.postimg.cc/KzYt04Mt/IMG-5151.jpg

IT’S TRUE THO
https://i.postimg.cc/XNzkDKxq/IMG-5472.jpg

Or neither
https://i.postimg.cc/4y7VTMwd/IMG-7275.jpg

Gerrit Cole is a man of culture
https://i.postimg.cc/bvmtS8Br/IMG-8577.jpg

GUESS WHO
https://i.postimg.cc/DZmbqD9g/IMG-8206.jpg

Bring your kid to work day:
https://i.postimg.cc/BbKLzFQP/IMG-9007.jpg

Short lived two Barry era
https://i.postimg.cc/mDq1VjRG/IMG-9018.jpg

The McCutchen dreads 🫶🏻

xp sorry fella I just saw your reply when I came to post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTNyk1oklQA

i've been watching some world series games from the late 2000s/early 2010s, and it's interesting how even just a couple of years after the recent pace of play rule changes, these games from 15ish years ago feel so slow. so much time between pitches, so many throws over to first base when there's a baserunner, so many meetings at the plate. another interesting thing is that they don't put the pitch count up on the score chyron - i keep finding myself wondering what the pitch count is and there's no way to know.

A NON-SCIENTIFIC AND AGENDA-BASED STATS INVESTIGATION

A little while ago TH & I were talking about the first AL player to get a splash hit in what is now Oracle Park: David Ortíz in June 2010.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN201006270.shtml

While watching the video of this game, he made the observation that Lincecum would have been fine in the era of the pitch clock. Sure enough I went through his 2010 starts and even though he was a guy who threw a ton of strikes and pitched a lot of innings, there’s plenty of evidence to support this.

Digging into some random data, there’s a start from 2009. 9 IP, 95 pitches thrown, game time: 2 hours and 6 minutes. That’s crazy.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN200906290.shtml

Looking at BR’s aggregate team data, the average SF game was 2.49 in length in 2009, good for 4th shortest timing in the league. By 2019, the average shortest game time was 3.02 and the Red Sox games averaged 3 hours 25 minutes. In fact the Red Sox were constantly top of the list for the longest average game times according to BR:

2019 - 3.25 (1st)
2018 - 3.13 (1st)
2017 - 3.20 (1st)
2016 - 3.12 (2nd)
2015 - 3.06 (4th)
2014 - 3.17 (2nd)
2013 - 3.15 (1st)
2012 - 3.09 (1st)
2011 - 3.13 (1st)
2010 - 3.10 (1st)
2009 - 3.06 (3rd)

Then I started thinking about the other side of the equation, hitters. Between the same period, the Red Sox were placed as follows in the pitches/plate appearance leaderboards:

2019 - 3.94 (15th)
2018 - 3.92 (10th)
2017 - 3.97 (5th)
2016 - 3.94 (5th)
2015 - 3.95 (2nd)
2014 - 4.05 (1st)
2013 - 4.01 (2nd)
2012 - 3.89 (3rd)
2011 - 3.95 (1st)
2010 - 4.02 (1st)
2009 - 3.93 (3rd)

What caused the dropoff? Well in 2018, Dustin Pedroia (career ave 3.97 pitches/PA) suffered a career ending injury. In 2016, David Ortíz (career ave 4.05 pitches/PA) played his last season. Who played 2B after Pedroia? Eduardo Nunez (3.52/PA), Brock Holt (4.12/PA but with fewer than half the PA).

DH? JD Martinez, 3.88/PA.

IN SUMMARY

The dominance of the Red Sox in the 21st century and specifically Dustin Pedroia and David Ortíz are to blame for the pitch clock.

lol there’s some truth in that. the premiere matchup in those years was Sox/Yanks and those games were famous for lasting well past midnight.

You can blame Brett Gardner as well (4.26). Jeter, Arod, Ichiro, Melky - all of these Yankees had much lower pitches/PA than you’d expect. Ofc, you don’t need to be a tough out if you can hit like they do.

get Ichiro’s name out of the Yankees’ mouth!!

“patience” was really the prime virtue in those years, nobody talked about launch angle or even plate discipline as such. it was like the more pitches you saw the better

i think you can also blame Nomar Garciaparra and the velcro on his fucking batting gloves

Why not both
https://i.postimg.cc/CLGBFfRT/IMG-5138.jpg

Triston Casas vs Johan Oviedo#DirtyWater

Home Run (1) 💣

Exit velo: 105.8 mph
Launch angle: 44 deg
Proj. distance: 350 ft

This would have been a home run in 26/30 MLB ballparks

PIT (3) @ BOS (5)
🔻 1st pic.twitter.com/9H9bePWYC3

— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 4, 2023

(No I’m not saying 44 degrees is optimal, it’s just funny)

Attending at least two (and up to three) baseball games this year with real (American) baseball fans. The remaining game, alas, is with the Astros fan I married.

19/4/24-21/4/24 - Red Sox @ Pirates

9/6/24 - Mets v Phillies (in London)

gyac - I just wanna say, as a Giants fan who lived through those glorious WS years, I adore the fact that you've stumbled upon baseball fandom by reading about and watching those teams. I'm obviously biased, but that era was pure magic here in SF (aside from a celebratory bus burning or two), and it's impossible for me to know how it looked from the outside in. Your perspective and awe is making me even more appreciative, grateful and nostalgic for those years.

Also as a followup (I've largely overlooked this thread of late) I'm really impressed how much you GET baseball and the beautiful things that make it unique as a sport and its general vibe. Some of the posts and discussion here are just beautiful to read and relive. So ... thanks! I look forward to reading and posting here more this year.

My condolences for marrying an Astros fan though

Octobeard, these are the nicest comments! I’m so happy. I really just started this as a general sort of dumping ground for my stupid thoughts about baseball/two time Cy Young winner of my heart Tim Lincecum and current fixations. I’m genuinely touched any time anyone besides me gets anything from it. ❤️❤️❤️

My condolences for marrying an Astros fan though

Ha! I love it. ❤️❤️❤️ right back at ya. I bet you both are fun to watch games with!

FWIW Timmy has also stolen my heart too. And so many others. The passion for him out here in the Bay is unique and unparalleled. It felt like he was truly one of us in a deep, culturally connected way that few pro athletes remotely touch. You definitely have great taste. Good luck to your Mariners! One of these years I'd love to catch a game up there.

BTW I know you're a fan of Grant Brisbee's so if you haven't yet seen it yet, here's one of his all time legendary moments during the 2012 run predicting (accurately) the outcome of the World Series:
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/10/24/3549608/baseball-nation-predicts-the-world-series

One of the many joys of those years was watching Grant's rise as an amateur blogger to big time baseball writer with pizazz. He catalogued so many beautiful moments with intense personality and humor, I feel he was truly a part of the magic of those times.

I love Bochy so much 😭

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy made his first appearance at Scottsdale Stadium wearing a uniform other than the Giants since 2006.

“I didn’t get lost coming here, I’ll say that,’’ said Bochy, who wound up entering through the stands with two of his coaches. “Great memories.

“I mean, (Brandon) Belt could have a statue here for what he did in spring training. And my first year, I’ll never forget the first two fly balls hit to (Barry) Bonds, he didn’t draw leather on them. I said, 'Oh, geez.’

“And (Tim) Lincecum, too. Even before he pitched for me, he’s warming up, and (pitching coach Dave Righetti) goes, 'There’s your No. 1 pick.' I looked out there, and I say, 'There’s no way.’ He weighed about 140 pounds. Then, I saw that arm action, and I said, 'Whoa!'’’

Bochy, who won three World Series titles, received a huge ovation when introduced to the crowd.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1bu5qx3/pirates_release_the_renegade_a_foot_long_fusion/

I SAW THIS

But I will not be trying it