I just looked up older AB's. He never set his foot down. He would hitch his leg back, and then stride. Now he's setting his foot down instead of hitching it back. I think it's an attempt to get him going quicker.
Before:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17536929
After:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=18237467
See what I'm talking about?
Has Crawford always done that little stutter step with his front foot? Looks like he is squaring up his body right before the pitch, and then striding again. Anyone else notice that?
Right, but I'll be there from 9/1 - 9/6 when they host NYY and TEX. They go out of town on the 5th, so we can go then, but I didn't know about the other times.
He isn't a FA until 2014, so buy out 3 of his FA years at around 15-17mm per year, and then give him around 10-12mm per year in his 2 arb years.
5 years/65-75mm would be a good deal for the Red Sox if they want to offer him that.
Honestly, if they gave him 6/100 I'd be fine with it.
I'm tired of Francona not giving Wheeler any looks in close situations. Wheeler has a 1.54 ERA in the 2nd half, yet we go to Albers and Morales instead of him. That's f***ing ridiculous.
Youk is struggling pretty bad this season. We may be seeing the end of the Youkilis era, defensively speaking, and may start to see the transition to Middlebrooks fairly soon, i.e. late 2012, early 2013.
How bad are the Yankees kicking themselves for letting this guy get away?? He can come in and be a great set up guy in the 8th, or he can come in after our SP is getting shelled and give us 3 innings of elite bullpen innings and give us a chance to come back. His value in the bullpen, due to versatility and talent, is almost as high as Bard's IMHO.