jung

The few remaining pitchers left that actually challenge hitters are in the NL. I mentioned in the pitching and trade threads that if we were going to get a starting pitching, I would way prefer one from the NL than from the AL.

Things that look like they should always happen in series tend to step function along the way. Its that way in business too. A company often does things on a steady trend line and ends up with step functioned results. Behind these changes to the baseball, the pitching has been getting progressively worse in MLB on a much longer time line than from 2016 till now. I am really roiled about the rocket ship for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is that I would like to know if the 10-15 year trend line of progressively crappier pitching would have taken us to this place without the rocket ship. I suspect that it would be very close to as bad as it is now even without the rocket ship. Lets face it, its really not that long ago in MLB terms when starters were going at least 7 and often completing games. Certainly was happening wayyyyyyy more often even when I was a young man and happened all the time when I was a boy. If you want to just take the time line from starters going at least 7 to struggling to go 7 you have a time line that is wayyyyyyy longer than the three progressively hotter rocket ships we have seen since the first one appeared in 2016. It is going to take awhile for pitching to recover and that is if anybody even cares to compel it to recover. It's going to take less focus on velo at all costs and more focus on the most velo a guy can throw at with reasonable command for one thing. We are burning through arms too rapidly and the result is young pitchers in MLB unis that should not be in MLB unis and older pitchers hanging on throwing as junkers.

This trend started before 2016 and the first of this generation of rocket baseballs. This is about a 10-15 year trend line in the wrong direction. I would agree that in a number of ways the rocket ship has exacerbated the situation. But the trend line was established well before the rocket ship. Unfortunately this is not an overnight occurrence and the fix will not be overnight either. Will be awhile before MLB can wash through this crap pitching IMO. Getting rid of the rocket ship would certainly be welcome for a number of reasons.

Look it the s*** these guys pitch. I'm sorry.....assuming this ONLY gets worse from here, and I would assume that since it will be at least 5 years before MLB can backfill this hideous pitching I really don't know what MLB is going to do. It is going to be pretty obvious even to casual fans that something is entirely f***ed with MLB pitching.

What is MLB going to do without pitchers.....play t-ball, maybe put pitching machines out there. Never mind robot umps. MLB may need robot pitchers before they need robot umps.

Who's f***ing ump crew is this bonehead on?

Good....Boone deserved that. Tanaka has continued to throw s*** as well. Boone has the better pen. So I have no idea why he as kept Tanaka out there. Tanaka NEVER recovers from this s***.

Rick doing what he can do with a FB that is just suicidal. Its working for him for now, in this game. Certainly working better for him than sticking the knife in his own belly.

Rayburn needs to join Angel's crew.

I actually don't really know why either taam's hitters are swinging at anything. If they just rested the bat on their shoulders both of them would just walk everybody around until their Managers came out and rescued them.

Rick still throwing trash. Yankmees just missed them that inning.

Well at least Nate knows what he wants to do. Probably does not have the stuff to get it done right now. But once he does, he does not exhibit confusion on the mound. Rick knows he cannot land that FB the way he was landing it for that magical year and a half and he really does not know what to do next.

At the rate pitching is going in MBL, 50 pitches for 2 will be a low pitch count.

Gotta' love Boonie....Keep him out there Boonie. We need more runs.

Lucky that breaking pitch that was inside was not out over. Lurch would have hit that to Mars.

FB is never going to be more effective where Rick is landing it. i actually do not know what Rick is going to do from here and I mean career wise.

Wow Guiren....a little chilly at the park tonight is it?

I would actually be surprised if Tanaka gets better tonight. Not his history.

Boy when Tanaka does not have it he REALLY does not have it. Seems to me it has been that way for a long time with Tanaka. Boone can send him a message all he wants...not sure it will make a dif.

NESN pre-game crew blaming Cash for the pitching substitution f*** ups in Tampa. While I STILL think Cash should have brought Morton Salt out to pitch the 8th inning, I am not buying it. Cash has done this Pitcher to position player and back again switch before without a hitch. It is clownish but he has done it without a hitch before. Everything Angel Hernandez touches turns to s***. I would bet the farm that Angel just f***ed it up.

If they actually could get any sort of relief pitcher of merit (and I suspect they could get somebody that would toss one of our bums out of the bullpen) I would gleefully kiss Moreland goodbye. Its not that I hate the player. Its just that we simply cannot and do not pitch. The staff is a train wreck and I have little faith that the starters will come around enough to not continue to extend the pen beyond its means. Also as for LeVangie, show me a coach that survives the complete capitulation of his asset responsibilities. If they were to win their way to and through an ALCS, he would survive. I think that is highly unlikely and I suspect LeVangie will be toast as a consequence of how much the rotation has underperformed and how irritatingly similar most of them pitch. There is something underlying all this nibble, nibble, nibble crap. The only two guys we have in that rotation that don't nibble now are Erod.....EROD for heaven sake, King Nibbler every other year I can remember and Sale who does depend on getting hitters to chase but does not nibble to get it done. I just think Sale is obviously overthrowing to achieve FB velo that came quite naturally to him in the past and that is making him both wild in and out of the strike zone. Wild out of the strike zone means more pitches that hitters do not even offer at and wild in the strike zone means more pitches that even at 97-98 don't get past the hitters. Plus a number of those balls the Rays hitters were fouling off will end up over the wall if Sale keeps throwing FB's wild in the strike zone like that. The rest of them, nibble, nibble, nibble....Price, Porcello, the new guy....nibble, nibble, nibble.

1. DJ LeMahieu ® 3B 2. Aaron Judge ® RF 3. Aaron Hicks (S) CF 4. Edwin Encarnacion ® DH 5. Didi Gregorius (L) SS 6. Luke Voit ® 1B 7. Gleyber Torres ® 2B 8. Mike Tauchman (L) LF 9. Kyle Higashioka ® C 1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 3. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 6. Brock Holt (L) 2B 7. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF

Too many "pitchers" filling out MLB unis these days should not have left AA yet and maybe should NEVER leave AA. Its a joke. They have no command.....none....nada.....zippo For one thing, throwing hard is NOT PITCHING.

Outlawing the Overload shift won't effect the quality of pitching. It sucks and I suspect it will continue to suck until we can backfill this mess with pitchers that have actual pitching talent and that pitch within themselves. i might be pushing up daisies by then but the pitching itself won't get any better until that happens. As for the Overload shift, getting rid of it will yield more exciting, more interesting baseball and better pace to the game because it will generate more balls in play, more base hits and more action on the bases. The idea that all these HR'a and K's add excitement is a laughable absurdity. Even with all these HR's MLB does not even average 3 HR's per game total. So for about 10 seconds of "excitement" we get 3 hours of guys trudging back to the dugout having K'ed AGAIN. That said, there are so many changes and reversals Manfred has to make to return this game to anything like its past glories including, THE Rocket ship baseball that has to go, these stupid, protects nobody rules around 2nd base particularly, then the overload shift, and if travel is going to be what it is, I would prefer they allow certain PED's under a doctor's supervision because they are killing these guys.

The new formula will be Porcello for 2 and Nate for 7. The only problem with that is that a goodly part of Rick's damage comes ahead of the 3rd inning....whoops. But that does leave the rest of the pen available to bail out our new hope, Cashner.