jung

Has to show him a FB just off the inside of the plate and come back with slider So got the FB there...Slider again Slider again now Now he has to challenge him with a FB...no choice or walk him and go to the next hitter

I am not at all confident in Stroren here...pitches in bad locations so far. He is just getting to much plate...may get away with it Terrific slider there. Amazing pitch given the situation. Got away with that one to Molina..set up for the slider And....,.he could not get Molina to bit on the slider...now what ...walks him Had to get him with that slider or he had nothing to go with in that situation.

And another example of what is driving me nuts lately. Espinoza did not even give himself a chance to drive in that run....no idea what he way trying to do when it was so obvious what he needed to do. Suzuki picks up Espinosa...terrific piece of hitting there.....for once

This pitcher so needs another pitch. He really is not very confident in his FB and unless he really spots that change.....ouch Set up for the change again...and missed it He has no choice but to throw it again And....fooled him just enough with that second change to induce a pop fly. Boy Clippers is a heart attack pitcher though...Holy Cow

Here comes that change. Pitcher really boxed himself into a corner when he could not get Delsalso with that first change. He did not get close with the FB and Delsalso was just waiting for the next change...creamed it. Very interesting sequence there that I just wish did not go that way.

I actually think the Nats will need to plate another run somewhere in here. Two down is nothing. You had to know Jackson was going slider outer third. Boy how many sliders on the outer third have we seen in this entire post season so far. Tough pitch to hit but if you really think that is what is coming it would seem to me you have to take a different approach to it. We have seen so many guys reaching for it. If you have guessed something else with 2 strikes then sure you are going to end up reaching for that pitch. But everybody in the building knew that is what Jackson was going to throw there.

I guess DJ must be happy he came with Jackson. That was a horrible pitch...right in his wheelhouse. Jackson is a panic here.

That won't show up as an error on Espinoza because you can't assume the DP but they should have had the DP there and been out of this inning. This IS the stumbling...bumbling post season. "it handcuffed him". He handcuffed himself.

Let the Cards right back into this game. What a curve ball from Rosenthal. Might have been able to hear the seams spinning to get it to break that much....unbelievable pitch. Gonzalez out of the game now but I don't get that at all. This is not some dog days of August game where you are trying to get Gonzalez a win. You go home if you lose this game. So he leaves Gonzalez in, struggling to get the ball over the plate...giving up runs without even giving up hits and then does not even bring him out for the next inning. If DJ was going to do that, use up a pitcher and get Gonzalez the hell out of there instead of giving up runs like that. Everybody must be available tonight! This is it.

I don't understand why there is nobody up in the Nats pen either. Considering how long it takes to get a guy warm, the Nats could be tied or behind before they could get somebody else in. Somebody finally up for the Nats. Usually tough for pitchers to go from wind up to pitching from the stretch but this post season, pitchers have in some cases imploded as soon as they have had to go to the stretch. Molina bailed Gonzalez out of that mess. Catcher sympathy for opposing pitcher?? If I were Molina I would have narrowed my focus to something really tight and only swung if I got a super pitch forcing Gonzalez to prove he could find the plate again. Even the pitch Molina swung at might have been yet another ball. At that point I had no confidence that Gonzalez would have avoided walking in yet another run.

Broken bats...regular and post season are just off the charts. Couple very dangerous broken bat plays....Joba with the bat that came right back to the mound and then the bat that broke and I think the big part ended up grazing Suzuki on its way past. That one really did look like it could have stuck him in the side very easily. The one that came at Joba looked like it could have stuck him as well if it was just turned a little differently. Obvious that the amount of force especially behind that big end of the bat is pretty nasty. So many WP/PB runs this post season also.

Morse is a BIGGGGG kid. A FA in 2014.....I think

I hope the Nats get to the NLCS. Think they are a more exciting team than the Cards. Kind of a shame that the Reds did not get there. Nats/Reds would probably have been the better of Nats/Giants. Not a single home game won in that Giants/Reds series.

Perhaps a look at the direction of league BA in general will make us a bit less critical of Iggy in that regard and a bit more appreciative of his defense. Here is AL league BA from the 2012 regular season back to the 2003 regular season. 2012 = .255 2011 = .258 2010=.260 2009=.267 2008=.268 2007=.271 2006=.275 2005=.268 2004=.270 2003=.267 Clearly BA is in decline...severe decline for that matter. Maybe that suggests that defense should be more appreciated especially at the most important defensive position on the field. In addition maybe our expectations for Iggys offense should not be a great as they would have been. I had looked for the numbers because I was so disgusted with the quality of play generally and specifically the quality of hitting in the regular season and in the post season to date. I don't think we can attribute these numbers to diminished use of PED's to the degree that even I was at one point willing to suggest. As more and more data becomes available, it should be clear that they have not been eliminated from baseball at this point. Based on what I witnessed this season and now this post season, I think it is plate appearance quality and swing technique more than anything else. They appear to me to be getting worse and worse. Even mediocre pitching has the hitters dancing on the end of the puppet masters strings.

Good point rortiz.....actually on a comparative basis I thought that was a "decently" played game which is why I did not lump that one in with the other games in that series. But you are not wrong at least not IMO. Some of the others have been so awful as to be almost unwatchable. Game 4, Cards/Nats was a good game. I thought Game 5, Giants/Reds was the best played of all 5 in that series with the other games being pretty terrible, dominated by mental and physical mistakes as opposed to memorable good play. The AL games have been in the main as poorly played as anything I have ever seen in the post season...mental and physical errors being made all over the field all the time. However Tiger/A's was far better played than O's/Spanks. O's/Spanks was an embarrassment for baseball. What really bothers me though is that these post season games are to me an extension of the regular season we just saw. The hitting is horrible. Nobody goes to the plate with a plan any longer and they just end up being puppets at the end of the pitcher's string. It is no wonder that some of the older ball players are excelling. They seem to be the last guys that know how baseball should be played. What the hell happened? There is one thing I can offer as a possible rational for what is going on, at least in part. The new metal bats that react like wood, that will not allow you to sting the ball by just slapping at it have just really come into wide use. I am wondering if the pro ball we are seeing now is in part a result of the number of guys that are now in MLB that came up using the old metal bats...the ones that absolutely rewarded poor technique in every aspect of hitting. Maybe it is a combination of the old metal bats with a higher percentage of MLB players taking the college route to the pro game. Those crummy metal bats were used extensively in college ball. The new metal bats have totally changed batting averages and every aspect of college baseball hitting. Technique in college ball is now getting back to what we used to see in pro baseball hitting. However, maybe it will be awhile before we have ballplayers that came up never having cut their teeth on the older style crummy metal bat. These guys are just clueless as hitters and we saw it all regular season and the hitting has been remarkably bad so far in the post season even in the face of pitching that has not been that great in many instances. I have posted here the total AL league batting average from 2012 back to 2003 for the regular season. From 2006 till today we are down .020 points in BA with a decline occurring each year.....that is a ton over a very short period of time. 2012 = .255 2011 = .258 2010=.260 2009=.267 2008=.268 2007=.271 2006=.275 2005=.268 2004=.270 2003=.267 I suppose we could blame a PED free environment for the decline but the more we see, the more it becomes obvious that baseball is not a PED free environment. Plus the biggest difference I see in hitting is the lack of any distinguishable hitting or plate appearance technique on the part of hitters generally and poor swing dynamics. While hitting is only one aspect of the poor baseball we have seen this post season, it is big aspect of it I think.

More examples of poor plate appearances abound. Does anybody come to the plate with a plan anymore? Does anybody come to the plate looking for a pitch in a location? Hitters are frustrated but they are so bad now, I don't even know if they realize why or how they are being frustrated. You cannot go to the plate against good pitching without a plan. You have to have an idea about where you are going to focus as far as location is concerned and pitch type and if you get that pitch you have to do something with it. You can tell just from the way hitters are reacting that they are not doing that. They are simply swinging or not swinging based on whether they think it is a ball or a strike which means they are meat every time for the pitcher. They are just setting themselves up to be fooled, swinging out of their shoelaces from the first pitch of the AB to strike 3 or whatever feeble thing they do to get themselves out. Good pitchers are just going to get you dancing on the end of a string and you are done. CC is pitching a great game but the O's have been getting themselves out all series long as have the Spanks for the most part. Just one of the worst post season series I have ever seen in my entire lifetime. Why people think it is interesting to watch guys fail over and over again is beyond me...folks think this is dramatic baseball....Wow! Game 4 of this series was the best example because both starters totally sucked and neither team could do anything with them...totally helpless. Is this really the way baseball is going to go now...and are people actually going to think they are watching good baseball? Scary! As I browse the various sites I have visited during this series and others, I see the same thing posted over and over again..."why is so and so swinging at s*** and letting pitches right down main street go by" Why? Because the hitter is dancing on the end of the string being controlled by the pitcher. And here is the poster child himself...again...Chris Davis....what a joke he is.

Baseball is stuck....extending into Nov is to far into the cold weather on that end and starting the season earlier is to much cold weather on the spring end. They are not going to mess with the 162 either...honestly this is just a bad idea. They may try to earn a couple days by making teams travel and play more on the same day in the regular season...good luck with that. Geez this broadcast crew is terrible....Don was not great with Martinez but they were better than these goons.

So you mean to tell me that MLB has had to go so far out of its way to fit this ridiculous 2WC thing in that there is not even a day off before they start the ALCS? Good thing Detroit is so close to the east coast. Even if 2 WC is a good idea which I doubt...scrambling to do it this year was sort of dumb. Oh stop, TBS...Grandpoopoo sucks

Jones looks terrible again...like I said a few days ago...maybe this series turns out to be a learning experience for the youngish O's cause it sure does not look like it is much else. Jones himself has gone from Mr Indifferent Play early in the series to Mr. Oh s*** we might have won this thing...maybe still can....now what do I do Mommy?

Showalter finally does something.....must have been getting chilly and he needed to jog out to the mound to get the blood flowing....he has had opportunities to have an impact in this series and he has in the main just sat there.....turned a hitter loose 3-0 with the bases loaded (which I would not have done given that particular situation) and that has been his big moment in this series.

I think Showalter has been utterly pitiful in this series...totally useless. If they lose it he is in my view as much responsible as anybody if not more so. They would have done as well to have nobody managing.

Frankly neither one of these teams deserves to go on.

Is it possible for a division series to end with neither team moving on...I wonder if Uncle Bud has some hidden rule where he gets to vote both teams out

Often beat on our guys for swinging at first pitches that are not middle middle but these guys are swinging at first pitches that are almost on the black. You can tell from the swings they are not pitches in locations they are expecting either. Now this is totally insane...Jeter has been the only guy hitting for the Yanks regulars and instead of the other guys trying to copy him...he starts swinging like his mates. That is the first time I have seen him try to pull a ball on the outer third this series.

Geez, the hitting has been so abysmal you would think guys would start coming to the plate with a different idea. So far no. That backdoor job from CC to Weiters was an insane pitch. Ichiro looked terrible...almost like the our east coast kind of cold weather is just not to his liking or something.