I watched the game on ESPN last night. That network has even turned live events into something almost unwatchable. They literally had a half inning of live action on a split screen with an interview with a goddamn peanut vendor. And I'm all for diversity and equality but what the hell is Jessica Mendoza doing as an analyst for MLB? If you played Arena League football NBC wouldn't put you on the Monday Night Football crew. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
And that's not getting into the fact that Broxton is only on this team because Matheny insists on 'veteran help' in relief, even if said veteran sucks balls.
I remember BRC asking why I was so bent out of shape years ago when we traded for Broxton and I just couldn't get him to understand that it's because Broxton is an objectively bad pitcher who ANY system in baseball should be able to produce at the league minimum. Instead the Cardinals have given the guy several million.
Tui sits in Memphis despite finally starting to figure things out. Jon Broxton, 'tested veteran', continues to give games away because he has no fastball command and no off-speed pitch. He's effectively a zero pitch pitcher. But hey, he's old so he has that going for him.
Trading for him is one thing...resigning him was even more unfathomable. I could partially excuse the logic of trying him out, maybe they saw something that they felt they could salvage. However, he was straight a##. His stats were deceiving in that he benefited somewhat from better relievers bailing his ass out. Good hitters he will just walk because he knows he can't get anything by them, and against weaker hitters it''s just a matter of their batting practice law of averages. He still throws hard, but he has no movement and even worse nothing to make them think about anything else. Even if he had a moving two seamer he could control he would be serviceable. He adds zero to the bullpen. [Reply]
Originally Posted by VAChief:
Trading for him is one thing...resigning him was even more unfathomable. I could partially excuse the logic of trying him out, maybe they saw something that they felt they could salvage. However, he was straight a##. His stats were deceiving in that he benefited somewhat from better relievers bailing his ass out. Good hitters he will just walk because he knows he can't get anything by them, and against weaker hitters it''s just a matter of their batting practice law of averages. He still throws hard, but he has no movement and even worse nothing to make them think about anything else. Even if he had a moving two seamer he could control he would be serviceable. He adds zero to the bullpen.
They really should have a rule where Cecil and/or Broxton are only allowed to enter into clean innings and if they need to be relieved, only Cecil/Broxton can relieve the other one.
That way the two of them can stop letting other people's inherited runners score AND if they do come in with runners on, it'll be the other shitty reliever's runners that way they'll both come to feel the pain that the starters feel every time one of those clowns comes in, allows both inherited runners to score and manages to squeak out of the inning only adding a single tally to their own ledger.
As bad as those guys have been, the damage they've done to their fellow pitcher's ERAs has been even worse.
They just suck something awful. but hey, multi-year deals for aging middle-relievers always work out nicely, don't they? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Jesus. His agent must have incriminating photos of somebody. :-)
Moe tried to jump the market and he fucked up. The Rockies did the same thing (though perhaps less egregiously) with the 3/$18 they gave Mike Dunn for no reason I can determine.
The Indians sat back and got Boone Logan for 1/$5.5.
Mo didn't wait out the market; he panicked and signed a guy way too early for way too much. [Reply]
Originally Posted by raybec 4:
Wacha had his mojo working until he threw 30 pitches in the 4th.
Was leaning too heavily on his curve; got away from the fastball and change. I suspect he lost the command on them and Molina was trying to improvise.
It wasn't a sharp performance from anybody. And when they had a chance to put their foot on LA's throat in the 1st, of course they made another out on the bases to end the inning.
At least they're consistent. You can count on at least one baserunning and defensive miscue in pretty much every loss.
This is the product of having a braindead 'player's coach' as a manager. And it's even worse when said player's coach isn't even a guy that players enjoy playing for, just his select clique in the bible study.
This team will continue to spin its wheels until he's gone from this organization. And I don't mean reassigned, I mean fucking excised. He's a pox on the entire franchise. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Was leaning too heavily on his curve; got away from the fastball and change. I suspect he lost the command on them and Molina was trying to improvise.
It wasn't a sharp performance from anybody. And when they had a chance to put their foot on LA's throat in the 1st, of course they made another out on the bases to end the inning.
At least they're consistent. You can count on at least one baserunning and defensive miscue in pretty much every loss.
This is the product of having a braindead 'player's coach' as a manager. And it's even worse when said player's coach isn't even a guy that players enjoy playing for, just his select clique in the bible study.
This team will continue to spin its wheels until he's gone from this organization. And I don't mean reassigned, I mean fucking excised. He's a pox on the entire franchise.
That lack of a great breaking ball has always been the question with Wacha. Even when he was dominant early in his career, that curve was inconsistent at best. He just doesn't seem to have a feel for spinning the baseball.
I've long thought Jocketty would have cashed Wacha and Adams in for proven major league talent early in their career, and know some Cards fans who were really
Glad he didn't (pointing it out as a reason Morelia was better). In hindsight, missed opportunity there.
I agree with your take on Matheny. He's just a thick-headed guy who relies entirely too much on old school though and vets who are part of his study group.
I fear we'll be commiserating about that type of manager in the next year or so... as I'm pretty positive Jason Kendall is KC's next manager (which will be just as awful as matheny).
