• On Sunday in Baltimore, Mariano
Rivera clinched the Yankees' victory by striking out Nick
Markakis with a fastball that must have been four or five inches outside. I didn't tune in 'til the ninth inning, but apparently plate umpire Ed Rapuano had been calling them like that all day. Before that third strike, Jim Palmer said, "And if you're Nick Markakis, you cannot afford -- because of the strike zone today -- to take a close pitch." Afterward he said of that strike zone, "Well, it's just been consistently horrible today …
Again, if you look at the Pitch Track, you're going to see a similar pitch. We've seen it all afternoon, we've talked about, you can't take a close pitch. There's your Pitch Track, there's your pitch -- and it's not even close to being a strike. Yankees are happy.
Orioles oughtta be frustrated. And all you have to do is come back and show this footage, and they have a better view than we do, as far as having that overhead camera. Hopefully we'll get that and then umpires maybe will start umpiring with a little bit more accuracy. But again, to their credit, Mariano Rivera takes care of that strike zone, and the Orioles lose.
|
I watched the Pitch Track, and that pitch didn't look close. Palmer is correct to point out Rivera's ability to take advantage of the big strike zone, and also it's a little odd to complain about an expansive strike zone in a game that featured 15 runs. But I agree: The umpires are cavalier about the strike zone, and somebody should do something about it.
• Continuing a theme … What the h-e-double-toothpicks is going on?
Last week,
Coco
Crisp walked on three balls. Last night,
Andre
Ethier walked on five balls. You'd almost think the umpires
want a bunch of machines and some guys in New York to run the games.
• From the Department of Forecasting: From almost four years ago,
this discussion of some of the most impressive young starting pitchers of 2004. The general consensus from those who made comments, people who are among the more highly regarded analysts on the Web, had them ranked in this order:
1.
Zack
Greinke, 2.
Rick
Ankiel, 3.
Scott
Kazmir. There was also some love for
Jose
Capellan, who at this moment is 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA as a starter in the majors. Hey, this stuff's harder than it looks.
• More from the Dept. of Forecasting: As Craig Brown mentions in passing -- in
"Meet Mike
Aviles" -- last winter, 29 major league franchises passed up the chance to acquire Aviles for the low, low sum of $50,000. What do you think they'd pay for him now?
• You've probably seen Jonah Keri's
outstanding piece about
Mike
Mussina, but you might have missed his review of
Fernando
Tatis' strange career. And I think Jonah's right: Tatis' comeback might be
the most unlikely of them all.
• Bob Klapisch is on the
road to recovery, and has some interesting thoughts about grown men playing a boy's game for nothing but the fun of the thing.
• Sunday was the 25th anniversary of one of the weirdest games ever. Or at least one of the
weirdest endings.
• December 16, 2001, wasn't one of
Pat Gillick's finest moments. Gillick, then running the Mariners, traded
Brian
Fuentes,
Denny
Stark and
Jose
Paniagua to the Rockies for
Jeff
Cirillo. Cirillo struggled terribly in his two seasons with the M's. You know about Fuentes. But I bring this up because I saw Denny Stark pitch Saturday night. It was sort of a shock because I'd nearly forgotten him, and what I did remember was that he'd once been a pretty hot prospect. I'd completely forgotten that, after joining the Rockies, he went 11-4 as a rookie in 2002.
Since then? He struggled for a couple of seasons with the Rockies, signed as a free agent with the Indians, struggled some more (in the minors), and had
Tommy John surgery.
Twice.
But after missing two full seasons, he's back in the Mariners'
organization, pitching for the Triple-A
Tacoma Rainiers. When I saw him, he was throwing 92-93 and struck out six
Portland Beavers in two innings, and if there's room on the 40-man roster he might get a look with the big club in September.
Stark's no Fernando Tatis, but that would be a pretty good story.
Especially for him.
Rob Neyer
