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Sunday, April 22, 2018

What could possibly be wrong...

...on this gorgeous spring Sunday?

As ALL-CAPS noted, yesterday was pretty much perfect.

Sox got no-hit, and their fans fell into a huge snit over the fact that they weren't allowed to cheat.

The Mets are tumbling slowly back to earth like that figure in the credits of "Mad Men."

A nice managerial move by Ma Boone, greenlighting Judge on 3-0. Montgomery pitched like he was back at El Alamein, Andujar continues to tear at the ball with all his might, and the Gleyber is with us! Hallelujah!

And hey, the Yanks even closed to two, in their momentous battle with soccer in the Paper of Record. It's now Soccer 65, Yankees 63.

What's not to like?

Well, there was Ma Boone's inadvertent admission at his press conference regarding Sonny Gray, Boy Pitcher: No, it's not physical, no, it's not mechanical. But his velocity is down.

Which means...it IS physical.

That black swan of Alphonso's is going to have to go on the DL itself, if this keeps up. Wing spasm, or web foot strain, hauling all those Yankees over the Styx.

Here is another matter of possible concern:

Giancarlo. Again.

Here was his at-bat against the great Tyler Clippard yesterday (or "Clip-art," as my auto-correct likes to call him, appropriately enough).

First pitch: low and outside. Stanton swings and misses.

Second pitch: low and outside. Swings and misses.

Third pitch: too low and outside. Stanton lays off.

Fourth pitch: low but not enough outside. Stanton fouls it off.

Fifth pitch: High fastball. Stanton swings through it. Strike three.

Sigh.

Now, surely it can't REALLY be that Giancarlo has never seen a breaking pitch before, right? Even in the Straight Fastball League? I mean, this IS the 22nd straight year of Bud Selig's "Let's All Do Like the NBA Do" Interleague Play Idea.

Which got me to thinking. And turning to that invaluable resource, baseballreference.com

So what does it show?

Well, the (relatively) good news is this: Stanton HAS hit 23 homers in 123 games of interrelate play.

The bad news?

He's also struck out 171 times in those 123 games. And his slash line compares this way:

Against everybody:  .267/.359/.551/.910

Against the AL:        .257/.338/.449/.787

How to analyze this data?

Well, for that I brought in renowned baseball commentator and animated star film and television, Scooby-doo.  Scooby, what are your thoughts?

Scooby: Ruh-roh.

And there you have it folks: ruh-roh, indeed.









6 comments:

Alphonso said...

Note for the record; I have tried everything to help Giancarlo, and failed.

I do not want him up at a big moment, ever. He may be fine when it doesn't matter ( as was his career at Miami, when nothing ever mattered ), but he won't help us in the clutch.

He should be hitting 9th by season's end.

Leinstery said...

Monty at El Alamein is a top notch reference.

Jaime goes for the Jays, expect a no hitter

Rufus T. Firefly said...

The East German judges just called Tyler Austin out at first.

Who the fuck is running the replay at MLB? Guy's foot was 4 inches from the bag when he caught the ball.

Fucking ridiculous.

Leinstery said...

Let's note that AA stood there befuddled. Binders would have blown a gasket for his guy.

13bit said...

83 Wins

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