Nice article about Left of Arm of God. Saw him pitch against the Mets at Polo Grounds with my Pop. 1 hitter
https://www.wired.com/2011/03/why-sa...urveball-rule/
Side note: First victory for Tug McGraw was against Koufax, he was a starter then.
In that 65 WS game he won it for Dodgers, he could not throw a curve anymore, threw that whole game with about 95% fastballs. Jeff Torborg has said he would love to see him on the guns today, he caught 1 of his No-Hitters.
Last edited by OH FOY!; 09-27-2017 at 11:51 AM.
"Hating the Yankees like it's a religion since 94'" RIP Mike.
"It's also a simple and indisputable fact that WAR isn't the be-all end-all in valuations, especially in real life. Wanna know why? Because an ace in run-prevention for 120 innings means more often than not, a sub-standard pitcher covering for the rest of the IP that pitcher fails to provide. You can't see value in a vacuum when a player does not provide full-time production."
OK, I think I know where the fire Farrell gang is coming from on this rest issue. On September 20, 2017, a day which will now live in
infamy, Farrell failed to pull Sale after six innings and instead let him pitch 8 innings. Since Sale averaged about 14 pitches per inning that night, I think this boils down to 28 extra, needless, insane, ridiculous, thoughtless pitches. It made no difference Sale would have an extra day's rest before his next start at home against the Jays. Those 28 pitches clearly pushed Sale beyond his limit, and what we saw last night was a wreck, a pale imitation of the fireballing ace we had seen in the distant past--way back on September 20 when he struck out 13 over 8 scoreless innings. That Sale was now gone.
Here's why I have a problem with that thesis. First and foremost, Sale still struck out 8 guys in 5 innings last night. Second his heater--the 97 mph and above version--was very much in evidence. He was also throwing changeups and sliders. However--and a small amount of this has to do with an ump who wasn't given him any corners--what I saw was that his breaking balls were up in the zone and therefore very hittable. In fact, one of Donaldson's dingers came off a slider and the other off a changeup, both up in the zone. All four dingers came off of pitches up in the zone, but not way up. In other words, just about right for a team facing Sale for the 4th time this season and with some pretty good bats. The most dingers by a MLB team so far this season is 232, and the Jays have 219.
Then there is the fact that Sale has thrown just 502 pitches this month, easily the fewest in a month this season. Among those 5 starts he has actually pitched two shutout games, one for 8 innings and the other 6 innings.
So, while I will give credit to moonslav, mvp78 and others for complaining during the September 20 game that Sale needed to be rested because the Sox had a big lead, I'm less sure than they that those 28 pitches pushed Sale over a cliff.
I think it's just as reasonable to say he lacked command of his pitches last night and that the Jays were ready for those pitches up in the zone. Heck, back in July, by far his best month with an ERA of 1.04, he went 7 innings against the Rays and gave up 4 runs, including 2 dingers.
You can't even get the thesis right.
1. Sale has alternated great and horrible starts since August 1. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx...603&position=P LOOK AT THAT GAME LOG AND TELL ME IT'S NOT A THING.
2. Sale has a history of wearing down over the course of the season.
3. Some posters think his innings may need to be managed in the 2nd half of the season.
4. Having Sale pitch a full 8 innings against a hapless O's lineup with a large lead is just dumb no matter what. After 5 innings, the Sox were up 6 - 0. There was little reason to keep trotting him out. The bullpen was firing on all cylinders at that time.
That one game is just indicative of Farrell not managing the situation well. It's not the sole reason he pitched bad last night.
also, max, because JF left him in for all those extra needless pitches we will NEVER KNOW the outcome of pulling him early. we will know the outcome of leaving him in. perhaps he would 5 CG shutouts in the postseason had he not thrown those 41 pitches. we will never know because JF is an idiot.
other names i have posted under: none
I'll agree that it would have made sense to pull Sale after 6 innings or whatever. But I find it hard to believe a few dozen pitches is going to be the ruination of his season.
I think Farrell has tried to manage Sale's workload this year. He's only topped 115 pitches a few times, he's never reached 120 pitches, he's usually been removed at about 110.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statsplits....ion=P&season=0
Or his numbers always regress from August on?