The text is a great post - not sure what the table accomplishes other than confusion though!

It is interesting that he appears to have pitched well but an average baltimore offence had some strong hits against him.

I am optimistic about Nova

Does Novena get hit so much because he pounds the zone?

Speaking of which Mel Hall knows how to pound the zone.

Does Novena get hit so much because he pounds the zone?

That was always the issue with him early in his mL career.

EDIT: Not so much pounding the zone as being so focused on throwing strikes he was making himself too hittable.

[3] It also manifested in a lack of Ks despite his good stuff.

Unlike Teix, Mel Hall starts hitting in April.

[0]Ivan Nova’s Curveball

I’d like to think that he was able to set that up by locating his curve in the strike zone throughout the game. If batters were aware that Nova was willing to throw the pitch in the zone, they were probably more likely to hack at it in two strike counts.

Um. I think one is a curve and another is a slider.

Waitaminute.  Ozzie Guillen gets suspended five games for praising Castro?  A dumb thing to do no doubt, but since when do people get punished for expressing political opinions in baseball?  I don’t recall Luke Scott getting punished for attacking the president.

Make Guillen drink Castro oil instead.

I only saw the game on GameView, but I noticed that Nova wasn’t exactly nibbling around the corners of the strike zone.  Several pitches were down the middle, or close.  That may sound like a bad thing, but I suppose if a pitcher has enough movement, velocity, and deceptiveness, pounding the zone ain’t such a bad thing.  At least it cuts down on the walks and avoids getting to 100 pitches by the 5th.

[7] He’s managing Miami.  I imagine that had something to do with it?

The Guillen suspension is ridiculous. It’s been less than a week since the rebranded Marlins were officially launched and I already feel pretty negatively about the organization. As far as youth movement teams in the NL East go, Go Nats. Especially since they probably still have some Loria-hating fans up in Montreal.

If they wanted to suck up to Cubans so much why didn’t they spend some of that Pujols money on Cespedes?

Um. I think one is a curve and another is a slider.

According to pitchFX, he threw only two sliders last night.  60 fastballs, 7 changeups, and 23 curves.

My point was that he was hitting the edge of the zone well with the curve for strikes early. This allowed him to throw it out of the zone with two strikes.

If he was simply laying the curve over the heart of the plate, that would obviously not benefit him much.  But he was hitting the edges well.

Guillen was suspended by the Marlins not by baseball. Which is more understandable I guess. It’s still stupid though.

[7] At least it’s the Marlins, not MLB doing the suspending.  I assume they have some legal justification based on a “don’t say anything controversial” clause in his contract.

Re: Ozzie, I am shocked. SHOCKED, I tell ya.

Well, not that shocked.

From a business point of view, it’s a pretty defensible move by the Marlins.  Although signing Guillen to begin with may not have been.

Marlins don’t need no stinking badges.

[16] Exactly, on both points.

So from a business point of view, it’s okay for Luke Scott to attack Obama?

I don´t think it is outrageous or even wrong for the Marlins to suspend Ozzie. It would be extremely different if MLB did it, but if I give an interview tomorrow praising Hitler´s (I´m not comparing Castro to him) military acumen while teaching at Yeshiva University, I´d just wait to be fired the next day. The Marlins are his employer, not a govermental agency and they should be able to require their employees to not offend a significant part of their fanbase. MLB would be able to do so also, IMHO, if it did not have a antitrust exemption from the government.
This is not an attack on free-speach, Ozzie is allowed to say whatever he wants and not be punished by doing it. If he wants to do a Castro rally in the cuban area of Miami he should be allowed to do it without being subject to government sanctions.

My point is that there’s a double standard.

[19] It would certainly affect the sales of bootlegged The Wire DVDs Luke Scott is trying to sell outside Camden. The O’s won’t likely be hit though, as casual fans don’t know who Luke Scott is.

There is no standard. It is the discretion of each employer, based on what they feel is the impact to their business.

It isn’t a civil rights issue, because it isn’t the government imposing the penalty.

Hiring Ozzie in the first place, however, to me fails the IQ test, unless you are prepared to tollerate a certain amount of turmoil and controversy in multiple dimensions (baseball and non-baseball).

[21] I wasn´t responding to you, had written this before your post.

The only difference from Ozzie to Luke Scott is that people did not really care about whatever Luke Scott said. If you had threats of boycott by a large segment of the Orioles fans, there might have been more consequences.

[24] “by a large segment of the Orioles fans”

You mean, all 10 of them? BOOM! ROASTED!

I’ll show myself out.

It is different for a manager than a player, as the former is more the face of the team - older, management, expected to be the main point of interaction with the press.

I have to figure that if Scott had said something racist in attacking Obama he would have gotten suspended by MLB.

But I would think one has to look at Guillen’s contract, Florida law, and the apparently topsy-turvy anti-trust law for baseball to figure out whether the Marlins would lose an employment suit.

[26] Also, from Guillen’s actions, I doubt he’ll be pursing any legal action.

[26]
These discussions are usually (as they should be) at least as much about what the law ought to be as about what it is.

If Ozzie had say praised Pinochet would he have been suspended?

What Luke Scott said probably drew approval from roughly half the O’s fan base, and had the Orioles made a big deal of it, the attention and controversy would simply be further stirred.  What Guillen said probably offends 95% of the Marlins fan base, and had already blown up in a way that Luke Scott’s never did.  It’s definitely in their best interest to distance themselves from his opinion in as public a manner as possible.

Guillen is such a bozo, though.  I’ll admit to some satisfaction in schadenfreude in that he’s actually chewing on some shoe leather right now…usually garbage flies out of his mouth he makes no apology.  Such a jackass.

Even if Guillen COULD sue the Marlins, would he at this point?  Or is it possible that another agency might step in?  If they could, I’d imagine the ACLU would get all up in this.

[29]  You know, Pol Pot was an amazing guy.

Luke Scott or any player should be able to say whatever he wants as long as his rhetoric doesn’t approach Ted Nugentland.  If a ballplayer likes or dislikes Obama or Bush so what, that’s their business.

[32] Exactly, I don’t give a damn about a player’s political leanings, because frankly, most of them aren’t the brightest bulbs. They aren’t getting paid for their idealogical leanings, they are being paid to play a sport.

[33] Aren’t all you guys severely off topic?  Try this: “Guillen’s comments were like Nova’s curve.  Nasty!”

OT thought exercise to lighten the mood. MLB decides to institute a Hunger Games-style battle royale as part of All-Star Weekend. Each team gets to send one delegate; whichever team’s delegate survives, their league gets home field advantage in the WS. Who do the Yankees select to represent them, and why?

I volunteer Gardner. Innocuous, quick, and has a good, accurate throwing arm.

I would love to hear Swisher’s thoughts on anything from the political realm. Guaranteed hilarity.

[35] Are we out from under the contract if the player doesn’t survive?  If so, I vote ARod…

[37] A-rod would be my top choice for the alternative question: who would be the most likely to get taken out first? The arm could help him, but there’d be a lot of street cred for getting that notch on your belt. He’s a goner pretty fast.

[37] I’d vote Teix.

Up until about the third inning last night, I would have sent Nuney. I am now* a Nuney booster.

* Subject to change without notice, and he still shouldn’t buy green bananas.

It’s always a good day when Bunnybeef drops by.  I would like to nominate Shelley Duncan, if the Yankees would be so good as to reacquire him.

I would like to nominate Walt No Neck Williams.

In 1975, Walt earned $28,000 playing for the New York Yankees.  I bet he’s hungry.  When he played for the White Sox, he didn’t have a neck.  He started to grow one when he came to the Yankees.  Still it was barely visible.

[40] Forearm slams of death!

Before:

After:

Throw a red shirt on whatshisname the catcher and send him in.

You know, Pol Pot was an amazing guy.

And he once had 30 aces in a row against Pancho Gonzalez without ever having picked up a racket before.

I saw the Dead Kennedys a couple months ago.  Holiday in Cambodia is still an incredible song, but it is weird to see them without Jello Biafra.

I’ll have one of whatever the Reds are drinking.

Has any team every made the postseason going 1-161?

For the Hunger Games assignment: resign Farnsworth?

“Now appearing for the Yankees, number twenty-seven, The Rancor. Twenty-Seven.”

Yeah, um, I think that’s reached the paste stage more quickly than you’d have thought.

Tigers beat the Rays.  Striking distance!

Ok, I looked up the remark in question - if it was just

I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that [expletive] is still here.

then BFD.  We’re staunch allies with lots of folks who are way more repressive than that washed-up old pitcher ever dreamed of being.  I would think that way fewer fans in Miami care about Castro than fans in Baltimore care about Obama - it’s just a question of fervency.

Sounds like BFD (which I had to look up). But people get worked up over anything.

[53,54] The vast majority of people barely care about Castro, however the Cuban community is extremely outspoken on the issue. Guillen simply made his statements in the worst possible place to do so.

Gardner in LF today, sound the hosannas.

Granderson again hitting 6th against a LHP after destroying them last year.

Sheehan said it in his newsletter today-you do have to give some props to Castro for staying in power.

I put him on a par with pedroia - evil man but you can still respect his accomplishments.

[51] Sure, the Rancor would mess up deathmatch participants from Seattle to St. Louis, but once you let him taste blood it’ll screw up his mechanics and he’ll never want to go back to living in that pit with this guy in-between starts.

[59] Is that…Joba ?

NEER is Pin, right?

[61] Has to be.

So much for his “be kind to Joba” campaign.

I put him on a par with pedroia - evil man but you can still respect his accomplishments.

Seriously.  When Pedroia hit that double last night in the 9th (a true hustle double), I was like… damn I seriously respect him and would love him if he were a Yankee.  Mighty Midget is objectionable because of laundry and media fellation (see also: Jeter, Derek).

Mighty Midget is objectionable because of laundry and media fellation (see also: Jeter, Derek)

Well, not only. He really is genuinely annoyingly whiney - the woe-is-me act at every called strike and so forth.

It was nice of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to get Pedroia his own show on HBO though.

I know you don’t choose your family, but I would still be skeeved out by Pedroia’s brother even if little Dustin were a Yankee.

Why’s everybody so upset about San Francisco’s gay district?

[65] Not as bad as Youkilis, but he’s still pretty annoying.

[68] You do have to admire it for sticking around for such a long time.

Castro’s accomplishments: widely regarded health care system, avoiding assassins, ...?