Some more things on a Tuesday afternoon

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 7, 2009 2:56 PM CDT

Jeff Wilson is doing a weekly mailbag column at the S-T site this year, and is looking for questions. Send in good ones.

Evan Grant highlights five important things about the Rangers win yesterday.

Jim Reeves thinks Kevin Millwood going out for the 7th was a direct result of Nolan Ryan's "work deeper into games" mantra.

For what it is worth, I think the Reeves/Ryan notion that pitchers don't go past 100 pitches anymore is a bit of a strawman...I think the number that is generally targeted is 110-115 pitches, which is around where Millwood ended up, with 120 pitches being the red flag point moreso than 100 pitches. But as long as we aren't expecting Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz to go out there every 5th day and throw 130+ pitches per start, I think we'll all be on the same page.

Over at BTB, they take a look at Cliff Lee's bad 2nd inning, including a graphic depiction of where his pitches were using the f/x data.

Rob Neyer talks about his search for star major league players who weren't good minor leaguers, and largely comes up empty. And he has a mention of LSB, which is always a good thing...

Richard Durrett talks some more about Elvis Andrus's debut, and Andrus's mindset going into the game.

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Let's not overdramatize here.

Millwood 2008 Home Debut: 106 pitches

Millwood 2007 Home Debut: 104 pitches

Millwood 2006 Home Debut: 89 pitches

"...my balls are really like a veiny flesh color" blueballlefty on Jun 4, 2008 7:44 PM EDT
"you gonna lose your horse. seriously." FX2
Yes we can! November 04, 2008

by Rodney on Apr 7, 2009 3:18 PM CDT reply actions

i think the scoreboard was what was different yesterday

and perhaps the quality of pitches that he was throwing as the pitch count rose higher. I would venture a guess that from 2006 – 2008 that Millwood didn’t go 7 innings. I could be wrong, just a guess

Bring on April 6th!

by NothinG on Apr 7, 2009 3:22 PM CDT up reply actions

either way, I'm not defending Reeves.

Bring on April 6th!

by NothinG on Apr 7, 2009 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions

08 should be 105 pitches.

08:

7 3 1 1 5 2 0 105-62

07:

6 8 3 3 3 3 0 104-64

06:

5 7 5 5 1 3 1 89-55

FWIW, 09:

7.0 5 1 1 1 5 0 113-72

"...my balls are really like a veiny flesh color" blueballlefty on Jun 4, 2008 7:44 PM EDT
"you gonna lose your horse. seriously." FX2
Yes we can! November 04, 2008

by Rodney on Apr 7, 2009 3:43 PM CDT up reply actions

Also, TR with a mailbag...

link

Many baseball “experts” are predicting that the Rangers will have a worse 2009 than their ‘08. Since it would be very difficult for the Rangers to have worse pitching and defense than last year, do you expect the Rangers to improve upon last year’s record instead of regressing?
— Matt S., Austin, Texas

The Rangers allowed 107 unearned runs last year (twice as many as the Angels), they lost 14 games despite leading after six innings and their No. 1 starter won nine games. Assuming their offense does not fall apart, if the Rangers can improve their numbers in those three areas, then they have a chance to improve significantly on their 79 wins.

The 107 unearned runs are ridiculously astronomical. That’s the most by a team since 1999.

If you read the mailbag, here is a link to a prospect review of Shelby Miller.

JD: Adamant about 78 wins in 2009. Go Rangers!

by rooster on Apr 7, 2009 3:40 PM CDT reply actions

per Neyer...

Derek Lowe has better numbers as a major leaguer than minor leaguer.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/Players/L/Derek-Lowe.shtml

"[Font} doesn't turn 19 until the end of May and his heater can already hit 99 on the gun. That's baseball porn." - Jason Parks

by hightowersmith on Apr 7, 2009 3:44 PM CDT reply actions

I didn't really look at his specific parameters

but I don’t see how Hanley Ramirez doesn’t qualify. He had a couple of good stretches, but he’s way better in the majors, pretty much across the board.

by Brett Perryman on Apr 7, 2009 3:48 PM CDT up reply actions

Well he says

“Who are some players whose minor league performances gave us no idea of how good they would be in the majors?”

We all knew Hanley was a really good player — maybe not THIS good….

I thought MY was a pretty good example because his rep was that he was a no-hit decent glove guy, but I guess Neyer is right.

"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan

by Dirk Diggler on Apr 7, 2009 4:02 PM CDT up reply actions

I don't really agree with him that

…his minor league performance indicated that he would be anything like what he is. Most of the reason that people knew had a chance to be good was scouting, not performance. I know of really bright numbers oriented guys (John Barten for example) who thought that he was the most overrated prospect in baseball, because his numbers didn’t support the hype. I think one could make as much of an argument statistically that someone like Marcus Lemon will be a star as they could have Hanley. But if he’s looking for guys who had neither numbers nor scouting reps, I guess he wouldn’t qualify.

by Brett Perryman on Apr 7, 2009 4:10 PM CDT up reply actions

How bout

Hanley’s DP partner? I have no idea what the scouts thought of Uggla, but his ML numbers are better than his minors. Maybe not significantly enough.

"I saw your act, just didn't make it for me. Just a lot of fluff."

by scoop16 on Apr 7, 2009 4:17 PM CDT up reply actions

power, not much else including defense

Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.

by knockoutking on Apr 7, 2009 5:11 PM CDT up reply actions

Well

part of the thing was that Rob often talked about young for the league. And there, Hanley was pretty young for all his leagues.

But Hanley’s stats were still pretty darn good:

Year Age Lvl AB BA/OBP/SLG
2002 18 Rk 164 .341/.402/.555
18 Ass 97 .371/.400/.536
2003 19 A- 422 .275/.327/.403
2004 20 A+ 239 .310/.364/.389
20 AA 129 .310/.360/.512

Which are pretty good numbers for a SS at those levels at that age.

by Requiem on Apr 7, 2009 5:37 PM CDT up reply actions

Pretty good example

Lowe definitely didn’t seem all that hyped when he was in the minors, nor when he was breaking in. And his stats don’t really show all that great performance (aside from the low HR rates which you could deduce were real in that he’s a sinkerballer).

However, I noticed all of the examples in the article were hitters, so maybe he’s not talking about pitchers?

I’d be curious to hear what Rob’s response to Lowe would be.

by Requiem on Apr 7, 2009 5:27 PM CDT up reply actions

Lincucum vs Fielder

"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is,
‘(Expletive) Dave Samson,’ then don’t say anything at all.
So I’m not going to say anything at all.
Is my mother the greatest or what?"
- Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, after signing Ichiro to a $90 million contract

by octoberty on Apr 7, 2009 4:23 PM CDT reply actions

you are the worst

"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan

by Dirk Diggler on Apr 7, 2009 5:23 PM CDT up reply actions

lincecum didn't last very long

Ceterum censeo Cat esse delendam - Cahill the Elder

by ab03 on Apr 7, 2009 4:39 PM CDT reply actions

Beckett has been dominant

by octoberty on Apr 7, 2009 4:45 PM CDT up reply actions

I never really drank the Lincecum Kool Aid.

by ajbrandt1 on Apr 7, 2009 4:53 PM CDT reply actions

Why not?

by Brett Perryman on Apr 7, 2009 5:00 PM CDT up reply actions

i drank it all up

and will go back for more

Ceterum censeo Cat esse delendam - Cahill the Elder

by ab03 on Apr 7, 2009 5:12 PM CDT up reply actions

How'd that work out for you?

the preceding post was a great success.

by DShep on Apr 7, 2009 6:23 PM CDT up reply actions

he is thirsty

by Telegraph on Apr 7, 2009 9:03 PM CDT up reply actions

What..

why not?

by Houston27 on Apr 8, 2009 10:35 AM CDT up reply actions

OT: I hate announcers.

Watching the Phillies-Braves game, and Carlos Ruiz hit a grounder to Yunel Escobar at short with Raul Ibanez on at second and one out. It was probably two feet behind Ibanez when it went past him. Escobar picked up the ball, threw to third, and Ibanez was out by 8 feet at third standing up. Then the announcer (Phillies announcer) went on to say Yunel Escobar just made a really bad play, because he should have just thrown it to first, let the runner get to third, and the pitcher was coming up. In other words, give up 2 bases, because that’s just not what you do in the game of baseball. Ugh…

The best part was that the pitcher proceeded to get on base, and a run was saved by Escobar’s play.

by Andy Seiler on Apr 7, 2009 6:48 PM CDT reply actions

Edwin Jackson

7IP, 1H, 4K, 1BB

I seem to remember a pretty low opinion on him around here..

by octoberty on Apr 7, 2009 7:56 PM CDT reply actions

Meh

Some liked him, I think. Dirkatron maybe?

by brettgardner on Apr 8, 2009 8:19 AM CDT up reply actions

Let’s see how the walk numbers go…

"[Font} doesn't turn 19 until the end of May and his heater can already hit 99 on the gun. That's baseball porn." - Jason Parks

by hightowersmith on Apr 8, 2009 9:00 AM CDT up reply actions

not bad

but its the Blue Jays.

By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw

by Gdawg on Apr 8, 2009 9:11 AM CDT up reply actions

Tell that to Justin Verlander

and my fantasy team.

by octoberty on Apr 8, 2009 12:09 PM CDT up reply actions

Allow me to laugh at the Royals and all of ESPN

I got so tired of them kissing the Royals’ asses the last couple of weeks. The big-money guy they signed was Kyle Farnsworth, who gave up a three-run HR in the eighth inning to lose the game against the White Sox.

Yes, it’s a one-game sample size. But still, I’m laughing.

Kinda like the story I read kissing the ass of the Big East conference in basketball and how tough it is after two Big East teams went to the men’s final four… then, of course, neither Big East team made it to the title game.

by Inkara1 on Apr 7, 2009 9:40 PM CDT reply actions