Jack Parkman

Q: What do you do when: a) you're nowhere ready to compete and b) the kids aren't ready yet A: Shop at the bargain bin. That is exactly what they did. I couldn't blame them if they signed CarGo to a 1yr 4M deal. They don't have anyone competent in RF, and none of the kids are ready. They've always said that Eloy is a LF. There are no kids that are worth giving playing time to at the upper levels that aren't going to already get playing time this season. The only other option is to lose 115 games. Nobody wants that.

@Look at Ray Ray Run This is the comment I made that started the conversation.

We were always talking about fastballs dude. We were discussing the philosophy "hard high, slow low" based on the comment I made yesterday.

This is the article I was referring to. Thank you so much for finding it, and this is the basis for my argument. The point is that the low fastball is the pitch that has the worst outcome for pitchers. It is quite literally the worst pitch you can throw. Btw, my argument remains, that low fastballs lead to the worst outcome for a pitcher. It doesn't matter how it is achieved, the data says low fastballs=bad.

Thank you sir. Despite "conventional wisdom " the data says the opposite.

Btw this conversation has been purely about the 4 seam fastball and no other pitch. Even old school Hawk used to say to hitters facing a pitcher with a good heater "you have to make them get it down"

I want to know where they define these zones.

I wasn't clear enough. It makes perfect sense that it is easier to elevate something further off the ground. I always meant the combo of launch angle+EV. Bottom line it is easier to hit a low pitch hard and far. Bottom line it is easier to get quality contact on a lower pitch than a high one, regardless of if it is a grounder or not.

Nope the opposite is true bud. It might be easier to get under it but it is harder to make quality contact. I am talking about the combo of launch angle + exit velocity. It is easier to get a higher exit velocity on a lower pitch.

Maybe we have a different definition of a high pitch. My definition is from the middle of the ribcage to the bottom of the neck. What's yours? I am not talking about belt high pitches here.

Yes, high pitches lead to more flyouts. How many are lazy popups though? The other thing is that it is easier for the human eye to track a low pitch than a high one. I'd love to run an experiment where a pitcher throws nothing but high 95 mph fastballs and see how hitters do. I think most would be surprised. They could know it's coming and probably still wouldn't do much.

I'm not talking about dropping the shoulder or anything I'm talking about the plane of the bat's motion through the plane of the strike zone bud. You're not going to make contact with a pitch one foot off of the ground without having that plane intersection be at least 35+ degrees. think about what you're saying.

You can't even make contact on a low pitch without dropping the head of the bat. If hitter actually had a "level swing" like you claim the only place anyone would make contact is on the sweet spot. Every ball contacted by every hitter below the middle of the strike zone is an uppercut of some sort. The only difference is by how much. Baseball is a physics project for me. You're going off of basebally jargon. Every swing is different based on pitch location. It is part of what makes baseball a hard game.

It baffles me how many people have no concept of the physics of projectile motion.

Physics says this is wrong. It is actually easier to elevate a low pitch than a high one. The launch angle will be higher in a low pitch than a high pitch by default. Ground balls have a negative launch angle. High pitches will have a smaller launch angle because it is harder to square up. Idk if you've ever tried playing baseball before but.....I'm no professional(far from it) but low pitches are far easier to square up than high ones.

If said FA/rookie gets injured then what? They need the 3rd back for injury insurance. If they're left with Cohen/Mizzell you can kiss any semblance of a run game goodbye.

Cohen is a gadget player/athlete. They need someone who can carry the load if the starter gets injured. Cohen isn't going to get 15+ carries per game. He'll get his 10 carries and 5-10 catches.

I've seen plenty of pitches above the belt get called strikes. Based on what you're describing as the strike zone I'd generally agree. If the strike zone as a whole is smaller than it used to be, then maybe they need to adjust it.

Speaking of anti vaxxers they're idiots. The only reason that there are more kids on the autism spectrum now is because of the investigation into Hans Asperger's work. I, as a person on the spectrum, prefer to not be associated with Asperger because of WHY he did the work more than anything else. Roughly 2% of the world population is on the spectrum and that is that. The reason autism diagnoses have increased is because of expanded knowledge that severe autism isn't the only type of autism. I personally like how they do it now, where they classify it by AS-1/2/3 where the 1 is some support and 3 is major support. It is independent of IQ(which Asperger's wasn't) and all about autism symptoms/executive functioning. Bottom line, anti vaxxers are putting people's lives at risk because they don't have the balls to do the research or they're too dumb to do so.

I hope if they end up signing Ingram they end up pairing him with a rookie back. Tbh I prefer Yeldon. Cheaper and younger.

Exactly. My personal benchmark is 3 full seasons of suckage. If they can't get it done by then, they get traded and figure it out elsewhere, I just write it off to "it wasn't going to happen here"

Can someone explain to me why so many people are willing to completely write off Moncada after only one full season in the Majors? Please??? If you guys are that impatient then maybe JR was right that Sox fans won't stand for a rebuild. I hope everyone enjoys eternal mediocrity. It takes at least 3 full seasons before I'll write a guy completely off. Of the 3 rebuild pieces that have reached the majors so far, none are lost causes. Fulmer is different. He's struggled in the majors and at AAA for 3 seasons. It is time.

Yeah, it would probably be either Jay or Palka. Maybe even Alonso. Any of the three players could potentially get spelled by Guyer.

Guyer murders lefties. He and Jay are going to platoon, I think.

I'm not talking about wheelhouse pitches, I'm talking about pitches in the general area of the letters. Slightly below to slightly above. Hitters don't get good wood on that too often. They'll either pop it up, whiff or beat it into the ground more often than not. You're talking about wheelhouse, which I'd say would be from below the letters to the knees. There is only one pitch that will definitely get destroyed up there and that is the changeup. Go back and watch some of Quintana's most dominant starts with the Sox and he lived in that area with his fastball. They couldn't touch it. High hard, slow low. It has been the winning formula for ages. You only go low with the fastball when they're least expecting it.