7/3 games

[Gene Honda Civic]

I just went to check some games...

 

Looks like Jerry Owens was hit by a pitch leading off the Barons half of the first, and had to be removed from the game.

[BHAMBARONS]

Barons 9 Montgomery 1

 

 

W-Tracey (9-3) L- Lockwood (2-7)

 

 

Outstanding outing by Sean Tracey goes the distance had a dominate Fastball to go along with his sinker hitting 97 all the way to the 7th. Chris Young had a 3 hit evening. Josh Fields hit a Grand Slam in the 3rd a 420 ft shot that just cleared the wall in CF that followed a Double in the 2nd. Fields in his next AB was hit by Brian Lockwood and then promptly removed Fields gave a stare to Lockwood but nothing further ensued. Ryan Sweeney had a 2 hit game to and back from family problems Antoin Gray had a pair of doubles. The 4 run 4th was started with 1 on 2 out Chris Young singled to left an error by Johnny Rayburn loaded the bases and a 2-1 pitch was hit out to Center. Charlie Haeger draws the start tomorrow.

[BHAMBARONS]

I just went to check some games...

 

Looks like Jerry Owens was hit by a pitch leading off the Barons half of the first, and had to be removed from the game.

 

 

Yep it didn't look like anything that would put him on the DL

[danman31]

Charlotte wins 5-4 in 13. Ross Gload went 5-7 with 2 doubles and an RBI. Think he's ready for the bigs? Fields with good relief. Baj save #12. Box Score

 

Barons won 9-1. Young 3-5. 2 hits for Sweeney, Fields (HR #10), and Gray. Tracey went the distance giving up 1 run in 9. Box Score

 

W-S won 3-2. Spidale 2-4. Wing started 4 IP, 2 R. 5 shutout innings from pen.Box Score

[BHAMBARONS]

Also a Transaction C. Garcia called up to Birmingham from WS and Jonathan Aceves sent to Charlotte

[Rex Hudler]

Nice outing by Tracey tonight.... never saw 97 though. Where did you see that reading Tom?

 

Fields had two errors, both throwing. One was after a very nice play when he threw it trying to hurry to complete a DP after getting up off the ground and touching 3B. The other was the same, only he didn't have to go to the ground to field it, but he was trying to rush to finish off a DP that would have ended the game.

 

Young looked good at the plate. Even in his two strikeouts, he was right on the pitcher. In his last at bat, 2nd K, he fouled a couple of pitches straight back that he just missed hitting a mile.

 

Sweeney has a nice swing, but looks overmatched on fastballs inside. I am surprised any team pitches him anywhere else.

[BHAMBARONS]

Nice outing by Tracey tonight.... never saw 97 though. Where did you see that reading Tom?

 

Honel had a radar gun behind the plate tracking the pitches when I am sitting in my normal seat I use the Parks gun. But where I was at tonight I couldn't see the gun and had to depend on Kris.

 

What is your take on Delmon, The Barons have done well against him and Dukes both.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Young's average has gone from about .240 to .265 in the last week and half. That's what I call SMOKIN HOT!

[GoodAsGould]

Nice outing by Tracey tonight....  never saw 97 though.  Where did  you see that reading Tom?

 

Honel had a radar gun behind the plate tracking the pitches when I am sitting in my normal seat I use the Parks gun. But where I was at tonight I couldn't see the gun and had to depend on Kris. 

 

What is your take on Delmon, The Barons have done well against him and Dukes both.

 

 

I think thats directed to Rex but my take on Delmon is he is going to be a star in the league. He is one of my favorite prospects to watch and he will make his brother Dmitri seem like he never existed

[Rex Hudler]

Nice outing by Tracey tonight....  never saw 97 though.  Where did  you see that reading Tom?

 

Honel had a radar gun behind the plate tracking the pitches when I am sitting in my normal seat I use the Parks gun. But where I was at tonight I couldn't see the gun and had to depend on Kris. 

 

What is your take on Delmon, The Barons have done well against him and Dukes both.

 

Last night was the first time I had seen the Biscuits (still the dumbest nickname in baseball) and Delmon. He didn't show much last night aside from that deep drive to CF. You could see enough speed and a powerful enough swing to see the potential, but hard to see much more from last night. Obviously the numbers speak for themselves.

 

By the way, where were you at the very end of the game last night?

[BHAMBARONS]

Last night was the first time I had seen the Biscuits (still the dumbest nickname in baseball) and Delmon.  He didn't show much last night aside from that deep drive to CF. You could see enough speed and a powerful enough swing to see the potential, but hard to see much more from last night.  Obviously the numbers speak for themselves. 

 

By the way, where were you at the very end of the game last night?

 

 

Right behind the plate I had to do scoring for yesterday's game. Next to where Kris Honel and Corwin Malone, I got an early start to beat the traffic out so I didn't see the fireworks almost 9000 last night. Next time I will be behind the plate is this coming sunday.

[CWSGuy406]

I thought Tracey had better 'stuff' than he's showing. I realize the walk total is always gonna be high (almost a half a walk per inning), but only 68K's in 97 IP? That's not very encouraging...

Edited July 4, 2005 by CWSGuy406

[Chisoxfn]

I thought Tracey had better 'stuff' than he's showing.  I realize the walk total is always gonna be high (almost a half a walk per inning), but only 68K's in 97 IP?  That's not very encouraging...

Tracey isn't much of a strikeout pitcher. He has an awesome arm though. The big thing with him is guys rarely hit him very hard. He's gets a lot of sinking action on his fastball and not many sinkerballers are strikeout guys.

[Palehosefan]

I know I'm probably alone in this, but I've felt for a while now that Sean could be a dominate closer in the majors. He has a rubber arm and could "let it go" for an inning or two and show off his nice stuff without holding back.

[MnSoxFan]

I thought Tracey had better 'stuff' than he's showing.  I realize the walk total is always gonna be high (almost a half a walk per inning), but only 68K's in 97 IP?  That's not very encouraging...

 

Pitching is not about strike outs.

[BHAMBARONS]

Pitching is not about strike outs.

 

 

Right on yesterday Tracey was changing speeds so well it was a pitching clinic out there. I like him as a possible closer. Such a good effort needed a long outing last night

[CWSGuy406]

Pitching is not about strike outs.

 

Didn't say it was. But since I rarely get to see these guys pitch, all I really get to look at are the stats; and generally, a better K/9 means you're doing a better job fooling the hitters.

 

It's not that his K/9 is really low -- but it not being really high, combined with his walks, has me concerned. I'll back off, 'cause I'm not gonna act like an expert when I'm clearly not -- I'm just saying I'd like to see that number go up a little bit.

[danman31]

I know I'm probably alone in this, but I've felt for a while now that Sean could be a dominate closer in the majors. He has a rubber arm and could "let it go" for an inning or two and show off his nice stuff without holding back.

Yeah, high MPH plus rubber arm makes me think he's the kind of guy who could just rip 'em as a closer and come out of the pen often.

 

As for the low strikeout numbers, from the one outing I saw of him in Spring Training one thing stuck out about him: he gets guys out. He wasn't dominating and then all of a sudden he has 2+ shutout innings without any trouble against big league hitters. Of course, he ended up getting hit hard 2nd time around in the order and I don't even know if he got 3 innings in. The only thing that has worried me about Tracey is the amount of walks he allows.

[Rowand44]

Didn't say it was.  But since I rarely get to see these guys pitch, all I really get to look at are the stats; and generally, a better K/9 means you're doing a better job fooling the hitters.

 

It's not that his K/9 is really low -- but it not being really high, combined with his walks, has me concerned.  I'll back off, 'cause I'm not gonna act like an expert when I'm clearly not -- I'm just saying I'd like to see that number go up a little bit.

If he's a sinkerballer it's probably a better sign if he's not striking out a ton of guys.

[CWSGuy406]

If he's a sinkerballer it's probably a better sign if he's not striking out a ton of guys.

 

The more balls in play, the better chance for a higher BAPIP. It's good to know that his sinker is working, but I'd rather have him K more guys to know that they really don't know/recognize what he's throwing...

[Rowand44]

The more balls in play, the better chance for a higher BAPIP.  It's good to know that his sinker is working, but I'd rather have him K more guys to know that they really don't know/recognize what he's throwing...

Well I think the fact that he's producing ground balls is more indicative that he knows what he's doing out there. Usually when sinkerballers start striking out more guys they're over throwing which will result in a few more k's but the ball won't be biting down as much also resulting in more hits. Personally with a sinkerballer I'd rather see more groundballs then k's but that's just me and as always we disagree.

[Rex Hudler]

The more balls in play, the better chance for a higher BAPIP.  It's good to know that his sinker is working, but I'd rather have him K more guys to know that they really don't know/recognize what he's throwing...

 

I'll say this and only this, because I don't want to get into a "stats" argument. But what stats like BAPIP and others forget to evaluate is the human element of the game. In college, I became a better pitcher when I stopped trying to strike everybody out. Sure I gave up a few more hits, but I could go longer in games, got more double plays and my defense played better behind me when I worked fast and got ahead of hitters, and I walked less. I found that I could often get a guy to ground out to SS on the first pitch rather than have to go to 3-2 on him trying to strike him out.

 

Numbers are useful in evaluating players, but you can never eliminate the human element. Some guys are just better under pressure. Some guys crumble when their defense makes errors behind them. Other guys get tougher so they can pick up the teammate that just made an error.

 

Case in point.... Game tied 1-1 in the 5th inning....

 

Pitcher A gets the first two outs of an inning and then the SS makes an error allowing the next hitter to reach first. The pitcher is upset and shaken because he knows he should be out of the inning. The next guy bloops a pitch to RF for a lucky single and now we have men on 1B and 3B. Pitcher A is seething inside at this point, knowing he is now in trouble and has to face the other team's #3 hitter and he has done nothing wrong. Said # 3 hitter promptly hits a 3-run blast and the game is now 4-1. Pitcher A's ERA still shows only one earned run, even though he will eventually get the loss.

 

Pitcher B also gets the first two outs and the SS makes an error. Pitcher B looks his SS in the eye and tells him to make the next one, he'll pick him up. Pitcher B buckles down and makes a great pitch to get the next hitter and avoids any potential harm caused by the error. Pitcher B's ERA is affected the same as Pitcher A's, yet which pitcher would you rather have? What stats are going to tell me that Pitcher B did his job better than Pitcher A, other than HR's allowed??

 

My only point is not to forget the human side of the game and use stats to support that. Stats cannot tell the whole story, I don't care what Billy Beane says.

[MnSoxFan]

I'll say this and only this, because I don't want to get into a "stats" argument.  But what stats like BAPIP and others forget to evaluate is the human element of the game.  In college, I became a better pitcher when I stopped trying to strike everybody out.  Sure I gave up a few more hits, but I could go longer in games, got more double plays and my defense played better behind me when I worked fast and got ahead of hitters, and I walked less.  I found that I could often get a guy to ground out to SS on the first pitch rather than have to go to 3-2 on him trying to strike him out. 

 

Numbers are useful in evaluating players, but you can never eliminate the human element.  Some guys are just better under pressure.  Some guys crumble when their defense makes errors behind them.  Other guys get tougher so they can pick up the teammate that just made an error. 

 

Case in point....        Game tied 1-1 in the 5th inning....

 

Pitcher A gets the first two outs of an inning and then the SS makes an error allowing the next hitter to reach first.  The pitcher is upset and shaken because he knows he should be out of the inning.  The next guy bloops a pitch to RF for a lucky single and now we have men on 1B and 3B.  Pitcher A is seething inside at this point, knowing he is now in trouble and has to face the other team's #3 hitter and he has done nothing wrong.  Said # 3 hitter promptly hits a 3-run blast and the game is now 4-1.  Pitcher A's ERA still shows only one earned run, even though he will eventually get the loss. 

 

Pitcher B also gets the first two outs and the SS makes an error.  Pitcher B looks his SS in the eye and tells him to make the next one, he'll pick him up.  Pitcher B buckles down and makes a great pitch to get the next hitter and avoids any potential harm caused by the error.  Pitcher B's ERA is affected the same as Pitcher A's, yet which pitcher would you rather have?  What stats are going to tell me that Pitcher B did his job better than Pitcher A, other than HR's allowed?? 

 

My only point is not to forget the human side of the game and use stats to support that.  Stats cannot tell the whole story, I don't care what Billy Beane says.

 

Nice description. Also, less Ks normally the less pitches. Get the Ks when you need em. We do not want a bunch of guys like Cubs throwing 120 pitches so they can K 10 guys.

[Gene Honda Civic]

I'll say this. You're missing out if you're not relying on stats. Similarly, you're missing out if you're relying on them solely.

 

You need to have a good mix of both personal observation that doesn't rely on results. (example: Tonight's game was actually the best I've seen of BMac since he's been up. The stats won't tell you that. 2 HR, 5 ER in 3IP is not a good line. But, he was keeping his fastball down, and spotting it pretty well (except for the one to Huff) He had a very nice breaking ball that he was dropping right on the outside corner low, but wasn't getting the call. In turn he elevated the breaking ball a little bit to get it called for strikes, and he hung a couple of those. He didn't throw enough change ups for my liking, and was two predictable with his pitch selection. i.e first pitch fastball. If he's throwing the change down in the zone first pitch he's going to have a lot of hitters off balance for the rest of the AB.)

[CWSGuy406]

Fair enough, Rex.

 

I just said I'd like to see Tracey's K/9 increase. But I also should admit that I didn't think that Tracey was a sinkerballer coming into the thread -- I thought he was more of a fastball/slider guy based on what I've read from you guys talking about him. And, usually, a guy who has his fastball slider working really well has a better K/9 than 6, which is what Tracey is around IIRC (perhaps a little higher).

 

Knowing he's a sinkerballer, I'll back off of my original sentiments. I still, though, regardless of what he throws, would like to see him cut down on the walks.

 

BTW -- I realize I use a lot of stats in most of my posts, but I hope I don't come off as an 'all-stats, all-sabermetric' kid. That's really all I have to judge these guys off of, other than the times that I read the minor league gurus here talking about him. I'd like to think that I'm a mix of both, even though I probably don't come off as one...