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That’s Why We Love Baseball
Because, sometimes, stuff like that happens. You figure it out.
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33 Responses to “That’s Why We Love Baseball”
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Twittah
So … what will be the gap between what Weaver is and what the M’s THINK he is?
More impressive a performance, this, or Washburn’s Macafee Coliseum Shutout?
I’ll do an analysis post on this tomorrow. The awesome thing about Safeco being a Pitch F/X park is that we can look at the actual velocity and movement of his pitches compared to previous starts and see if this was a stuff improvement or simple regression to the mean.
I’ll be stunned if it’s not option b.
This is great and everything, but tomorrow’s game is equally important. Felix needs to step up and show why he’s #1. When Felix starts to pitch like he’s capable of pitching, the M’s will play better all around.
It would be easy to say Weaver is to CG SHO what blind squirrel is to nut, but hey, it was still cool.
This is just like all those “Gil Meche has finally turned the corner” moments we all remember so fondly.
I unwittingly traded my Thursday tickets (Felix) for Wednesday tickets (Weaver) as a family favor and immediately lamented. Ah, fate…. in the 9th the crowd actually chanted WEA-VER WEA-VER WEA-VER!
Yeah, I just got back from the game and I don’t think the most amazing thing was the pitching performance. The most amazing things I saw were:
-The starting pitcher who was booed when announced got multiple standing O’s
-The scoreboard guys finally getting to use their catchy Weaver Puns (Leave it to Weaver and Dream Weaver) You know they’ve been waiting *all year* to use those!
#6: All those people should immediately report for mandatory sterilization, as they’ll have nothing to offer the gene pool.
davepaisley hit it on the head, blind squirrel, etc. That was my first thought when I saw CG SHO.
Dave did you actually watch the game or skip it as you mentioned?
It was unbelieveable.
It was also the Pirates.
But after seeing Weaver cough up 6 runs to the Royals with only one out, I still call this a vast improvement. This Weaver at least gives his teammates a fighting chance even when hits drop in and runners score.
I was at the game, and Weaver hit 91 several times on the scoreboard. Now, to be honest, I also saw 111mph flash up there once, so it’s possible they had the old Moyer gun (“it’s from France”), but it’s also possible Weaver had some more velocity. I’ll be interested in seeing what Dave’s numbers show. The 91s didn’t seem to have a lot of control, they kind of flew around wildly, but he got at least one strike three on an eyebrow high heater. The rest of his pitches found the zone, and he didn’t see to get hit all that hard – at least not like before, where everything leap off the bat like a rocket.
Plus, how many games do you expect to see with Sexson and Johjima getting infield singles (course, it went to Johjima’s head, and he got caught stealing).
All in all, encouraging.
If you didnt watch it, please dont watch any more of JFW’s starts this season…
I skipped scoreboards today, and fully expected mlb.com to tell me about Weaver’s no-hitter. 😉
So I skipped this game to spend some time with my Godmother who came back to town for the first time in years and her 5 year old who I had never met. I turned the game on in time to see the final score and Hargrove embrase Weaver in a hug. That, combined with a beautiful little girl screaming “Uncle joe throw me higher!” made this an awesome night. God bless family and God bless Baseball.
Is the moderator actually admitting that, in baseball, “sometimes, stuff” happens, that not EVERYTHING can be reduced to numbers and computations?
I suppose on a night Jeff Weaver gets his first complete game in two years and lowers his ERA to under NINE, anything can happen.
Yes, that’s why we love baseball.
Dave-
Hard to call this start regression to the mean. Tonight anyway, Weaver was throwing lots of offspeed stuff and had the Pirates off balance. He’d throw a pitch out of the zone and batters would chase for a weekly hit out when he put the ball over the plate the batters were taking them.
Any pitcher is going to need a little luck to throw a shutout, but even without a little luck Weaver was going to go 8 innings with 2 ER which is still a good start.
I don’t buy the notion that Weaver has turned the corner, but he was clearly at the top of his game tonight. He had the Pirates completely confused.
Flip him! Flip him! Flip him!
#17: The operative word there is “Pirates.” The Freebooters certainly were Free Booters tonight.
#19
No one should argue otherwise. But Miguel Batista didn’t exactly overpower them yesterday and it remains to be seen if Felix Hernandez will overpower them tomorrow.
Jeff Weaver had his best stuff tonight.
Maybe it’s just a weird day in baseball … onset of the solstice, or something:
— Ryan Franklin lowered his ERA to 1.57.
— Ex-Mariner farmhand-scrub Troy Cate thre two shutout innings.
— Brad Ausmus had a base hit.
— Ron Villone and Aaron Sele were not waived by their respective allegedly win-obsessed New York teams.
— Greg Dobbs continues to lead the early voting for the Free Talent of the Year Award.
— Rafael Soriano gave up three earned runs in one inning.
— Juan Pierre batted second for the Dodgers.
— Scott Hatteberg continues to bat leadoff for the Reds.
Wait…hold on…I thought you hated baseball and the Mariners, Dave!
/sarcasm
I did see a number of bad swings from Pirates players tonight, especially with all the popping up they did. At the same time, Weaver seemed to have a lot of movement on his pitches from what I remember in previous starts. It’s one thing if you’re throwing an 86mph two seamer that doesn’t break and it’s another if it at least drops a few inches.
Not saying he’s made any strides. Josh Fogg owned the Yankees, after all, so it’s not as if a pitcher can’t put it together for at least one start. I’d like to say we’ve seen the last of “Really Bad Weaver” but we’re not gonna see results like this again either.
Weaver did say something in the postgame comments that makes me smile in a sad way. He said that in the Yankee game he was just coming out and throwing fastballs to get ahead, but on this start he was using more of his offspeed / breaking ball stuff early and it kept the Pirates off balance.
PAY ATTENTION FELIX…
Carlos Pena (minor league deal with Tampa Bay) is kicking Dobbs’ butt in that voting, Jim.
Jeff Weaver. The Blind Squirrel.
Yeah. If Weaver can make three more starts in the next month where he pitches through at least 6 innings without giving up more than three runs, I’ll start drinking the koolaid. Until then, it’s just a flukey outing against a bad team.
Is the moderator actually admitting that, in baseball, “sometimes, stuff†happens, that not EVERYTHING can be reduced to numbers and computations?
If by “moderator” you mean Dave, who consistently reports scouts’ opinions on players and regularly performs eyeball evalutations of pitching, I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. In fact, you’re in the wrong forest entirely. But hey, if you want to make a public ass of yourself by setting up straw man arguments, go right ahead.
It’s, THE PIRATES. How much emphasis can be put on a pitching performance that Baek or any other replacement level pitcher can pull out of his pocket against a team like the Pirates? I’m sure the Pittsburgh fans are not impressed because this does tend to happen to the Pirates from time to time. The Mariners played pretty bad for the six games prior and Weaver hasn’t pitched to his salary level this year. This team is still the same group that gives up more runs than they score. My only regret is that Hargrove and Weaver will both be around for at least another 5 games. At this point, the losing would be worth it to rid us of them and the others. Imagine this team without the Japanese all-stars that fell in their lap and are now carrying the load for everyone else.
Cynical much, 27? This is by far the best pitching performance we have seen, or will get, this season from Mr. Weaver. Enjoy it for a day and try not to think about a million other things that can go wrong instead of or because of it. That’s an unhealthy attitude.
It appears there’s no inception of a movement here to get Jeff Weaver a contract extension.
My warm, fuzzy feeling after the game last night didn’t evaporate even after I turned on the Angel/Astro game to see Anaheim score 6 runs on 1 hit.
The awesome thing about Safeco being a Pitch F/X park is that we can look at the actual velocity and movement of his pitches compared to previous starts and see if this was a stuff improvement or simple regression to the mean.
Interesting to see – it looked like his velocity was up a bit especially in the middle innings and his location with the breaking pitches was a little better but not that much. I’d guess 20% Weaver, 50% Pirates, 30% Safeco/luck.
Jeff Weaver turned in a fine performance. For all those saying “Yeah, but its the PIRATES”, remember that that’s what most teams say about the Mariners! No one wants to drink the kool-aid about turning a corner because we’ve been so dissapointed as fans the last 5 years. Carpe Diem
Uh, we’ve been disappointed as fans for the past 30 years. One good outing by the team’s worst starter, as enjoyable as it might be for 21 hours, does not constitute “turning a corner.”