by jake_twothousandfive » Sat Jun 19, 2010 1:43 pm
Saw this posted on another forum.
From The Wall Street Journal:
How to Call What You Can't See Strasburg's Otherworldly Pitches Fool Batters—and Umpires; 'Did the Ball Really Do That?' --DAVID BIDERMAN
Since his debut with the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg has displayed the kind of pitching repertoire that makes baseball historians scramble for their notebooks.
His four devastating pitches (fastball, chanegup, curveball and sinker) have such extreme break that it's nearly impossible to predict where they will cross the plate. He has already struck out 22 batters in just over 12 innings.
But here's what separates Mr. Strasburg from the vast majority of precocious arms: He's so good he makes the umpires miss.
Thanks to a system called Pitch f/x, which uses digital cameras to track the trajectory of every pitch in major-league ballparks, it's now possible to measure whether a pitch was a strike or a ball and, more to the point, whether the home-plate umpire made the correct call.
According to a consensus of umpires, a good umpire will make one bad call on a pitch every two innings—or about four or five per game. But in Mr. Strasburg's first start, on June 8, Pitch f/x indicated that the home-plate umpire, Tom Hallion, missed seven calls in only seven innings. By contrast, Mr. Hallion only missed two calls in five-plus innings for the opposing pitcher, Pittsburgh's Jeff Karstens.
In Mr. Strasburg's second start, the system said home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora missed six calls in fewer than six innings. Mr. Hallion and Mr. O'Nora couldn't be reached for comment.
"I've known guys who couldn't sleep the night before they had to ump a pitcher like that," said Don Denkinger, a major-league umpire for almost three decades.
Former all-star pitcher Rob Dibble, a Nationals broadcaster for MASN, said he watched almost every one of Mr. Strasburg's starts in spring training and said he was fooled repeatedly—Mr. Strasburg's pitches moved so much that it was impossible to get a good feel for them. When Mr. Strasburg threw a curve in the first inning of his first major-league game, Mr. Dibble thought it was a strike even though the umpire called it a ball. "I knew these umpires would not call these early breaking balls because they've never seen them this good," he said over the air.
jake_twothousandfive wrote:Saw this posted on another forum.
From The Wall Street Journal:
How to Call What You Can't See Strasburg's Otherworldly Pitches Fool Batters—and Umpires; 'Did the Ball Really Do That?' --DAVID BIDERMAN
Since his debut with the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg has displayed the kind of pitching repertoire that makes baseball historians scramble for their notebooks.
His four devastating pitches (fastball, chanegup, curveball and sinker) have such extreme break that it's nearly impossible to predict where they will cross the plate. He has already struck out 22 batters in just over 12 innings.
But here's what separates Mr. Strasburg from the vast majority of precocious arms: He's so good he makes the umpires miss.
Thanks to a system called Pitch f/x, which uses digital cameras to track the trajectory of every pitch in major-league ballparks, it's now possible to measure whether a pitch was a strike or a ball and, more to the point, whether the home-plate umpire made the correct call.
According to a consensus of umpires, a good umpire will make one bad call on a pitch every two innings—or about four or five per game. But in Mr. Strasburg's first start, on June 8, Pitch f/x indicated that the home-plate umpire, Tom Hallion, missed seven calls in only seven innings. By contrast, Mr. Hallion only missed two calls in five-plus innings for the opposing pitcher, Pittsburgh's Jeff Karstens.
In Mr. Strasburg's second start, the system said home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora missed six calls in fewer than six innings. Mr. Hallion and Mr. O'Nora couldn't be reached for comment.
"I've known guys who couldn't sleep the night before they had to ump a pitcher like that," said Don Denkinger, a major-league umpire for almost three decades.
Former all-star pitcher Rob Dibble, a Nationals broadcaster for MASN, said he watched almost every one of Mr. Strasburg's starts in spring training and said he was fooled repeatedly—Mr. Strasburg's pitches moved so much that it was impossible to get a good feel for them. When Mr. Strasburg threw a curve in the first inning of his first major-league game, Mr. Dibble thought it was a strike even though the umpire called it a ball. "I knew these umpires would not call these early breaking balls because they've never seen them this good," he said over the air.
Doug Gotlieb of ESPN (the worst baseball coverage on earth) was asking Curt Schilling whether or not Strasburg should be in the All Star game. I wanted to choke out Gotlieb through the radio.
Now yes Strasburg is awesome but he has a whole 3 MLB starts. This is a league that QUICKLY adjusts. He is not All Star worthy at least not yet. I for once agreed with schilling who thought it was pretty silly.
acsguitar wrote:Doug Gotlieb of ESPN (the worst baseball coverage on earth) was asking Curt Schilling whether or not Strasburg should be in the All Star game. I wanted to choke out Gotlieb through the radio.
Now yes Strasburg is awesome but he has a whole 3 MLB starts. This is a league that QUICKLY adjusts. He is not All Star worthy at least not yet. I for once agreed with schilling who thought it was pretty silly.
I respectfully disagree. As always, who should be in the all star game is a loaded question, and a look at the voting shows us that who should be in the all star game has less to do with merit and more to do with popularity, i.e. who the fans want to see. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who wouldn't prefer to see Stephen Strasburg pitch an inning in the all star game than say, Mike Pelfrey, Matt Cain, Billy Wagner, or Luke Gregerson.
In all honesty, I've put up year after year with watching the fans vote in guys who don't deserve it and who I have no interest in watching. I'm being selfish, but Strasburg is the guy I want to see, and I doubt I'm alone.
Do i think he deserves it? Of course not. Do I think he should be in anyway? Absolutely.
That being said, I think there's zero chance he gets it. Manager's selections are generally tied closer to merit than popularity, so I think he'll get denied.
Whoever buys this will have to hope he puts up video game like stats for the next 15-20 years to have any hope of making something off of their investment.
Just to offset inflation: $34,000 x 1.02^20 = $50,522.21
And that's using a pretty conservative inflation rate.
"Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us." ---Kirby Puckett
acsguitar wrote:Doug Gotlieb of ESPN (the worst baseball coverage on earth) was asking Curt Schilling whether or not Strasburg should be in the All Star game. I wanted to choke out Gotlieb through the radio.
Now yes Strasburg is awesome but he has a whole 3 MLB starts. This is a league that QUICKLY adjusts. He is not All Star worthy at least not yet. I for once agreed with schilling who thought it was pretty silly.
I respectfully disagree. As always, who should be in the all star game is a loaded question, and a look at the voting shows us that who should be in the all star game has less to do with merit and more to do with popularity, i.e. who the fans want to see. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who wouldn't prefer to see Stephen Strasburg pitch an inning in the all star game than say, Mike Pelfrey, Matt Cain, Billy Wagner, or Luke Gregerson.
In all honesty, I've put up year after year with watching the fans vote in guys who don't deserve it and who I have no interest in watching. I'm being selfish, but Strasburg is the guy I want to see, and I doubt I'm alone.
Do i think he deserves it? Of course not. Do I think he should be in anyway? Absolutely.
That being said, I think there's zero chance he gets it. Manager's selections are generally tied closer to merit than popularity, so I think he'll get denied.
I agree completely the only time I have ever wanted to see a player get in the all-star game is with Strasburg. He will see plenty of all-star games in his time, but after watching Fukudome start the AS game 2 yrs ago, I want to see Strasburg, I am sure he will be in the fans choice if he isnt already selected, and I will actually vote this year in it
acsguitar wrote:Doug Gotlieb of ESPN (the worst baseball coverage on earth) was asking Curt Schilling whether or not Strasburg should be in the All Star game. I wanted to choke out Gotlieb through the radio.
Now yes Strasburg is awesome but he has a whole 3 MLB starts. This is a league that QUICKLY adjusts. He is not All Star worthy at least not yet. I for once agreed with schilling who thought it was pretty silly.
I respectfully disagree. As always, who should be in the all star game is a loaded question, and a look at the voting shows us that who should be in the all star game has less to do with merit and more to do with popularity, i.e. who the fans want to see. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who wouldn't prefer to see Stephen Strasburg pitch an inning in the all star game than say, Mike Pelfrey, Matt Cain, Billy Wagner, or Luke Gregerson.
In all honesty, I've put up year after year with watching the fans vote in guys who don't deserve it and who I have no interest in watching. I'm being selfish, but Strasburg is the guy I want to see, and I doubt I'm alone.
Do i think he deserves it? Of course not. Do I think he should be in anyway? Absolutely.
That being said, I think there's zero chance he gets it. Manager's selections are generally tied closer to merit than popularity, so I think he'll get denied.
I agree, Strasburg may not get it, nor does he deserve it, but i'd be more likely to watch the game if he's pitching in it.
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by jake_twothousandfive » Sat Jun 19, 2010 1:43 pm 
