A few notes for today:
– A Tigers starter hasn’t allowed a run in 4 games. ESPN’s Christina Kahrl wonders how quickly the Tigers pitching can dispatch the Yankees.
– Joe Girardi went on and on about instant replay after the loss. Jim Caple of ESPN says the Yankees need to stop whining, and reminds us of the blown calls that have greatly benefited the Yankees in recent years, oh, and that the Yankees were shut out. I was particularly fond of the subtitle which read “Complaining about an umpire’s blown call when you don’t score any runs is weak.” Selig says that replay next year will include foul/fair calls, no word on out calls. I, like Jim Leyland, enjoy that human element. If you can stand any more on the subject, Buster Olney was
– Jeff Seidel makes a case that we need to get behind Valverde if we’re going to win a WS.
– Jhonny Peralta is playing the best defense of his life.
– Swisher had his feelings hurt by some of the fans in RF on Sunday night; funny, though I don’t think you can blame Swisher for Jeter’s injury.
– Nice piece today by Lynn Henning on Coke.
In game 1 , Jose valverde was tipping his pitches. I could tell everytime he was going to throw a fastball. I do not know all of his pitches , this was the first time I saw him pitch. But as I watched I called out the pitch as fastball or it was something else, and if I remember most the hits and runs he gave up were on fastballs , so my thinking was if I were facing him I would sit on the fastball and forget the rest , but I’m in Alabama and I hope someone from the tigers reads this because it does need to be looked into . Or if anyone knows how to get a hold of someone please help out. Thanks
He only has a fastball. He’s been throwing it about 85-90% of the time. It’s not a very good one either. He needs to regain his splitter, or get ready for anonymity.
agreed…MLB hitters feast on 90-94 mph fastballs (with little or no movement) – especially when they know its coming and its belt high.
Fister and Sanchez don’t throw harder than Valverde, but they have multiple pitches they can throw (change speeds, different locations, etc) for strikes, which keeps hitters off balance. Hitters against Valverde have been locked-in…face it, he’s been throwing gametime BP.
For whatever it’s worth, the odd back waggle Valverde was doing when he lost to Oakland was gone when he got bombed by NY.
If you can’t change pitches, all you can do is change location…if you can’t locate, then you get Valverded.
When he went to 3-2 on Texeira, Smoltz made the comment that it was one of the few times as a pitcher you want to just throw dead center and hope for the best, which is where Avila set up. Valverde sailed his pitch almost a foot high.
BTW, Smoltz has been a refreshing and very informative/knowledgeable addition to the DET playoff coverage
“For whatever it’s worth, the odd back waggle Valverde was doing when he lost to Oakland was gone when he got bombed by NY”.
Valverde’s problem is a mechanical issue then.
One nice thing about playing the Yankees is reading good writing by the NY newspaper sportswriters. I may not always agree with their views, but they do know how to write. Besides John Lowe, the best Detroit sportswriters are basically comedians (Albom and Rosenberg). Henning, Gage, Wojo, Sharp, Parker, etc. can’t really write and try too hard to seem literary.
I’m generally annoyed with the media when the Tigers play the Yanks. The Tigers never win; either the Yanks win or the Yanks lose. They never actually seem to get beat by the opposing team.
out here in the Northwest , we see, read and hear the east coast bias of all the NY/Conn based media. I am getting the impression that it gets you all in the midwest too, or is it just the lack of talent (as listed above) of your Detroit based media outlets? I am a fan of John Smoltz’s work too, and Orel is good also, you know for pitchers…
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