JoeC

When i read this thread title for some reason it reminds me of the primal scream my cat lets out right before she vomits

Probably depends on where the muscle is, right?

Well, here's to hoping Project Birmingham pans out.

Sorry for the long post - been thinking about this a bit, but I've been noticing something a little bit different with Gio's mechanics... specifically on the finishing side. Long story short, it seems like in 2020 (didn't look at 2021), his follow-through was much leggier - as in, he would land and follow through with a much more pronounced knee bend on his front leg. I have no expertise in pitching mechanics, but I do know that: 1) stride and landing are crucially important to velocity; 2) sometimes upper body issues can manifest themselves in the legs (some form of compensation). Below are 4 screen shots from home starts - two from his 2020 no hitter, and two from 2022 against the Angels. 1) 2020 Fastball: 2) 2022 Fastball: I've tried grabbing exact same frames, but I'm dealing with YouTube screenshots here (no frame-by-frame available), but in watching / pausing many times, it looks like his motion in 2020 was more toward home plate, and 2022 seems to be more toward the first base side / torsional (less longitudinal) 3) 2020 Changeup: 4) 2022 Changeup: Here's the main difference I see. In all clips of 2020, you can see the landing and finish like you see above in image (3). In 2022, his finish is much more straight-legged. To me (again, I'm NOT an expert in baseball mechanics... just hockey stuff), this suggests either a) less of a forward push off of his back leg (less momentum to absorb), or b) more strain on his knee, or c) I don't know wtf I'm talking about, but it looks different anyways. To me, the biggest outward symptom of Gio's 2022 season has been a dip in velocity from 94~97 to 90~93. That's either indicative of aging (not likely yet at age 28...?), injury (maybe), or a change in mechanics. No, you don't NEED velocity to succeed, but if you've built your repertoire based on throwing at one velocity and are now throwing softer, you're going to need to change something.

2 strikes now. gotta walk him NOW, right?

That homer by Yaz was seemingly the first time I've seen him with THAT swing (swing-to-bat drop) all seaso.

Bummer inducing grounder after grounder... all to Elvis.

Tony's gonna be pissed when he finds out about this.

3 home runs?

E-2. Why wasn't Jose taking that one?

...and for comparison, Leury's had a slash line of .212 / .212 / .212 / .424 over that same timeframe. (Yes - BA = OBP = SLG. All singles. No walks, no XBH). Just putting it out there for reference.

Posting this here for posterity... because that's clearly something that is important.

Again, thank you for the updates and information. ...and again, I wish all IT teams communicated as transparently and frequently as you have throughout this process.

There it is. We've found our 2022 slogan.

Joe Kelly with an uncharacteristic lights-out first AB (3-pitch strikeout including a painted-corner sinker for strike 1 and a wipeout curveball for strike 3)

From those numbers it's clear that teams are afraid to run on our outfielders.

Maybe the Cleveland scouting / analytics department knows something about this kid and how it stacks up against the Sox's tendencies as hitters.... ...or maybe they just wanted McKenzie to have an extra day off for the aforementioned workload management reasons.

I think it is to align Cease to pitch the opener against Clevelend. not sire though

The only possible defense to the team’s handling of the Robert situation is if he actually has an injury requiring surgery that he is choosing to try to fight through. Even then, it’s naively optimistic at best

From the article above (it's already been quoted)... emphasis = mine: Yeah - if that's not an indictment on TLR, I'm not sure what is.

To me it's not the "instead of driving a grueling [24] hours across the country." It's the "he's with the team" part. It's the "he's not staying in Arizona" part.

To be fair, we’ve said that after each “streak” that this team has been on this year.

Also a huge feather in the cap of the Cleveland FO. They just have a seemingly endless conveyor of serviceable players ready to fill in. As soon as a player starts to make more through arbitration, they can control the (still-team-controlled) players for more prospects to backfill the pipeline.

Well, anyone got a rally dump in ‘em?

You haven’t been watching much this year, have you?