markb

Sucks when you haven't given up a hit in a month and a dude breaks the streak like that.

nice

That wasn't me

Weaver looks like he has all his pitches working tonight.  That first pitch fastball in the last AB looked pretty damn good too and he didn't get the call.

Did Hamilton forget how many outs there were?

Pujols looks like he's second guessing himself every swing.  I think this is more mental than physical at this point.

And the difference between Conger's hitting and Iannetta's hitting is negligible 

I don't understand how you guys feel this way.  

Iannetta:  .263/.380/.458

Conger:  .241/.323/.422

Last 30

Iannetta:  .308/.379/.538

Conger:  .175/.298/.325

Ibanez might be handing out the gnomes though so he might still factor into some of tonight's action.

A man 20 feet away puts his hands up in catching position.   

"Over here, Raul!"  

*Ibanez spikes the gnome into the ground*

I was thinking the other day about the idea of giving Howie a day off in favor of Green because he's been scuffling so bad lately.  Would rather have Cron at 5th instead of Freese, but that's a minor nit to pick in probably the best lineup we've seen in a while.  

How is Conger better offensively than Iannetta?  

And yes I realize I look like the Iannetta Defense Force today, but I really am trying to get to the bottom of why people hate him so damn much.  Absolutely, he has defensive deficiencies, but people here seem to be vastly exaggerating them.  

 Iannetta is behind many of these losses as well. He is a horrible defensive catcher and pitch caller. Whenever he is starting regularly, we are losing.

The team is 11-13 when Conger starts and 20-15 when Iannetta starts.  

There are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Scioscia this season, no need to randomly invent reasons that aren't.  

You can't use overall CERA as a valid measure because it doesn't account for whom they are matched up with.   Of course then you did break down two specific examples, but chose only to compare them with our two young pitchers, who are prone to bouts of inconsistency all on their own.  Iannetta also has a pile of ER from a couple of trainwreck Santiago starts.  

But what about with our two best pitchers?  

Weaver

Conger - 3.71 ERA in 34 IP

Iannetta - 3.05 ERA in 44.1 IP

Wilson

Conger - 3.61 ERA in 46.1 IP

Iannetta - 3.38 ERA in 32 IP

So what now?

EDIT:  ok you added it in while I was getting my cup of coffee before hitting post.  

Did you guys see the game or just look at the boxscore?  His performance wasn't at all Kohn-like (i.e. seemingly no idea where the ball is going).  This was like the umpire version of rookie hazing tonight.  

Watching Bedrosian get squeezed prompted me to look at the PITCHf/x data tonight...

Maybe he had some money riding on the Astros.  

I'm sure this will invite conversation about Iannetta's pitch framing as well, and maybe justifiably so.  But the two most egregious calls to my eyes were both Bedrosian fastballs that he didn't even move his glove for.  

This ump is squeezing the hell out of Bedrosian.

Today on "What Planet Are We On," Erick Aybar on pace for a 100 RBI season.

Inning would've been over ages ago if Howie could catch a softly thrown ball that bounced right off his glove.

Hard to drum up a rally when you only have 2 outs to work with. 

Guess the back feels a bit better.

Ibanez starting despite his production shouldn't be a surprise. How many starts did Joe Blanton get last year before they took his glove and hid it in the bullpen? Slumping players play, hot players sit. Been that way for years with this team.

With Blanton, or the Steve Finley experience, or a few others over the years, the alternatives have rarely been all that appealing.  Right now we're dealing with this with 3 .800+ OPS young guys just sitting there, while he plays LF nonetheless, when one of them is also a plus defender.  It feels like little league where the coach gives special treatment to his own son and pisses off the rest of the team.

.305/.329/.524

.361/.375/.475

.289/.377/.422

That all gets to sit on the bench in favor of literally the worst hitter in baseball, with the added bonus of playing the field two days in a row.  

Seriously, what the @#$%

Freese actually has a .440 OBP in the last week and even though his SLG % since coming off the DL is rather pitiful, he's had some truly bad luck with a game where 3 hard hit balls went right at guys, and a homerun that a guy climbed the wall to bring back.  Maybe I'm just hopelessly optimistic, but he seems like he's showing signs of turning it around.

I suppose it's fitting -- his last start set the tone for the 4 game losing streak, and he stepped up big in his next start to stop the bleeding.

I'm not sure I've ever seen him maintain that kind of consistency on his slider over the course of an entire game.  He's virtually unhittable when he can throw it for strikes.

Pitch 97 at 97.  I guess it's safe to say Richards doesn't overthrow for his velocity.