Ray McKigney

Holy shit. What a perfect human man. He's an Adonis.

53 minutes ago, Angels#1Fan said:

I just finished watching "Fastball" at your suggestion. It's pretty entertaining and they draw several conclusions.

Walter Johnson was clocked at 83 point something back in the day using something that can only be described as very crude that actually timed the pitch 7 feet behind the plate and they (the doc experts) corrected it to 93 point something because todays radar gun clocks the pitch at close to the point of release or about 50 feet from home plate.

I don't want to say any more because I wouldn't want to ruin it for those that might want to watch it..it's definitely worth a watch.

Awesome. Glad you liked it. 

I have to say that the basket is the best basket I've ever seen. It's amazing. I'm delighted by the addition of the basket to the right field wall and I hope that more baskets, such as this one, begin to be installed on many more right field walls across the league.

42 minutes ago, Angels#1Fan said:

If this is the doc that claims Walter Johnson (or pitchers of his era) only threw 82 then I'm sorry I just don't believe it.

There is no way the human species has evolved to that point especially if you consider Nolan Ryan threw over 100 50 years ago or that Bob Feller threw between 95 and 100 82 years ago! One would have to believe that humans of Feller's era evolved from being able to throw only 82 to 100 in the space of just 30 years from Walter Johnson's time. Sorry I don't believe it. The real truth is that no one knows exactly how hard those guys threw the ball because there weren't any radar guns at that time. There was an interesting experiment done with Feller in which he threw a baseball against a motorcycle that was traveling at 86 mph and had about a ten foot head start. It has been estimated that because Fellers ball beat the motorcycle that it had to be traveling between 95 to 100 mph.

Frankly I think the notion that pitchers of Johnson's era ( or Dizzy Dean's and Fellers) were only able to throw 82 mph is preposterous..that's my opinion. 

I'm not sure if the doc concludes that Walter Johnson only threw 82. From what I recall, they do a similar experiment with the motorcycle, but with a modern pitcher, can't remember exactly who--might be Verlander--to test the validity of the Feller experiment from back in the day. They also do some actual scientific experiments in order to determine the velocity of some of the older pitchers. It's an interesting watch and it's very entertaining, regardless of whether or not you buy into the science and conclusions. 

9 hours ago, Angels#1Fan said:

@Chuckster70 sorry Chuck but I don't by the notion that players of Williams era faced inferior talent, in fact, there are twice as many players in MLB today than there were in Williams time and imho the talent is diluted down some. Think about it Chuck..half of the players today would be in the minors if they played when there were only 8 teams in each league!

As far as the opinion of pitchers throwing harder now than in Williams time goes, that argument will never be put to rest because there were no radar guns then. Besides I think it's hard to believe that the human species has evolved that much in the last 60 to 80 years or so. In fact didn't Nolan Ryan throw over 100 mph when he came up as a Met in 1968..50 years ago??? 

You're going to have a hard time convincing me that players like Koufax or Gibson and many others didn't throw over 95 consistently.  

Again, to make my point very clear, it is not about todays players versus yesterdays. My point is about basing an entire argument of a players greatness on WAR alone..it's bs imo. The fact that so many people do it (including the authors in the article above) makes their argument a very weak one imo.

9 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

I would just like to see a study made on this topic because it's fascinating to me.

I do believe though that if Trout was facing the type of arms that were on the mound during Ted Williams' era he'd have even a higher WAR, better stat lines across the board. 

There is a great documentary about the topic of pitch speed back in the day called, "Fastball." In the doc, they conduct experiments and try different methods to determine how hard some of the players from back then actually threw. It's pretty interesting and convincing stuff. The doc is available on Netflix. I highly recommend checking it out. It will shed some light for you on the question of how fast some of the guys were throwing before radar guns.

On 3/14/2018 at 10:34 PM, IEAngelsfan said:

I caught a few episodes of the Blue Planet on BBC America and all I can say is wow.  I can't believe I totally missed this series until now.  What a beautiful show and very addicting.  I will definitely be recording this series.

Also caught a few episodes of Planet Earth.  Although not as captivating as Blue Planet, it was still very interesting.

Planet Earth II is on Netflix in 4K UHD. It's amazing.

2 minutes ago, WeatherWonk said:

About the same as you making it as a stand-up comedian. 

Shut up, dick.

This:

18 minutes ago, IEAngelsfan said:

Hmmmm.  I think you're onto to something............or maybe you're simply on something.

Latter

What are the chances the Halos trade Ohtani to the A's for Matt Joyce?

For Trout, it was only a matter of time until pitchers figured him out.

I think so. He hardly pitched at all last season and they were still the last team eliminated from playoff contention. 

37 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Hi Ray.  Welcome to Angelswin.com!

I am on the site welcoming committee so feel free to ask me any questions.  

We'll give you some time for your eyes to adjust after crawling out from under that f**cking rock. 

Have a great weekend.  Looking forward to aw'ing with you in the future.  

I understand. Threads suggesting the termination of Scioscia are fairly common around here. Duly noted.

I think it's a little early in the Cactus League schedule to start discussing whether or not Scioscia should be fired. 

9 hours ago, Mark68 said:

Yes, because batting average and HRs are ALL that matter. Defense has no bearing on being a top player.

Defending  a Yankee? Say it ain't so.

5 minutes ago, m0nkey said:

Never was a joe mason fan

I think he meant Jackie Mason

Was walking by the pool/bbq area in my apartment complex and saw that management had posted this sign. Don't think I'll be going swimming anytime soon.

Saw The Shape of Water recently. Good movie. 8/10. Although, an alternate title for it could have been Sally Hawkins Fucks a Sleestak.

I'll take the Brew Crew. Because I drink a shitload of beer.

Awesome article. As usual, the comments are hilarious. So many jealous East Coast fans.