This may not work. That’s fine, y’all know I’m lucky if I bat at the mendoza line here. But I’ve got no snark, no jokes, no memes today. All I have for you is something I’ve never seen before in baseball. And you may not be able to see it, even though I made this GIF so that you might:
Cardinals outfield prospect Mike O’Neill has appeared within the author’s Fringe Five column of late neither because of his tremendous raw power nor even his nearly average power. Indeed, as of yesterday, O’Neill had accumulated only one professional home run since being drafted out of USC in 2010.
What he did Friday night, however — in the second game of Double-A Springfield’s double-header against Tulsa — was to hit a home run. And what the present author did after that was to render footage of the home run into animated GIF form such that it might be viewed and enjoyed by no fewer than one other person, and up to as many as seven or eight other people.
Regard, here’s the first half of the home-run sequence, which the author has split into two parts with a view to Maximum Loading Ease.
Managing editor Dave Cameron wrote this morning about the formerly quite impressive and more recently less impressive Scott Kazmir’s very impressive start on Thursday against Oakland — during which start Kazmir not only posted a 10:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but also (and perhaps more importantly to the left-hander’s immediate future) featured a fastball that was sitting at 95 mph by the end of the game (box).
What follows, for sake of reference, are Kazmir’s last three pitches — which pitches (a) represent three of the four hardest fastballs Kazmir threw all game and (b) were thrown consecutively, all for strikes, to Luke Montz.
Here, recorded at 95.78 mph, is Kazmir’s first pitch to Montz — which Montz fouls off:
“The throw to second is wide… and he’s out!”
“How’d he do that?”
We’ll never know.
Thanks to Doug Miller for pointing out the play.
The purpose of this post is to remind the lusty and bespectacled readership that NC State sophomore Carlos Rodon’s slider — an example of which one see here being thrown to, and also knocking over, DH Cam McRae of Presbyterian College this past Sunday (box) — that Rodon’s slider remains superlative.
Nothing has changed since February, for example, when his slider was superlative — nor April, a different month in which his slider was also superlative.
When he wakes up…
Yea he knows he’s going to be, he’s going to be that man who makes that catch for you
When he goes out…
Yea he knows he’s going to look, he’s going to look damn sexy making that catch too
When he jumps up
Yea he knows he’s going to keep, he’s going to keep Martinez from going for two
And if you’re worried
Well you know that Robbie G, that Robbie G will have no problem pulling through
But he would run 500 miles
And he would run 500 more
Just to ram his face against the outfield fence to help preserve the score
ROBBIE GROSSMAN!
(ROBBIE GROSSMAN!)
ROBBIE GROSSMAN!
(ROBBIE GROSSMAN!)
ROBBIE GROSSMAN ROBBIE GROSSMAN LA LA LA!
ROBBIE GROSSMAN!
(ROBBIE GROSSMAN!)
ROBBIE GROSSMAN!
(ROBBIE GROSSMAN!)
ROBBIE GROSSMAN ROBBIE GROSSMAN LA LA LA!
Promising Dodgers outfield prospect Yasiel Puig made an impression on the Teeming Masses this spring with his bat-flipping exploits — a practice he appears to have begun (as the previous hyperlink reveals) as a member of the Cuban National Team, if not earlier.
Puig brought his enthusiasm for the craft with him to Double-A Chattanooga, for whom he homered during that club’s second game of the season — and, in the wake of which home run, he proceeded to toss his bat much closer to third base than is generally the custom. NotGraphs, as a journalistic organ with its finger on the throbbing pulse of Beauty, provided due coverage of this episode, as well.
With May having arrived, the reader might find him-/herself asking — especially if he/she has precisely the same lexicon and speaking cadence and general life concerns as the author — “With regard to Yasiel Puig, I wonder if he’s been flipping his bat at all of late?”
The answer to which question is available here in the form of words: “Yes, he has.”
Miguel Olivo thought his bat could have done a better job Tuesday, so he told him so.
Apologies to Carlos Perez, but Brian Wilson’s feedback to the water cooler on July first, 2011 — that has a touch more Hulk in its smash.
Not impressed? Wilson’s final judgement is directed at you, then.
After consulting the part of his body responsible for sight and also the part of his body responsible for detecting capital-B Beauty, the author has determined that the following animated GIF files depict Jose Fernandez’s best changeup and also Matt Harvey’s best changeup from Monday night.
Here, for the sake of the readership, is video footage of Jose Fernandez’s best changeup from Monday night — to Lucas Duda in the first inning for a swinging strike two:
What is worse than allowing a game-winning RBI single to Ben Zobrist? Allowing a game-winning RBI single to Ben Zobrist resulting in a complete emotional meltdown.
