If Dave Cameron has unearthed today what he believes to be the Mona Lisa of GIFs, what follows is perhaps more like Max Beckmann’s triptych Departure — if Max Beckmann’s triptych Departure were divided into four, and not three, parts, that is, and also if it were less a “complex Modernist concerto of horror and hope” and more a “collection of Yu Darvish’s four slow curveballs from Wednesday night.”

Here’s Darvish’s first slow curve, to Josh Hamilton in the fourth inning:

Read the rest of this entry »

The reader might have suspected for a moment — for a rather a long moment, in fact, full of terror on all sides — that Reno Aces right-hander Nelson Figueroa was intent on throwing a baseball directly into that same reader’s chops, such that those chops would be most grievously injured and bloodied and perhaps ultimately deformed.

What Nelson Figueroa goes on to make perfectly clear, however, is that violence is neither the answer or even just an answer — unless the question, that is, is something like, “What’s the main thing that Nelson Figueroa despises.”

Mets right-hander Matt Harvey is facing Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg right now, an event which Americans are duty-bound to watch — unless, that is, they have other plans or merely don’t want to.

Here are Harvey’s first three swinging strikes of the night, from the first inning. Note that (a) all three whiffs are on fastballs and that (b) the league average swinging-strike rate for fastballs is merely 6%, according to Texas Leaguers.

Here’s the first swinging strike, to retire leadoff batter Denard Span:

Read the rest of this entry »

The author — because he studied the relevant martial art as a five-year-old in the basement of a Concord-area* travel agency — knows that the karateka never uses his training to initiate combat, but only to defend himself.

*Concord, New Hampshire (i.e. where all the best dojos are located).

As the footage embedded here suggests, however, that precept has been problematized today by Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar — who, as anyone with eyes can see, is very clearly karate-chopping his own self.

Indeed, it’s not outside the realm of the possible that Escobar is making a subtle, if important, point: it is the individual’s own ego, ambition, and desire which are his greatest enemies, not the buffoons of a martial-arts film or evil Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese.

Pirates right-hander Phil Irwin’s very first major-league inning wasn’t what anyone would call “ideal” — on account, that is, of the two walks and two hits and two runs conceded.

What that same inning also featured, though, was Phil Irwin’s very first swinging strike — not surprisingly by way of his curveball, which has been known to provoke religious experiences even in the steeliest non-believers.

Here’s that inaugural swinging strike, to Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier:

Read the rest of this entry »

First:

some strange modern dance bit at first base there

— Harry Pavlidis (@harrypav) April 13, 2013

To Wit:

Every so often, I hit a moment where I wonder if it was such a great idea to turn something I love so much into my work. There are minutae associated with work that can drag the topic down into the doldrums. Living bare to the world on a daily basis can be exhausting. Turning on a game because you have to is a strange feeling.

Similarly (maybe), Chris Tillman may have had times where he wondered if it was going to work, and if it was all a good idea to begin with. But then he might have had one of those reaffirming moments on his second pitch to Dustin Pedroia in the fifth inning yesterday. Not a big deal, just a yakker for a strike, but it was a beauty.

And watching it spin by, over and over again in my Photoshop, I felt like yeah, yeah, this is fun. Phew.

Previously, in these pages, the author has celebrated the virtues of Pittsburgh right-handed prospect Phil Irwin’s curveball (like here and here, for example).

To say, for the author, that watching Irwin’s curveball is akin to climbing the rope in gym class is nearly an accurate statement. Indeed, for the author, watching Irwin’s curve is like climbing the rope in gym class — but only if also accompanied by the certain knowledge that the untoward and menacing Tim Sprague, a ninth-grader who has gym at the same time and is wont to harass the author without compunction, is tied up with a second length of rope, so as to render him harmless while the author climbs the aforementioned gym-class rope.

All of which is to say, below are three animated GIFs of Irwin’s curveball (all strikes looking) from his first and most recent start for Triple-A Indianapolis (box).

Like this first-inning one to Toledo DH John Lindsey:

Read the rest of this entry »

Like Frodo Baggins and Prince Adam of Eternia before him, Craig Counsell discovered throughout his career (whether by his own virtue or by association) that great things come from unexpected sources.

You yourself, reader, might be one such unexpected source of greatness. By the Power of Counskull, I encourage you: go out and do something amazing today.

Not long ago, in these hallowed fucking pages, the author documented for the benefit of the readership the bat-flipping exploits of Dodgers outfield prospect Yasiel Puig.

As the footage embedded here suggests — from a YouTube video of Puig’s first home run with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts — Puig has altered his bat-flipping practices by approximately zero percent since the publication of that aforementioned post.

Read the rest of this entry »