One might suppose, looking at the graphic here of Tampa Bay’s defensive alignment from their game earlier on Sunday against Oakland, that Sun Sports’ producers have made an error of some sort.
In fact, that isn’t the case. Instead, what we have here is an entirely accurate representation of the Rays’ most extreme and creative shift to date — one which requires not one, but two, Kelly Johnsons.
Max Scherzer is what is commonly referred to as a “human constellation.”
Tigers right-hander and noted avant-garde sportsman Max Scherzer has probably written — and certainly has never denied writing — a book called The Art of Pitching.
What follows is likely an excerpt — and isn’t necessarily not an excerpt — from that same book.
3. For the pitcher, success is the residue of beauty. The former proceeds from the latter, only.
A sketch by Emerson of Max Scherzer’s changeup.
The NotGraphs Archival Research Team, in conjunction with the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, has uncovered today the following — what appears (unbelievably) to be a scouting report, from Emerson’s notebooks, of Detroit right-hander Max Scherzer.
Improbably, the report seems to have been written in the early 1830s — not only ca. 150 years before Scherzer’s birth, but also about 10-15 years before Alexander Cartwright published the rules of what has become the modern game.
The language used by Emerson bears a close resemblance to that which he would use a short time later, in his first and long essay Nature.
Note that, as no specific pitch types had been developed yet, the present author has been compelled to derive same from context. (Although, it should be noted that we would likely benefit as a society from adopting Emerson’s own pitch-type monikers.)
Envoy of Beauty (Fastball)
One might think it was made to give man the perpetual presence of the sublime. If he threw it just every thousand years, men would preserve for many generations the remembrance of it! Instead, he throws it about 50-60% of the time, and lights the universe up.
Does anyone on Twitter have any questions about Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney? You? Yes, go ahead, sir.
Was Darwin Barney wearing an ascot during the Cubs game today?
— Danny J. Lee (@whatthedleeoh) April 17, 2013
Despite appearances, Darwin Barney will not ravish the help or drunkenly crash one of his motorcars into the hedgerow. Sometimes a gentlemanly appearance veils an actual gentleman. So it is in the case of Actual Gentleman Darwin Barney.
FREE hot chocolate and coffee for fans at tonight’s game!!!
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 12, 2013
As the tweet embedded here suggests, the Minnesota Twins — owing to the frigid weather hovering above their home ballpark — will be giving away free coffee and hot chocolate to attendees at tonight’s game versus the New York Mets.
What that same tweet neglects to note, however, are some other things that (a) are free, and which might (b) also appeal to ticketholders for this evening’s contest.
Like these three things, for example:
North–Central American English
Are you a professional linguist? Have you ever referred to yourself, in passing, as an “Armchair phonologist”? Are you interested in studying an /oʊ/ sound that is sometimes monophthongal and sometimes features a lengthening from [o] to [o:]? If that’s the case, consider attending tonight’s Minnesota Twins game, where the North–Central American English dialect will be ubiquitous — and free of charge.
Regardless of how drowsy he gets, the reader would do well
to avoid sleeping on Cleveland right-hander Carlos Carrasco.
Earlier today at RotoGraphs, Mike Podhorzer advised the teeming masses not to sleep on Cleveland right-hander Carlos Carrasco.
Sound advice, that — nor is Carrasco the only player with regard to whom said advice is relevant. There are number of other players upon whom we shouldn’t be sleeping.
A number a lot like seven, for example:
Dan Uggla
A relatively even surface is ideal for sleeping. Uggla, meanwhile, is composed almost entirely of biceps that bulge out all over his body. Not conducive at all for healthy sleeping practices. Don’t sleep on Dan Uggla.
DETROIT — It wasn’t supposed to end this way for the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays. Not after The Trade with the Miami Marlins. Not after acquiring R.A. Dickey and his magical knuckleball, in exchange for Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, two of the franchise’s prized top-three prospects. But after losing 7-3 to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday afternoon, and falling to 2-5 on the season — last place in the American League East, an insurmountable three games behind the Boston Red Sox — the Blue Jays knew their season was all but officially over. Off to their worst start since 2004, players and managers alike wondered where it all went so wrong.
“I remember Opening Day like it was last week,” said Dickey. “The emotion, the excitement, the expectations; it was amazing. I truly believed that this team was going to do something special. I’m sorry we let the fans down. I’m sorry I let the fans down.”
Accomplished German filmmaker Werner Herzog is not a baseball fan, per se. He is, however, a particularly astute observer of the human condition — which qualification lends to his thoughts on the cruel beauty of Matt Harvey’s slider a real and certain credibility.
Earlier today, Patrick Dubuque considered the particular charm of the error card. Here are three notable, and incredibly rare, examples of the genre.
1984 Topps Ron Guidry Card, Featuring Madison Bumgarner
This card of Ron Guidry is most unusual, owing largely to how it was printed five years before Madison Bumgarner was even born.
In soccer, the Dutch are famous for having re-invented the game in the early 1970s by means of what has become known as “Total Football” — a strategy devised by Ajax and Dutch national-team coach Rinus Michels, which demanded technical ability from every position and emphasized a fluidity of play.
As the graphic here suggests, there’s reason to believe that Hensley Meulens, manager of the Netherlands’ entry in the forthcoming WBC tournament, is about to do for baseball what Michels did for world football 40 years ago. Faced with a roster featuring four young and talented shortstops — Xander Bogaerts (Red Sox), Jurickson Profar (Rangers), Jonathan Schoop (Orioles), and Andrelton Simmons (Braves) — Muelens has turned lemons into delicious and Zeitgeist-defining lemonade, choosing to deploy all four of the aforementioned players at shortstop at the same time.
“How fine is the line between genius and madness?” Muelens appears to be asking. Except in Dutch, probably. Or in Papiamentu, maybe, too — i.e. the other official language of Muelens’ native Curaçao.
