Betting Talk

Interesting Read

Old-TimerOld-Timer Senior Member
edited October 2014 in Sports Betting
Picked this up from my travels and found it very interesting.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-washington-nationals-vs-vic-carapazza/

Comments

  • jammerjammer Senior Member
    edited October 2014
    Seemed like the second pitch was a little closer to being a strike and framed better by the catcher. Based on his zone throughout the night, that looked to be the pitch he should have called a strike. Now it's 1-1, instead of 2-0. The last pitch to me wasn't even close to being a strike. I think Zimm's frustration at that point wasn't necessarily because he called that pitch a ball, but for the entire at bat, and the fact that he ended up walking the leadoff hitter.
  • kanekane Senior Member
    edited October 2014
    Nats fans blaming Carapazza are crazy. First of all, on the double by Sandoval that tied the game, he called Buster Posey out at home on a bang-bang play. If he calls him safe, the game never even gets to extra innings and the Nats lose. I replayed that play a bunch of times in slo-mo, and it appeared to me that Posey's foot came down on the plate an instant before Ramos applied the tag, but it was so close, I didn't blame Carapazza. Had he ruled Posey safe, replay would not have overruled the call on the field, it was too close to overrule, so the Nats were fortunate just to only be tied at that point. The Nats lost because their manager made a bone headed decision by pulling Zimmermann. Had he not, the Nats probably win. In last night's Dodgers-Cardinals game one of the announcers even made a reference mocking what Williams said after the game about "this is how we've done it all year". This isn't a game in the middle of June, you're fighting for your playoff life, you don't manage the same way in the playoffs that you do during the regular season. A couple of those pitches to Cabrera seemed a bit high, but that's no excuse for him to go ape shit and get thrown out. All night as the fans were getting on Carapazza, I kept thinking if it weren't for him calling Posey out, this game would already be over. I really hope SF beats them today and ends it.
  • StevieYStevieY Senior Handicapper
    edited October 2014
    The last couple of pitches they showed appeared to me to be a little further outside than the pitches they showed thru the 6th inning. Also take a look at the one from the 6th inning and one right below it. The 6th inning pitch almost split the catcher in half with little movement to no movement from the catcher. Then watch the one right below, a little less centered on the catcher and the catcher gave a slight movement out. Catchers are taught to do that with their upper body to try to center it so it appears to look better than it was. The 2nd one called a ball looked a little better than the 1st one but it was down a little from the previous pitches, those typically look worse to an umpire. That was the only questionable one. The 3rd one was more of a ball then the 1st one. When a catcher is setting up outside and the pitcher is splitting him with little upper body movement from the catcher, the ump will more than likely give him that pitch. All the prior ones were like that. He looked pretty consistent to me, which is all you can ask for.
  • procapprocap Senior Member
    edited October 2014
    StevieY wrote: »
    He looked pretty consistent to me, which is all you can ask for.

    I agree, I thought he was consistent too. And even if he wasn't, umps can have bad days just like players. I'm assuming most umps were former players at one point, so maybe it's a little easier than I make it out to be. But I always felt umping behind the plate in the big leagues has to be one of the most difficult things in sports.

    Congrats on the solid start to CFB.
  • TommyLTommyL Super Moderator
    edited October 2014
    The height of the pitches also comes into play. I'll give a little bit more on a pitch at the belt that's just off the plate than a pitch at the knees or the letters. Some comments on that website about the article hit the nail on the head, in that the strike zone isn't a perfect square, it's a little of an oval with most umpires. Watching those videos, there were certainly some pitches that could have gone either way, but in general I disagreed with the author's commentary on most of them and thought that the ump had a pretty good zone (just based on those pitches, I didn't start watching the game until the 16th inning).
  • Old-TimerOld-Timer Senior Member
    edited October 2014
    I agree with what most have said and disagree with the author suggesting after the argument the ump was sandbagging Wash. But I do disagree with kane saying Posey got in before the tag. Yes it was a bang bang play and could have been called either way but being two feet away as opposed to a replay I feel after watching it several times that his foot could have slid over home plate that's why it couldn't be over-turned. We know the main job of the home plate ump is to be consistent with his calls now I didn't watch the game until the 8th inning so I can't really say if the ump was consistent or not. Also I believe the ump wouldn't have throw him out if he didn't slam his helmet down and by doing that he had no choice and had to toss him. Thanks for replies.
  • TheRebTheReb Senior Member
    edited October 2014
    Speaking of interesting reads ....got tired of waiting for you so looked it up myself lol (inside joke), nevertheless thought you'd enjoy reading this OT ;)

    http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/10/the-myth-of-the-home-run-that-drove-an-angels-pitcher-to-suicide/247447/4/
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