SB Nation User Blog: shroomer

Manny being a douchebag

shroomer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:41:53 -0000

Manny being a douchebag

"The above story is significant only because Manny Ramirez, in five minor league games split between Albuquerque and Inland Empire (San Bernardino) chose not to buy the spread for either his Isotopes or 66ers teammates."

Watched a few innings of Shelby Miller in Mineral Wells Saturday afternoon. He throws hard. His...

shroomer — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:34:55 -0000

Watched a few innings of Shelby Miller in Mineral Wells Saturday afternoon. He throws hard. His FB just overpowered the HS kids. Never saw a gun reading despite lots of scouts and radar guns there.

He seldom threw below thigh high tho - kept the ball up mostly. The eye-high strike-out FB worked a few times. He threw a few curves. Sharp break but I don't recall any of them threatening the strike zone. A hanging change-up was tattooed on a line straight at the CF'er once. The next pitch was EXACTLY the same resulting in a fisted ducksnort over the SS's head for a hit. Next, he hit a kid in the middle of the back, but luckily it wasn't a FB. He threw a few pitches that just screamed MLB-quality ... you can see why he's a desired commodity. But not overwhelmed by his command - control is pretty solid tho. He got jobbed on a beautiful knee-high FB for ball 4 once - stupid ump. Miller questioned the call some but didn't obsess about it - good poise there.

His delivery seemed very simple and repeatable to me. His warm-up pitches were impressive because he can probably throw casual FB's in the high 80's all day long - effortless gas. The heat coupled with some baserunning and a long inning seemed to tire him some midway thru the game - he allowed a run just after this impression crossed my mind.

I read tonight that Brownwood won 3-1 with Miller hitting a decisive 2-run HR after I left. I don't know how long he pitched - if he went 9 then the kid's got some nice reserve tanks on him.

Slideshow

I got lots of pics, so if someone wants a different angle or delivery point let me know. He seems to have a very nice raw set of tools. Not a bad guy to draft at all - but overall I doubt he's a quick comer or anything.

Kevin Millwood chat at Inside Corner

shroomer — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:32:06 -0000

Kevin Millwood chat at Inside Corner

I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere and I thought there were some interesting HSO's from Milly ...

On Maddux -
Mike's approach is not that different from other pitching coaches. I just think he does a better than job of relaying the message. It's pretty simple stuff: Throw strikes, get ahead in the count and stay on the attack. Tempo plays a big part of it. It keeps everybody ready. Shows the other team that you've got a lot of confidence out there. I think offenses have had a lot of confidences playing against us in the past and I think that's starting to change.

On Holland -
I think Derek has a chance to be very special. I think he has all the tools that you need. Now, it just comes down to applying it and learning how to pitch to big leaguers. He really wants to learn. He wants to get better. And that's the only way you are going to get better. And believe me, there have been plenty of guys with talent who just didn't care. I think he really knows his place as a rookie right now. He doesn't act like the proverbial "10 year veteran." He just goes about his business the right way.

On Harrison and BMac -
Well, we've already touched on Holland, but as for Harrison and McCarthy - don't forget Harry is only 23 - he may have the best stuff on the team. I think he's got a chance to be very, very good. I think his presence on the mound right now is really, really good. He's got a lot of confidence working and he's getting everybody out. Brandon is going to get better and better the longer he stays healthy. That's been the biggest obstacle for him. He's a very smart young pitcher. Knows what he's doing and why he wants to do it. He finally gained some weight and that will be important.

On Salty and Tea -
To me, it really doesn't matter. And it shouldn't matter. I call my own game. The thing that helps is when we are on the same page early in the game. Salty is a lot better player this year than he was last year. I think it's because he's played a full year and he's worked his tail off. He's got a great ethic. He does everything he can to be mentally and physically prepared. When I pitch, we talk a couple of times before the game and he talks a lot with Mike and [bullpen coach] Andy Hawkins. He's constantly asking folks about how are we going to go after this guy or that?

On the improved defense -
I think any time your confident in your defense, you are going to pitch better and you are going to be more willing to throw more strikes and not worry about letting guys hit the ball. You aren't trying to strike everybody out; you are just trying to keep it off the sweet spot.

On who would win an arm-wrestling match between him and Padzilla -
I would kill him. I'm bigger, stronger and I'm smarter. What else do you need?

On Andrus -
I think he's a really hard worker and he's got crazy range. He gets to a lot of balls that off the bat you would typically say, "that's a hit," and let it go. He gets to them and then he throws guys out. He's been better to this point than I thought he would be.

On the upcoming Angels series -
I think you can expect a great series. It's going to be close games with a lot of excitement. And how good is it to be talking about important series in the middle of May? Everybody likes that.

Thanks everybody. I really enjoyed being able to chat. Sorry we couldn't talk longer. But having your support and your interest means an awful lot to everyone in the clubhouse.

Ft. Worth Weekly Article - Falling Star

shroomer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:15:36 -0000

Ft. Worth Weekly Article - Falling Star

Longish article about the [imminent?] demise of the FWST.

Quote -

Staff, of course, isn’t the only thing that’s been cut. The paper is also bleeding content. Newsprint — the paper that the Star-Telegram is printed on — is always a huge expense, and in the last month the daily has cut its overall page count by 30 or 40 pages a week. Stock listings were reduced, a crossword puzzle and three comics strips were dropped, the editorial page was moved to the front section and cut by a half-page, and the features section was combined with the Friday entertainment guide "Go!"
.
Corbett calls this the "value-destroying feedback loop." When newspapers cut costs, "they reduce content and they look stale," he said. "There is little fat to trim, and readers say ‘Gee, there is nothing in here I want to read.’ They lose readers and the advertisers go as well because the eyeballs aren’t there anymore. It is a terrible spiral to be in."

Another interesting quote that struck me ...

In a world where people will pay 20 cents to their local phone company for every text message they send, few seem willing to pay enough to local news companies to keep them alive.

Bakersfield Blaze photoset at Flickr

shroomer — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:47:07 -0000

Bakersfield Blaze photoset at Flickr

Meet your 2009 Blaze - quite a mötley crüe if I do say so myself.

Flickr photoset of your 2009 Hickory Crawdads.

shroomer — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:28:29 -0000

Flickr photoset of your 2009 Hickory Crawdads.

Put faces with names, plus enjoy a few action shots from opening night.

Font to Hickory where he will be in the starting rotation. And Smoak is headed to Frisco.

shroomer — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:00:14 -0000

Font to Hickory where he will be in the starting rotation. And Smoak is headed to Frisco.

Booyah

Image FanShot

shroomer — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:48:24 -0000

Get Fuzzy

shroomer — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:22:44 -0000

Get Fuzzy

Check out the Jan 23rd episode - nice jab at Sox fanz by Meno's avatar.

Some guy is releasing a baseball documentary via Youtube that he made 10 years ago. It's called...

shroomer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:06:38 -0000

Some guy is releasing a baseball documentary via Youtube that he made 10 years ago. It's called Looking for Oscar ...

"A silly quest to find an Oscar Gamble card that turned into much more than anyone involved with the project ever imagined, taking us across the country and even into Canada."

Lotsa grumpy old man talk ...

Here is the first chapter divided into two parts,
I assume he'll put the rest up later on...

Chapter One - Part One
Chapter One - Part Two

And here's where I got the Oscar pic.