GDT: Spring Training Games, Week of 2/23 - 3/1

[Terminator]

 

[Orgfiller]

Nobody ever give Max Scherzer the ability to review balls and strikes lol. He's made some egregious calls in this outing.

He's absolutely fooling some of the Cards' young hitters. 4 Ks, fastball looks solid and the rest of the arsenal looks like vintage post-prime Mad Max.

Didn't see a single fastball below 92. So at worst it doesn't look as if the velo has declined relative to last season, and it's only the first outing in February.

[Stangstag]

4ks in 2ip for Max is nice to see, vintage.

As long as he stays healthy, he’s a 3rd starter at worst. With upside for more when he’s on.

If he gives us like 100 innings im happy 

[Terminator]

28 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Nobody ever give Max Scherzer the ability to review balls and strikes lol. He's made some egregious calls in this outing.

He's absolutely fooling some of the Cards' young hitters. 4 Ks, fastball looks solid and the rest of the arsenal looks like vintage post-prime Mad Max.

Didn't see a single fastball below 92. So at worst it doesn't look as if the velo has declined relative to last season, and it's only the first outing in February.

Vlad will probably use them up in his first AB

[Orgfiller]

Francis' stuff looks decent, fastball velo held up well, good command of his pitches. Only one swing and miss however. Interesting to note that he featured his slider 30% of the time, mostly against RHH. This was a pitch he hardly used in 2024 so might be something he's working on to add depth to his arsenal.

[Terminator]

Kirk has been tattooing the ball so far this spring

[Orgfiller]

Prospect watch with Orelvis at 3B, Roden at RF, Schreck at LF. Aside from that Leo Jimenez is at SS.

[Laika]

LOLperfido is the new Derek Fisher I guess 

[Spanky99]

13 minutes ago, Laika said:

LOLperfido is the new Derek Fisher I guess 

That looked rough.

 

13 minutes ago, Laika said:

LOLperfido is the new Derek Fisher I guess 

 

[Spanky99]

No separate GDT's I noticed. Guess it makes sense.

[Orgfiller]

9 minutes ago, Spanky99 said:

No separate GDT's I noticed. Guess it makes sense.

Probably a bit much having a separate GDT for every ST game, particularly with not all of them being televised/on the home broadcast.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, Orgfiller said:

Nobody ever give Max Scherzer the ability to review balls and strikes lol. He's made some egregious calls in this outing.

Rob Friedman (@pitchingninja) • Instagram reel

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

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7,849 likes, 58 comments - pitchingninja on February 25, 2025: "When good “framing” comes back to bite you. 🤣...

Maybe the pitchers should let the catchers do the challenges?

[Terminator]

I know it's early, but this team looks incredible so far

3-0

[Spanky99]

Playoffs will be easy to make! 😎

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, Spanky99 said:

No separate GDT's I noticed. Guess it makes sense.

I thought about it and figured that about a week of ST games is right for a thread. As we progress into March, people tend to lose interest in the daily action as they await games that actually matter.

[Terminator]

1 hour ago, Spanky99 said:

Playoffs will be easy to make! 😎

Oh hell yeah brother...Team Positive is getting the band back together

[Spanky99]

5 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Oh hell yeah brother...Team Positive is getting the band back together

lol... love that gif... Ohhh yeeeeeaaaaaahh!!!

 

[max silver]

3 hours ago, Laika said:

LOLperfido is the new Derek Fisher I guess 

He still has a long ways to go to match a dude that caught a routine popup with his face.

[Terminator]

Pitchers should probably refrain from challenging strike calls when Kirk is catching. They are probably subject to his framing just like the umps are. Just let Kirk handle that.

[Spanky99]

18 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Pitchers should probably refrain from challenging strike calls when Kirk is catching. They are probably subject to his framing just like the umps are. Just let Kirk handle that.

I don't think pitchers should be challenging, period. Leave it to the catchers, way too much movement going on from a pitcher, his eyes will lie.

[Spanky99]

8 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I thought about it and figured that about a week of ST games is right for a thread. As we progress into March, people tend to lose interest in the daily action as they await games that actually matter.

Yes, makes sense, but my OCD is trippin' with the thread title, should just be changed to a general ST-GDT or something, 🤪

ETA: Oh sh*t, just noticed it has been changed, cool. Hahahaha...

[Orgfiller]

Myles Straw just hit a 350 foot sac fly at 100 mph off the bat. Our CF woes with Varsho out are resolved. 2021 Straw is back.

[Orgfiller]

Vlad just lost an ABS appeal on an obvious strike. He's definitely the type to burn both of ours by his first AB in the first inning.

[Terminator]

18 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Vlad just lost an ABS appeal on an obvious strike. He's definitely the type to burn both of ours by his first AB in the first inning.

It's definitely going to be interesting on how teams strategize these ABS reviews.

• Do you prioritize your catchers who have a better view over your hitters and pitchers?
• Do you want to let your best hitters use them?
• And prevent your bad hitters from using them?
• Do you save them for late in the game? Or use them in important ABs like 2 outs and runners on base, even if its early?
• If guys like Vlad keep burning through them without any success do you take them away and give them to guys who are more successful in applying the rule?
• Or do you just let everyone use them but only do so if you are 100 percent sure?

You just know the Rays are maximizing this crap and are going to steal a game from us down in Tampa this year because of it.

[Orgfiller]

Another 100 mph bullet from Myles Straw, this time for a base hit on a hit-and-run situation. The season is officially saved by Ross' astute last minute addition.

[Orgfiller]

4 minutes ago, Terminator said:

It's definitely going to be interesting on how teams strategize these ABS reviews.

• Do you prioritize your catchers who have a better view over your hitters and pitchers?
• Do you want to let your best hitters use them?
• And prevent your bad hitters from using them?
• Do you save them for late in the game? Or use them in important ABs like 2 outs and runners on base, even if its early?
• If guys like Vlad keep burning through them without any success do you take them away and give them to guys who are more successful in applying the rule?
• Or do you just let everyone use them but only do so if you are 100 percent sure?

You just know the Rays are maximizing this crap and are going to steal a game from us down in Tampa this year because of it.

IMO it should be relatively simple:

• Never let a pitcher use the challenge, always make it the catcher
• For hitters, if an egregious looking call is made you get a chance to use it, nothing you believe is borderline
• If not egregious, you're only allowed to make the call in a high leverage spot, no wasting challenges in the first inning with no one on base (looking at you, Vlad)
  • Favour 2-strike challenges resulting in a strikeout over any other count
  • Bad hitters may take a chance on a 3 ball count since that might be the best chance they get at getting on base

[Orgfiller]

John Kasevich just ripped a 107 mph bullet up the middle, robbed by Stott. Good to see that nice quality of contact identified in his prospect writeup.

[Eat My Shatkins]

40 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Vlad just lost an ABS appeal on an obvious strike. He's definitely the type to burn both of ours by his first AB in the first inning.

Yep, him and his little peanut brain will burn through the ABS appeals in no time. He's always waving for an appeal on the base paths no matter how out he was, thankfully in that situation the bench has to ask for the appeal officially. At the plate though, we're screwed.

[Orgfiller]

Prospects of (some) note on the field right now:
1B: Rainer Nunez
3B: Charles McAdoo
SS: John Kasevich
CF: RJ Schreck

All recently into the game so will likely close it out. Roden who started at LF has now been replaced.

Edit: Missed Victor Arias at LF. 21 year old with big numbers mostly at A ball with a taste of A+ last season. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/victor-arias/sa3015636/stats?position=OF

[Brownie19]

14 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Yep, him and his little peanut brain will burn through the ABS appeals in no time. He's always waving for an appeal on the base paths no matter how out he was, thankfully in that situation the bench has to ask for the appeal officially. At the plate though, we're screwed.

There are just so many things that irk me about Vlad - this being one of them.  

I respect his ability to hit, but I essentially loath everything else about him.