Laika

These guys are USELESS THREE WEAK OUTS ON SINKERS TWO OF THEM WERE MEATBALLS FIVE f***ING PITCH INNING FOR BRUCE ELDER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Pinango

It is probably part of it His slider becomes a crutch pitch if he thinks he has a better chance of landing it for a strike than the other stuff

Nah we aren't doing this.

I think I figured out Jeff Hoffman, a bit This does NOT explain his 6.31 ERA vs his 2.61 FIP and 3.15 xERA but it probably explains some of his inconsistencies and a reasonably elevated ERA The guy has more or less lost his slider and his splitter at this point. They vary between horrible and average. Look at the game logs of his Stuff+ This guy needs to go back to being a normal, establish the fastball dude. Throw the heater 50% of the time or more. It is the only consistently plus pitch. This is not rocket science, Jeff. I don't know what happened but two years ago your Slider was good and now it's cooked.

Yeah there is no definition https://www.mlb.com/news/check-swing-challenge-comes-to-single-a-florida-state-league the 45 degree thing was used for various reasons, one of them being that the umps from the baselines CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE REFERENCE since they are on the lines. If the bat points straight at you, it's a swing. So if the rules shifts to that, the humans can make calls. Right now, they can't even actually tell if home plate is crossed, for example, they just guess. It's also interesting that historically a check swing was way more liberal (see above link). You can't use home plate because then players who are more forward in the box or drift more are at a disadvantage Personally I like it. The 90 degree thing never really seemed like a SWING or an actual OFFERING at the pitch, to me. Like, if you hit the ball it's just a bunt... Also, from a policy perspective, strikeouts are so high and stuff is so nasty. Pitchers don't really need those extra few whiffs, do they?

people will be mad for a couple of years because they didn't use the front of home plate as the line in the sand

That hanging slider from Juff Huffman is just the most hittable pitch in baseball history Your 10 year old son could cream it for a double Your grandma could get a bunt single on it

it keeps me up at night

Well he already lost the job I have no real problem with how he was used on Saturday. They gave the middle of the order to Varland.

people will say things like "he hangs too many breaking balls" or "he is a mental midget with 9th inning PTSD" and those things may be somewhat true but none of that would explain more than perhaps a .340 BABIP

Okay now here is the non-alarmist stuff on Vlad. YES April and May were two of the worst HR months of his career. May being the single worst since the September of his rookie season. HOWEVER he tends to have cold HR months every year (except 2021) and there is still lots of season left. His career mean for June to Sept homers is 22.6. He is only two homers off his 2024 pace, and in that year he hit 8 and 8 in June and July. It is time to be worried and mad but limit your anger, don't let it ruin your day. If he hits 2 homers in June, you can cry. 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Mar/Apr 0* ** 7 6 5 3 3 2 May 6 ** 9 3 3 2 5 1 June 2 ** 10 9 4 8 4 July 3 1* 7 3 5 8 3 Aug 4 4 6 6 3 6 6 Sep/Oct 0 4 9 5 6 3 2 * less than 30 PA ** COVID no games 2021 to 2025 June to Sept Average 22.6

He uses a two strike approach on every single pitch. Just goes up there and battles, trying to get something in play. It's absurd and stupid. Popkins should be slapping him, daily. SWING FOR THE FENCES UNTIL YOU HAVE TWO STRIKES.

It's time for one of the "good" reporters to do some kind of expose on what Vlad does and how the team handles him. Risk some social capital to explore the biggest ongoing issue with the team. It feels like they just let him do whatever he wants and trust that his natural feel for the game and hitting will work out in the end. And it feels like so much potential production is being left on the table because of that. Like, a few weeks ago when asked about his struggled Vlad did not point to anything mechanical or mention any kinds of work or drills he is doing, he just said something like "I just need to hit one ball hard."

Vlad is putting together his saddest season ever. Sigh.

Ball don't lie

Nah it was a terrible day

Vlad

Horrendous game Geoff Hoffman has ninth inning PTSD and is also the world greatest ever meatball artist Win today and at least we can be happy with 3/4 against the turd birds

Hoffman and Yariel Rodriguez are the same dude and should be equal on the depth chart

Sanchez

As good as we could have hoped for

Well. There's a chance!

Voth's pitching line is extremely funny

Got lucky