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I think it would be more accurate to say that pitch 8 was a strike to Hunter Wendelstedt. It wasnt a strike as far as Eric Haase was concerned.

I have a feeling the video of that punchout call is going to be a major exhibit in the argument for roboumps.

Also, if Shep is very average, I want to know which 14 play by play guys are worse. 😉

Holy shit, that might be the worst strike cal of the season by anyone in baseball. Hunter Wendelstedt needs to go to his own school.

I figured he wouldn’t be back until after the break.

Sure looks like Rony ain’t ready for prime time.

I’m intrigued by “electric car media”. What is that?

Look, I like you and everything, you're an entertaining poster, and you have some pretty good takes here and there, same way most of us here do. But come on, this post is just hot nonsense. First of all, you didn't join right after Javy Baez signed. You joined two months prior to that and had logged at least a gross of posts by the time that happened. So you need to get your recallometer checked. Secondly, you did post a few things about Javy before he was signed and you were on record firmly against it happening, but it's not as though you were then immediately attacked by sabermetric posters out to crush you for your, I suppose, apostasy. You actually got a lot of agreement on this board about him, and those of us here who either liked the signing, or were at least OK with it, freely admitted his down sides. I myself, having watched him live for seven seasons, am keenly aware of his strengths and weaknesses, and I do admit to trying to draw some hope out of some of his process improvements in New York. But I was also on record here that Javy was not my first choice, and I'm nearly certain no one else here had him as their #1 target, either. So it's not like it was you against some Javy Army, because there isn't one here and never has been. Lastly, once Javy was signed, you didn't post boo about the deal or about him the player until this month, when it was safe to do so once he'd already gotten off to his unmistakably slow start. So this narrative you've spun about being this lone voice of reason heroically standing up to the woke saber mob day after dayonce he had signed crumbles pretty quickly. Now personally, my opinion is that the guy is ours now, so we might as well root for him to turn it around, which history has shown will happen at some point, unless at age 29 he's done done, which seems super unlikely. In the meantime, you yourself are obviously totally allowed to give up on him completely. Not all people here will agree with that, but maybe some do, and either way, there's room for all kinds of opinions here. But your self-serving Javy-is-toast campaign of the last couple weeks here is rather confusing because none of us here can figure out exactly who it is you're waging it against. Unless it's this guy:

Maybe the rise of analytics-based hitting process, especially in the past five years, is creating more buggy whips than ever?

Welcome "back", Statik. Tram and Lou were a special case in that they were a double play combination that could also hit some: (Divisional era, played 80%+ games at either 2B/SS, 7500+ plate appearances) So they were historically special because they depended on each other on the field as well. Riley and TORK! do not and never will. So it is a little different on that front. That said, I'm not sure a 2022-era DP-combination at the level of Tram and Lou is necessarily more likely to get the money and extensions to keep them in their first organization now than they would have 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. For one thing, can you imagine the cost? Paying them their worth for even 15 years—let alone 19—would probably cost well over half a billion dollars just for those two. Sure, practically every team can afford that and more, but given the budgets teams impose on themselves in the interest of maximizing profit, such money would definitely come out of the rest of the team. Secondly, they'd have to come up in an organization willing to pay two guys that kind of money to keep them long-term. That probably reduces the list of possible teams from 30 to a dozen tops, of which the Ilitch Tigers probably are not one, especially with the old man gone. Lastly, both guys would have to want to stay with that organization and work out a deal with them, and all three entities might be so strong-willed they don't give an inch in negotiations. Typically speaking, the ballclub and player rarely agree on what the value of that player is, so to make this kind of thing work, one side or the other would probably have to give in some on their demands just in the interest of keeping the two guys together for those 15 or so years. It seems like there are more barriers to making that happen in the 2020s and 2030s than there were in the 1970s through 1990s.

You can never have too much pitching ...

Roger’s handlers won’t let Johnny in the same room with him. 😉

Good chance Roger is in the park for the debut. Most parents sit in the stands. I’m guessing he won’t be.

Who’s worse, and how?

No sympathy! 😜

Honest question: can you sign a guy who is currently on a major league contract to a minor league contract? Without googling even once, I’m guessing you can’t. The major league contract is still force because they’re still paying him. A new team would take on the major league contract and pay him the minimum, but can they then stash him in the minors until needed? Minor league options don’t apply to a six-plus-year guy, do they?

Exactly. I have no sympathy for anyone who has the twenty dollars to subscribe to MLB Audio and hack an audio overlay, yet still subjects themselves to Shep and Old Player instead and then comes in here and whines about how bad they are. What the hell do you expect, amirite. I mean—I’m not saying stop. It’s entertaining to see posters whinge about things completely within their control. I’m just saying, come on, if you hate it so bad, take a little initiative here.

It’d be nice to see Soto bust right-handed hitters at 99+ up in Zone 1 every so often, except he’s got little enough command that the ball would go way up into Zone 11 and end up separating some guy’s jaw from the rest of his head.

Don’t look now, but in his last eight appearances going back to May 13, Gregory Soto has pitched 7-2/3 innings and given up no runs on four hits and one walk (!) to earn five saves, a hold, and a win. The only thing I can ding him on is he’s gotten only four strikeouts, but hey—can’t argue with those kinds of results.

So what?

Is that one of the reasons he’s your former boss?

That’s what I mean. It wasn’t a close play. My early take on TORK! is that he’s a hothead, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him get into some kerfuffles with opponents … perhaps even teammates.

You can also definitely make a strategic blunder by concentrating on building and perfecting your pitching while letting the hitting chips fall wherever.

Lange? I don’t know, that why I said maybe.

Wow, TORK! really winged that one over to Lange. A little frustration at him, maybe?