Still Many Issues!

I have a ton to write about but in the interest of getting this out, I will focus on a few points.

After a bad start, the umpiring started to be much better, but the recent games have slipped again where the umpiring, specifically, behind home plate, has been very poor.  It hasn't always gone against us, but it has been so inconsistent, which is just not good for baseball.  Remember when Urshela had a 3 pitch walk?  How does that even happen?  How is it possible so many people were not on top of this?  I watch the game fast-forwarding between every pitch and when he started to walk to first, I figured I must have missed a pitch, but where was everyone else?  

Last night, against TB in an important game, the umpire behind home plate, cost us the game.  Those are strong (perhaps absurd) words considering we lost 9-2, but the ump made a huge difference which also led to events spiraling somewhat.  There were at least a dozen pitches that went against us and these were big AB's.  Not only did their pitcher consistently get clear balls well outside the strike zone called strikes (Frazier was struck out, ironically and stupidly on his part on a real strike that was a great pitch, but all of the previous 5 pitches were well outside the strike zone), but Cole was getting pitches that were called balls in the same spots but even closer to the zone than the ones called strikes for TB.  The other odd thing was these were outside to righties and they had a lefty and Cole is obviously a righty so you would think the other way would happen if anything.  On the Frazier AB, it was with 2nd and 3rd and one out.

Before a 2 run HR, Brandon Lowe walked on 2 pitches that were strikes! In the 5th inning where TB scored 3 runs and put the game in deep trouble with how pitiful our offense has been.  The leadoff batter walked after being down 0-2: Cole threw a strike called a ball, then barely missed and it was called a ball and then missed in the exact spot that we were called strikes against us at least 6 times and it was called a ball.  Then Kiermaier clearly ran out of the running lane to 1st base to avoid a tag and the home plate umpire didn't rule him out for this and I assume it is not reviewable.  It was really a pathetic job by Chad Whitson, the HP umpire.

The night got more frustrating because in this gifted 3 run inning, with 1st and 2nd, a pitch was hit off the end of the bat to Frazier in RF and with 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, their catcher on 2nd was waived home and Frazier made an awful play to not only allow the slow runner to score when he should have been easily out but threw a rainbow allowing both runners to move up to make it 2nd and 3rd and they both scored.  On the Frazier play, the ball was hit to RF and he started in and then waited for the ball to land (rather than charge it) and then flat-footed caught the ball and took his 5 steps (which drives me crazy) and then threw a rainbow well offline.  First, it is never good to take 5 steps to throw, but if you have to, you better make a good strong throw and make it accurate.  He actually fielded the ball (even waiting on it) with the catcher still 2 steps away from 3rd base and Frazier was not deep.  By the time he released the ball, the catcher took at least 4 strides and probably still might have been out if the throw was online.  Frazier has made some good diving plays (an excellent one a few nights earlier that he had to come in on) and he has made some diving plays that were unnecessary, but he does not throw well and this was as bad as it gets.  

This brings me to another point, they are now throwing up graphics about the speed of the OF's throws and they are using that as the answer to whether the OF'r should be run on or not.  It is good to know what their arm strength is, but it says nothing about accuracy nor how quick the release is.  So if an OF took 5 steps after catching the ball and threw 85 MPH and an OF threw 82 MPH but took 2 steps (assuming the same accuracy), which throw would arrive first?  The answer is the 82 MPH throw.  There is a good reason why catchers do not take multiple steps to throw to 2nd base, it is because they would never throw someone out if they did.   

I have more that I will discuss in the next post, but I don't understand why Boone is resting players so often when our offense has simply been putrid compared to expectations?  How is Judge not in RF against the team in 1st place in our division?  Where is Stanton against a lefty?  I know he has been bad since returning from his injury, but I would rather him up than any of the FOUR guys in our lineup that batting .185 or below .200!