I could do this for hitters, too, but hitters are boring.
This is (probably) not a complete list, so please fill me in if I'm missing something.
SEATTLE
LANAHEIM
- Jered Weaver is experimenting with a cutter/slider hybrid, recommended by Joel Pineiro
- Jered Weaver is also working on improving his two-seam fastball, which he had but didn't use a whole lot in 2009
- Brian Fuentes hasn't recovered his lost velocity yet
- Ervin Santana hasn't either
- Scott Kazmir is throwing his slider with a new grip, using his middle finger instead of his index. Based on the description is sounds like it's similar to Weaver's new slider
TEXAS
- Neftali Feliz appears to be headed back to the bullpen
- Derek Holland appears to be headed back to AAA
- Matt Harrison claims to have improved velocity after surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome, but a few days ago he averaged 91.3mph over a four-inning appearance, matching up with last year's 91.1
- In case you were wondering about round-trip traveler Colby Lewis, he's got a low-90s fastball, a cutter, a curve, a slider, and a change. Don't know anything about quality
- Brandon McCarthy has played with a cutter this spring, and from the sounds of things, so have a lot of his teammates
- McCarthy has also revamped his mechanics to, I believe, reduce the stress on his shoulder
OAKLAND
- Gio Gonzalez has adjusted his changeup grip
- It seems Brett Anderson wants to use his changeup more
- Don't know if this means anything, but Ben Sheets says he made a little arm angle adjustment after that one ten run/no out start of his
- Trevor Cahill has a new curve that he'd like to use as a strikeout pitch
In injury news, rotation favorite Tommy Hunter strained his oblique, and like the entire A's bullpen is hurt.
So Feliz will only destroy us for one inning instead of an entire game? Excellent.
russak - March 22, 2010
For now
And Derek Holland is really really good, so he should return before too long.
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
So, I'm a natural Cardinals fan who just got an internship with the Mariners for the summer
I know the big things: Franklin is Death to Flying Things, Felix is King, etc.
Teach me your intricate memes so that I may understand your team
mysterui - March 22, 2010
Casey Kotchman has a funny voice, Jose Lopez is fat, Griffey doesn't do anything, Jack Wilson is terrifyingly ugly
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
Also, congratulations!
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
Thanks.
Lucked into it; one day last semester, I just decided to email my resume out to a bunch of teams’ HR departments
4 months later, I get this call from Seattle to work in their Procurement Department doing statistical reports and such. It’s not the front office, and it’s unpaid, but it’s a HUGE foot in the door.
Furthermore, I’ll be spending my 21-year old summer in Seattle for the summer. Being originally from rural Missouri, this excites me. I assume Seattle is way cooler than LA, too, where I go to school. Therefore, I’m also taking bar recommendations
mysterui - March 22, 2010
Congo rats!
Speaking as someone who has lived in SoCal and Seattle, SoCal really only beats Seattle in one area – sushi. Unless you go for the traditional style that is.
Side note – your new bosses read things posted here, so don’t say something that will get you tossed from what sounds like an awesome internship!
ExiledToSoCal - March 22, 2010
Sorry if I'm making this post digress to much
But yeah, the sushi here is amazing. There’s a restaurant here, Fat Fish, that has a rotating sushi bar with each plate costing only $2 after 8:00 pm on weekdays.
Regarding the boss thing: yeah, I understand that. Thanks for the tip
mysterui - March 22, 2010
San Diego also beats Seattle in winter weather, beer, proximity to the beach
size and convenience of traveling east-west, access to defense jobs, having Toronado, freeway traffic, quality of the local NFL team, local golf, and not being near Tacoma
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
You're a fucking dead man.
(San Diego is near Temecula)
marc w - March 22, 2010
Touche
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
How do I make a tilda so it doesn't just look like I'm misspelling "touch?"
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
on a PC
you hold down ALT then press 130 on the number pad.
If you’re on a Mac, hold option, press ‘e’ once, then let go of option and press ‘e’ again.
Or just google the accented word, then copy and paste it.
abelard - March 22, 2010
Touché
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
awesome
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
That's not a tilda, it's an accent aigu.
Moron.
Graham MacAree - March 22, 2010
Tilde.
Morons. :)
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
You'll note that it's also not a tilda
Graham MacAree - March 22, 2010
Or a Tilda for that matter
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
The reaction most of you have to the crab and the spiders?
That is me looking at this.
JY - March 22, 2010
As much as I hate living in San Diego
This is one of the three spots I would live in the US. Seattle and Portland being the other two.
I’ll agree with the access to defense jobs (trying to bust into that myself right now) and freeway traffic (god… the Seattle Tacoma drive…) but I don’t care about the NFL or golf. Having a functional transit system in Seattle was great – I had a bus that picked me up a block from my house and could take me directly to work, Safeco, or the Hurricane (back when it was freaking awesome) without having to transfer once. And I grew up in Montana – Seattle has a nice mild winter if you ask me…
ExiledToSoCal - March 23, 2010
What field are you specifically looking for?
If you’re interested, I can pass along your resume to folks around here (e-mail in my profile)
seattlebruin - March 23, 2010
I will say this, in the past year three sushi bars have opened in a two mile radius in the suburb of Seattle I live in.
Three!
JAH - March 22, 2010
I need to see your resume to know what I need to lie about to land something like this.
OlSalty - March 22, 2010
Like I said before, 99% of it was luck!
I go to a good school (USC) in a relevant major (Economics), but that’s about it.
See, with an Economics major, people generally get into finance or law, and for me, if I don’t make it in baseball, that’s the type of career I was looking at. While I don’t HATE doing those things, I really LOVE baseball, so I thought I’d take a hail mary shot and try, somehow, to get an internship for the summer.
Each team has a “Who works for us!” page like this. I looked at who I needed to talk to (Usually an “HR Manager” or something similar), googled their names to try to find out their email, and then sent an email directly to them, asking if I could submit a resumé and cover letter. They all said yes, I sent over the files, and just waited, man.
If you want to do it, then go ahead and try. There are 32 teams, and I was told Seattle had about 30 interns, and if you’re willing to move for an unpaid internship, that’s almost 1000 jobs in the US. Not THAT bad of a percentage, if you’re persistent. Jobs like the Red Sox and Yankees that I applied to, I was almost instantly denied; there’s just too much competition for those, but there are still lots of possibilities.
Just do it. Why the hell not, right?
mysterui - March 22, 2010
Uh, I'm going to call bullshit on that first sentence of the body of the comment
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
Judging by the moniker, I take it you're a UCLA guy? :)
mysterui - March 22, 2010
Correct =)
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
Wellllllllll I think we're done here
Can’t be fraternizing with no UCLA folk
Honestly though, I’ve only met really cool people from UCLA. It’s just the concept of that particular school, I’m supposed to detest
mysterui - March 22, 2010
*30 teams, but otherwise excellent post. Very cool.
Decatur - March 23, 2010
He's a USC student -- there's no requirement he be able to count
Seattlebruin will agree, I’m sure.
wandergeist - March 23, 2010
Ahhhh sorry. I'm used to typing 32 NFL teams
I know baseball! I promise!
mysterui - March 23, 2010
Obviously you do if you got an internship with the M's.
GOD.
OlSalty - March 23, 2010
I intend to try once I finish school
It’s probably just a pipe dream….but I’m pretty sure I would be okay with nothing good ever happening to me again in my life if I could work in baseball. Congrats on getting your foot in the door.
OlSalty - March 23, 2010
I appreciate the congratulations
From you and everybody else.
It’s exciting. Now I have a new backup team to follow in case Matt Holliday’s ribs explode and Albert’s elbow disintegrates and Carpenter’s shoulder disappears.
Colby > Franklin, though, and there’s nothing you can do to convince me otherwise
mysterui - March 23, 2010
Franklin is much more attractive
Graham MacAree - March 23, 2010
Hmmm... I disagree
In this picture, he just looks like a guido
While Colby is just dreamy
And he’s got this going for him, I guess
mysterui - March 23, 2010
These should all be prerequisites for you having the job.
InSpokane - March 22, 2010
You would get a ton of responses if you made a FP
people eat this kind of shit up
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
Meh
I don’t feel the need to announce, “Hey, look at me!” in a fanpost. I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging or anything like that
mysterui - March 22, 2010
On the other hand, we try to stay on topic in the front page posts.
And I think most people would be genuinely happy for you. But anyway, most homers hit at the Safe get a big flashing ‘Funk Blast’ sign with leads to a lot of ejaculation jokes. Last year, Russel Branyan was nicknamed Sex Cannon which made the jokes that much more clever. Most memes tend to get built over the season though so check back in.
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
Fair enough, good point
Over at vivaelbirdos, especially during the offseason, the front page posts tend to, uh, wander, to say the least. We hit 800+ most days, but maybe only 2/3 are baseball related
mysterui - March 22, 2010
We'd be much worse if it weren't for the live off-topic threads in the Fan Posts.
Decatur - March 22, 2010
We used to do that on LL until it got so bad we had to make dedicated off topic posts midway through 2008
that’s where you’ll find many of our memes – our OT posts usually go 1,000+ comments as well, and on a few rare occasions have hit 2,000.
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
Good stuff.
Hard to cover everything but I think just by looking around you’ll be up-to-speed with the basics in no time!
ThundaPC - March 22, 2010
Check out the LLemmies.
Here and here.
The dead memes page on the sidebar has the ones we’ve killed.
Decatur - March 22, 2010
I suppose
this too.
Decatur - March 22, 2010
these posts
are bringing back some fond memories. especially the pre 08 ones
marinerschas2 - March 22, 2010
Well I hate you out of insane jealousy
OlSalty - March 22, 2010
Me too :/
royalcurve - March 22, 2010
Being a Cardinals fan is pretty sweet
Poochie - March 23, 2010
Pretty happy about Feliz/Holland news,
as well as Santana’s velocity not being there and Oakland’s pen being hurt. You don’t mention Sheets, but I remember reading an Olney blog post about one of his starts which claimed his velo was low and he couldn’t get anything past he hitters.
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
Sheets is supposedly hitting the low 90s, which is where he used to sit
Don’t know much about the quality of his stuff, though. One would expect his return to full strength to take a little while, though.
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
AND...
…Justin Duchscherer looks like he’ll be able to start the season in the A’s rotation. The A’s are stacked in the pitching department and it looks like they are just as much a threat to win the division as the other three teams.
Jack Swan - March 22, 2010
Isn't Tommy Hunter a Ranger?
Graham MacAree - March 22, 2010
Yes.
The injury sentence is separate from the Oakland bullet points
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
A big ol fat one!
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
Aw man you guys I was born this way
Dewey N - March 22, 2010
Also, this is the awesome spring training news stories compelation parallel universe counterpart to the list people in the best shape of their lives.
This is one hell of a good idea for a post, Jeff. I’d never come close to knowing this stuff without it.
Decatur - March 22, 2010
This is pretty much the only ST stuff I give a damn about
Splendid!
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
You forgot the part about Cliff Lee dying.
EnglishMariner - March 22, 2010
Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up
abender20 - March 22, 2010
What would you put the probability of the M's resigning Cliff Lee at?
Or would they be happy with taking the 2 draft picks?
mysterui - March 22, 2010
The "taking the 2 draft picks" option is the odds on favorite, I think.
ThundaPC - March 22, 2010
We're perfectly happy to get the draft picks back
and generally, giving a pitcher of Lee’s stature the contract that he wants would be a questionable way to spend that money, given that he’s already 31 and pitchers aren’t really great bets to stay healthy anyway
seattlebruin - March 22, 2010
I didn't really care to repeat injury information we already know
Jeff Sullivan - March 22, 2010
C.J. Wilson will be named
as the 5th in a couple of dyas.
Kinslerhomer - March 22, 2010
or even in a couple of days
Kinslerhomer - March 22, 2010
I can't believe they're doing that but ok.
Graham MacAree - March 22, 2010
This plus Feliz to the pen is mind boggling.
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
May as well have Andrus and Kinsler trade positions
Bearskin Rugburn - March 22, 2010
Re. Weaver's new pitch
Can we refer to it as a slider/cutter instead? “Slutter” just has a nice ring to it.
Ormson - March 22, 2010
wrt Kazmir
I was under the impression it is the same as before, just that he is adding the middle finger rather than abandoning the index finger. Kazmir’s slider is a swing and miss pitch and the extra finger will make it more easily repeatable.
Weaver slutter, on the other hand, is a contact pitch allowing him to get groundballs, because he is such an extreme FB pitcher.
shields2seamer2lefthanders - March 25, 2010
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