…. IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS a HOME RUN was the Home Run Call for Harry Caray as the Cardinals announcer for many years. There were several situations like that this week….
…IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS….the worst mistake I’ve seen in professional baseball. In the 6th inning of Wed nights Cards-Rays game, the Rays had the bases loaded with 1 out. A ground ball was hit right back to the pitcher, TJ McFarland. McFarland not knowing the number of outs, threw to 1b for the out! AT THE MAJOR LEAGUE LEVEL THIS IS TOTALLY INEXCUSABLE! Heck, it’d be inexcusable at the 7th grade level of baseball. It should have been a double play– pitcher to catcher to 1B but McFarland didn’t know the number of outs!!! In a previous play, a ground ball was hit to 2b Nolan Gorman who ignored the possibility of a double play & tried throwing the runner out at home—he failed on a wide throw. Judgment? We are doused with heavy doses of the Cardinals system & training skills being at the highest level. Maybe so…possibly, more attention needs to given to the basic fundamental situational plays for all the players, especially newly acquired players.
….. IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS …a totally different look @ MU Men’s Basketball next year! New HC Dennis Gates just signed a big offensive piece with the transfer to Mizzou from MO State of Isiaih Mosley. Mosley is a pure shooter. He scored 20ppg with an accuracy worth noting—50% shooting from the field; 42.7-beyond 3-pt line; 90% from the FT line! That trio of percentages from various depths is rarely seen @ Collegiate level. Mosley is a scorer…something that MU hasn’t had for a couple years. Some say that he WAS the best scorer coming out of the portal! Add Mosley to recent signees-from Clemson- guard Nick Honor; N.Iowa wing-Noah Carter+ 2 top JUCO players and Coach Green has skyrocketed his offensive punch.
…IT MIGHT BE..IT COULD BE…IT IS…time to wrap up a very good season for the Blues. Sure, the Stanley Cup signifies a super season but reaching the Quarterfinals and playing a highly competitive series against the Avs must be recognized. The Blues had 3 strong lines with all 9 of those players scoring 20+ goals. Considering that scoring was up in the NHL in 21-22 from the previous season, the Blues lowered their Goals/against number from 2.98 (18th in league) to 2.92 (11th in NHL). The Blues finished 2nd in the NHL on the power play (27.0%), which was a franchise record. Speedy, young stars Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich reflect the current NHL trend towards speed! The wonderful bounce back year of Vladimir Tarasenko was a very pleasant surprise to many fans. Don’t overlook the man at the helm, Craig Berube. He should be rising up the charts as 1 of the NHL’s best coaches with his adjustments, directness and most of all his success!
… IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS..StL is a baseball town! Here is a list of St Louis area kids in the MLB! Of Course the best known is probably Max Scherzer (Parkway Cen). The list of other current MLB players from the Lou area looks like this—Ross Detweiler (Wentzville); Luke Voit (Lafayette); Devin Williams (Haz West); Austin Allen-(Chaminade); Josh Fleming (Columbia, IL-HS); Tanner Houck(Collinsville); Matt Vierling (CBC); Jake Brentz (Pk South); Jake Burger (CBC).
… IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS.. a 1st time in 7 years that golf arrives to this blog. The newly formed feud between the PGA & LIV (a league sponsored by the Saudi Arabians). The very name..LIV…is Roman numerals for 54..this new tour will play 54 holes in a tournament, not 72 as the PGA. Currently, there is a severe feud between the 2 organizations…actually, it’s the PGA, the established tour seeing some its stars defecting, that’s reacting. Taking a bold, but maybe foolish, approach, the PGA has banned any LIV players from competing on their tour. The PGA has held onto a monopoly of the only big-time professional tour for decades. This is their 1st real challenge to keep their “stars”. I think some form of compromise will be reached at some point. The PGA has tradition, the LIV has the super big bucks… Usually big $$$ wins, hence compromise will come…some day.
… IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS a transformational change in the use of starting pitchers in the MLB. It’s not the count of innings…it’s the pitch count. The art of the complete game has long been in a state of radioactive decay with a very short half-life. There were 734 complete games in 1982, 419 in 1992, 214 in 2002, 128 in 2012 and thus far in 2022 only 1! Somehow the supposition is that EVERY pitcher has exactly the same strength & durability in their arm…clearly not enough to pitch 9 innings! Not ONE game at all in 2022?
…. IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS even worse for MLB starting pitchers! Not only are complete games off the table…going deep into the game is getting as extinct as 24-hour cafes. Going from 2012 to present– just 1 decade ago in 2012, it was almost exactly 6.0 inn/start; in 2013 it was 5.81 inn; in 2016 it was 5.68 inn/start and in 2020 (Mar/April) it was 5.3 inn/start!
…. IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS … shorter starts probably is a boom for the bullpen! Relief pitchers are making longer appearances. (Thanks at least in part to the 3-batter minimum.) It might not seem like a major difference, but the average relief appearance lasts 1.12 innings this year, compared to 1.05 in 2017 and 1.03 in 2012. It is…rather alarming! Using these averages, in order to cover 9 innings, a manager will need 5 pitchers! And…that is the norm!
…. IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE…IT IS ….it SHOULD be a big pay day for relievers with their increased workload…not SO MUCH! Not So! When one considers that the “closer” is the highest paid reliever (about $5m/closer), you have to take him out of the norm. The middle-reliever pool is reduced to $433m for 269 pitchers, or $1.61 million per middle reliever. Since the very minimum at the MLB level this year is $700,000, the crucial, yet seeming bypassed at the pay-gate, are the middle relievers! At the same time, these middle relievers are becoming increasingly more important as starters go shorter distances & middle relievers get the outs to reach the closer.
…IT MIGHT BE…IT COULD BE..IT IS….the end! If you’ve missed 1 or more, you can find them on http://www.bobryansportsblog.com. Bob Ryan-FB page lists the comments by the readers! They are ALWAYS insightful! Thanks for your read! Pass on the blog to your friends!