FINAL SCORE IN ANAHEIM: Angels 1, Yankees 7... It was long afternoon in Anaheim made all the more frustrating when a pitcher who lives off of hitting the corners of the plate was able to get calls outside of the ordinary range with a consistent strike zone called the same way for both teams. The problem is that the other starting pitcher feasts on the low end of the strike zone and therefore was punished for throwing more balls in the real strike zone that happened to be outside of the fake strike zone. Are MLB Umps on the take? Was Home Plate umpire Bob Davidson really unbiased? Was his choice of strike zones merely coincidence or a deliberate bias on behalf of the high-revenue Yankees during a national broadcast?
Whatever it was, the Yankee batters were able to hit Joel Pieneiro hard when they laid off of his low pitches and were gifted good counts. The Angels attempt at plate discipline was thwarted when they took pitches that were off the plate that Davidson called strikes, all the while in synch with the Fox National telecast that was a Yankee infomercial in the booth from the first to the last pitch.
Were you on the GAME THREAD here this afternoon? Roll Call is after the poll...
Roll Call: Figgi4life, angelsfan7, Fred Fredrix, 44FAN, TheKingfish, GutterDem0n, Quad Fin Rider, angelfan1954, ronniejm, princeton11loveshalos, RexTookMyStash, halofolife, Zu Long, dr-awkward, The OC Disorder, Halowood, DAD OF VLAD, opiejeanne, mikvitu, Rev Halofan, ~MMP~, Fan Since 1981, NW angels Fan, Broncangelus1, chikmagnet_565, shaqfor3, Epic Dean, UK Halo, angels_rally_mom, SenorChuckles, Slyintine, jessthelion, The Furious Bat of Howie47, MH252525, BigBangRobbDawgg, OC Awhole1, Dono Romantico, robi s, chairmanofthebar, AlohaHalofan, hk47, PhiSlamma, desecrator09, b0rd3rline, HaloDutch, linkbruin, ladybug, scareduck, Turks Teeth, rspencer, mastermind565, AlanFalcon, highlandhalo, Quinlan's Goofy Swing
Total Users: 54
Total Posts: 763
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0 recs | 41 comments
Bob Davidson's strike zone was pure BS.
I had to turn off gameday lest I throw my phone at something.
AlanFalcon - April 24, 2010 via mobile
I love Naporeli
but the dude needs to be a full time DH.
I hate the the telecast it was a Yankee Suck fest and who cares about Scotts lawn care, i sure dont. It is bull shit i hate Joe Buck and i Hate tim McCarver too and he was not even there. I blame the Yankees for being bitches and still winning while being sucked offed by the pile of shits at FOX.
DAD OF VLAD - April 24, 2010
Why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel.
halofan4life - April 24, 2010
i used my F883s the other day
FRACK them all
DAD OF VLAD - April 24, 2010
Woody
Roger Dorn would have gotten that ground ball today.
Green Burrito - April 24, 2010
Oh, that was a game? I thought I was watching Joe Bucks slobbering, drooling love affair with the Yankees, with a little ‘I hate the Angels’ by Eric Karros t.v. show.
TSamn15 - April 24, 2010
Well I hate Eric Karros
Watching him in my early days of watching baseball made the choice between Doyer and Angel fandom incredibly easy.
Teixeira Who? - April 25, 2010
Typo Rev.
Thought I’d give you a headsup, I’m sure it came out of frustration.
halofan4life - April 24, 2010
fixed
thanks!
Rev Halofan - April 24, 2010
What's a "stirke"?
Stirrups - April 24, 2010
scotts stupid lawn
when they went ON and ON about that it echoed the recent SNL female product sportscasts they’ve been doing. “how do they get the lawn to look like that” " i’m sure they do a row, and then another one, just like that, joe."
Kernel - April 24, 2010
Can I blame Brandon Wood?
During the Angels starting lineup (paraphrase):
“Abreu former Yankee
Matsui former Yankee
Rivera former Yankee
Howie Kendrick not a former Yankee
Brandon Wood not a former yankee
They’re not Yankees now, but maybe in the future.” WTF.
Teh Phil - April 24, 2010
Was that another Joe Buck gem?
ryanfea - April 24, 2010
Yep
~MMP~ - April 24, 2010
They beat the crap out of us, ump or not
Get over the conspiracy thing.
PhiSlamma - April 24, 2010
Conspiracy or incompetence, there is no way that the strike zone in this game resembled what is in the rule book.
Every umpire favors different strike zones, admittedly that’s part of the game. But no player should have to worry about balls thrown 8 inches inside the plate and be able to ignore everything near the knees — at that point you’re playing a different game. It’s amateur hour.
AlanFalcon - April 24, 2010
totally agree...
we can’t complain about the consistently called strike zone and wonder if the fix is on when we get spanked like that. Did the umps make Wood miss that grounder too? Or the Napoli passed balls? Or every freakin seeing eye base hit the Yanks had? Why wasn’t there a conspiracy last night too?
BigSnyan - April 24, 2010
Paritally disagree
If one believes the strike zone was distorted so as to eliminate the bottom of the zone where Pineiro pitches, then he is saying that Pineiro was pitching at a disadvantage, which would tend to improve the Yankees’ chances of getting on base.
You’re right about the errors, though; one can argue that it was the distorted strike zone that had our players off balance, but that would be a lame excuse for pros to make.
And it doesn’t take a conspiracy for one umpire to be a big shot.
rspencer - April 25, 2010
Seeing as they are playing in the Major level
I would like to see a strike zone that’s not so weird.
phoenix15 - April 24, 2010
Watching from 523, I thought...
Napoli didn’t even look like he was trying on the first passed ball.
The second one, I thought might have been a WP, because it was so far up and to Napoli’s left.
red floyd - April 24, 2010
I also thought it was an ideal situation to bring in Shields.
The way I see it, Shields is almost still in ST mode. Bringing him in for a situation with almost no pressure was good.
He looked really good on his first two pitches to Gardner, and really good against A-Fraud. I’m hopeful.
red floyd - April 24, 2010
Napoli has evolved into the old Jeff Mathis.
Can we pull the plug on him? Terrible defense as well as the AB fail. It was a passed ball fest at one point. My grandma (RIP) could steal a bag against Naps arm right now.
Hopefully, he starts to hit well and gets on a good streak instead of consistenly being on a bad streak.
Downing Rules - April 24, 2010
I think he'll improve with more regular playing time
That is, I hope he’ll improve with more regular playing time. Hasn’t he always been a streaky hitter?
rspencer - April 24, 2010
That's what i've heard...
Hence, my mention of the streaking.
Well, my luck is turning… I got invited to sit in the diamond club … mere feet from Mike Napoli tomorrow. So, I will talk to him about streaking.
I will also give Teix, A-Rod, and Jeter LOTS OF HELL. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH! I love being the most obnoxious person in the entire diamond club.
Downing Rules - April 24, 2010
My Hero!
opiejeanne - April 24, 2010
Of course he will
He has shown he can hit over the past couple of seasons. Doesn’t matter though, he has the most streaky bat out of any hitter in that line up. The last thing the Angels need is a streaky hitter to go with their shaky bullpen, struggling 3rd baseman, aging centerfielder, injured catchers and lukewarm bats.
You bitched and moaned in the LA Times about wanting more playing time Napoli, why don’t you put your big ass in front of a few breaking pitches to keep them from hitting the back stop and get the bat off your shoulders. Now’s your time to prove you deserve it.
Teixeira Who? - April 25, 2010
He did gun down Gardner at 3rd.
That`s an accomplishment.
Rally Manatee - April 26, 2010 via mobile
I've felt bad about being millions of Panther Points behind Los Angeles de Anaheim...
But the way I see it, that’s blood money. Or… blood points. He’s gotten here by betting against the Angels! Is he Brandon Wood?
AlanFalcon - April 24, 2010
Rev, can you maybe post the following poll when you get a sec??
Poll Question:
At the beginning of the Yankees/Angels game on 4/24, broadcaster Joe Buck invited viewers to e-mail him questions that he could respond to during the game. In the 2 hours and 47 minutes of official game time, Buck responded to a total of 3 e-mails. ALL were from Yankee fans. This is because….
A. Angel fans are too dumb and/or lazy to send e-mail.
B. There’s nothing interesting to say about the Angels other than the fact that Abreu and Matsui are ex-Yankees.
C. We just witnessed the most blatant case of an East coast bias, Yankee ass-licking national broadcast in the history of sports.
Thanx!
3rd Echelon - April 24, 2010
You missed one possibility:
That all of the emails from Angels fans called him out or called him names.
opiejeanne - April 24, 2010
One more possibility and very likely,
Because Angels fans had the Fox broadcast on mute and opted to listen to Manny Mota on the radio over Joe Buck despite the fact that the radio and TV broadcasts were not in sync. This is what I did for the hour I got to watch the show before I had to leave home for the day.
44FAN - April 24, 2010
Manny Mota?
Was he filling in for Pedro Bourbon?
rspencer - April 25, 2010
Depends. Were you concentrating... concentrating ... concentrating...
red floyd - April 25, 2010
So I wanted to see for myself since I was "blacked out" today from watching the game
First Friday night’s game:
Saturday’s game:
Draw your own conclusions…I see the 2 Friday non strikeout calls pretty clearly…Saturday’s zone was clearly wide…
K3YEROUT - April 25, 2010
I linked these directly from PITCHFX before reading that was discouraged. Hope I have not caused anyone any harm…
K3YEROUT - April 25, 2010
where did you read that was discouraged????
Rev Halofan - April 25, 2010
On the Pitchfx blog. He asked that people copy snapshots to photobucket, etc and link to those.
K3YEROUT - April 25, 2010 via mobile
oh
his missive is his missive, i thought you were referring to some stricture on the part of my site.
Rev Halofan - April 26, 2010
HERE
K3YEROUT - April 25, 2010
"ana"?
Time for them to update their database.
rspencer - April 25, 2010
ya think? Cracked me up too…
K3YEROUT - April 25, 2010
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