If it's September, it must be NTNgod.

As to whether his team's past history of playing important games was any factor, the Yankees' captain demurred.
''If you win, they say experience helps,'' Jeter said. ''If you lose, they say you don't have enough youth.''

I'm beginning to really enjoy Jeter's knack for saying something by saying nothing.

Two games in a row where the Jays/Rays game has ended with a home-plate collision to stop the tying run from scoring.

If that was Lawrie instead of Vizquel coming towards home, he would have blasted Molina into the second deck.
Vizquel tried to slide around him, and Molina simply fell on top of him to stop him from touching the plate.

Jeter's at-bat against the (vastly overrated) Stroup was a thing of beauty.

Jeter's at-bat against the (vastly overrated) Stroup was a thing of beauty.

Vastly overrated?

A setup guy no one has given a nod to until recently is somehow 'overrated'? By whom?

"If that was Lawrie instead of Vizquel coming towards home, he would have blasted Molina into the second deck.
Vizquel tried to slide around him, and Molina simply fell on top of him to stop him from touching the plate."

The way I'd describe it is Vizquel crashed into Molina and just bounced off.

A setup guy no one has given a nod to until recently is somehow 'overrated'? By whom?

They've been playing up the O's bullpen in the national media over the past few weeks. That said, I'm wondering if maybe Strop hasn't hit a wall. He's also walked a ton of guys this year (4bb per 9).

I think Stroup is replacement level. So any rating is over rated.

[Jeter] showed just how calm the Yankees remain Saturday

calm eyes... so calm

I think Stroup is replacement level.

Has Cuban Pete changed his tune from 1995?

Yes, that's 'replacement level' stuff Stroup has got all right. (Rolls eyes.)

Location? That's a different story, and it's been his issue forver, just less so this year. It's still an issue, and everyone's aware of it.

As Buck says, 'It's a ride every time he's out there.'

So Saturday was a really bad ride.

I have a feeling a number of teams would like to have such a 'replacement level' guy - even the Yankees.

Looking good for the O's today and Ray already won. Things are getting tight!

Yes, that's 'replacement level' stuff Stroup has got all right. (Rolls eyes.)

If only replacement level was defined by stuff. Sadly, command counts too, as long they call balls and strikes, anways, and Stroup has no idea where it's going. I posit that nearly all orgs have a guy in the minors with Stroup-like stuff, and Stroup like command, who are either being groomed to start or working on command. Throwing a wild 98 isn't that special.

It's slightly annoying to see such an uninformed opinion in Strop (who has obvious flaws but is clearly a pretty good reliever).

But actually it's just cool that a non-Os fan even cares enough to have any opinion, no matter how silly, on some random Oriole reliever.

I posit that nearly all orgs have a guy in the minors with Strop-like stuff, and Strop-like command, who are either being groomed to start or working on command. Throwing a wild 98 isn't that special.

The Nationals had Henry Rodriguez up with the big league club, but sadly (HAPPILY!!!!) he is out for the remainder of the season with surgery to remove lose[sic] bodies in his elbow.

The lucky O's took two out of three from the Yankees and the Yankees were lucky to win one.

And it is Strop.

It's slightly annoying to see such an uninformed opinion in Strop (who has obvious flaws but is clearly a pretty good reliever).

But actually it's just cool that a non-Os fan even cares enough to have any opinion, no matter how silly, on some random Oriole reliever.


Why is he clearly pretty good? His peripherals are mediocre and he is buoyed by a .248 BABIP. His 2011 and 2012 MLB H and HR rates are below his rates in AAA in 2010 and 2011, which is strong evidence they're unsustainable/lucky. He's a quintessential example of a guy being overrated by folks who don't dig like 3" under the surface. I guess he throws hard, and that's nice.

You're missing that he's a completely different pitcher than last year or the minors. His new best pitch is a two-seamer that he throws most of the time, with a slider and four seamer mixed in.

His sinking fastball is so good that nearly 70% of balls in play are ground balls. That's a GB% as high as Lowe or Wang in their prime. That's why he's been so dominant despite a pedestrian K/BB.

His peripherals are fine, as long as you look at all of them. At worst, he's only an above average or average reliever, so calling him replacement level is silly.

Strop has allowed 6 H/9ip. I guess that's not a peripheral, but it's fairly dominant.

Weird double post.

His sinking fastball is so good that nearly 70% of balls in play are ground balls. That's a GB% as high as Lowe or Wang in their prime. That's why he's been so dominant despite a pedestrian K/BB

What's the expected BABIP of a guy allowing 70% GB? I think you provided the best argument against yourself.

You don't seem to have an argument except to point to his BABIP and claim he's replacement level. It seems like you've seen this guy pitch once on a particularly bad day, and then took a two minute glance at his stat line and did a simple 1999-era DIPS analysis.

Pick any metric that regresses BABIP and other peripherals and Strop is above average on all of them.

FIP
Strop: 3.34
Average AL Reliever: 3.81

xFIP:
Strop: 3.80
Average AL Reliever: 3.95

SIERA:
Strop: 3.46
Average AL Reliever: 3.52

So he's not as good as his ERA, and that's likely to regress, but he's still a very good reliever, and there's no way every team has a guy just like him sitting in the minors.