Results tagged ‘ Mat Latos ’
An odd thing happened at the ballpark yesterday…
In last night’s Reds-Indians game, Cleveland starter Derek Lowe was clearly intentionally brushed back with a mid-90s fastball from Mat Latos.
You just don’t see that happen unless there is either some sort of past history with the pitcher, usually bad blood from a previous bean ball incident, or something went down in the game where the “fly-by” happened.
None of that seems to apply here so it’s a little bit of a mystery.
After the game MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian asked Derek Lowe about it and he gave a long, expletive-filled but ultimately not-very-forthcoming explanation, alluding to some years-old bad blood between Reds manager Dusty Baker and himself:
After the game, Lowe insinuated that Baker has been instructing his pitchers to throw at him for the past five seasons due to a grudge that dates to Lowe’s final year with the Dodgers in 2008.
“Dusty will deny it,” Lowe said. “I have zero respect for the guy — not that it matters. I imagine he’d say the same about me” … The 39-year-old Cleveland starter hinted at an incident that was never made public during his time in Los Angeles, but he was not willing to offer up specific details.
Now I’d love to know what the heck is at the center of all this animosity, but who knows if we’ll ever get the full story.
But until then you guys are gonna have to settle for:
Was Jose Valverde throwing spitballs last night?
By Craig Calcaterra @ Hardball Talk
I was alerted to this video via Twitter by … Dallas Latos? Who I guess is Reds pitcher Mat Latos‘ wife. She has a blog at MLB saying so anyway. I sorta don’t care. The point of this post is the video, not who’s sending it around. And the point of the video is that it appears to show Jose Valverde doctoring up the baseball.
There are two videos, actually, one in slow motion one at full speed. They show Valverde taking the ball, put it in his glove, raising his pitching hand high in the air — classic magician’s misdirection move! — clearly working up some spit in his mouth and then bringing the glove with the ball to his face and hocking a loogie into the glove. Like, you can see the jaw muscles move and stuff.
First, video in slow motion:
Here it is at full speed:
The videos may be taken down by MLB soon. So below are a couple of captured stills. They don’t totally get it all, but know that the first one catches him in mid spit-creation:
For the record, this came before the 1-2 pitch to Devin Mesoraco. The pitch resulted in a swinging strike. According to Brooks Baseball, the pitch was a fastball. It also had more rotation on it then the other three pitches he threw.
I’m not the vice president of major league baseball in charge of on-field affairs, so I can’t make any definitive ruling here and I’ll leave it as it stands. Two thoughts, though:
- If it was a spitball, can anyone tell me why Valverde would even bother with Angel Hernandez behind the plate calling everything within a mile of the dish a strike? and
- If it wasn’t a spitball, how awesome is it that Mat Latos’ wife is on Twitter stirring up crap (by re-tweeting someone who called Valverde out)? That would be epic, yes?
List Of Top Young Pitchers Without Extensions
Ben Nicholson-Smith @ MLB Trade Rumors put together this great list of young pitchers who might be hitting the open market in the not-too-distant future.
MLB teams are working to keep their best pitchers off of the open market with contract extensions, and fewer elite arms are hitting free agency as a result of this emerging trend. In the past month alone, Matt Cain, Derek Holland, Jon Niese and Madison Bumgarner have signed long-term extensions that will postpone their free agency.
So who’s going to hit free agency? Fortunately for teams without pitching, some under-30 starters are not signed to long-term deals (minimum 2.5 wins above replacement in 2011 per FanGraphs). The list below includes pitchers who are going year to year through arbitration, and those who are headed for free agency this coming offseason:
Eligible For Free Agency After 2012
- Zack Greinke – 28 years old, 3.9 WAR in ’11, 7.057 years of MLB service through ’11
- Edwin Jackson – 28 years old, 3.8 WAR in ’11, 6.070 years of MLB service through ’11
- Cole Hamels – 28 years old, 5.0 WAR in ’11, 5.143 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Brandon McCarthy – 28 years old, 4.7 WAR in ’11, 5.122 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Anibal Sanchez – 28 years old, 3.8 WAR in ’11, 5.099 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
Eligible For Free Agency After 2013
- Matt Garza – 28 years old, 5.0 WAR in ’11, 4.149 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
Eligible For Free Agency After 2014
- Justin Masterson – 27 years old, 4.9 WAR in ’11, 3.108 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Matt Harrison – 26 years old, 4.2 WAR in ’11, 3.083 years of MLB service through ’11
- Max Scherzer – 27 years old, 2.8 WAR in ’11, 3.079 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
Eligible For Free Agency After 2015
- Rick Porcello – 23 years old, 2.7 WAR in ’11, 2.170 years of MLB service through ’11
- David Price – 26 years old, 4.7 WAR in ’11, 2.164 years of MLB service through ’11
- Jordan Zimmermann -- 25 years old, 3.4 WAR in ’11, 2.154 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Ian Kennedy – 27 years old, 5.0 WAR in ’11, 2.124 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Mat Latos – 24 years old, 3.2 WAR in ’11, 2.079 years of MLB service through ’11
- Doug Fister – 28 years old, 5.5 WAR in ’11, 2.058 years of MLB service through ’11
- Philip Humber – 29 years old, 3.5 WAR in ’11, 2.000 years of MLB service through ’11
Eligible For Free Agency After 2016
- Daniel Hudson – 25 years old, 4.9 WAR in ’11, 1.117 years of MLB service through ’11 (extension candidate)
- Ivan Nova – 25 years old, 2.7 WAR in ’11, 1.035 years of MLB service through ’11
- Brandon Beachy – 25 years old, 2.8 WAR in ’11, 1.014 years of MLB service through ’11
- Michael Pineda – 23 years old, 3.4 WAR in ’11, 1.000 years of MLB service through ’11
Many of the pitchers above will eventually sign extensions that delay their arrival on the open market. For now, however, it remains possible that they’ll test free agency.
