GatewaySnayke wrote:First of all, saying that Joe Morgan is bad is insulting the word "bad." You are understating just how awful he is. I think FJM got about a month's worth of material tonight alone.
But, I can't really complain about him drooling over Reyes. Unfortunately, he's a pretty good player, albeit an annoying one. No, THE most annoying one. It's when he starts that stupid reverse cowgirl and bounces around like he's a kid riding a plastic pony that I would just assume throw the television out the window rather than continue watching.
I'll get ready to duck here, because I know I'm in the minority, but I love Miller/Morgan and I loved them tonight. Did I hear 18 years in the booth together? They seem like old friends, and to me they just work.
I find it entertaining the things that come out of Morgan's mouth at times. I mean we are the fanbase that puts up and adores Mike Shannon - we can look past some mistakes. But he really does say some very insightful things, I just think some have tuned him out after one of his less insightful things.
Morgan actually makes some good observations. His comment about Delgado slowing his bat speed and lofting that fly ball to right was spot on. The trouble is there's a lot of nonsense mixed in and the love affair with Reyes needs to cool.
The only oddball thing he really said was that the fake to 3rd throw to 1st move should be a balk (see, it does work once in a while!). I undertstand what he is saying - the pitcher doesn't intend to throw to 3rd therefore it's an intentional move to deceive the runner at 1st. But all pickoff moves have some deception to them, and once you fake to 3rd and come off the rubber you aren't a pitcher anymore.
skmsw wrote: In fact, we probably should be glad that they chose to praise the Mets (who did indeed play very well) instead of bash us as frauds and pretenders (we did not execute well in any aspect of the game).
You give up 17 hits, drop a fly ball, get thrown out at the plate, let a couple squeakers make it past everybody, etc etc etc -- -- you're probably just as glad that your opponent is being described as favorities, instead of YOU being described as "this style of play was good for 83 wins in last year's NL, it won;t cut it this time.".
You forgot the 17,000 double plays grounded into.
Sad thing is, the Cards loaded the bases twice and were one swing away from really making it a ballgame (despite their overall bad night).
clake wrote:I completely forgot about that fake to 3rd throw to first discussion awhile back. How strange that it works in the first game of the year!
It's one of my pet peeve with anouncers when they wonder why anyone tries it because it never works. Well, it does work, and not just last night. It looks lame when it doesn't, because the fake to 3rd is total BS. But if the guy is going on movement, he's dead.
clake wrote:I completely forgot about that fake to 3rd throw to first discussion awhile back. How strange that it works in the first game of the year!
It's one of my pet peeve with anouncers when they wonder why anyone tries it because it never works. Well, it does work, and not just last night. It looks lame when it doesn't, because the fake to 3rd is total BS. But if the guy is going on movement, he's dead.
If I remember correctly this move worked in the Cardinals' favor once last year too, perhaps Reyes was on the mound?
Anybody else notice how Miller absolutely butchered an explanation regarding Reyes early on? ESPN put up a graphic showing Reyes's plate appearances per walk, which started at 46 three seasons ago, dropped into the 20s in 2005, then was in the teens last season. Miller leads off with "Reyes walked 46 times last year" before eventually admitting he had no idea what the graphic said, only to be 'saved' by Morgan providing us with his 'insights' into statistics. My fiancee walks by in the middle of it and says to me, "those guys get paid for this??". BRUTAL.
