Yep. Angel Hernandez absolutely blows. Pitches practically in the dirt are strikes now? :-)
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That was a tough loss. Oh well, win most, lose some.

Is Valverde the slowest pitcher in MLB history? Geez.
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Which pitches did they show that he called strike were attrocious? The pitch tracker showed most of his calls were pretty close or correct. Chapman blew it, plain and simple. :-)
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Not even close. :-)
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:-)
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I am officially done rooting against the Reds for the 2012 season. Thank you for not flaming me for being a Tigers fan. :-)
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I guess you didn't watch the game. Orel Herschiser (spelling?) even said that he is usually on the side of the pitcher, but the hitters were getting hosed. On Ludwick's "strikes" they were well below the bottom of the strike zone. Francona said, "Well the strike zone bottom is the hollow of the knees, but those were at the shins"
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I thought you usually root for the Cubs?
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That could be partly due to the fact that sometimes the folks televising the game don't show the pitch tracker when it makes the ump look bad. That's a trend I've noticed over the last couple years, makes me wonder if MLB doesn't put some pressure on the broadcasters.

Of course Chapman just didn't have it last night, no disputing that.
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In the National League....born and raised in Detroit though, been a Tigers gan since '67, Dan. :-)

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You saw the glory Tigers of '68, then! Denny McLain, Denny Mclain, there's never been any like Denny McLain !
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I did, though Lolich was the savior of the Series that year. 31 wins for Denny will never be matched again with the advent of the 5-man rotation. My favorite player of that era though? Willie Horton. :-)
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You didn't see any of Ludwick's at bats last night? He's usually a guy who will go down and make contact with low pitches out of the zone, but after he called out Hernandez's poor calling during his first at bat, Hernandez called pitches at Ludwick's ankles for strikes. To be fair, Hernandez was consistant at it though and had a low strike zone all night. I also thought the interference call on Mez wasn't legit either. It wasn't the umpires that blew the game last night, it was the bullpen. But Hernandez still made my blood pressure rise last night.


Chapman? You forgot about Arrendondo, Marshall, and Ondruseck blowing it too.:-) Only guy in the pen who was worth a damn last night was Simon.
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It's been fun, Admiral.:-)
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Consistent, even when it was consistently bad. There has been a lot of bad umpiring this season and maybe last night was not exception, but the Reds still lost it without the umpire intervention. You can't get on an umps bad side. It never ends well. :-)

Chapman still had the 3 run lead before he gave up 4, 2 of them were his own. I was surprised at how poorly he pitched, barely threw strikes last night. Hope he hasn't lost his control (again), because patient batter will be drawing a lot of walks if he pitches like that. :-)
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Glad to see the Tigs win a series against an above .500 team. FWIW, I think those pitch trackers are worthless. They're way off. It seems that they show the mark on the box as to where the ball is when it impacts the catcher's glove. The plate is long from front to back. The ball only has to graze that 3-D box.

I'm not making excuses for bad calls. I agree Angel blew some. I'm not a fan of his. I think Adam's right about consistency though. As long as it's the same for both sides the players should be able to adjust.
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Agreed on all counts.
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Holy crap, a baseball fan and not a homer, don't let Dan see this. :-)
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LoL, you cant win them all as the Reds are soooo good at showing us, they had the spotlight and everyone talking about how amazing their bullpen is and then the bullpen decided to implode on itself. It almost seemed like Chapman had such a high confidence level and then gave up the run to end his streak and is completely shaken. He just is not pitching the same that he had been to start the season. You can't complain about an ump when the ump is making the same calls for both sides. I LOVE the Reds, but they just blew it and there is no one to blame but themselves, the bullpen absolutely poo'ed the bed with a 3 run lead.
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Hey Tom, you gonna come in here this series and root against the Indians this series? The Tigers need all the help they can get and watching the Indians lose a series will help.
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