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bucdaddy
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... My guess is: By throwing that outside-off-the-plate stuff that the major-league hitters know not to swing at. |
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Michael
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... I don't know much about the minor leagues. Could they give him an assignment to only throw 50% fastballs and sliders, thus making him work on his changeup and curveball? |
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bob weiser
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yes they could do exactly that michael. they call the pitches. two or three of these though and we might be able to pull the wool over someone else's eyes and trade him. someone got traded for a bag of balls in the minors last year. i'd take that |
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Carnegie Chip
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... Eh, not to rain on anybody's parade but people need to forget the idea that Snell is down in AAA to improve or "work on such and such." He himself said he doesn't think he needs to fix anything. He's in AAA because clearly he hates JR, Kerrigan, the fans, and the team. And the team is sick of him, too, because NH said they've been trying to trade him for TWO MONTHS. Bottom line is they're just buying time until they can get rid of him. He's not part of the future plans. My prediction: he'll be tossed in to a Freddy/LaRoche/Jack deal like OPerez was years ago. |
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GPT
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... And when he is traded to another team, people will whine and complain like they did when Ollie was dealt away. Oh my God, how could we just give Perez away? $36 million later, ask the Mets how they feel about Oliver Perez. Just because a player has flashes of brilliance doesn't mean he's a ball player. Especially once he gets paid for the first time. |
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Erad67
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... I've never been a Snell fan. Mainly because after one of his 1st years in the bigs they asked him play winter ball and he refused and said "I think I've learned enough this year." After hearing that I wanted him off the team. As a Pirate fan I was happy to see him have that lucky year when he won a bunch of games and was glad to see him have that 1 good year, but still have not been a fan because of that 1 comment. |
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JRoth
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NH was a dick Yeah, honestly, listening to the NH interview, I think it's going to take a lot for me to revise my opinion that he's a dick. I mean, honestly, it was completely unprofessional*, and Snell's lack of professionalism is NO excuse for that. The Torres and Bautista trades already indicated to me that NH has a really unacceptable tendency to make baseball decisions based on emotion/pride, and this cements it for me. Not that that's the only reason he makes moves, but that he makes moves at all on that basis. Stupid, and not a recipe for success in Pittsburgh. Dick. * both in the sense that a manager simply shouldn't talk that way in public about his people, no matter what, and in the sense that it manifestly reduces the return that the Pirates can expect from Snell. He could strike out 27 in every AAA start, and every team in MLB would know that the Bucs would take Luis Rivas back for him |
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JRoth
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... Just for the record, tho, in terms of the trade, the Mets did fine. Perez was never as good as his one good Bucs season, but he was the Mets' #2 or #3 pitcher for a couple years, and came up huge in huge games. This year is kind of astonishing, even by Ollie standards, but that's not directly related to the trade. |
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JRoth
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Just for the Record Point taken about how Snell got the Ks, but I do want to note that, however bad the Mud Hens are*, Snell's performance is impressive. It's like when Cone had his perfect game against the Expos and people tried to denigrate it by pointing out that the Expos were a bad team. As if they were being no-hit regularly, and a perfect game was just a question of who'd throw it. 13 Ks in a row is an extraordinary accomplishment, and while the method was problematic, it also showed an ability to maintain focus that has been Snell's other primary problem. That said, you're absolutely right - unless Snell shows that he can beat MiLB teams by attacking batters, he won't have shown much. * for the record, 1.04 k/inn |
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JRoth
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On Kerrigan Last thing: Snell would not exactly be the first guy not to like Kerrigan. He's become a hero in Pittsburgh, mainly for turning around Duke, but as someone pointed out back in Spring Training, if the guy's all he's cracked up to be, how come he keeps getting fired? I strongly suspect he's a Therrien type - great for instilling certain things, but wears out his welcome a little faster than you might expect. Doesn't excuse Snell for dismissing him - have some success before you blow off your coach, Ian - but makes it a lot more understandable than the "I can't believe he'd insult Kerrigan" tone I'm picking up around town. If guys like Kerrigan didn't piss off players, they'd become fixtures on perennial pennant-winners, not rent-a-coaches bouncing around the bigs (and ending up on one of the worst teams in baseball). |
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whygavs
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http://whygavs.com The knock on Kerrigan before the year was that he had a very high opinion of himself and the pitchers that worked with him couldn't handle him. That sounds like a guy that wouldn't get along with Snell at all. |
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whygavs
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... Just a heads up, I cleared out those comments that were poorly formatted only because the poster gave me permission and it seems to have deleted two other comments. My bad, guys. Summary: Everyone thinks Huntington is a dick for saying what he said. |
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JRoth
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But.... I said it really brilliantly, with sparkling wit and breathtaking insight. Truly one of the great blog comments of our time, now lost forever. Alas. |
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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... stuff |
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azibuck
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... By that logic, if he's not a good pitching coach, how come he keeps getting hired? |
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matt w
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sorry! It was all my fault! And actually, though it didn't survive my poor formatting, I didn't think Huntington was a dick -- I meant to say that I'd never seen a GM punch his own player in the nuts so hard, but also that Snell kind of needs a punch in the nuts. (Not just that he deserves one, but that he really needs some kind of wake-up call, to let him know that he's dribbling away his talent even if he can strike out 17 Mud Hens on the outside corner.) Well, maybe NH is still a dick. |
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JRoth
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Negotiating Tactics So you think that it's a brilliant negotiating tactic to announce, before anyone has even inquired, that you consider the product you're selling to be nigh-worthless and overpriced? Interesting approach. If I'm a GM, I know 2 things: Ian Snell will never pitch in Pittsburgh again, and NH has to justify $6M in salary to a AAA player unless he can trade Snell. Whatever NH says, I feel no obligation to offer him a player better than, say, Ryan Vogelsong. |
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JRoth
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Who said that? What an entertainingly absurd comment, azibuck. No one said he wasn't a good pitching coach. I said he pisses off players, and whygavs said he's got very high self-regard. Neither of those things affect a GM (who keep hiring him), but they wear out players and managers (who, per the Therrien example, are perfectly capable of throwing a tiresome coach under the bus). Look, I think the guy has a lot going on, and Duke, at least, has responded enormously. But that doesn't mean that a guy like that, with a strong personality and great self-regard, won't make enemies among a dozen pro athletes (each with his own personality and self-regard) over the course of 8 months of daily interaction. |
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azibuck
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... "before anyone has even inquired" Uhh, he's been trying to trade Snell for months. His value couldn't be any lower if Huntington said he was a heroin-addicted pedophile. Huntington's comments didn't move Snell's value anywhere. "Ian Snell will never pitch in Pittsburgh again" This is where I'd slap a quarter on the table and bet you he does. Not this year, but if he's not moved in the offseason, he'll pitch for Pittsburgh next year. He's been a jerk, but I don't think any of his comments have reached bridge-burning status. |
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azibuck
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... Your comments that were erased were absurd. Here, I pointed out the faulty logic that "someone back in Spring Training" used. |
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