Home Run Blast of the Day--May 30th, 2013

You're Not Seeing Things:
Marlon Byrd blasts a 435 ft. HR 


 

Kickham's Pitch F/X

How Much was Kickham to Blame Last Night?

I commented during the game last night that Buster needed to do a better job framing Kickham's pitches.  What I saw from Kickham was really not much different than I anticipated, and to put it simply, he looks like he will fit right in with the rotation.  He nibbled the corners, and the two biggest pitches were the two called balls that were clearly also strikes. The kid was hitting his spots, the ump wasn't calling them. Ben Lindbergh at Baseball Prospectus talks in great length about the importance of framing as a catcher, and I use his GIF from Lucroy as examples because to me he just jumps out as a backstop who "gets it".


That right there, is about as close as we can get to Kickham's called balls.  According to BP and Lindbergh, that pitch was 0.351 feet off the strike zone, and is exactly whay I am referring to when I talk about the catcher framing the pitch for the ump. Below is a pitch chart of Kickham's start from last night.  I count six pitches that were borderline strikes, but were called balls with only one pitch that was outside the zone called in Kickham's favor.

Now here is the pitch he threw to Derek Norris: It actually wasn't as "up in the zone", and Norris just went down and smacked a four-seamer 379 feet. Which can be seen RIGHT HERE

Bottom line is I liked what I saw from Kickham. The Giants don't have an arm that can bring it 94 MPH, and as proven by his 25% Whiff rate when he threw his slider, he has the offspeed stuff of a big league arm.  With a week of grooming, maybe we can get a better start from the Rook.

Lincecum Debut

I used the MLB search feature: "Lincecum Debut", hoping that we could see his first ever start on the national stage of ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball against the filthy Phillies, but instead,  found this, which is better, and made this blog a whole lot more awesome:

Home Run of the Day--Memorial Day Style

The Gambino Goes Old School with a 445 ft blast:

Kickham Where It Hurts

So Mike Kickham makes his MLB debut Tuesday. Doesn't it feel like we've never won in Oakland? Let's check out what the scouting report says on the LHP:

Selected by the Giants in the sixth round of the 2010 draft, the lefthander enjoyed a breakout season in 2012. Pitching for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, Kickham posted a 3.05 ERA and struck out 137 batters in 150.2 innings. His impressive performance earned him Eastern League Postseason All-Star honors.

Kickham has above-average arm strength for a left-handed pitcher. His fastball often sits in the low 90's, and his two-seamer has heavy sink. He also throws two solid offspeed pitches--a plus 84 MPH changeup and a late-breaking power-curve in the low 80's. If he can harness his command and straighten-out his mechanics, Kickham could develop in to a rock-solid mid rotation starter in the big leagues.

Homer of the Day--May 26, 2013

Dan Uggla Blasts One off Marcum

 

Home Run Blast of the Day--May 25, 2013

Adam Jones Orioles OF: 446 Feet

Amazingly off R.A. Dickey and was in Toronto!!

Best Game Ever

Totally saw that coming.

..

Daily Cy Young

Kevin Gausman MLB Debut:

With the small slate of MLB action, WWBD chose to highlight uber stud prospect Kevin Gausman and his debut versus the Blue Jays on Thursday.  Trust us Kevin, as Giant fans, we can relate to Rogers Centre.  Gausman's line in his debut was very "debut like":

Home Run Blast of the Day

Man Crush Edition: Mike Trout OF Angels:
Officially 463 Feet.

Relegation Scenarios for Aston Villa

Well That Sucked and I Just puked in My Mouth Edition:

Go Arsenal!! Oops, I just vomited in my mouth again. Damn!!

Villa fans should had an idea who to cheer for in Sunday's matches. For the most part, nothing went as we'd all like. Norwich, who we would have loved to have seen lose, absolutely demolished West Bromich Albion (AN Albatross) by a final score of 4-0 at Carrow Road. The Canaries now have 41 points and are guaranteed to be back in the Premiership next year.

At Loftus Road, QPR gave us hope by taking an early 1-0 lead on a dubious penalty, but promptly gave Newcastle a penalty back and then conceded a second. Despite going down to 10 men for the final 10 minutes, Newcastle managed to hold on for the win. That's not saying much though, since QPR's attack relied on the creative skill of one Jermaine Jenas. At 41 points the Magpies, too, are safe for the season.

That leaves seven teams sitting at the 40-point or below mark. In order from worst to best: QPR, Reading, Wigan, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Fulham, and Southampton. QPR and Reading are already gone, and barring some freak incident in goal differential, Fulham and Southampton are safe. (And by freak, I mean Fulham would have to lose by 11or more and Southampton would have to lose by 13 or more. Remember, before you cry foul on this math, the only way goal differential would come into play is if Villa lose, so you have to add on -1 to theirs. Also, the next tie-break [goals scored] would likely not break in Villa's favor.)

So all of this leaves three teams eligible for relegation: Wigan, Villa, and Sunderland. Let's look at the scenarios:

Wigan lose to Arsenal on Tuesday

This would be it. They'd be able to get no more than 38 points on the season, and would be the final team relegated from the Premier League.

Safe: Aston Villa, Sunderland
Out: Wigan

Wigan draw Arsenal on Tuesday

This, mathematically, would keep Wigan alive. Unfortunately for Roberto Martinez' team, they'd only have a chance if crazy goal differential things happened in the final weekend. Realistically, a draw ends the race too:

Safe (Mathematically): Aston Villa
Safe (Realistically): Sunderland
Out (Realistically): Wigan

Wigan beat Arsenal on Tuesday

Well this would put a wrench in everything, wouldn't it? If Wigan win on Tuesday, all three teams are still absolutely in danger heading into the weekend. Wigan would be sitting at 38 points. So if this happens, nothing changes from now. So let's be officials with our Safe and Out and then take a look to what would happen on Sunday.

Safe: n/a
Out: n/a
 In danger: oh god, why is this happening!?

If Wigan beat Arsenal on Tuesday: Sunday scenarios

Were Wigan to win on Tuesday, we'd come into the weekend with Wigan and 38, Sunderland at 39, and Aston Villa at 40. Giving us:

Villa's Road to Safety:

Villa would be able to assure themselves of safety with a win or a draw at Wigan. Regardless of what happened elsewhere, this would be enough. If, however, they lost, Villa could still be safe if Sunderland lost at Tottenham, who will be looking to try and sew up a Champions League spot.

Villa are Safe if: they win or draw and/or Sunderland loses
Villa Drop if: they lose and Sunderland draws or wins

Sunderland's Road to Safety:

If Sunderland can get a win or a draw at Tottenham they will not only          make themselves a guaranteed member of the Premier League next season but they'd put some real pressure on Spurs. But for us, we only care about what happens to Sunderland. If they draw at Tottenham and Wigan do the same with Villa, Tottenham would have the goal differential advantage. Should Sunderland draw and Villa lose, Sunderland would have the edge on differential.

Sunderland are Safe if: they win or draw and/or Aston Villa do the same. 
Sunderland Drop if: they lose and Wigan wins

Wigan's Road to Safety:

As much as this has us all worried, even if they win on Tuesday, the only way Wigan can be safe is by following that up with a win on Sunday. This one is simple. I suppose if Tottenham just absolutely demolish Sunderland in an unprecedented fashion (by eleven goals, to be precise), Wigan could stay up with a draw. But that's not happening.

Wigan are Safe if: they win 
Wigan Drop if: they lose or draw

* * * * * *

So there you have it. Aston Villa are still very much in the best position of the teams eligible for relegation. They only way they drop is if Wigan wins on Tuesday and beats Villa on Sunday AND Sunderland manages a win or a draw at Tottenham on Sunday. As much as today's results didn't go how Villa fans wanted, things aren't as bad as they seem. Bottom line: let's all cheer like crazy for Arsenal on Tuesday. That'd put this all behind us.

Let me know in the comments if you find any mistakes here! These sorts of things are always trickier than they seem.

Across The Pond--Espana Style!!

Spain Preview - who will take the biggest step forward? WWBD Bets on Vettel.

Breaking: Sebastian Vettel pips Alonso in practice for F1's Spanish Grand Prix

• Red Bull driver edges out Ferrari's local hero and Mark Webber

• Lewis Hamilton sixth after spinning his Mercedes

This weekend’s Formula 1 Gran Premio de España 2013 in Barcelona signals the start of the first European section of the FIA Formula One World Championship, and it will be a crucial race for every team on the grid.

This is where everyone will be bringing their big updates. Those that are up front, such as Red Bull, hope to move further ahead. Others who are a little behind, such as Lotus, Ferrari and Mercedes, will hope to be closing the gap. McLaren hope to scale their own technical mountain with major revisions here. And further back the smaller teams each have their respective hopes pinned on modifications that have been in the pipeline since the racing began in Melbourne.

Last year Pastor Maldonado and Williams stunned the F1 world with a beautiful victory over Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, but can we expect a similar sort of upset this year? Williams have a big update that they expect will put the FW34 closer to the front.

"We are working with a package for Spain and we expect it to be better,” chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar says. “While we could see the problem in the first races, from one place to another it was not exactly the same. So we have been catching up and trying to get the best for Barcelona.

"At the moment we think that it's going in the right direction, even though it is not going as fast as we would like. But all the parts we brought to the car we've run them, so that's good."

The odds favour Red Bull and their immediate competitors, however. But that doesn’t mean that the Milton Keynes team are getting complacent, even though Sebastian Vettel won in Malaysia and dominated in Bahrain.

"Ferrari are strong, Lotus have a good car, and the Mercedes certainly over a single lap is very strong," says team principal Christian Horner. "The rest are a step behind. It's close, it's tight and I'm sure it's going to move around from circuit to circuit as we head back to Europe.”

 

Fernando Alonso has also won a race, but remains low-key ahead of his home Grand Prix as aero chief Nikolas Tombazis says that Ferrari’s opening performances rate only six out of 10. At Lotus, meanwhile, it remains to be seen what effect the resignation of technical director James Allison will have in the short term, as long-serving Nick Chester moves up into that role.

Lewis Hamilton had a solid pole position here last year for McLaren before fuel issues intervened, and is optimistic that Mercedes can be a factor.

“It feels like a long time since Bahrain so we're all looking forward to getting to Barcelona and starting to get into the routine of the European season,” the 2008 champion says. “The short break has been good however, and I've had the chance to catch up with family and friends, and also spend some time at the factory with the guys, working on our efforts to improve.

“We've been boosted by the results that we've had at the start of the season and to come away from the first four races with two third and two fifth places feels like a real achievement. I'm feeling very comfortable in the car now and we know the areas that we need to improve so a lot of effort is being put in to close that gap to the front-runners. Barcelona should be a good test as we know the circuit so well having completed most of the pre-season test programme there. The weekend should be a good benchmark of the progress we have made since then.”

McLaren feel the same, and this really is a crucial event for them which will demonstrate whether they have started to get the best from the troubled MP4-28.

“It’s been difficult for the team to make consistent progress through the first four races, but I think returning to a circuit where we undertook two of the pre-season tests will give us a useful benchmark of our progress so far,” a cautious Jenson Button says.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the importance of the weekend’s upgrades; but, as with every upgrade, they’re simply part of the series of continuous improvement that is made across the season. As always, there’ll be elements of it that work, elements that perhaps work in a different way to what we’d anticipated, and elements that don’t work, or perhaps require further work. That’s life in modern Formula One. So I’m pragmatic about what we’ll discover. Of course, I’m hopeful that it’ll move us a step closer towards the destination.”

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh is hoping for a less frenetic race between his drivers here, after they made their peace in the aftermath of their tough scrap in Bahrain.

“As with last year, form at the start of the season is still somewhat volatile and unpredictable,” he suggests. “Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix saw an unexpected but worthy winner in Pastor Maldonado, and while it would be difficult to see another left-field runner emerging as a contender for victory, the formbook is still hard to read.

“We are pushing ahead to develop MP4-28, and will be hoping for a productive weekend that will allow us to gather a useful data set for the races ahead.”

Sauber have revised aerodynamics to boost the C32’s thus-far disappointing form, while Caterham have the rest of the major update that looked so promising in Bahrain. They expect big things from it.

The 4.655-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya features 16 corners, the majority of which are right-handers which put the left-front tyre under the greatest strain. But the rears also take a beating coping with the demands of strong traction exiting the slower corners. Throw in the abrasive surface and the tendency towards high ambient temperatures, high lateral loads around 4g, with spikes of 5 under braking into Turns 1 and 10, and tyre wear is always high.

Pirelli are bringing their orange hard compound and white medium compound tyres, but in a change from previous 2013 races the former will be closer to the 2012 tyre with the aim of opening up even more possibilities for strategy.

Teams will also get an extra set of prototype hard tyres for free practice to encourage them to run throughout the sessions instead of opting to conserve tyres for the rest of the race weekend. These are a specially-created compound with the emphasis on durability and to distinguish them they won’t have any colour markings.

“We’re introducing a revised version of our hard tyre in Spain, which is closer in characteristics to the 2012 tyre,” Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery explains. “This new tyre gives us a wider working temperature window - although it delivers a little bit less in terms of pure performance - but it should allow the teams to envisage an even wider variety of race strategies than before in combination with the other compounds, which remain unchanged this year. This is a decision that we’ve come to having looked at the data from the first four races, with the aim of further improving the spectacle of Formula One. In fact this is almost a tradition with us now, as we also introduced a revised version of the hard tyre for the Spanish Grand Prix in 2011, which was our first year in the sport.

“We’d expect the medium tyre to still be significantly faster and this is the one that the teams are likely to qualify on, whereas the hard is likely to be the preferred race tyre.

“As for the extra sets of prototype hard compound tyres for free practice, we wanted to encourage all the teams to run as much as possible right from the start, especially with the rookie drivers, to give fans the spectacle they deserve to see.”

In a change to 2012, the track will feature two DRS zones. The first is between Turns 9 and 10, with the detection point midway between 8 and 9. The second is on the start-finish straight, with detection between Turns 15 and 16. In the only other circuit revision since last year, the leading edges of the co

Sebastian Vettel, the championship leader, was fastest in practice at the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday afternoon, the Red Bull driver pushing the local hero Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari into second place.

They were followed by Mark Webber, Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, who spun his Mercedes early on.

Alonso and the Red Bulls were the most impressive cars on show. Webber was the first to go top before he was overtaken by Alonso. Webber went back to the top of the timings after the teams switched to the softer medium tyres but then his Red Bull team-mate Vettel did for both the Australian and the Spaniard as just 0.083sec covered the leading three cars.

Tyres once again dominated proceedings. Paul Di Resta had problems with his left rear and had to park his Force India on the grass but was still 10th.

In the morning practice session, Alonso posted the quickest time ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Massa. But the damp and cool conditions reminded many of testing here in February, when little meaningful work could be done in preparation for the start of the season in Melbourne and Malaysia.

Alonso pipped his team-mate by 0.203sec. He had been the fastest driver earlier on but then fell down the table as conditions got better.

Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne finished third, ahead of Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Hamilton.mbination kerbs on the apices of Turns 13, 14 and 15 have been chamfered to remove a step.