Orlando Arcia Has a Future in Slow Pitch Softball
Orlando Arcia, Filthy 49mph offspeed pitch of some sort and shimmy. h/t @MLBRandomStats pic.twitter.com/y7r2wRiEIQ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 13, 2020
You know what I like in my pitchers? Consistency. Too many pitchers these days aren’t consistent from outing to outing, and that makes it difficult for managers to try and decide who to put in at any given time. That’s not the case for Orlando Arcia though, as he proved tonight. In his second career relief outing (the first coming two weeks ago against Detroit), Arcia gave up two earned runs in one inning pitched, exactly the same stat-line that he put up in his pitching debut. That’s the kind of consistency I can get behind. It sounds bad, but think about it, he’s a no-doubt closer any time you have a three-run lead.
Even better, Arcia did improve from his last outing. As you can see above, the pitch he threw was clocked at 49 mph. In his appearance against Detroit, he threw three pitches slower than 60 mph and recorded two outs with a 100% CSW. But none of his pitches fell below 50 mph, until tonight. Arcia is locked in when he can get that lob pitch near the plate, and he’s looking in fine form already. Expect more greatness from Arcia’s arm moving forward.
Matt Vasgersian Handles Being Blackmailed by Rob Manfred
This seriously may be the worst take I have ever heard about the Astros cheating scandal
"Dodgers fans may think otherwise"
"We're never going to know what really happened"
You've got to be kidding me. pic.twitter.com/RhDaAMJMoF
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) September 14, 2020
I like Matt Vasgersian as a commentator, I really do. His call of Rajai Davis’s game-tying home run in the 2016 World Series is going to go down as one of the all-time greatest calls in baseball history, and beyond that he’s always done a great job in every game of his that I’ve watched. That’s why I’m choosing to believe that Manfred has some insane dirt on him and is leveraging that to get him to say something as monumentally stupid as this during the nationally-televised, ESPN-broadcasted Sunday Night Baseball. It makes no sense otherwise. Maybe Manfred has bribed him, maybe he’s secretly a Houston Astros fan, or maybe, just maybe, Manfred knows something about him that we don’t, and will not ever know, because Vasgersian played along with Manfred’s demands here. There’s no other explanation, he’s just not that dumb.
Alex Rodriguez is Actually That Dumb Though
Alex Rodriguez on Chris Taylor batting with runners on second and third and two out in the bottom of the eighth: "You almost want to keep the game at 5-1, just to see how Jansen reacts."
— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) September 14, 2020
I just want to point out, this is coming from the exact same broadcast team that said “That’s a win for the Cubs” after Trevor Story singled in the 13th inning, who then later came around to score the winning run that inning. Maybe the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast curse just makes whoever is a part of it just a little bit dumber when they put the headset on.
Not the Banner We Wanted, but We’ll Take It
Airplane banners flying over Dodger Stadium, an hour before the Astros game
(Via @davenport_media) pic.twitter.com/6HF8r3V70p
— Very Baseball Moments (@verymlb) September 13, 2020
As a Dodger fan, I have to say that there was one thing I was looking forward to in the wake of the cheating Astros scandal, and that was how, for 81 glorious nights, the Astros would be mercilessly jeered by every opposing fan in the league. I was even fully planning on taking part in it, as I had tickets to the Astros season opener at Angel Stadium, along with thousands of other Dodger fans. But along with seeing friends, Black Widow, and (for a while there) toilet paper, COVID-19 had to rip that away from me. There have been a few pretty creative stunts done throughout the season by fans still wanting to get some things off their chest, and this might be the top dog so far this season. I really liked the nice touch of the asterisk replacing the “O” on the second banner. I hope that by forcing all the fans to keep it bottled up for a full season, we’ll see all kinds of creativity next season (if we’re allowed back at games by then).
This Edition Got Really Dark, Let’s End With Some Eyebleach
some wholesome content for your sunday evening. pic.twitter.com/eBFRoqR28g
— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 13, 2020
What a good doggo, he deserves every bit of those scratchies.