Comments on: Hakuna Matata

By: tom s.

tom s. — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 02:40:00 +0000

what does it mean that shelby doesn’t let on that he’s bright? he doesn’t call you up to discuss particle physics and kierkegaard?

i wish people would stop acting like they know what’s going on in the heads of prospects they don’t know, in the absence of any evidence to support their claims.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:14:57 +0000

My thought is that you shouldn’t get emotionally attached to particular prospects. I would love for Miller, Rosenthal, Kelly, Martinez, Maness, Jenkins, et al to all become top MLB aces. Realistically, if we get 1 front-of-the-rotation starter and 2-3 back-of-the-rotation/bullpen guys out of the lot, we’d be doing pretty well. And I really don’t have a rooting interest in which of them succeeds more than the others.

By: pitch and hit

pitch and hit — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:50:59 +0000

Miller gets very frustrated easily. He would often do what he wanted, that is why they implemented the no shake rule.
Yup they have made changes to his delivery and I am not sure they had to.
If he is bright he doesn’t let on to that fact. Yes, the no shake rule was so he didn’t have to stand on the mound and figure out what pitch to throw and in what count and why. There comes a time when a pitcher has to understand and realize when you throw what, it may take him longer than others to figure that out.
I beleive in the above, stop analyzing the kid, let him grow up and take the heat off of him and he will be fine. He doesn’t have to be in STL next year, he will get there when he is ready.
If you ask any pitcher about the HR he gave up the first thing he will say might be, “I knew as soon as it left my hand”. The comment about him also being a fly ball guy doesn’t help his cause. He will learn as he matures to throw with conviction all of your stuff and when to let up.

By: wileyvet

wileyvet — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 05:24:37 +0000

The bottom line is that people just need to chill on Shelby. He’s not a freaking machine. He’s a young immensely talented prospect who hit a speed bump (no pun intended). He’s being analyzed ad nauseum and just needs to be left alone to focus on improving. Throw all the predictors you want at the wall to see what sticks, but it still all comes down to Miller’s resolve to be a major leaguer. The talent is there in spades. Does he have the character to put it all together. I’m going with YES. Go Shelby! Nuff said!

By: Dave C

Dave C — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:03:40 +0000

John Vuch was on the Bernie Miklasz Show a month or so ago and was asked about Shelby’s struggles at AAA. Vuch said that there was a small mechanical change between his throwing motion from the past compared to AAA, one that they were going to work with Shelby on correcting. He said that that small flaw may be taking some life off of Shelby’s fastballs. He also said that Shelby’s breaking stuff is good, but not as good as it can be, and not consistent enough. He stressed that Shelby needs to use his breaking stuff in different counts, which is why Shelby will be using a game called by the catcher going forward and won’t be allowed to shake off; by taking the pitch calling away from him, Shelby should be able to focus solely on making the best pitch, whichever pitch it may be.

By: tom s.

tom s. — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:58:24 +0000

i don’t really care for the personal attack in this comment. claiming, based on a high HR rate, that a prospect is stupid is a silly assertion. adam wainwright had 1.7 HR/9 in memphis in 2004, the same HR rate as shelby has. is adam stupid?

By: tom s.

tom s. — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:53:36 +0000

i don’t think that azru is stating that HR numbers lack value or are purely a function of luck.

in the context of a single season, the likelihood that bad home run numbers are luck is high, whereas a season of K and BB numbers are less likely to be luck influenced. those numbers stabilize a lot sooner.

By: bc

bc — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:33:25 +0000

HRs are not necessarily “mistake” pitches. You think every pitch Vlad Guerrero hit for a HR was a mistake? The first thing to recognize to even start understanding the argument about pitchers and HR rate is to understand that once a pitch leaves a pitcher’s hand, he longer controls anything about the outcome of that pitch.

By: RCHIII

RCHIII — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:21:12 +0000

I’m not sure this logic works for me. Taking it to an absurd level, if a guy pitches 7 innings and records every out as a strike-out, so 21 strike-outs, but also gives up 5 HR’s every outing, is the pitcher a good pitcher? I would submit, “no”. Strike-outs are only good as long as the runs allowed follow to a low level and you actually get through 7 innings. Lately, Miller is achieving that kind of success. However, on the season, he has not. If he finishes the season strong, I’m good with saying he has turned the corner – I’m not quite there yet…..but we’re making progress!

By: pitch and hit

pitch and hit — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:10:33 +0000

He’s just not perhaps the brightest bulb in the pack. HR ARE mistakes. They also reflect a young pitchers frustration at the umpires strike zone. In other words they just get frustrated and try to throw it past the wrong guy. He will learn, it may take a while but he will.

He reminds me of Matt Latos, not much upstairs and extremely immature as a 20-21 year old but incredibly talented.

He is not over hyped, once he figures it out he will be around for a while.