2025 Around The League Thread

[bravesfanMatt]

I dont understand what you dont understand. He gets ground balls and limits homers. You can get away with more baserunners when you do that, Pitching isnt all about movement. Ranger imo is a poor mans Fried.

he would be a poor mans Soroka when Soroka was good. all of his pitches move and in different directions.. and he tunnels and commands them well. Like Soroka, he will give up hits, but you better string them together if you want to score.

 

[cajunrevenge]

If Soroka cut his HR rate in half he would be equivalent to Suarez.

 

[Carp]

I dont understand what you dont understand. He gets ground balls and limits homers. You can get away with more baserunners when you do that, Pitching isnt all about movement. Ranger imo is a poor mans Fried.

13th in GB rate since last season. Good but not amazing. For reference, the difference between he and Charlie Morton (ranked 23rd) is only 3.7%. But the difference in Suarez and Framber Valdez (ranked 3rd) is 10.4%.

The HR rate is also strange given his overall mediocre repertoire. Teams should be teeing off on that fastball.

 

[CyYoung31]

Nah son. This season, with all the shit going on, has nothing on the WC collapse several years ago. That was fucking brutal and never want to have to watch my team do that again.

I’d rather my team be relevant and have a winning record. That team won 90 games. I like watching good teams.

But, yes, I agree that I also never want to see something like that again.

 

[cajunrevenge]

Suarez is usually over 50% GB. And he throws a lot of pitches. When you face Strider you can sit on one pitch and theres almost a 50% chance you will be right. Hitting is about timing. Yes higher velocity is theoretically harder to hit but changing speeds so hitters cant time your pitches is important too. Thats why a 2 pitch pitcher is so often a reliever. So they dont get multiple at bats against him. Also how the ball looks coming out of the pitchers hand matters a lot. If a pitcher has great stuff but batters can pick up on the pitch coming out of his hand they will hammer it. Do you know why knuckleballs are so effective? Not because it moves so much but because it moves so unpredictably. If it had a ton of movement but was predictable it would be hit to orbit.

 

[bravesfanMatt]

If Soroka cut his HR rate in half he would be equivalent to Suarez.

I think you missed the part where I said when Soroka was good... pre missing leg injury. Soroka as a prospect and in his initial stint as a big leaguer had a ridiculous small HR rate... a ridiculous high GB rate... but his pitches were better than Ranger... Max had an elite curve and a High velo fast ball.. he doesn't compare to Ranger at all.. Ranger and Soroka threw 37 different pitches and they all move in different directions, but nothing is super high velo.

 

[Carp]

Suarez is usually over 50% GB. And he throws a lot of pitches. When you face Strider you can sit on one pitch and theres almost a 50% chance you will be right. Hitting is about timing. Yes higher velocity is theoretically harder to hit but changing speeds so hitters cant time your pitches is important too. Thats why a 2 pitch pitcher is so often a reliever. So they dont get multiple at bats against him. Also how the ball looks coming out of the pitchers hand matters a lot. If a pitcher has great stuff but batters can pick up on the pitch coming out of his hand they will hammer it. Do you know why knuckleballs are so effective? Not because it moves so much but because it moves so unpredictably. If it had a ton of movement but was predictable it would be hit to orbit.

None of that refutes what I said. His repertoire is still mostly trash.

If anything, he reminds me of Jose Quintana, who is also getting way better than expected results on a mediocre repertoire.

 

[thewupk]

I’d rather my team be relevant and have a winning record. That team won 90 games. I like watching good teams.

But, yes, I agree that I also never want to see something like that again.

I know we all enjoy watching good teams. But I still enjoy watching some of my favorite players perform well even in a lost season. Watching a team collapse like that, for me, takes all the joy I had out of that season.

 

[msstate7]

I know we all enjoy watching good teams. But I still enjoy watching some of my favorite players perform well even in a lost season. Watching a team collapse like that, for me, takes all the joy I had out of that season.

All seasons end with heartbreak unless you win a championship. Just give me as many games that matter in a season for the teams.