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Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Posted
2:58 PM
by Sean
Well, Ismael Valdes picked a fine night to transform into Cy Young. The Angels helped him out a bit last night, appearing to have something less than their usual patience at the plate in a 4-0 loss to the Rangers, but Valdes nonetheless pitched eight very effective innings. He started the game by walking Eckstein on four straight pitches, then gave up only one other walk while striking out seven - and striking out seven Angels is pretty much unheard-of these days. Appier actually picked pretty well, too - 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB - but it just wasn't his night.
Since there's not much to talk about regarding last night's game, let me tell you how much of a fan I am when it comes to MLB's Gameday Audio service. For twenty bucks, you get access to streaming audio of every broadcast of every game throughout the season; at the moment, I'm at work, listening to the Cubs-Reds game, in which Shawn Estes (Shawn Estes!) is taking a no-hitter into the sixth. That's pretty cool. Obviously, I also spend a lot of time listening to the Angels.
MLB also has an "MLB TV" service, which streams the television broadcasts and is about eighty dollars a season, but from what I can tell the picture quality isn't what I'd need before paying that much money to watch games on my computer. Don't get me wrong, you can definitely see what's going on, but in full-screen mode it kind of looks like the game is taking place behind a sheet of water. I'd expect they'll have those kinks worked out pretty soon, though.
In addition, they've got a whole suite of additional products, none of which interest me very much except for the Press Pass, the multi-page documents provided to members of the press before each game that detail the pitching-hitting matchups, current streaks, and other statistical trivia that announcers pepper their broadcasts with (what, you thought they just knew that stuff off the tops of their heads?). Unfortunately, it's only available as part of a larger package, and I refuse to pay for access to that extra junk when I don't want it. Memo to MLB: make all this stuff available a la carte!
Kelly Stinnett just broke up Shawn Estes's no-hitter. My world makes sense again.
Tonight, the Jarrod Washburn looks to build on his excellent start in Seattle, where he pitched eight scoreless innings. The Rangers will pitch Colby Lewis, who had some kind of meltdown against Oakland in his most recent start - 3.2 IP, 4 ER on 4 hits and eight walks, 103 pitches. Texas is slightly subpar versus lefties, particularly in their .311 OBP, while the Angels are middle-of-the-pack versus righties. Lewis really has yet to prove himself on the major-league level; I'd guess that the Angels' hitters will be a lot choosier about their pitches tonight.
Well, Ismael Valdes picked a fine night to transform into Cy Young. The Angels helped him out a bit last night, appearing to have something less than their usual patience at the plate in a 4-0 loss to the Rangers, but Valdes nonetheless pitched eight very effective innings. He started the game by walking Eckstein on four straight pitches, then gave up only one other walk while striking out seven - and striking out seven Angels is pretty much unheard-of these days. Appier actually picked pretty well, too - 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB - but it just wasn't his night.
Since there's not much to talk about regarding last night's game, let me tell you how much of a fan I am when it comes to MLB's Gameday Audio service. For twenty bucks, you get access to streaming audio of every broadcast of every game throughout the season; at the moment, I'm at work, listening to the Cubs-Reds game, in which Shawn Estes (Shawn Estes!) is taking a no-hitter into the sixth. That's pretty cool. Obviously, I also spend a lot of time listening to the Angels.
MLB also has an "MLB TV" service, which streams the television broadcasts and is about eighty dollars a season, but from what I can tell the picture quality isn't what I'd need before paying that much money to watch games on my computer. Don't get me wrong, you can definitely see what's going on, but in full-screen mode it kind of looks like the game is taking place behind a sheet of water. I'd expect they'll have those kinks worked out pretty soon, though.
In addition, they've got a whole suite of additional products, none of which interest me very much except for the Press Pass, the multi-page documents provided to members of the press before each game that detail the pitching-hitting matchups, current streaks, and other statistical trivia that announcers pepper their broadcasts with (what, you thought they just knew that stuff off the tops of their heads?). Unfortunately, it's only available as part of a larger package, and I refuse to pay for access to that extra junk when I don't want it. Memo to MLB: make all this stuff available a la carte!
Kelly Stinnett just broke up Shawn Estes's no-hitter. My world makes sense again.
Tonight, the Jarrod Washburn looks to build on his excellent start in Seattle, where he pitched eight scoreless innings. The Rangers will pitch Colby Lewis, who had some kind of meltdown against Oakland in his most recent start - 3.2 IP, 4 ER on 4 hits and eight walks, 103 pitches. Texas is slightly subpar versus lefties, particularly in their .311 OBP, while the Angels are middle-of-the-pack versus righties. Lewis really has yet to prove himself on the major-league level; I'd guess that the Angels' hitters will be a lot choosier about their pitches tonight.