[No coincidences]

Isn't this the guy who literally couldn't get an out for Toronto?

What is it about putting on the Cardinal uniform that turns mediocre players into monsters?

[hawley]

watching him torment Fielder in the NLCS was almost sad.

[Redscot]

Dave Duncan, great baseball man

[No coincidences]

watching him torment Fielder in the NLCS was almost sad.

I watched him pitch a few times last year.

He literally couldn't get anyone out.

Nice PH decision there, Cokehead. Wow.

[hondo5]

Isn't this the guy who literally couldn't get an out for Toronto? What is it about putting on the Cardinal uniform that turns mediocre players into monsters?

You might literally be worse at sportsbetting than anybody I've ever known. The pathetic part is how much time you waste posting stupid trash on this forum. Find a new hobby.

[Redscot]

Gonna be tough for Washington to play chess with Larussa in NL games. AL managers only have to manage their clubhouse, the game takes care of itself if you have talent.

[No coincidences]

You might literally be worse at sportsbetting than anybody I've ever known. The pathetic part is how much time you waste posting stupid trash on this forum. Find a new hobby.

I take it you blindly tailed me tonight?



Dude, I'm up in every sport (well, I was up in bases until this little gem).

You get what you deserve if you come to this board and blame other people for you not cashing bud.

[No coincidences]

Gonna be tough for Washington to play chess with Larussa in NL games. AL managers only have to manage their clubhouse, the game takes care of itself if you have talent.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use Torrealba in that spot over a guy who hasn't even had an AB in a month.

[Redscot]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use Torrealba in that spot over a guy who hasn't even had an AB in a month.

Managers are hesitant to burn their backup catcher too early in case of injury.

[No coincidences]

Managers are hesitant to burn their backup catcher too early in case of injury.

What about Moreland then?

I know he's been bad recently and he's a lefty, but German? Really?

[hondo5]

Believe me, when I do cash it is because of fading you. And you being up on bases is flat out lying. You have a dumb thread setup before every somewhat big game about you not understanding this or not being able to see this happening etc..The minute I see that I'm taking the other side.

Btw thanks for helping me make the right decision in this game..

[hawley]

Believe me, when I do cash it is because of fading you. And you being up on bases is flat out lying. You have a dumb thread setup before every somewhat big game about you not understanding this or not being able to see this happening etc..The minute I see that I'm taking the other side.

Btw thanks for helping me make the right decision in this game..

ghost of who??

[Redscot]

What about Moreland then?

I know he's been bad recently and he's a lefty, but German? Really?

There you have it....Moreland against a lefty that made Fielder his bitch in LCS, or burn the backup catcher.....decisions are not so easy....NL game a whole different animal.

[No coincidences]

There you have it....Moreland against a lefty that made Fielder his bitch in LCS, or burn the backup catcher.....decisions are not so easy....NL game a whole different animal.

I know what he's done against Fielder and how "good" he's been this year, but I still can't believe this is the same guy who had an ERA around 5 and couldn't get an out for Toronto last year.

[No coincidences]

Believe me, when I do cash it is because of fading you. And you being up on bases is flat out lying. You have a dumb thread setup before every somewhat big game about you not understanding this or not being able to see this happening etc..The minute I see that I'm taking the other side.

Btw thanks for helping me make the right decision in this game..

Then you wouldn't be bashing me -- you'd be praising me to keep your fade train alive.

Admit it: you got caught blindly tailing and now you're pissed. It's OK that you don't have a mind of your own. If you like fading me so much and are making so much money doing it, you definitely wouldn't be attacking me right now. Liar.

[Redscot]

I know what he's done against Fielder and how "good" he's been this year, but I still can't believe this is the same guy who had an ERA around 5 and couldn't get an out for Toronto last year.

Duncan has put the magic touch on a number of pitchers in his long illustrious career. Jury is still out on how far Ryspcwizikiwzy will go.

[hondo5]

I'm attacking you cause your an idiot. I just want the rest of the board to know. You might as well make someone money since you obviously don't for yourself. Admit it, you're a loser.

[No coincidences]

I'm attacking you cause your an idiot. I just want the rest of the board to know. You might as well make someone money since you obviously don't for yourself. Admit it, you're a loser.

Hope you faded my NFL plays last week (Niners, Cowboys and Vikings -- all posted) or my CFB plays in http://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/college-fo...s-11-a-p3.html this thread. I ain't perfect, but I'm doing pretty well for myself.

Where are your picks stud?

[DemoralizdDreamr]

I think you are misktaken, he was pretty good with the jays. They just wanted to worsen their bullpen in order to require a shitty hopeless CF.

[DemoralizdDreamr]

With the jays he had an era of 2.97 and baa of .201. Very good pitcher, the jays just fuked up.

[No coincidences]

I think you are misktaken, he was pretty good with the jays. They just wanted to worsen their bullpen in order to require a shitty hopeless CF.

He was this year.

Last season his ERA was around 5 if I remember right.

[P25]

Big Jays fan...even JF admitted at the end of the year that his (mis)handling of the bullpen in his 1st year was his biggest weakness. Scrabble and Dotel are prime examples...

[No coincidences]

Big Jays fan...even JF admitted at the end of the year that his (mis)handling of the bullpen in his 1st year was his biggest weakness. Scrabble and Dotel are prime examples...

Dotel's another cat who puts on a Cardinal uniform and turns into Mo Rivera.

Motte blew every save opp. that came his way when LaRussa gave him a chance to close -- now he's unhittable.

[azn624]

He was a starter last year in Toronto and moved to the bullpen this year.

[DemoralizdDreamr]

Thats true, he did struggle last year. Dotel was so-so this year but Marc pitched very well at the starting of the year. He was the only good pitcher we had aside from romero and janssen.

[Redscot]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use Torrealba in that spot over a guy who hasn't even had an AB in a month.

Just wanted to revisit this NC...turns out I was mistaken...the Rangers are carrying a 3rd catcher for the WS...so it does make the Torrealba decision pertinent.

[Love The Action]

Dave Duncan, great baseball man

Gonna be tough for Washington to play chess with Larussa in NL games. AL managers only have to manage their clubhouse, the game takes care of itself if you have talent.

Spot on

[CTOWNsCAPPIN]

Isn't this the guy who literally couldn't get an out for Toronto?

What is it about putting on the Cardinal uniform that turns mediocre players into monsters?

He's a much better one inning situational pitcher than he is a starter, however, he will be starting next year for the Cardinals so go figure.

[stevenash]

He was a 26 and 16 starter in the minors.
He is still a kid.

Not saying the kid is Greg Maddux, but they were calling Maddux a shitbum in Chicago after his second year going 6 and 14 with a 5.61 era in a full season of starts.



He blew away Double-A hitters with 88 K's in 76.7 innings, a career-high 10.33 K/9. He's upped that to 12.71 K/9 in two Triple-A starts.

Yes, Rzepczynski skipped High-A to begin 2009 and immediately was one of the best pitchers in Double-A. He had some command issues early on, but eventually got his walks down to a decent rate (4.23 BB/9). Again, Rzepczynski posted a stellar FIP (2.64).

Called up to Triple-A, he's struck out 16 and walked four in 11 1/3 innings, with a ridiculous 1.44 FIP. He's clearly just about ready for the big leagues.

You're probably thinking: "Okay, this guy's a nice prospect, maybe he'll be a third starter instead of a fifth starter. He's got nice numbers. What's the big deal?"

Here's the big deal.

The strikeouts aren't Rzepczynski's most outstanding stat. What is?

He's only allowed five homers in 254 2/3 minor league innings.

That's one homer per 51 innings.

And it's no fluke.

Rzepcyznksi's career minor league groundball percentage is 64.4 percent. To put in perspective how incredible that is, consider that this year's leader (for qualified pitchers) in GB% is Joel Pineiro, at 61.9 percent.

Among all pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched, seven have GB% figures higher than 64.4 percent: three sidearmers (Brad Ziegler, Cla Meredith, Peter Moylan), two sinker-only, ground ball-oriented, low-strikeout guys (Alberto Arias, Brian Bass), one fluke (Jeremy Affeldt), and one excellent pitcher (Chad Qualls).

Other than Qualls, all of these pitchers use strategies that basically are designed to produce nothing but grounders. Rzepczynski, on the other hand, gets a ton of strikeouts as well as the grounders.

Rzepczynski has managed to post a strikeout rate and a ground ball rate higher than any starter in the majors. Of course, he's doing it against Double-A and Triple-A competition, but this sort of dominance in those two categories at any level hasn't been seen since Felix Hernandez's first big league season.

Even more incredibly, Rzepczynski gets a good number of pop-ups (7.4 percent career) and 71.8 percent of balls hit off of the lefthander are grounders or pop-ups.

This leads to a very low line-drive rate (12.7 percent career) which suppresses batters' ability to hit for average, and a very low flyball rate (20.2 percent career), which suppresses their ability to hit for power.

Since he strikes out a little over a batter an inning, the only way you can score off the lefty is hope you can get a walk and two ground-ball singles before he can get a strikeout and two groundouts. The odds of that are very low, which leads to the FIPs in the 2.50 range.

Rzepczynski's nearly unprecedented dominance of batted-ball numbers and strikeout numbers obviously doesn't match his lack of fanfare.

If you've never heard of him before, you probably think I'm about to open up the "actually, he throws an 81 mph fastball" line on you. You might think this is another Mark DiFelice/Danny Ray Herrera/R.J. Swindle story.

But it's not. Rzepczynski isn't exactly Tim Lincecum when it comes to stuff, but he's no slouch. He throws an 88-92 mph fastball with good sink (what a surprise), a plus slider, an average-plus changeup, and an average curveball.

While that may not sound overly impressive, consider Brandon Webb, who, with a 58.3 GB% and 7.26 K/9 for his career, is a decent comparison for Rzepczynski. Webb throws an 88-mph sinker, an plus curve, and an average change.

Rzepczynski actually throws a little bit harder, his changeup's a little better, and he has a second breaking ball. He's also left-handed, whereas Webb's a righty, and lefties tend to throw softer than righties: an 88-92 mph lefty fastball is like a 90-94 mph righty fastball.

Given Rzepczynski's incredible groundball and strikeout rates, his good control, and his average-plus stuff, he may be Brandon Webb 2.0. Webb's won a Cy Young and has a 3.50 career FIP, and Rzepczynski could do better than that.

And he could be doing it soon.

Look out, because any day now, Marc Rzepczynski will be confusing major league hitters every bit as much as his name confuses broadcasters.

[Redscot]

That's some great info there Nash , to top it off he will be in a good pitchers park with a great pitching coach. Someone to keep our eye on next year for sure.

[lakerboy]

I just laugh at how rep and dotel throw the same pitches to every batter but no one adjusts. DO these teams even scout? Hello these guys arent gonna throw pitches in the wheelhouse.

[BigDan]

and everyone acted like i was crazy when i said Cards hosed Jays in the Rasmus deal ..i dont care if Colby has a decent career (which i seriously doubt) it already a win for stl....

NC do yourself a favor bro and stop betting against and hating on the Cards..

[Regul8er]

Adam Lind called him SCRABBLE in Toronto. Genious nickname.

[stevenash]

^
That is his nickname now, it stuck.

[Regul8er]

Didnt realize it stuck stevenash. I havent heard announcers refer to him as scrabble yet in the postseason. Let it be known McCarver!