Joe Nathan Career Save #300

[Moonlight J]

From this article:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...rticleid=12965

right, I remember that. What I can't figure out is whether or not the rules of the catchers' box is permitting this since it is treated like the batters' box and rendered useless after the 2nd inning once the chalk is rubbed out.

then again, since baseball can't even enforce rule 1.04(a) and let a park be constructed with a fence 11 feet under the rules, we should expect selective enforcement to be the norm.

[Stephen]

Wow, KS. You're coming out guns a blazin' this morning.

Obviously there was some tongue and cheek involved in my comment. I trust there was in yours too, but ouch sir. Ouch.

I've read the article and obviously the ball was closer to being a strike than where it landed on Pierzynski's shoe top. That said, even if AJ set up cleanly and framed the pitch it was pretty clearly a ball. I personally don't agree that it was close enough to be a must swing for Zobrist.

I know the pitchers tend to get the advantage in late game situations on borderline pitches, but whether I'm watching it through binoculars with dilated eyes on a neighbor's TV through their blinds or I'm standing next to Nathan on the field that pitch was clearly a ball.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Here is a much better discussion of the pitch than Jeff Sullivan's take on FanGraphs (I love Jeff as a baseball humorist, but he's not exactly an analyst):

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/20164

[Moonlight J]

Ben is the best