...and now pitching...
 

This was funny to watch:

Attachment 582998

A good fit for the Angels bullpen.

Naturally, Acuna had no problem with it.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I love when position players pitch. Enjoy it before they institute the "mercy rule"!

Not unpopular with me. I get a kick out of it. I remember Chris Davis getting a win in relief against the Red Sox about a decade ago. This past weekend the Rays sent their backup catcher out there against the Astros for an inning and he was the most hittable "pitcher" I think I've ever seen. Just lobbing it in there. The Astros hit some rockets off him. They should have him pitch to everyone in that Home Run Derby.

I loved it!

I cannot remember any 'quasi' pitchers throwing this slow (34!!!)...and almost all of them were strikes.


About 20 years ago, I was playing Senior Fall League Baseball and slow-pitch softball the same week - and my timing was so screwed up, I stuck out multiple times in the softball games....so, I can empathize with the MLBers not named Acuna.


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Not a fan of it but it is sometimes entertaining as this was.

Not the same as putting a position player in to pitch, but now that it, too, is history, and because it was fun, how about Rollie Fingers striking out Johnny Bench during an intentional walk in a World Series game?

https://youtu.be/nR0jGrfQCu4


Pretty cool. That said, we complain about umps today, but can you imagine the uproar, with tv strike zones, instant replay and social media today?

That pitch was like 3 inches outside (AND poorly framed by the catcher), and Bench just walked right back to the dugout, like it wasn't the slightest bit unusual for a pitcher to get that pitch called in his favor back then. Doesn't hurt that he's a catcher, and he wants his guys to get that call to.

I can't scroll through my news feed in any given day without seeing an "Ump gets roasted on twitter for worst strike call of the year", "News" post. In most cases, it's some pitch that on slow motion replay, lands about 1 inch outside of the computer perfected televised strike zone, and is perfectly framed by the catcher behind the plate.

Comment section is littered with "This ump should be fired/killed/strung up/eviscerated/sent back to Single A ball" posts, as if they should have some sort of "Black Mirror'esque" robot eye schematic device in their heads in order to get every borderline call correct, and match up with the television feed that everybody's getting back at home sitting on their couch.