It’s Saturday night, and we’re in Scottsdale. Everybody told me that Salt River Fields, the spring-training complex shared by the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, is the nicest minor-league stadium down here, and I believe them. It’s a beauty.
The evening is cool and clear. The press-box windows are wide open and just to the third-base side of home plate. Off in the distance, behind centerfield, lies a series of mountain ranges, which change color as the sun sets.
Because this is a road game, there was no early work for the Royals. Because this is a night game, the team stretch was at 3 p.m. instead of 10 a.m. Back in Surprise, just before the team stretch started, Jeff Francoeur told stories from the night before and kept everyone in stitches.
One of the big pieces of news from the previous evening was this: Alex Gordon took a bite of cupcake. His teammates were astounded — and so was I. What’s the big deal? “Sooo … Alex doesn’t eat sweets?” Luke Hochevar told me he didn’t think Alex had eaten a pizza since he was 8.
First-base coach Doug Sisson told me that Alex was the most disciplined person on the face of the earth. Hochevar argued that there must be some Zen master on top of a mountain in Tibet who is more disciplined, but Hochevar and Sisson agreed Alex holds the title in the continental United States.
While his teammates speculated whether Alex kept the cupcake down or went to the bathroom and purged, Mitch Maier walked up and said he had someone who wanted to meet me. It was Royals outfielder Greg Golson. Apparently Mitch and Greg got on YouTube and found the video of me getting smoked by a 92-mph slider. Mitch said it was just as funny the 100th time he saw it as the first.
Golson wanted to know whether I would do it again. I said no, but I told him that the Royals catchers want to blow me up at the plate, the outfielders want me to crash into the wall and Eric Hosmer wants to take me out at second base.
Greg suggested I let an outfielder do the honors of flipping me on the double-play pivot because “we’re more ruthless.” I never thought of it before, but I guess an outfielder doesn’t have to worry about retaliation. Nobody takes out an outfielder on a double play. Chris Getz remarked that outfielders also tend to be bigger. These sound like excellent reasons to get an anemic batboy to do the job.
Man, study the game, work hard and the thing people are going to remember is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Well, I guess fame for being stupid is better than no fame at all—which explains every reality show ever made.
More on spring training stats
As I suggested yesterday, spring training stats should be taken with a grain of salt — and Chris Getz threw in some more sodium, saying “fields are rock hard.” Chris said he already had seen three balls pounded down in front of home plate that bounced over the third baseman’s head for a hit. “How often do you see that during the season?”
Then he made an even more telling point. In spring training, pitchers aren’t always pitching to a hitter’s weakness. They often are working on their pitches. Say a guy has a slider-speed bat. During the season, pitchers will blow fastballs past him. Here in Arizona, they will still throw him sliders if they need to work on that pitch.
Practice tip
There was some early batting practice going on, and I saw some players take their first six to twelve hacks at a ball with a weight still on the bat. I asked Mitch Maier if this was to make the bat feel quicker when he took the weight off. He said no. Mitch explained that the weight forces a hitter to use good mechanics and control the bat head. Get sloppy, and the bat head drops, resulting in a pop-up. Or getting sloppy might mean slinging the bat head out and away from the body, resulting in an easy “rollover” grounder.
So take your first few hacks with the weight on and see what it does for your swing.
The new closer
After Friday’s game, manager Ned Yost said the Royals were lucky to have several candidates for the closer’s job, and he might not name one before the season started. So there’s some evidence for you guys who were on the other side of the “people-perform-better-in-set-roles” argument we had a few weeks ago. Although I would be surprised if the Royals didn’t name a closer at some point.
Of course, Yost might not want to name a closer until he sees someone successfully handle that role (and there’s some evidence for my side of that argument). Yost might want to make sure Jonathan Broxton is totally healthy or Greg Holland is suited for the ninth inning — and several times since I’ve been down here I’ve heard people say the ninth is a lot different than the eighth.
Why announce a closer and then have to change things soon after? It might be better to go into the season and let people pitch their way into the appropriate roles. A lot of managers will tell you that the players make out the lineup. They play their way on to the field … or off it.
Jerry Dipoto
Speaking of playing your way off the field, that reminds me: I got to see an old buddy the other day, Jerry Dipoto. When I met him, Jerry was a reliever for the Cleveland Indians. Now he’s the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Back in the day, Jerry needed someone to throw long-toss, and I got elected. It was ridiculous. He would stand at one end of a soccer field and throw a laser beam to the other end with no apparent effort. I would return it with a running start, a crow hop and three joints popping. Then Jerry would want to face a batter and, once again, I was the guy. So I was getting to see pitches in the mid-90s with movement. And if you’ve ever sat in the stands at a major-league game and thought, “I was pretty good in high school. I think I could hit this stuff.” Trust me — you can’t.
Anyway, Jerry is without a doubt the funniest person I know — and I know people who are funny for a living. He’s a legend in my family, and once we start telling Jerry Dipoto stories, we can go on for a long time. Here’s the “playing your way off the field” story:
My family went to St. Louis to see Jerry and Tim Bogar play for the Mets. We were waiting outside the stadium for them, and Jerry came out first. Here’s what he said:
“Bogie’s starting to (tick) me off.”
“What did Bogie do?”
“Playing too much. As long as you’re on the bench, nobody knows if you’re any good. You might be terrific. The last thing you want to do is get on the field and prove you’re not… Overexposure— fastest trip out of the big leagues.”
This went along with Jerry’s philosophy that you didn’t want to make too much money. They might expect you to get someone out. And you don’t want to play for too good a team. Why not pitch for a franchise that would allow you to suck and still keep you around?
As you might have guessed by now, Jerry was not serious. He’s as competitive as anybody. For example: he refused to play his own card in Strat-O-Matic games because his numbers weren’t good enough. He didn’t want to get hit by anybody at any time — even if it was imaginary.
So the other day we got to say “hi” and exchange cellphone numbers. Jerry warned me to be patient. It might be awhile before he could return a call. I said, “Dude, you blew off when you were nobody.” Jerry grinned and said it really hadn’t gotten any better now that he’s a GM.
His success couldn’t happen to a funnier, nicer guy. I just hope he doesn’t get overexposed — I hear it’s the fastest trip out of the big leagues.
Today’s base running drill Home to first base and making the turn toward second. We have videos on both.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoThe game against the Diamondbacks just ended. Royals won, Holland closed. Weird note: the Diamondbacks insisted that the Royals not use a DH. Everybody’s trying to get their work in and that move cost somebody some spring training at-bats.
Jonathan Sanchez went to the plate and held the bat, watching pitches go by.
Here’s another weird note: there was a wine-tasting held on the upper deck pavilion down the right field line. Beautiful setting for it—until someone smoked a foul line drive in amongst the Merlot drinkers.
One more game note: Sanchez walked Chris Young, Dave Eiland visited the mound and then Paul Goldschmidt hit a single on the next pitch Sanchez delivered to the plate.
Hitters sometimes look fastball after a walk followed by a mound visit. The pitching coach is usually urging the pitcher to throw strikes and it’s a decent bet the first pitch after the visit will be hittable.
Greg Tatro
1 year, 2 months agoThe only other guy I could think of more disciplined than Gordon when it comes to food was Jack Lalanne.
As far as the closer, Broxton has done it before so would that put him in the lead…or does Holland’s numbers give him the edge? All things being equal I’d probably go with the guy whose done it before if you are looking to win from the start. Needless to say because of those guys it wasn’t the end of the world when Soria went down, like past years with the Royals.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoGreg: Yeah, it was funny. Guys were talking in awed tones about Alex taking a bite of cupcake. Gordon’s got just about no body fat. Wish I could say the same. I don’t think I’ve gone a week in my life without eating a pizza—and it shows.
People have been asking about the closer situation, but just like second base, the team’s going to let this situation play out. Just keep running them out there and see how they do. Why make those choices before you have to?
Players and coaches will tell you that closing is different than pitching any other inning. A guy has to have the right mind-set to deal with the pressure. Your teammates work for two hours to put you in a position to win and some guys can’t handle being in a position to blow it all with a bad outing.
Blowing a lead in the 7th is a lot different than blowing a lead in the 9th. Emotionally, at least. Most guys would rather get beat right out of the box than lead all the way until the end; it’s crushing.
I haven’t been around enough closers to say this is true of all of them, but Soria, Holland and Broxton all seems like pretty even-keeled guys. Not getting emotional is probably a good thing.
And you’re right, it’s nice that the Royals have some options.
Larry Tindle
1 year, 2 months agoIt’s great to see that our offense once again doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. In the past, in games like this, once the other team made a comback we didn’t seem to be able to regroup and move forward. These kids are going to be a blast to watch this year.
Ok, so what was the occasion that would tempt Alex to eat a cupcake. I see nothing short of a bet for charity. I on the other hand am willing to eat all the cupcakes to remove any future temptaion from him.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoLarry: I’m with you, we should protect our team by eating all the abd food available in Kansas City. Anyone who doesn’t pitch in, isn’t a true fan.
And I can’t tell you why Alex ate the cupcake, that’s a team secret. Ask me if you see me in KC.
Ed Bartel
1 year, 2 months agoI can’t understand why Arizona wouldn’t want the Royals to use a DH. I mean, if Arizona doesn’t want to use one and wants their pitchers to hit to prepare for the season, I can completely understand that. But why on earth would they give a fig what the Royals do in a Spring Training game? Can you ask around and see if anyone knows what the D’back’s logic was? Thanks in advance!
Chuck Smith
1 year, 2 months ago“Here’s another weird note: there was a wine-tasting held on the upper deck pavilion down the right field line. Beautiful setting for it—until someone smoked a foul line drive in amongst the Merlot drinkers.”
That had to have the press box cracking up! If you find a youtube video of it, I’d love to see it.
Speaking of Gordon, any rumbling on WTH is holding up a contract extension?
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoEd: No official word from the Royals, but the general feeling in the press box (at least from the Kansas City press) was that the Diamondbacks were just being a pain in the butt.
I don’t think they give out rings for winning the Cactus League championship. Individual work is much more important than what teams do.
Insisting that the Royals play by National League rules kept somebody from getting their work in. And it probably didn’t do much for the Arizona pitchers who knew they had a batter at the plate that wasn’t going to swing.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoChuck: I was maybe the only guy in the press box aware of the wine tasting. Everytime we go to a new park I walk around it, just to see the sights.
Last night I walked to that deck and heard someone talking about the “smokey fragance” and I was hoping for bar-b-que.
I’m assuming those people had a pretty good buzz on and might not be up to dealing coherently with a line shot into the meeting, but don’t know of any youtube video.
I can ask Alex about his contract, but he’s not going to tell me anything (at least for the record) that he’s not saying to anybody else.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoBreaking News: Vin Mazzaro, Johnny Giavotella and Jarrod Dyson were just optioned to Omaha.
Check kansascity.com shortly and Bob Dutton will have more details.
Orion Kenneth Bell
1 year, 2 months agoGetzy, Getzy, Getzy. I was absolutely positively sure that Yost would stick with Getzy, Getzy, Getzy. It just makes me sick. Getz has had four years to prove anything and he hasn’t. If Ned gets someone in his head, it just doesn’t matter what is right. Go Royals, I still luv ya.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoOrion: I’ll write more about this decision and post it this afternoon.
Larry Tindle
1 year, 2 months agoLee: Any chance you can talk to any of the umpires down there. Might get some interesting insite.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 2 months ago“I was absolutely positively sure that Yost would stick with Getzy, Getzy, Getzy.”
Johnny Giavotella made the decision easy and didn’t put up much of a fight, the third best glove and the third best bat at second so far this spring and for his couple of months last year. I think Gio is having problems after his hip surgery, so Omaha gives him a chance to rehab and at least put his bat back together again. Better to go down now than in May for him and the team.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoLarry: Good idea, I’ll ask around.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoJim: Giavotella has said he’s healthy, but as we’ve talked about before—you never know for sure.
I’ve also said spring training stats don’t matter as much as many people think, but they do matter more for people trying to make the team than for established players with track records.
I was a little surprised (along with some others in the press box) that the Royals didn’t wait until the end of camp to make this decision. But, obviously, they felt like they’d seen enough.
And, finally, it seems like everyone thinks Gio can hit and will eventually, the problem was defense.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 2 months agoGiavotella didn’t mention his hip injury last season, either. Ballplayers are like that, tough guys.
As for being surprised, that in itself suggests that the Royals saw a health problem with Gio that another ten days won’t fix. The hip is central to both hitting and fielding. Coaches with eyeballs and stop watches are watching jumps, angles, and limberness in the field as well as bat speed at the plate. My guess is that they saw something.
Another reason for the quick hook might be that the decision had been made and there’s only a limited number of game reps left for Getz and especially for Yuni trying to make the transition. Wouldn’t even be surprised to see Bourgeois get a little time at second in the last week.
Lee Judge
1 year, 2 months agoJim: Anything’s possible. As we’ve discussed before; teams have information that the rest of us don’t.