Games » Minnesota Twins
Apr13A winning attitude ...
Lee Judge
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Good teams believe they’re going to win, and anything bad that happens is an isolated incident. Bad teams believe they’re going to lose, and anything bad that happens is the first of many bad things that are going to happen. Right now, the Royals are a good team.
Chris Getz and I had a lengthy discussion about this after a come-from-behind victory. Nobody knows how a team crosses that mental line (although I’m guessing winning helps quite a bit), but Chris definitely felt the Royals were there.
Sports psychologists have studied this, and it’s not magic: athletes who believe they’re going to win are looking for opportunities to make that happen. When opportunity knocks, they’re ready. Athletes who believe they’re going to lose have their heads down and let opportunities pass them by.
I’ve been on teams down by three in the ninth, the leadoff hitter walks and someone says, “There it is.” (Meaning our opportunity to win just presented itself.) I’ve also been on teams up by three in the ninth, we give up the leadoff walk and someone says, “Here we go again.”
Strangely enough, fans should take encouragement from some of the Royals’ losses: The team has lost a couple heart breakers and bounced right back. That’s mental toughness. There’s an incredible amount of baseball left to be played, but this is a good beginning.
(And people say I’m too negative.)
The numbers …
Numbers can tell you a lot, and they can also mislead you a lot. In the first inning of this game, the Twins’ Matt Tolbert chose not to challenge Jeff Francoeur’s arm. Tolbert had a chance to take an extra base and declined. The usual pattern is that teams challenge an outfielder’s arm until he proves he can throw people out … and then they stop.
So an outfielder with 0 assists may actually have a better arm than an outfielder with 10. So far, Francoeur and Alex Gordon have been making team’s pay for attempting extra bases. If the assists for these guys dry up, it may be because they’re throwing well, not the opposite.
You always tap the ones you love …
If you were watching Tuesday night’s game (and if you weren’t, what the heck kind of fan are you?) before his first at-bat, you saw Brayan Pena come to the plate and tap the catcher and umpire’s shin guard with his bat. This is the baseball equivalent of “hello.” You’ll see the same type of thing between infielders and base runners.
When ballplayers don’t want to deal with you, they pretend you’re not there. They get a kind of 1,000-yard stare and never make eye contact. You can see this demonstrated at times in the postgame interviews. If the player doesn’t look at the person with the microphone, it doesn’t necessarily mean animosity, but it means the interviewer hasn’t made it into the player’s world. The interviewer isn’t acknowledged as existing.
When I first began going out to the stadium, I could have been on fire and people would have walked right by me. After I was there awhile, I began to get tapped with a bat or glove as players walked by. The players who do it are saying, “Hi.”
Now, if you get hit really hard with a bat I think they’re saying, “Hi … I don’t like you.”
Don’t make them angry …
During a recent at-bat, you could see Mike Aviles take a check swing and then turn around and ask the umpire if the pitch was a strike. If you can lip-read, you’ll see this all the time. Early in the game everyone wants to know what the zone is going to be that day. Hitters want to know if they will have to cover a borderline pitch in a crucial situation and pitchers and catchers want to know how far they can stretch the zone.
The anger you sometimes see from a hitter is because he feels he’s been misled: the pitch wasn’t a strike earlier and now it is. Or as I once heard a pitcher say, “Pick a zone, ump. Anyone of the three you’ve used so far would be OK.”
Why base runners carry batting gloves…
A common baseball injury is jamming, spraining or breaking a finger when sliding into a base head first. Carrying batting gloves forces the runner to close his hands into a fist and protects the fingers. I once jammed the pinky finger on my right hand so bad it turned purple-black and had to be taped to my ring finger so I could continue playing.
But I did not solve this problem by carrying batting gloves…I started using pinch runners.
This was not too long after Clint Hurdle made me take off a pair of metal spikes because he’d seen me run, “and you don’t lift your feet off the ground high enough to get away with it.” It was the first of many clues that I belonged in management.
P.S. After playing one season of baseball with me and being asked to assess my skills, Russ Morman said, “You’re the kind of player we cut and make a coach.”
With friends like these, who needs enemas?
Royals Kanekoa Texeira with Lee Judge on warm up signs
Kansas City Royals pitcher Kanekoa Texeira visits with The Kansas City Star's Lee Judge on warm up signs used between pitchers and catchers. 4/12/11 (video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)
Aviles
Davies
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A great read. Nice article.
Michael:
Glad you liked it. Last season I worried that I would run out of things to talk about (maybe some day I will), but fortunately the game is endlessly fascinating...at least for me. There's always some detail I don't understand (like why are those guys running with their batting gloves?) that's pretty interesting once it's explained.
I liked the video with Texeira, good info for fans and those of us that think we know something. I am curious on the double-play situation, is he actually throwing to the shortstop, or leading him, as opposed to throwing to the base and someone will be there ? Also, do pithcers really not want a scuffed ball to thow ? I think they would want that so they could get some movement on it. Thanks, Lee
Hey Lee,
Are there some 'unwritten rules' that were strickly followed maybe 25 years ago that are no longer enforced?
BTW, I love this section. Thanks.
Are most big league umps pretty consistent, or will their zone change depending on the day? I hear Ryan and Frank talk all the time about how an umpire is known for being a hitter-friendly or pitcher-friendly, but are there guys that are known for, say, calling high strikes or breaking balls that start in the zone but break off the plate?
I have heard that if a ball has a scuff on it, the batter can see the rotation of the ball so it gives him an advantage.
Scott: I was always told they throw to the base and it's the middle infielder's responsibility to get there, but if I get a chance I'll ask Kanekoa that question...and you're right, I should've asked him why he was giving a scuffed ball back. A lot of pitchers won't scuff, but if you hand them a ball that has one, the pitcher will take advantage of the situation. I think some pitchers may not want a scuffed ball because they can't figure out how to use it. Dan Quisenberry said that very thing to me: nobody could figure out where he should hold the scuff to get the movement he wanted.
Matthew: Yeah, the 'unwritten rules' have definitely changed. Used to be if you stood and admired a home run (the way Billy Butler did against the White Sox) you were getting plunked next time up and everybody knew why. If you didn't like it, the next time up you laid a bunt down the first base line and blasted the pitcher while he was picking it up. They also used to hit the guy following the guy who hit the home run. Clint Hurdle told me the batter in front of him hit three home runs and Clint got nailed three times. Clint finally asked the pitcher why he didn't throw at the guy doing all the damage. This kind of stuff seems to have faded, but they've probably been replaced by new unwritten rules.
Nick: Yes, I think so. Umpires get a reputation for a certain kind of zone, but nobody knows (including the umpire) exactly what it will be that day. I would imagine pitchers' stuff has an effect also. I've had the personal experience of amateur umpires struggling with professional pitchers' movement, especially the breaking ball. To me (and I've never umpired in my life) if a breaking pitch is caught just out of the zone, that's a strike. It had to go through the zone to get to where it ended up. Maybe that's why you see fewer big curve balls these days: too hard to get a consistent call. Steve Palermo usually sits by me in the press box, if he's there tonight I'll ask.
Undefined: Interesting point about a scuff making the rotation easier to see. I hadn't heard that one. I still don't know that I'd want a pitcher working with one: I'd probably get a very good look at a pitch I couldn't hit anyway.
I got to face Jeff Montgomery a couple times and he once threw me a curve that started behind my head and dropped in for a strike. I knew it was a curve every inch of the way, but with that movement I had no chance.
But a big league hitter might feel differently.
Lee....love the the videos here, good touch. Would it be possible to interact with an outfielder about the routes they run to a ball ? You've mentioned it several times on this site and I think it would be informative to fans to have their perspective on it. Thanks, and good job as always.
Scott: I'd agree that showing outfield routes would be helpful, but I don't know if we an pull that off. Access to the playing surface is very limited and then we'd need to be high enough to see the route. Once again hard to coordinate.
They have told us that we can have access to the Little K at times, if we can give them some notice, and if I get an outfielder up there we might have a chance of showing what we're talking about.
Stay tuned.
Scott: Forgot to mention it, but I talked to Texeira using a scuff and will give his answer tomorrow.
Thanks for posting Texeira's comments on scuffing the ball. Interesting information, I guess I never had that good of movement to throw back the ball ! One time I did have a guy foul one off and put a tear in the ball. I got it back, struck him out on the next pitch and as I was headed to the dugout, pointed out to the umpire that the ball was torn. Didn't want my guys hitting it ! On the outfiled routes, not certain if you need to be on the field, maybe whiteboard the thing with Melky or Fancouer.
Maybe we could get G.I. Joes and do a baseball version of Mr. Bill...OK, I'm messing with you, you're right, we could do it that way.
Just gotta find a whiteboard, an easel and a place to do it.