Games » Tampa Bay Rays
Aug11No room for error
Lee Judge
None
Well, that wasn’t much fun, was it? The Royals wound up the series Tampa Bay losing 4-1 and getting swept. They had a great chance to split this series, but made enough mistakes to prevent that from happening. Everyone, including me, keeps saying the Royals are close, they’re almost there, they are not that far from winning.
And I truly believe that.
But when you’re falling just short, it means you can’t make any mistakes, you’re not good enough to cover them. I used to say Manny Ramirez could get away with doing a lot of dumb things on a baseball field because he’d hit a three-run bomb to make up for them. The Royals can’t do that.
They’re still short of having enough physical talent to overcome mental mistakes.
Manny Pina didn’t block a pitch on Monday and the Royals lost. Melky Cabrera throws to the wrong base on Wednesday and the Royals lost. That’s how fine the line is for the Royals right now. They have to play smart baseball and they have to play smart on every pitch. The Royals can’t afford to have an ‘A’ game and a ‘B’ game, because sooner or later they’ll get caught playing the ‘B’ game when they needed the ‘A.’
The Royals need to play right all the time, because they have no room for error.
Too many walks
I’m not going to write another essay on how destructive walks are, everyone should know that by now. I will point out that issuing three walks to Sam Fuld on Wednesday when he came into the game hitting .238 or a walk to Sean Rodriguez when he was hitting .209 doesn’t seem like the best option. Of course, they both got big hits later, but that still doesn’t mean you don’t go after them. If you’re not going to pitch aggressively to hitters with those batting averages, who do you go after?
The weakest link
The top of the 7th ended when Jeff Francoeur swung through strike three and the Royals attempted an unsuccessful double steal. Melky Cabrera was on second and Eric Hosmer was on first. After Frenchy struck out, Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach threw to second.
Going for the trail runner in a double steal is often the best choice. The trail runner has to make sure the lead runner actually goes and loses a step on his jump. Hosmer is fast for a first baseman, but appears to be one of those guys who only steal when the right situation presents itself. (For guys like Jarrod Dyson, the right situation is every day, all day.)
When the catcher has a possible double steal on his hands, he’ll walk out in front of the plate and signal everybody what he plans on doing with the baseball if the runners take off. Unfortunately, Shoppach and the Rays made the right choice.
Frenchy fouls one back
Jeff Francoeur fouled a 2-1 pitch straight back and if you know how to read them, foul balls tell you something. When a pitch is foul straight back the hitter was right on time. His bat was squared up to the flight of the ball, but the bat was underneath the ball.
So the pitcher has a couple of options at this point: the hitter was right on time, so the pitcher might change speeds to mess with his timing. The bat was underneath, so the pitcher might climb the ladder (throw the next pitch a bit higher to see if the batter will chase that one). The pitcher does not want to throw the same pitch, but lower. This solves the batter’s problem: being underneath the ball. The same goes for a pitch pulled foul or slapped the other way: the pitcher does not want to solve the batter’s problem for him. John Wathan and I were talking about all the times we’d seen a batter a mile out in front of something off-speed and the pitcher decides to get tricky and throw a fastball…right into the batter’s wheelhouse.
Same thing for the batter that’s late: keep him late. If the batter is fouling off pitches the other way, don’t throw something off-speed that allows him to get the bat head out in front. Ideally, (at least for the pitcher) the count allows a change of speed out of the zone and then the pitcher can get right back to pounding the hitters weakness.
When the count gets to a 3-2 dead end, that’s when you see the pitcher just continuing to pound that weak spot and forcing the hitter to adjust. Think Tony Sipp vs. Alcides Escobar in that marathon at-bat in Cleveland. Esky won that battle, but Sipp was determined to make Esky solve his own problem and not do it for him.
(Boy, sure got a lot out of one foul ball, didn’t I?)
Hat’s off to the readers
Thursday morning I checked reader’s comments following Wednesday night’s Royals meltdown. The comments were insightful and intelligent. The readers had caught several Royals mistakes I’d missed. (Hey, not entirely my fault, they were making them at a pretty fast rate.) This is what I hoped this website could be: a gathering place for fans that wanted to discuss baseball and the Royals in an intelligent way.
A lot of websites offer numbers, statistics and people playing GM. Those websites have something to contribute. Looking for deeper meaning in the numbers is a worthwhile pursuit and those websites can offer helpful information not found here.
What I hope this website can offer is a chance to discuss actual games and how they were played. Here are a few of the questions brought up by the readers following Wednesday’s 8-7 loss to Tampa Bay:
Did Joakim Soria get caught watching the game and fail to back up third in the 9th inning? (Yes.)
Should Eric Hosmer have been playing behind the runner when Johnny Damon was at the plate? (Not sure, but unless they had a reason to think Damon was bunting for a hit, you’d think Hosmer should be back.)
Did Johnny Giavotella turn the wrong way when he received Jeff Francoeur’s relay throw? (Yes.)
Was the outfield playing deep in ‘no doubles’ position during the 9th? (Couldn’t tell from TV, but I’d think they would be.)
I love it.
These are baseball questions asked by people paying attention. These are the things players and coaches will be talking about after the game. Baseball becomes so much more interesting when you pay attention and figure out what went wrong or right. Why a throw was late or a tag not made. Why the infield came in or stayed back.
Clearly, a lot of the readers brought something to the table. They didn’t just start thinking this way when we created this website. But the website offers us a place to share what we know and what we observe. Clearly, the information I receive from the players and coaches is invaluable. They’re making us all smarter and we’re making each other better fans.
And I thank you.
(OK, did anybody else tear up?)
The Star's Lee Judge tries to make a bad throw to Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer
Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer goes up against the Star's Lee Judge as he tries to make a bad throw that Hosmer can't pick out of the dirt. July 25, 2011 (Video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)
Hosmer
Duffy
Gordon
"we’re making each other better fans."
That sums it up nicely. Best result from a community like this that starts growing up around a "preacher" is that we help each other learn and grow. What makes this site unique is the quality of the community; the absence of chippiness and snark, the interest in the details of the game, the insight provided by dozens of sets of educated eyes.
My thanks to you, also, Lee, for giving us this.
Lee, I think you're going to have to ask Luke if he's any relation. Agreed?
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Sports/Beach-Volleyball-International-in-London/5525/5/
Lee, I agree it is a special site because of your intent for it and your acess to the players and coaches, and the time you put into it. A big thanks to you and all the contributors. I hope Yost's success with the talented young Brewers team will serve us well here in the players staying confident and still being able to play focused and improve. It is somewhat disturbing that it would be veterans like Melky throwing to the wrong base, and Soria failing to cover a base, that contributed to the unraveling in Tampa. Does Kendall believe that we have the right kind of veteran talent to go along with our young guys?
Lee, interesting that you bring up the foul ball analysis. I've often hear Denny on the radio broadcasts mention that when the ball is barely tipped and fouled straight back that the batter was right on the pitch - more so than when the ball is popped up. I'm no physicist, but this has always seemed wrong to me. To me, barely tipping a ball that goes straight back is an indicator that the bat was square and had the bat been higher through the zone, it would have been hit hard toward center field. However, I would contend that a ball that is skied straight up or toward center field was a better swing than the one that barely tips the ball backward. Would love your insights on this. Perhaps I am wrong...
While I agree that Cabrera threw the ball to the wrong base, isn't Alcides Escobar partly to blame for this as well? When he positioned himself as the cutoff man, he lined up with third base. Is Escobar suppose to do that to all balls hit to left field and it is up to the outfielder to determine where to throw the ball (third base to the cutoff man or to second base without a cutoff)? It looked to me like Melky was just trying to get the ball back to the infield as fast as he could.
Jim: Thank you, but this didn't start with me (and I certainly hope it doesn't end with me, either.)
This started when Clint Hurdle, Russ Morman, Tim Bogar and dozens of others began to teach me how they looked at the game.
Frankly, I don't have too many ideas of my own, but if guys like Clint or Ron Polk give me their time and insight, I'm smart enough to listen.
My mistake was thinking everyone would find value in what they had to say. Originally, I assumed people with fantasy teams or people into sabermetrics would enjoy hearing this point of view. My big worry was that the players wouldn't take it seriously.
So things didn't turn out quite like I thought they would.
But it's been gratifying to find a community of fans who are interested in this point of view and want to learn more.
Just about every day I'm on the field or in the clubhouse someone will say something I hadn't considered before. It's been my pleasure to bring that information to this site.
(But I could still use more sleep.)
Steve: Thanks a lot. And I agree that it's bad for the veterans to be the ones making mental mistakes. I haven't asked Jason your question, but I'd hope they'd bear down and do better.
Russ Morman played one season with my Men's Senior League team and made us all better. He was intense about every pitch no matter the score and expected everyone else to treat it the same way.
We all had a great deal of respect for Russ (plus he's about 6' 9" or at least looks that big when he's looming over you) and we learned a lot from him.
The veterans need to set a tone and they can't do that if they're throwing to the wrong base or failing to back up.
Don: Physics-wise I believe you have a point, but baseball-wise fouling one back is better than popping one up because one is a strike and the other is an out.
But I still think you're right.
Scott: I'd have to look into one of my instructional manuals (and I will) to find out where Esky was supposed to be.
Melky was going back and to his right so I don't know if Escobar assumed double or what. But when the ball came to Alcides he immediately went to second and still had close play.
I'd still think the mistake was Melky's, though. When you have a multi-run lead you go into baseball's version of a prevent defense: give them something small to prevent something big.
Keeping the double play in order is fundamental baseball and I think Melky should've been throwing to second no matter where Esky was.
But if I'm wrong, it won't be the first time. I'll ask around when the Royals get back.
Lee
I wonder if a game like Wednesday that was in the bag before the 9th inning collapse does a lot to deflate a young team. Yesterday they looked really flat. Not only is the margain for error pretty slim for a team like this, the margain for getting too high or too low is as well.
Devan
Devan: You might be right, but day games after night games almost everybody is dragging.
I'd totally agree with the other part though, you can't get too up or down and have to play the game a pitch at a time.
(Wow, sounded pretty Nuke LaLooshish there.)
Lee
I stole that from former Chiefs' coach John Mackovic.
Devan