Games » Boston Red Sox
Aug19A deep lineup
Lee Judge
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Here’s the problem: without David Ortiz or Kevin Youkilis playing, the Boston Red Sox lineup is still so deep that the 8-hole hitter has 12 home runs in 78 games. After Friday’s game, Boston third base coach Tim Bogar called Jarrod Saltalamacchia (hereafter known as ‘Jarrod’ or ‘Salty’ so I don’t have to spell that name again) a “dangerous” hitter. Leave the ball in the right place (or wrong, depending on your point of view) and Jarrod can whack it a long way. Jeff Francis actually had his 0-2 changeup down, but Salty is a low-ball hitter, and the Francis’ changeup got whacked a long way.
And that’s from a guy who doesn’t play all the time and hits in the bottom third of the order.
Last night, after Jeff Francoeur hitting in the 5-hole, the Royals had a rookie second baseman, still figuring out the big leagues, a back-up catcher, a rookie third baseman still figuring out the big leagues and a shortstop whose glove is so good everyone will be happy if he hits .240 without much pop.
That doesn’t mean the Royals lineup won’t be deep in good hitters soon. A lot of people, including Bogar, think the hitters at the bottom of the Royals order will be very good. But last night, the Royals 6-7-8 and 9-hole hitters contributed one hit, one walk and one run (all from Mike Moustakas). The last four hitters in the Red Sox lineup contributed four hits including a double, a triple, and a home run, a walk, four runs and four RBIs.
And that’s what happens when you have a deep lineup.
Bogar’s evaluation
The bad news is the Red Sox pounded the Royals for 13 hits last night and the Royals only countered with four. As I just pointed out, the Red Sox lineup is deeper than the Royals lineup.
The good news is the situation might change soon. Tim Bogar sees a team on the rise here in Kansas City. He thinks Hosmer will be a star and loves Escobar’s range. Tim says he needs to see more of Giavotella on defense, but likes what he sees at the plate. Bogie thinks Mike Moustakas is going to be fine and pointed out that last night’s double the other way was a good sign of a hitter beginning to figure it out. And Bogar says the Royals outfield is the best he’s seen so far this season.
So while the Royals aren’t there yet, one of their opponents sees a team on the verge of winning. He just hopes that doesn’t start until Monday.
Housekeeping issues
I know Alcides Escobar made an error last night and it’s not recorded on the game grid. That’s because I somehow got one error off on his record and while it’s easy to add a number, removing a number from the website takes an act of Congress and a voodoo spell. I wasn’t exactly pulling for Alcides to make an error, but he solved a problem for me last night when he did.
And now he can play clean the rest of the way. Thanks, Esky.
More Bogie
Sorry if you’re getting sick of Tim Bogar information, but I’m trying to get all the knowledge I can out of his head in the short time he’s here, and there’s a lot of knowledge in that head. Try this one: Bogie said that this is the time of year a lot of young pitchers get lit up. All across the major leagues, a lot of young pitchers are about to go into the tank.
The reason?
They’re not used to this many innings and don’t have the skills to get through games without their best stuff. Tim didn’t think Josh Beckett was all that sharp Thursday night, but Beckett has the skills to get people out anyway. Young pitchers will just keep trying to throw harder even though the life is off their fastball and the curves don’t have the same movement.
So if you can still make moves in your fantasy league (sorry, don’t do that and don’t know how it works) you may want to move that young pitcher.
Two old catchers and an older cartoonist
So I’m sitting with John Gibbons and John Wathan (Gibby said I ruined a perfectly good day by walking up and sitting down) and the talk turned to their playing days. Gibby said he was all set to be a starter one season, but took an elbow to the cheek on a play at the plate. His cheekbone was fractured and that was that.
Duke said, “What the hell were we thinking, taking our masks off on plays at the plate?” John said it did make for a better picture in the paper, but if you could catch 120 pitches with a mask on¸ why couldn’t you catch a ball from the outfield with a mask on?
Not only did they expose their faces to damage by making plays without masks, but they also played the game with no more protection for their craniums than a cloth cap. Then they talked about all the times they took shots to the heads. I said, “So now I know what’s wrong with you guys.”
Gibby was right, I did ruin a perfectly good day.
Gio’s psychological edge
Johnny ran off the field the other day carrying two gloves and I asked which one was his gamer. He showed me that, but the other glove was a “practice glove” much smaller than a normal glove. His game glove measures 11½ inches from heel to the top of the forefinger. His practice glove measures 9½.
Johnny said using such a small glove in practice gave him confidence when he got to use his bigger glove in the game. I pointed out that he’d could save the money on the smaller glove and just practice with his bare hands, that should make him really confident with any glove at all.
Johnny is not taking my suggestion. (Kids today, they just won’t listen.)
The Royals philosophy
As promised, I asked Doug Sisson the Royals philosophy on outfield positioning. Sis said, “We defend the good pitch, not the bad one.” So the Royals will tend to position shallower rather than deeper. If a Royals pitcher makes a good pitch and gets a pop-up or flare, the Royals want to get an out.
If a Royals pitcher makes a bad pitch and the ball is smoked, they’ll tip their caps and live with it. Fans should, too. Don’t be mad that an outfielder wasn’t positioned on the warning track when a ball is hit off the wall: that one is on the pitcher.
On the other hand, you can blame outfield positioning when a flare drops in-between the outfield and infield. The outfielders have to stand somewhere before the pitch is thrown, they just need to stand where they have the best chance of recording an out and that’s shallower rather than deeper.
Gordon
Francis
Moustakas
Frank and Ryan were practically begging Francis to keep going "up the ladder" with Salty, but no. Low-ball hitter Salty hit the low-ball pitch out of the park. I knew it. I just knew it before it even happened. What were Francis and Pena thinking?
It doesn't appear that the game is being called from the dugout much. Maybe it should be.
That pitch should have been in the dirt, or unhittable.
Also, if we hit and ran with Hosmer at first, Frenchy would have gotten a hit past the second baseman.
Hosmer is having an OK rookie year, but he's had ups and downs in stretches.
Lee, you make an excellent point about the stark difference in quality depth between lower part of the Sox lineup and ours. The only point of distinction worth noting, however, is that their lower part of the order was hitting against a guy that (in my opinion) just does not have the kind of stuff to get by in the major leagues when the umpire is not giving him balls off the plate and/or when his control is not virtually perfect. The Royals just simply cannot go into 2012 with guys like TWO soft-throwing lefties (i.e., Chen and Francis). I like them both based on what little I can tell about them from a personality standpoint, but would rather see them as coaches than integral components of our starting rotation.
Fred: I didn't get a chance to talk with Francis or Pena after the game, so I don't know if that pitch was where they wanted it, which would make it a bad game plan, or Francis missed his spot which would make it bad execution.
Before the game everybody who has anything to contribute can help put together a plan for attacking opposition hitters. During the game the guys in the dugout help with the running game
OK, that post was cut short when I hit the wrong button, but what I was starting to say is the pitches, as far as I know, are not called from the dugout.
They may talk in-between innings, but I think they feel the catcher has the best sense of what's working and allow him to call the pitches.
Lee, so many of your posts provide very deep insights about things such as outfielder positioning, number of rundown throws, etc. My impression of Royals teams of the past couple of decades was that they were poorly coached in fundamentals, but this team seems dramatically different. What I cannot tell for sure is whether we are just more enlightened because you have the ability to get these insights and report them here - or whether this coaching staff is just that much more expert at the fundamentals of the game. Perhaps a little of both?
Don: The point you make was one I'd written down, but didn't get to: when you don't have great stuff, you need to be perfect.
A guy with great velocity or movement can get away with mistakes in the zone. Guys without that great stuff need to live on the corners, get the calls and stay out of the middle.
And Boston's left-handed hitters were getting pretty good swings off Francis. Lefties are supposed to make lefties uncomfortable and that wasn't happening last night.
Lee, what's baseball's unwritten rule on a center fielder letting a corner outfielder with a better arm make the catch and throw on a possible sacrifice fly? It seemed like Ellsbury's ball might have hung up long enough for Cabrera to let Gordon make the play.
By the way, last night when I got to my seat by the visitors on-deck circle, I saw that one of the Red Sox players had just finished doing some autographs and had headed into the clubhouse. I asked the kid next to me, "Who was signing?", and he said, "David Ortiz." I said, "Did you get one?", and he said, "Yeah," and showed me a baseball with a beautiful signature, in pen, right across the sweet spot. I looked over at the kid a few minutes later, and he was tracing over the autograph with a Sharpie!
Don: First, thank you. And as for the fundamentals: I've got the same impression you do, that even a couple years ago the Royals fundamentals were much worse.
But I wasn't making a study of it and my impressions were formed by the most outrageous examples. Kevin Seitzer has said that fans remember when they fail and accept success as normal.
Now that I'm trying my hardest to pay attention, I DO believe their fundamentals are better and you don't see the same silly mistakes that were there in the past.
And I hope this website helps us recognize things done well or poorly. Of course, none of this would be possible without the coaches and players willingness to talk about these issues.
Blair: Center field gets to make the call on who takes the ball, he's the captain out there.
If we're thinking of the same ball, Melky was lined up moving forward and Alex would have been coming from the side, which makes for a weaker throw.
And the kid with the baseball will one day look at what he did and have the same feeling as the rest of us who allowed our baseball cards to get thrown out.
Amen on the baseball cards. I had an extensive collection in the late 50's and they all went away. Also had bleacher seats and the Pittsburgh Pirate pennant from Ebbets Field, but the seats disappeared too. Still have the flag.
Lee, you mention young pitchers running down late in year, but could the same thing be happening with Jeff Francis? As I remember, he didn't have a lot of innings last year after his injury and he hasn't looked good recently. Any chance he's just getting worn down? He's at 156 innings now, had 119 major and minor last year, didn't pitch in '09, and had 158 innings, major and minor, in '08. May be time to shut him down, at least Sept 1st when rosters expand.
Jim: Good point, I think there is concern about the number of innings Francis has thrown.
As Bob Dutton Star baseball writer reported this morning, Francis threw 118 innings last year and 164 1/3 innings so far this year.
Ned Yost said it was one of the issues they were looking at, but Francis said he felt fine and not worn down.
Bob has fresher stats than me, good on him. As for what Francis says, he's a free agent after this year and doesn't want any red flags, plus ballplayers are tough guys. Gotta wonder when the eyeballs and numbers agree.
Jim: At some point it's not about how you feel, it's about the results.
Agree.