Games » Chicago White Sox
Sep25How a steal that never happened helped the Royals win
Lee Judge
The Kansas City Star
The Royals did not steal a base in this game, so how did base stealing help them win?
Man, I thought you’d never ask. Chicago starter Gavin Floyd walked Jarrod Dyson to start the game. Tim Bogar, the third-base coach for the Boston Red Sox, has taught me to pay attention to what a pitcher does out of a slide step, and what Floyd did out of the slide step was throw the ball higher in the strike zone.
(Sorry if I repeat myself on occasion, but as a reader recently pointed out, not everybody gets to read every post, every day. … Honestly, I don’t know what you’re doing with your lives, but pick up the pace. I’m a busy guy.)
Anyway, as I’ve explained before and apparently will again, when a pitcher goes into a slide step, he’s trying to get his foot down quicker. And if he hasn’t worked hard at it, his arm can be on the old schedule. That makes the arm late and the release point high, and that makes the ball stay up.
So with Dyson on first base, Melky Cabrera got some very good pitches to hit, but he couldn’t take advantage. Melky grounded into a double play, and Floyd did not have another base runner until the sixth inning. With no runners on base, Floyd could lift his front leg as high as he liked. When he did that, his curveball was outstanding, which explains his 10 strikeouts.
So I’m thinking, “Man, they need another fast base runner to get Floyd back into that slide step.” Then Lorenzo Cain led off the sixth with a single. With the game scoreless, I thought the Royals might have Chris Getz bunt, but as I’ve learned (and it sounds like some of you have, too) Ned Yost always has a reason for what he does. And what he did was have Getz swing away.
Later, I looked up the matchup numbers, and coming into this game Chris was 3-for-6 against Floyd, which is a small sample, but it tells you Chris probably would have a good plate appearance. And then there’s the Chris-is-left-handed-and-Alcides-Escobar-is-right-handed factor, so there you go. Getz is swinging away, and if he’s successful, Escobar is bunting.
Floyd was back in the slide step because he was afraid Cain was going to steal. As a result, his curveball became much more hittable. He hung one in the zone, Getz lined it into center, Escobar bunted Getz and Cain over and Dyson doubled. Two runs instead of one, because Chicago was trying to stop the stolen base.
And that’s how a steal that never happened helps you win a ball game.
Game notes
• It’s not like a pitcher never throws a bad pitch unless he’s in a slide step. The pitch Dyson banged for a double came with Floyd lifting his knee all the way. Cain was on third and Getz was on second, so Gavin was no longer worried about the stolen base. But slide steps do make it more likely that a pitch will be up in the zone. And Getz struck out twice against Floyd when he wasn’t in the slide step.
• Cain got some base-running points when he recognized a pitchout in the Getz at-bat and shut down a steal attempt. Cain scrambled back to first and was safe, allowing two runs to score later.
• I was surprised the Royals didn’t steal more in this series. In one game they had a big lead and in this game the track was wet, so that may be part of it.
• Jerry Meals, the home-plate umpire, threw a fresh ball to the pitcher at one point, and that reminded me of something Jason Kendall once said: Umpires who like to throw the ball to the pitcher are awesome. It’s just one more toss the catcher doesn’t have to make.
• In Juan Pierre’s first at-bat, you could see Royals catcher Salvador Perez tap his glove on the ground in an 0-2 count. If you watched the Brayan Pena video we currently have posted on the home page, you know that is a signal to the pitcher to bounce the pitch. Luis Mendoza didn’t, and it got whacked into left field for a hit.
• Perez later threw out a runner, and I was careful to check the placement of Chris Getz’ feet. If the catcher throws straight, Getz can straddle the bag. If the catcher’s throws sail, Chris has to come out in front of the bag so he can move laterally to corral the throw. Getz appeared to straddle and then made an almost balletic move to not get spiked when the throw pulled him slightly toward the runner.
• Paul Konerko took a borderline pitch from Mendoza and got the call. That reminded me of another thing I heard (I can’t remember who said it): Don’t nibble in a crucial situation against a star player, the star will get the call.
• If you wondered why Jarrod Dyson did not steal third with one out in the sixth after his double, it might have been because Melky Cabrera was up there batting left-handed. That gives the catcher a clear lane to throw to third base.
• It’s always interesting to listen to other announcers cover a Royals game. White Sox broadcasters Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone were very complimentary about the Royals players.
• Steve Stone made an interesting point: To pitch out of the zone, you have to be ahead of the hitter. Otherwise, the hitter feels no need to chase borderline pitches. It’s funny how many pitchers try to pitch out of the zone from the get-go and then have to come into the zone once they fall behind.
• Harrelson liked how Mendoza was pitching inside. Royals pitching coach Bob McClure uses the phrase “in to win.” Mac means you can’t be successful on the outside corner if you won’t back the hitters off with a pitch on the inside corner.
• Jeff Montgomery told me to watch for this: Two out, 2-0 count. What he meant was a pitcher will get two quick outs and then lose concentration, feeling as if he is almost out of the inning. Then he won’t bear down. You saw this in the fourth inning when Mendoza got two quick outs and then walked Paul Konerko on four pitches. On the other hand, maybe Luis was working around Konerko.
• Perez had a couple of blocked pitches with a runner on third … you do the math.
More stuff
I hope you guys are in the mood for some long posts these last few days of the season. I’m going through my leftover stuff and posting some of it before it goes bad like an over-ripe banana. Here are a few pieces that haven’t turned black, but are starting to get spots on them.
First day on the job
When Bob McClure met Zack Greinke for the first time, Zack said, “I don’t listen to pitching coaches, I won’t throw a changeup and I won’t throw a two-seamer .” This was in spring training, and after saying that to Mac, Grienke got on the mound and started throwing as hard as he could.
The ball was going all over the place. In response, Zack tried to throw harder and harder. Mac finally walked to the mound and said, “If that’s what you’re going to do, you might as well leave the field before you hurt yourself.” Zack walked into the clubhouse and quit baseball.
When Bob got to the clubhouse, Buddy Bell, then the Royals manager, said, “You just got our Number One prospect to quit. … Good first day on the job.”
Mac told me this story, and I’m telling it to you so we can all understand what some of these coaches go through. Eventually, Zack came back to baseball, listened to a pitching coach and threw a change-up and a two-seamer, but not before he learned to trust Bob McClure.
Everybody gets very impatient, but some things take time. Players need to adjust to the league, coaches need to win trust and guys with websites need to hang out a lot until people tell him stories like this one.
Bunting the runner over from second
OK, runner on second, nobody out, you get the bunt sign. Where do you want the ball to go? Every instructional manual in the world says third base. If you make the third baseman field the ball, nobody is there to cover the bag, and the runner goes in standing up.
So why does a really good bunter like Chris Getz disagree? Chris made an interesting point when we talked about this play. Sure, ideally, forcing the third baseman to field the ball opens up the bag, but you’re giving yourself a very narrow lane for success. Too close to the mound and the pitcher picks the ball up moving toward third, the third baseman retreats to the bag and they can have a very easy play on the runner.
If you force the pitcher to pick the ball up on the first-base side of the mound, he’s almost sure to go to first. And if a charging first baseman picks that ball up, at least he’s got to throw all the way across the infield. If the first baseman is right-handed, the throw gets even tougher.
The main lesson here is there’s more than one way to skin a cat. …And what sick S.O.B. thought up that cliché?
Old school
In a Sunday day game I noticed Johnny Giavotella was wearing flip-down sunglasses. Even though they make more sense, they’re not the eyewear of choice anymore for major leaguers.
Of course, the cool sunglasses are worn on the back of the head now (it’s been mandated that the players can’t block the team logos on the front of the cap) and as anyone can tell you, sunglasses on the back of the head don’t do you a whole lot of good. Let’s hope Gio starts a trend back to the flip-downs.
(Man, I sound like the Andy Rooney of baseball.)
The high fastball
Hitters need to lay off the high fastball, at least if it’s a really good fastball. The bat head starts to drop when the swing starts and it’s almost impossible (“almost” being the important word in that sentence) to ‘stay on top’ of a fastball up in the zone (up meaning around the letters).
(A semi-short digression: “Staying on top” means the bat head never goes below the level of the ball). Soooo … if the pitcher has a really good fastball, the hitter wants something a bit down. Say between the belt and mid-thigh.
Conversely, hitters want high breaking pitches. They have less velocity, and it’s easier to square one up. Off-speed down tends to keep going down on out of the zone. This is all dependent on the pitcher being good. If the pitcher sucks, hitters just want him to show up on time, throw strikes and be ready to duck.
It’s evolving
When people ask about this website, I tell them I’m making it up as I go along, which unfortunately, is all too true. This project started with me being asked if I would be willing to watch most of the Royals games and enter information into a program that tracked the team’s defensive play. I looked at what The Star had, and was less than thrilled with what it would reveal. Eventually I suggested using Ron Polk’s system for measuring player contribution.
I was aware of Ron’s system, but I had never used it before. It seemed to encompass enough categories to start an interesting conversation about baseball, and that was what I originally had in mind. I wanted to bring the conversations I had been having with players and coaches for decades back to the public.
The game notes covering those conversations quickly took over the Polk system as the main object of reader interest (although some people still like to argue about the scoring). By accident or instinct I decided to skip a lot of the news conferences, focus on small details, never taking notes while having a conversation because then it’s an interview (I jot notes afterward and only use short quotes that I can recall verbatim) and make videos with no introductions. We just start talking, and the videographer, John Sleezer, turns on the camera at some point.
All this (and my tendency to give players a hard time) has led to an interesting relationship with the people I cover. I’m not going to pretend to not like them or be disinterested in the team’s fortunes. It’s a lot more fun and interesting to cover a winning ball club. It’s a lot more fun to talk to a happy player than a depressed one.
I’m sure some people feel I’ve crossed the line with the players at times, but some of those hijinks opened up relationships to the point that I can ask someone like Jeff Francoeur where the hell that throw was going in the seventh inning and get an honest answer. For me, I’ve gone too far when I refuse to criticize a player because I like him. But at this point, I think players know I’m not coming at this in a negative way and if I ask about a play that went wrong, they’ve seen me write enough positive stuff to not take offense. The guys I’ve asked about agree: the stuff between the white lines is fair game and that’s all a reporter can ask for.
The grinders …
After every game, Ned Yost holds a news conference. After the Opening Day game, the room was so full people were standing against the walls. The next night, I counted seven people in the room. After doing this for a full season, I’ve got enormous respect for the media “grinders.” The people who are out there game after game, grinding it out, gathering the information that forms a picture of a player, a team or a season.
Guys like The Star’s Bob Dutton. Bob is one of the guys who will tell you to go slow when you’re getting ready to say someone’s awful or great. It takes a long time to reach a worthwhile conclusion and you can’t do it after one game or looking at one stat or visiting one website (including this one).
The other day I was watching a game with my son, and a couple of nationally known baseball analysts came on and I said, “These guys are full of @#&%.” (I’m raising that boy right, ain’t I?) He asked why and I said, “There’s no way these guys are experts on 30 teams. They show up for the day, probably pump a beat writer for some information and then go on TV and act like they’re insiders.”
I’m not a grinder yet. One season isn’t enough to qualify. But I’m working on it. I need to watch a lot more baseball … and put on about 40 pounds … but I think I’m just the guy to do it.
Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur looks ahead to next year
Jeff Francoeur and The Star's Lee Judge talk about the season and what to look forward to with next year's team. September 4, 2011 (Video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)
Mendoza
Holland
Dyson
I like "more stuff".
Keep it coming Lee! I love all the tidbits! This is the most-comprehensive insights anywhere on the Royals!
I also listened to Hawk and Stone on the TV- Frank was gone and it is always good to hear another perspective. They love the Royals. Hawk called Hos the next coming of "Dennis the Menace"- his favorite player ever, not just Royal, George Brett! I agree- GB with more power!
What a future! I'm SO excited!
Again- keep the tidbits coming! Thanks Lee!
Jim: I'm emptying out the fridge while there's still time. Only three more days until the season's done and all that extra material passes its expiration date.
Jeff: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying this stuff. I just walk around and talking to players and coaches and then I get drag the material back to the website.
Thanks for the interesting Greinke story! In reference to your note titled 'It's Evolving', what you are doing is rather unique in that it is neither objective straight reporting or subjective commentary, but a 'process' blog, in which you talk about how the game is played. Since you couldn't do this if the players & coaches wouldn't talk to you, I believe that anyone with opinions of you "crossing the line" may not understand what you are trying to accomplish. I get it though, & please keep up the good work!
Lee: The Mc Clure, Greinke tidbit is priceless. People get on the coaches, but unless the player is willing to listen it does no good. These are men not little kids you can completely control. (I'm a parent and realize that you can't completely control kids either). Pitching coaches and hitting coaches have a very difficult job. They can only help when asked.
As far as the 40 pounds goes, I can supply more cookies.
Could you please talk to Yost about sitting Gordon? I have a fantasy title to win, and while I am ahead, it is too close for comfort. Alex has been my secret weapon, a 20th round pick who's played like a 2nd round pick. The other guy has Moose; have him play Alex at third for old times sake, and it is worth double to me.
I don't like Polk's system, but I like this website. Kudos to your writing, Lee.
Tell me you'll be making some updates through the off season. I think I'm about to be as blue as a royal uni without this to read reagularly.
I love these game notes. They are great, very informative, and focusing on the cause and reason of the outcome or gambles, and baseball skills/mechanics related, and very insider-ish.
I don't pay attention to the points system though.
Your comment-- “every instructional manual in the world says third base. If you make the third baseman field the ball, nobody is there to cover the bag, and the runner goes in standing up”--jogged my memory and caused my feeble mind to do a little thinking.
The reason there is typically nobody covering third base is because the “book” dictates that the proper defensive strategy is to have the shortstop cover second, the second baseman cover first, with the pitcher, cather, 1b and 3b all converging on the bunt.
Decades ago my high school coach taught us a different strategy, which he explained was frequently implemented by the old Brooklyn Dodgers, mainly, that instead of covering second, the shortstop covers third. Of course, this leaves second base undefended, but my question is this: Why does conventional baseball wisdom dictate that the better strategy is for the shortstop to cover second. With the shortstop covering third, you set up a possible force at third. With the shortstop covering second, and unless, as Chris Getz ably pointed out, the third baseman has time to retreat, you are all but conceding that the sacrifice bunt will be successful.
Hey Lee, in deference to the bunt fielding quandary...could you ask one of the guys how many different strategies they implement for fielding bunts? Its been more than 15 years, but when I played summer ball our team had several different 'plays' that were called by the coaches depending on the situation. We even had set plays where one of the corner infielders feinted charging and then retreated to his bag while the pitcher and alternate corner halved the field. I'd imagine the pros would put a lot more effort into managing the situation than a bunch of high school kids with dreams of division 3 college ball.
FYI the Royals Rookie fashion show will be on the pregame show tonight. It will even include Sisson.
Lee, as a catcher I NEVER wanted the umpire to throw the ball to my pitcher. Pitchers usually have a strained relationship with the umpire as it is (pitchers always remember the borderline pitch they didn't get, but never remember the out-of-the-strike-zone pitch the umpire gave them.) On more than one occasion, the umpire would make an errant throw back to the pitcher, which would get my pitcher even more irritated at them, which often led to dirty looks and smart-alec comments. Never a good situation.
I always told the umpire to hand ME the ball (though they didn't always listen.)
Oh, and blocking pitches in the dirt with a runner on third? How often do catchers get cheered for THAT potential game saving play? Not often. Only fellow catchers seem to notice that stuff.
Ya gotta love catchers.
They're the only defensive position that normally doesn't play in the field of play.
David: Thanks. Anytime you do something new it takes a while to figure out what the rules are.
For me, I can joke around with the players and pull for the team, but Frenchy still has to hit the cutoff man. And if he doesn't, I have to say so.
As long as I'm willing to point out the flaws of a player or the team, I feel like I haven't crossed the line.
Something to think about for next year's website... it would be cool to add a 'Like' or 'thumbs up' on comments. There's several times I've appreciated a comment and would have marked it as so.
Additionally, have some social media sharing for your articles would be cool as well. I often share links to your articles with some family/friends Royals fans.
Larry: Please, no more cookies! They were too good and I'm doing fine putting on the 40 pounds without your help. (By the way, assuming your wife baked those, thank her. They were excellent.)
Glad you liked the Greinke story. People often ask why the coaches don't tell the players to do this or that and they do, but the players don't always listen...at least not right away. (And you can be 'too coachable' by listening to every theory thrown at you.)
Kevin Seitzer got Alcides Escobar to go the other way and Esky's hitting took off. Then Alcides wanted to take every pitch the other way and it didn't work. Next Esky went back to hacking and that didn't work either.
Last I heard, Seitz was trying to convince Esky to go back to hitting the ball to the opposite field, but waiting for an appropriate pitch.
Curtis: Clearly Ned didn't know about your fantasy team or he would never have benched Alex. I'll speak to him about it when I see him next, which will be March of 2012.
Sorry.
Daniel and Yamfun: I tell people who don't like Ron Polk's system to just ignore it. I don't know of a player that cares about the points.
But they all like the patterns revealed and those are worth a look.
I would never argue that Melky has definitely had a better year than Alex because he's a head on points in this system. Maybe, maybe not.
But it is worth noting that Alex strikes out a lot looking or Melky runs the bases well or Eric Hosmer is saving a lot of errors on the infield.
Chuck: I don't know what the off-season plans for the website are at this point. Last year I did a summary of the players after the season ended. We'll have to talk about what they want to do this year.
Keep checking the site and after the last game (Thursday morning) I should have some news. But after watching 159 games (my son Paul covered three for me) I'm ready for a break.
Far from crossing the line, your positive relationship with players gives insights we wouldn't get otherwise and should continue. I'm happy to see the comments about the conversations we have, but the dismissals out of hand of the system of scoring the game (the grid)misses a big point. Without quantifying the game with some system (we all have tweeks we would like to see)and studying the actual results, we miss the nuances of the game. For instance, how can you not appreciate what your catcher is doing with a season's worth of outstanding plays recorded when they are often overlooked in the excitement of the game as they are happening. Great year, Lee; Can't wait for 2012 and 2011 isn't even over yet.
Chris and Bob: Let me consult a couple of my instructional manuals and write something on bunt coverages in the next few days.
Be warned: one of my manuals is from the Milwaukee Brewers and is so old Jason Kendall burst out laughing when he saw it.
I prefer to think of it as 'classic.'
Larry: You beat me to it. If you want to see the rookies in their outfits, don't miss the "Royals Live' pregame show tonight on Fox Sports Midwest.
(I'll be upset if they didn't make Moose wear that clown costume.)
Tim: Jason Kendall might have liked having the umpire throw the ball back to the pitcher because his right shoulder was held together with rubber bands and duct tape. Anything that took some strain off his arm seemed like a good thing.
And you're right about catchers blocking pitches in the dirt. Salvador Perez did it twice with a runner on third yesterday and saved the game.
It's one of the reasons catchers dig the website (or at least the idea of the website, I don't know how many of them actually look at it): I give defensive points for that.
Michael: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll run them by our web editor.
Joel: Thank you. As I noted above, feel free to ignore the points in the system, but the patterns are worth recording.
We actually talked about eliminating the system, but I felt it forced me to pay attention to some of the finer points of the game.
As for my relationship with the players: you can try to be distant enough that personal feelings don't enter into it or you can get close enough that you can ask Frenchy just how big a slump he's planning on going into while trying to hit his 20th home run and have him laugh and give you an honest answer.
I like the second approach.
Lee - in terms of site improvement, it would also be nice to be able to go back from your site to the KC sports page. I think the site is great, and improving, especially the content as time as gone on, you are really on to something, a very interesting side of baseball. Don't worry about the defensive stats, even the statheads admit that is the toughest thing to measure. A question. What does it mean to " swing through the pitch?" I often hear that, have never understood, since it is said when the batter swings and misses. Since the bat is made of wood it does not make sense to me that it can swing through the ball without hitting it.
Steve: I'll mention your suggestion to our IT guys. And 'swinging though a pitch' is the same as swinging and missing.
I have loved this season watching the young talent arrive and meld with our superb veteran of. As good as the baseball has been, my enjoyment has been significantly enhanced by your column. It is the first thing I open in the am and has been the basis for many great conversations with my Royals loving brothers, all of us who live elsewhere but still think of KC as home. I loved the Grienke anecdote but I think there is a backstory that ought to be included. Zach was almost driven crazy by Guy Hansen, McClure's predecessor. After enduring his constant attempts to move Grienke into a new position on the rubber, Zach was ready to blow. Bob may well have lit the match but Hansen set the fuse. Great season, Lee. I can hardly wait for April
I have looked forward to reading "Judging the Royals" every day this year. Nice work, can't wait for next year!
Steve Yeakel:
copy this link, http://www.kansascity.com/sports/
and create a shortcut on your browser so you can always be one click away from the main sports' page no matter where you are.
Lee, what you've done with this blog is really beyond a simple "thank you". I have read every one of your posts this year, and it has made watching the Royals enjoyable again. One of the things I have noticed is that the comments on this board are rational and informative as opposed to the Jr. High garbage that gets posted on the main articles.
The info you have posted here has been utilized in my softball games, video games (corny, but it's worked!), and more importantly will be infused into a trip I'll take next January to the Dominican Republic where I'll be privileged to help with baseball clinics during the day, and getting thoroughly beaten by the local teams at night.
However, other than sending you a check, a simple "THANK YOU" is all I have.
Everybody: Apparently there is a link back to the Star already (who knew?). Just go to the home page and click on the Star logo in the upper right corner.
Jim: Thanks for adding the background on the Greinke story and I'm glad you enjoyed the website.
Sean: No, I need to thank you and all the readers who've made this thing work. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but didn't know how many people would care about the kind of information I wanted to bring to the site.
Everybody who took time out of their day to read this and support what I'm doing (they count the page hits) deserves my gratitude.
Although I wouldn't turn down the check.
Lee, perhaps a somewhat inane question, but here goes: One of the great things about your column is that you actually interact and respond to most of the messages left by your readers. Obviously, the Royals are on the verge of a breakout season. A winning record will mean more readers and more messages. Do you anticipate any problems keeping up with the anticipated increase in traffic and messages. Have you considered an off-season conditioning program? :)
Bob: I'm considering performance enhancing drugs.
lol
human growth hormones???????
Larry: I'm so immature they'd probably have no effect.