Games: Baltimore Orioles, May 26: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » Baltimore Orioles

May26

Let's all slow down

Eric Hosmer went three for four in this game. When he was taking 0-fers, I was telling you Eric wasn’t hitting the ball that badly. Hosmer has had seven hits in the last three games, and now I’ll tell you he’s not hitting the ball that well. That’s baseball.

The game tends to even out and Hosmer would be the first one to tell you that. Fans — and many members of the media — need to remember that. Slow down, don’t rush to judgment. Before you say someone needs to go back to the minors or be brought to the big leagues, remember, this is a long grind.

Last season a lot of people were saying Ned Yost needed to pinch hit for Alcides Escobar. Yost said Esky needed the experience. Alcides now is hitting .307 and playing great defense. Last season a lot of people were saying Mike Moustakas wasn’t ready for the big leagues. Mike has scuffled on this road trip, but is still hitting over .270 and playing great defense.

I’ve got no clue what Eric Hosmer will eventually hit, but I know impatience and baseball don’t mix. We all need to slow down.

Felipe Paulino

If you hear someone talk about “command,” they mean the ability to hit the four quadrants of the zone. Felipe Paulino’s command was off, but he figured out a way to keep his team in the game. Felipe walked five, but, fortunately, none of them came in front of the two home runs and triple he allowed.

Pitchers don’t have always have their best stuff. Figuring out how to be competitive when your stuff isn’t that good is a big part of becoming a complete pitcher. Looked at from that perspective, Paulino took a step forward in this game; he scuffled with command, but limited the damage.

Game notes

Before the game Kevin Seitzer said Jeff Francoeur needed to lay off the inside fastball if he wanted to continue this hot streak. So of course, Frenchy swung at the first pitch he saw, an inside fastball.
Swinging at that pitch probably made him miss the next pitch, another fastball, but a much more hittable pitch. (The hitter opens up too soon to hit the inside pitch and it can throw his timing off on subsequent pitches out over the plate.) The catcher signaled for a pitch up in the zone, Wei-Yin Chen missed down and Francoeur doubled.
Continue to watch pitch location with Francoeur: pitchers want to come inside and get him to hit rollover grounders to third and short. If Jeff gets pitches out over the plate, he’ll hit for a higher average. But Frenchy swings at the inside pitch because that’s the one he can put in the seats. Jeff’s got his faults, but lack of aggression isn’t one of them.
Humberto Quintero tried another pick-off of a runner at first base. Watch for him to do this on a pitch that misses down and in to a left-handed hitter. That pitch has Humberto moving in the right direction to make a throw to Eric Hosmer.
Alex Gordon and Jarrod Dyson had a collision in right center. Fortunately, Dyson was going low and Gordon was going high in an effort to make the catch. You’ll see the same thing when an infielder goes back on the ball. If both fielders attempt to make the catch on the same level, heads can collide and the damage can get serious fast. Dyson took a foot in the thigh and Gordon got body slammed, but it could’ve been worse.
The upside and downside of Johnny Giavotella was on display in this game: Johnny doubled, singled and walked (more on that in a moment), but also had two balls kick off his glove. Stiff hands is one of the raps on Gio. He had problems with a 4-6 fielder’s choice in the 4th and a potential double play in the 9th. (To be fair, the double play in the 9th would’ve been tough, but if you don’t get the ball to Alcides Escobar cleanly, you don’t know if it would’ve been possible.)
Back to Gio’s walk in the 2nd: context is everything. Walks always look good in the scorebook, but some are better than others. If you’re hitting 8th in the National League and you work a walk with a runner in scoring position, bringing the pitcher to the plate — don’t expect too many high fives. It might be better to swing at a borderline pitch. Johnny’s walk came with Jeff Francoeur on second and Eric Hosmer — hitting .192 — on deck. That forced Eric to face a left-handed pitcher and Eric popped out to left field. I don’t know how the Royals viewed that plate appearance and whether they would’ve liked Johnny to be more aggressive. They might’ve been just fine with a walk there — but be aware that not every walk is a good thing. Context matters.
Billy Butler hit his 10th home run and stands at .301. It’s hard to be good, it’s harder to be good consistently. We should appreciate watching one of the best hitters in the game.
Credit Hosmer for hustling on a ball rolling up the third-base line and turning it into a double. When things are going bad, it’s easy to get your head down and miss opportunities like this.
After Hosmer’s infield double, Humberto Quintero doubled between the left field line and the Orioles left fielder. There was a big gap there and that generally means a pitcher missed his spot. I went back and checked and, sure enough, Darren O’Day was trying to finish Humberto off with a slider out of the zone, low and away. O’Day missed his spot, hung the slider which allowed Quintero to hook the ball into a gap in the defense.
Humberto then made what appeared to be a mistake when Mitch Maier dumped a flare behind third base. The third baseman, short stop and left fielder converged on the ball and it appeared the pitcher did not cover third base. Instead of taking a lead and being able to advance when the ball dropped, Quintero was headed back to second. (And if I’m wrong, Doug Sisson will tell me when he gets home.)
Quintero’s mistake (if that’s what it was) might’ve cost Mitch a double.
The Royals were 0-5 with runners in scoring position Friday night, 5-12 with runners in scoring position in this game. Two things to watch for when a hitter is at the plate with a runner in scoring position: 1.) Does he get a good pitch to hit? 2.) If he gets a good pitch, does he over-swing? Staying under control with the game on the line is difficult. Some people can do it, some struggle.

Pressure

We’ve had more than one discussion — OK, argument — on this site about pressure. Is pitching the 9th inning for a save any different than pitching the 8th for a hold? Is hitting third any different than hitting sixth? A few ballplayers might say it’s not (good for them if they’re telling the truth), but most say it is different.

This comes up once again because we’re talking about hitting with runners in scoring position. Some people think it shouldn’t be any different than hitting under any other circumstance. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but all too often it is.

Here’s why: Kevin Seitzer and I were talking about pressure. Kevin said a hitter needs to be able to carry the same skills and techniques into a game that he uses in batting practice — but it’s not that easy. I asked if it was comparable to walking down a 12 inch-wide plank on the ground and then being able to do the same thing with the plank 100 feet in the air.

Same plank, same skills required, but the setting is different. Few of us could treat the task exactly the same in both instances. Kevin said that was a great metaphor and planned to use it in the future. I don’t know if he did, but it helps fans understand why some players feel pressure. It might look the same to us, but we’re not 100 feet in the air.

Comments

Jim Fetterolf
11 months, 3 weeks ago

“We all need to slow down.”

We’ve looked at the reasons for and against demoting Hosmer, but I would suggest that neither Esky nor the Moose are analogous simply because neither had anyone serious pushing them, both backed up by Betemit and Aviles. In Hosmer’s case, there is someone in Omaha making a case for a look and that is Clint Robinson. That makes it a different situation if we are trying to win some games now.

Robinson has holes in his swing, issues with lefties, and is a bit of a potted plant at 1st, but he has done everything the club has asked of him and has probably earned a paycheck for a month or two when the guy ahead has been below the Mendoza line. He’s a little like Irving Falu in that regard.

Of course, now it’s probably a moot point with Hosmer’s luck appearing to have turned a little. I hope Hoz gets hot along with Frenchy and that Moose can arrest his little slide and Alex stop pressing so much to try to justify his contract extension. Four of the five big guys doing what they did last year probably makes this a winning team.

Nice game today:)
Lee Judge
11 months, 3 weeks ago

Jim: I wouldn’t argue that you never make a move (obviously), but too many people have a knee-jerk reaction to short-term events. (Unfortunately, a lot of them are in my business—it’s not just the fans.)

Hosmer has had some luck over the last three games—he was definitely due for some—but I’m guessing he’s still not out of the woods.

You’re also right about getting some production out of the guys who supplied it last year, this team will look a lot different when that starts happening.

And, yeah, it was nice to see the Royals hang in there and come back late in this game.
Ryan Jones
11 months, 3 weeks ago

Ya it was a great game. Hosmer had 3 hits which was nice to see. Most of the reaction has been about his infield double and last rbi. But the hit I was most excited about was his first rbi single. 3-0 count runner in position and he ripped a liner. Many times guys (especially Billy) lay off a perfect fastball right down the middle, on that count then foul off a tough 3-1 pitch and then end up striking or grounding out. Takes confidence to swing then so it’s good to see Hos swinging there, but I don’t know why Billy would ever lay off one right down the middle, especially when he knows it’s coming
Joel Kallem
11 months, 3 weeks ago

The Royals continue to tease us with glimpses of what might be. Great game all-around by the team. Good pitching, good defense, and timely hitting. Looking forward to the time when we will see more games like this on a more consistent basis. A win tomorrow and taking at least two from Cleveland puts us right back on track to get back to .500 ball.
Jim Fetterolf
11 months, 3 weeks ago

“too many people have a knee-jerk reaction to short-term events.”

I agree, but I don’t do knee-jerk. My position on even considering demoting Hosmer was based on him having earned it, on having a man in Omaha who has earned a look, and sending the message that no one is immune to being moved based on performance.

I understand that, long-term, it may be a benefit to let Hosmer work through it here and also think there may be some warm-fuzziness in play, making Hoz feel loved and hoping it pays dividends in a future negotiation. I also think that Hosmer’s scoops and the confidence he gives the rest of the infield is probably worth a hit every few games, so the case for demotion isn’t a slam-dunk by any means, it just needed to be considered and I’m comfortable as Devil’s Advocate.
Brad Hampshire
11 months, 3 weeks ago

How can we comment on Judge’s clueless cartoons?
Mark Harkins
11 months, 3 weeks ago

A thought on your comments on Pressure… Compare baseball to tennis. You can’t run out the clock in Tennis either. You have to go out and finish the thing off. How many times do you see someone get to 5 games in a set and start to tighten up trying to close it out? I think the 9th inning in a bsaeball game shares some of those same traits. Sometimes the toughest thing to do mentally is to play relaxed and close something out.
Lee Judge
11 months, 3 weeks ago

Jim: I’d agree that you don’t do knee jerk. More than once I’ve thought you should be writing a baseball column; you put more thought into your comments than many people who get paid to write about the sport (and that sometimes includes me).

Everybody seems to think Hosmer is going to be here for a long time, so the question is how do you help him get through this stretch. Ned thinks he needs to be here and experience it and then figure out how to get through it.

(You could bring up Robinson, let him show what he can do at this level and see what he’s worth after that.)

Ryan: A hitter has to get the green light to hit 3-0. I’ve seen Billy swing 3-0, but I was a bit surprised Hosmer got a 3-0 green light. Maybe Yost thought it would be a good way to get him a pitch to hit—and it worked.

Joel: When they get starting pitching, this team shows what it can be.

Brad: Just assume I know for that for every person who thinks a cartoon shows great insight, someone else thinks the same cartoon is clueless.

Mark: I agree—playing your game under extraordinary circumstances is harder than people some times think.

I can’t remember who it was, but someone told me a story about a Royals relief pitcher who was sent out for his first save, came back and said, “Wow, THAT’S different.” Ideally, it shouldn’t be, but it’s hard to keep the circumstances involved out of your mind.
Jim Fetterolf
11 months, 3 weeks ago

“(You could bring up Robinson, let him show what he can do at this level and see what he’s worth after that.)”

That was part of my thought, looking at it from the GMDM perspective. Clint Robinson’s only realistic chance to see steady time with the Royals before September is, heaven forbid, an injury to Billy or Hoz. As both have him solidly blocked and as Clint’s most likely chance for the majors is with another team, a demotion of Hoz for a month would, depending on performance as an LH DH/1B, showcase Robinson’s abilities for a potential trade partner.

The move would also send two messages, one that no one is immune to a performance based demotion and two that the team will give a best effort to reward players who stick with the organization and perform in the minors. A major league check for a month would mean something to Robinson. Ask Irving Falu about that.

Those two messages may be severely tested in the next week or two, but that’s another thread.

Judging the Royals