Games: Oakland Athletics, Aug. 16: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » Oakland Athletics

Aug16

Hochevar pitched well, but...

Luke Hochevar pitched well, but Dan Strailey pitched better.

Hochevar pitched seven innings, struck out five and gave up four hits and three runs — a quality start. Strailey pitched 6 1/3, struck out two and gave up six hits, but no runs. Even when the Royals crushed the ball, they had little to show for it. Salvador Perez lined out to start the ninth and Jeff Francoeur did the same to end the inning. (Cliff Pennington dropped Frenchy’s line drive, but still threw Jeff out at first.)

Billy Butler hit bullets in his first three at-bats, but only got one hit. Butler drove centerfielder Coco Crisp to the wall in deep center, but still wound up with an F8 in the scorebook. The ball Billy hit was a curve. After the game, Billy said he got every bit of that ball, but couldn’t push it through the wind. (The wind was blowing left to right early in the game and Crisp’s homer went to right. Yoenis Cespedes homer went to left, but was hit after the wind died down.)

For most of August, Royals starting pitchers have given the team a chance to win. Luke Hochevar continued that trend last night, but the offense couldn’t take advantage.

Game notes

Speaking of wind, ballplayers check the flags on a regular basis. For some, it’s the first thing they look at when they step on the field. Wind blowing in makes for a low-scoring game. Wind blowing out makes for lots of offense.
Smart pitchers will use the wind. Say it’s blowing in hard from left field; a pitcher can let a right-handed hitter hammer a ball on the inner half and count on the wind to knock it down for an F7. Check the flags when you’re at the park, and it’ll give you a better idea of what kind of game you’ll be seeing that day.
It’s a simple F7 in the scorebook, but if you wanted to make a training video on how to run a route on a fly ball, you could use Alex Gordon’s catch in the first inning. Josh Reddick sent the ball deep and to Gordon’s left. Alex raced to a spot behind where he thought the ball would land, turned and came back toward the infield while making the catch. That’s a lot of extra running when you could just drift to the ball and make the catch going back, but getting in a position to make the catch while moving forward means a better throw. Jemile Weeks was on first base at the time and Gordon’s route made sure Weeks wouldn’t tag and try for second.
Strailey was pitching well so you might wonder why he came out of the game with one out in the seventh. Even though they didn’t score in the second inning, the Royals made Strailey throw 29 pitches. That meant Strailey was at 99 pitches after 6 1/3. Mike Moustakas was coming to the plate representing the tying run at the time, so Bob Melvin went to a left-handed reliever.
Josh Reddick came to the plate in the fourth inning facing a left-handed shift. Alcides Escobar was playing up the middle and Mike Moustakas was alone on the left side of the infield. Reddick bunted the ball toward Mike and by the time Moose picked it up, Reddick was safe at first. So did Reddick beat the shift? I asked Ned Yost that question afterward. He said getting a guy who has 25 home runs, 60 RBIs and slugs .495 to accept an infield single is a good deal.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Billy Butler just about knocked shortstop Cliff Pennington down with a one-hop line drive. Pennington was already back on the grass, dropped the ball and still threw out Billy at first. Billy’s hitting .301, but it’s a hard .301. That means he doesn’t get leg hits or bloops and flares dropping in, most of the time he’s got to hit the ball hard to get a hit.
Eric Hosmer singled up middle, but ran like he was going for a double. After a big aggressive turn, Hosmer retreated back to first. Running hard out of the box puts a player in a position to take advantage of any mistake the defense makes. Loaf out of the box on a sure single and you can’t take advantage of any bobble or bad throw. Eric also hustled down to break up a double play on a Chris Getz grounder.
Speaking of Chris Getz: in the movie “Bull Durham” Crash Davis asked pitcher Nuke Laloosh what he was doing and Nuke said, “Enjoying the moment.” Crash responded, “The moment’s over.” That’s baseball. No matter what you do, good or bad, there’s another pitch to make or fly ball to catch or game to play. Getz was the hero Wednesday night, but made outs in two bases-loaded situations Thursday night. Enjoy the moment, because it’s soon over.
Jarrod Dyson made three outs in the air and a fourth striking out looking. The Royals need Jarrod to get the ball in play on the line or on the ground. Speed doesn’t help you on an F5.

Early work

I’m sitting in the air conditioned press box watching Will Smith run the stadium steps. (Geez, it looks hot out there.) After starting pitchers throw, they run the next day. It gets the blood flowing which is supposed to help rid the body of lactic acid (Who knows? I don’t have a medical degree.) Anyway, after they throw, pitchers run. Sometimes they run up and down the stadium steps, sometime they do “poles” (running from foul pole to foul pole) and sometimes they do laps of the field.

When pitchers get tired, it’s usually their legs that go first. So if you want a strong arm, develop strong legs. I caught up with Will after his workout and asked how long he’d run the next day after a start. He said 20 minutes. Then I asked why I never saw relievers running in the outfield. He pointed out they might have to pitch that night. Will said they do legwork, but relievers are like sprinters, starters are like marathon runners. Relievers train for short bursts of effort, starters train for the long haul. It’s one of the reasons you can’t just throw a reliever into a starter’s role without some preparation.

Comments

Thayne Griffin
9 months, 1 week ago

I didn’t think Straily pitched that well, seemed like we were just missing pitches we usually hit.

Jarrod Dyson hitting balls in the air - kind of why he’s not a very good hitter and definitely not a leadoff hitter.

Tim Collins continued his good pitching last night, just had an unlucky break on the deflection. Missed the steal though…is Norris fast or no throw or did Tim just fall asleep on the mound?

Thought Hos had some good, long ABs as well. One ended up as a walk, one as a single (speaking of which, Lee, the scorebook does not have the walk).

Now I don’t remember where you guys all get the strikezones, but I watched most of the game on gameday as well, and it seemed like Nuke was getting squeezed on some calls based on their locations, is that true?
Jay Hall
9 months, 1 week ago

Gordon has been one of the best leadoff hitters in all of baseball. He’s been one of the Royals best hitters the past two years while batting leadoff. Yet we move him from the leadoff spot. I do not understand that logic. I don’t even need to break this down statistically. My eyes, your eyes and everyone else’s eyes can see that Gordon was an asset to the Royals as a leadoff hitter. So why move him?
Josh Cooper
9 months, 1 week ago

Because he’s one of our four future #3 hitters, Jay.

Yost has lost it. We were actually doing well the past couple of games so now he fiddles with the lineup? We aren’t going to win every game (obviously), but why mess with something when things are going well?
Terry Payne
9 months, 1 week ago

Also not thrilled re: moving Alex to 3-hole.

The problem is that the Royals’ only true 3-hole hitter is slumping: Eric Hosmer, who, IMHO, needs to hit his way into that spot.

I love Alex batting leadoff, but only until someone TAKES the spot away from him. Also, something about hitting leadoff appeals to Alex, since his production seems to be so much better from there. Analyze away, seamheads.
Brendan Woodbury
9 months, 1 week ago

Jay -

The #3 hitter gets about 40 fewer plate appearances a year than the #1 hitter. If you have a chance to take 40 plate appearance away from a hitter like Alex Gordon, you have to take it.

Plus, didn’t Yost say something about how variety was the spice of life and players need to be moved around in the batting order or else they get bored?
William Wolfe
9 months, 1 week ago

I think we all see why Ned was fired with a few weeks to go with his team in the division lead.

Better than Hillman, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not exactly an inspiring benchmark to hit.
Luke Healy
9 months, 1 week ago

Yes we need to talk about moving Gordon out of the leadoff spot. His OBP is the best on the team near the top 10 in the league. How is this going to help the team? What is the “baseball” thinking here? No he isn’t going to steal a lot of bases, but if he’s batting third who is he going to drive in? The Royals don’t have a lot of guys that get on base that much to receive all those extra ABs.

Does this mean they’re giving up on Moustakas or Hosmer eventually filling a 3 or 4 spot to drive in runs? Are they simply trying to take one of the things they do extremely well and change it? It is baffling to me, on so many levels.
Terry Payne
9 months, 1 week ago

Luke - I am beginning to suspect that there is some kind of message being sent with this move. Whether it’s to Alex or the rest of the team - don’t know and I can be entirely wrong, but . . .

I suspect they’re just wanting to see what Dyson can produce leading off, so however that comes out, they can market him or keep him and market someone else.
Lee Judge
9 months, 1 week ago

Thayne: Thanks for pointing out Hosmer’s walk. Just to show I don’t play favorites, I also missed a Moustakas walk. They’re in the score book and on my worksheet, but I missed putting them in the system.

As for Gordon: teams reach a point where they realize they’re not going anywhere and begin to make moves based on that assumption. But they usually don’t announce that to fans. As I’ve said before, “Come out and watch us develop” isn’t much of a marketing slogan.

The Royals thought they were going to get much more than they have out of Hosmer and Francoeur, based on 2011.Part of why run production is down.

Alex has hit .251 batting third overall, but—as Bob Dutton pointed out—many of those games were in 2008, his second year in the big leagues. In 2011 Gordon hit .293 in 51 games while batting third.

If it was up to me I’d probably leave Gordon where he was, but it’s not up to me and I think they want to see if moving Gordon into the heart of the order is an option for next season.
Jeff Circle
9 months, 1 week ago

This is one subject where I am completely on the saber side of things - the leadoff spot. I am a firm believer that your leadoff hitter only leads off once a game on purpose (any other times leading off an inning are really due to random chance), so “traditional attributes of a leadoff hitter” are irrelevant in my mind. What matters is his ability to get on base because he’s coming to the plate the most times in the game. And we just put our best OBP guy (besides Butler) down in the lineup.

Jeez, I hope we’re marketing Dyson.
William Wolfe
9 months, 1 week ago

It’s just completely backwards logic. The guy who gets on base all the time is now batting third so he can drive in more runs. But the two guys hitting ahead of him aren’t very good at getting on base, so there will be less opportunity for the Royals to score runs. Sigh.

I think we’ve finally found the single item that all of us can agree on. Until Jim Fetterolf logs in at least.
Jay Hall
9 months, 1 week ago

I never thought the thing that could unite the commenters here would be Alex Gordon moving from leadoff to third in the lineup.
David Shaw
9 months, 1 week ago

Having Gordon lead off was just about the most un-Royals thing the team has done in the last 20 years. Moving him down in the order after he was wildly successful leading off is more in line with our typical Royals strategizing.
Terry Payne
9 months, 1 week ago

Wow!!

Good to see (most of) us getting along.

The one good thing about your team being out of the pennant race is that you can market certain players. Personally, I don’t think Dyson is a long-term fit for this team and I’m thinking that GMDM sees it the same.

If Alex’s on base philosophy would include taking more pitches, then he would be THE pure lead-off hitter.
Thayne Griffin
9 months, 1 week ago

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We had been doing fine with a first 3 of Gordon, Esky, and Butler. Smh. If Gordon gets about 40 extra PA per year at 1 hole instead of 3, what would Billy get if he was in the 3 hole permanently instead of the 4 hole for an entire season?
Brendan Woodbury
9 months, 1 week ago

Terry -

Alex is first on the team and 17th in the league in pitches per plate appearance at 4.01 P/PA.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2012-pitches-batting.shtml

Dyson is next to last on the team (among hitters with enough PAs to qualify) and below league average:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/KCR/2012-batting.shtml#playerspitchesbatting::4
Brendan Woodbury
9 months, 1 week ago

Thayne -

It varies (a bit) team to team and year to year, but last year, the 4 position in the Royals lineup came up 20 fewer times than the 3 position:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=KCR&year=2011#lineu::none

The difference in plate appearances is caused by games where the game ends in the middle of a time through the lineup. If you assumed the 162 games ended at random different points in the batting lineup, there’d be a difference of about 18-19 plate appearances for each spot you go up or down in the lineup.
Brendan Woodbury
9 months, 1 week ago

Terry -

Crazy KCStar comment formatting strikes again. It took out the underscores on either side of pitches (between players and batting) in that link. You’ll need to add them back in for it to work.
Terry Payne
9 months, 1 week ago

Brendan - learn to let it go, dude.
Jim Wilson
9 months, 1 week ago

The lost PAs are bad enough but I cringe when I imagine Alex’s meeting with Yost wherein Ned informs Alex that his new responsibilities as a “run producer” will require him to change his approach at the plate.
Brendan Woodbury
9 months, 1 week ago

Terry -

I think Axel Foley said it best when he said “I’m trying to figure you guys out, but I haven’t yet. But it’s cool.”

If you mention a trait that we have good data on, I’ll try to provide it, with a link. If that pleases you, great; if not, that’s OK.

However, if the Star could provide some guidelines on how formatting works in the comments, that would be nice. And if they could turn off that “See more at:” thing that messes up copy and paste, that would be fantastic.
Jeff Circle
9 months, 1 week ago

Jim W, good point
Thayne Griffin
9 months, 1 week ago

“Any time you can get your worst hitter more ABs, you have to do it.” Said by no one ever.
Thayne Griffin
9 months, 1 week ago

Oh my. Dutton just posted this: Yost clarifies remarks on future lineups: “Gordon will probably move down to four or five.” Says Hosmer still projects as long-term No. 3. Smh.
Josh Cooper
9 months, 1 week ago

At least Yost has come to his senses.

Mr. Chris Getz of the .317 OBP will be leading off tonight.

But at least he’s fast and can bunt!

Ugh.
Josh Cooper
9 months, 1 week ago

If Gordon is four, does that mean Butler is five? And if Perez keeps hitting, does that mean he is 6? But what about Moose? Is he a 5?

Here’s an idea, Yost. Don’t worry so much about the exact position in the order they hit. Just have the good hitters bat early and the bad hitters hit later.
Luke Healy
9 months, 1 week ago

It does seem most are in agreement here that moving alex down in the order doesn’t seem to make much sense, statistically or by common sense. How is it that the Royals’ brass doesn’t?

I know this site is generally dedicated to the smaller things of baseball and not the GM or things on that side of the game. But isn’t this a small thing that ends up impacting the game in significant ways? If Yost gave clarifying comments about Gordon moving even further down in the lineup, perhaps he can explain some of the strategy behind this move—beyond the potential outlook of the 1st inning.
Jim Wilson
9 months, 1 week ago

Okay, I figured it out. Yost must want to be fired. There is no other explanation.

Judging the Royals