Games: Minnesota Twins, Sept. 14: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » Minnesota Twins

Sep14

Throwing a fastball at the wrong time

After seven innings the Royals were up 7-5 over the Angels. Reliever Aaron Crow was on the mound with a runner on first and two down in the 8th inning. One more out and Ned Yost could go to his closer, Greg Holland. The problem with this scenario was Kendrys Morales: Yost had spotted him the back of Angels dugout, wearing a batting helmet. That meant Morales was going pinch hit.

Morales, a switch-hitter, is much better from the left side (.290 vs. .209 as a righty) so Yost wanted to switch him around to his weaker side by bringing in Tim Collins. Morales hit for Chris Ianetta and Collins replaced Crow. So far, so good — but then Collins made a mistake.

Tim started Morales was a 94-mph four seam fastball, and pinch hitters usually come into a game hunting a fastball. Morales found one and knew what to do with it. A two-run homer and the game was tied. A single, a single, a hit batter and yet another bases-loaded walk (this one issued by Jeremy Jeffress), and the Angels had the lead for good.

Game notes

Collins was dressed and ready to go by the time the media got to the clubhouse. He could have ducked us, but didn’t. In baseball, being a stand-up guy literally means standing by your locker and answering questions when you’d rather not.
Jason Bourgeois was brought up because the Royals have a shortage of healthy guys who can play center field. Lorenzo Cain is going to be out for a while and it’s possible he’s done for the year.
When Ned has a lead there are four relievers he prefers to use: Collins, Aaron Crow, Kelvin Herrera and Greg Holland. Herrera was not available for this game because he threw two days in a row and threw 40 pitches in those outings.
Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez collided on a pop fly. Moose managed to elbow Salvy in the head when Mike reached up to catch the ball. The third baseman is supposed to take any pop fly he can from the catcher, but it’s better if he doesn’t give the catcher a concussion while he does it.
Billy Butler hit his 100th home run on a cutter from lefty, C.J. Wilson. The cut fastball from a lefthander is supposed to bore in and a righty’s hands. If it doesn’t get in far enough, it’s a good pitch to pull.
The cutter is the same pitch Bruce Chen uses to get in on right-handers and probably the same pitch that’s been hit out of the park by those right-handers a few times.
After Giavotella doubled, Jason Bourgeois did a nice job trying to hit the inside half of the ball so he could drive the ball to the right side and move Johnny to third with one down. Sometimes doing the right thing pays off. Jason lined the ball through the infield, scoring Gio and picking up the RBI for himself.
When Alcides Escobar stole second, Erick Aybar tried to “deke” him. Esdcobar was safe and Aybar caught the ball, but then Erick spun to look into centerfield as if the ball had gotten away. All it takes is for the runner to take a step toward third and the middle infielder can tag him out while he’s off the base. Esky didn’t bite, probably because he uses the same trick.
It’s likely Jeff Francoer saved another run with his reputation: with runners on first and second in the 7th inning, Erick Aybar doubled. The runner on second scored easily, but Mike Trout, the runner on first, was held up. Teams are starting to shut down runners rather challenge Francoeur’s arm.
In the top of the 9th, the Angels picked up an insurance run when Giavotella tried to turn an inning-ending double play. Unfortunately, Escobar was already at the bag and could have made the play much more easily. Gio stepped in front of Escobar, caught the ball and then had to back up to tag the bag. As a result, Johnny threw flat-footed and there was not much on his throw. If Esky caught the ball, he would have been moving toward first base as he made the throw.
Because the Angels scored an insurance run, the Royals never got the winning run to the plate in ninth.

Alex and the wall

Thursday night Alex Gordon ran into a low wall down the left field line in Minnesota. I asked how he was doing, and Alex said he was fine. He bruised a knee, but nothing that will affect his playing. Alex said he lost track of the wall and got there faster than he anticipated.

Having a feel for the quirks of a park is a huge advantage for a home player. That lack of familiarity is a disadvantage for visiting players. In Kauffman, look for visiting outfielders to struggle with the depth of the outfield fences (many players aren’t used to having that much open area behind them) and the rounded corners (if a ball gets into one of those, the outfielder needs to head for the bullpen gate and wait for the ball to shoot out of the corner and carom to him).

Lough‘s OK

Despite the expression on his face as he legged out a triple Tuesday night, David Lough said he’s OK. It may have looked bad, but David said there was no pain. He wanted to get to third on the play, but didn’t want to push his hamstring too hard while doing so.

Slowing the game down

Eric Hosmer didn’t know his precise batting average over the last month (a few games ago I figured it at .302), but he knew he’d been doing better. I asked if he’d changed anything or hits that were getting caught were now dropping. Eric said he’d “slowed the game down.”

Hitting the ball the other way is part of it. George Brett once told me every time he slumped, he’d work on hitting the ball to the opposite field. Going “oppo” allows the hitter to see the ball longer, improve his pitch selection and stay closed on the front side. Eric agreed with all that, and we both agreed a hitter looking the other way can still react and pull a ball.

The fact that Eric was able to hit a home run to left field is part of what makes Hosmer special: pitchers work the outside corner to rob hitters of their power. A hitter who can take an outside pitch and drive it out of the park the other way, present a real problem for a pitcher.

Comments

Daniel Wesley
8 months ago

Frustrating loss. I think we got a little glimpse of why Yost was fired from Milwaukee and earned his ‘Nervous Ned’ nickname. Classic over-managing.
Terry Payne
8 months ago

Daniel - I agree. I rarely second-guess a manager, or jump on the bandwagon with those who want him dumped, but I really have to question Ned on why he brought in Jeremy Jeffress to pitch with the bases already loaded? Jeffress is notoriously wild. Even Mr. Magoo could see how that move MIGHT pay off, and how it DID pay off.
Jim Fetterolf
8 months ago

I think that was the third straight game Royals’ relievers had walked in a run.
Phil Schreck
8 months ago

Here’s what Ned said about bringing in Jeffress with the bases loaded…“The problem is he got behind in the count with his breaking ball. His breaking ball is a chase pitch. It’s a strikeout pitch.

“We got behind in the count on his breaking ball instead of getting ahead in the count with his fastball and then going to the breaking ball.”

Here’s what I’m wondering: I know the pitcher is throwing the pitch but shouldn’t the pitcher and catcher know what pitch the manager wants to be thrown? They were just all together on the mound talking about it. Isn’t that the manager’s fault they they didn’t know?
Jim Fetterolf
8 months ago

Catchers call pitches and Perez is supposed to be good at that, and pitchers can shake the catcher off, but of course we’ll blame Yost for all things:) Sounds like Perez decided to pitch the hitter backwards and it just didn’t work.
Phil Schreck
8 months ago

I understand what Perez may have been trying to do but Ned did say it was a “problem”. It seems to me that he could have alleviated that problem ahead of time while he was on the mound by telling Perez and Jeffress in no uncertain terms to throw the fastball. He’s the manager.
Daniel Wesley
8 months ago

My contention is that Ned overmanaged by removing Crow and bringing in Collins. Crow has a reverse platoon split this year, with LH batters only hitting 160/.232/.267 against him. Surely Ned has such stats available to him… right?
Phil Schreck
8 months ago

I agree with you Daniel. Crow seemed to be pitching well and it should never have come to the point that it did.
Jim Fetterolf
8 months ago

Wonder if Ned Yost told Tim Collins in no uncertain terms to throw a first-pitch fastball?

As is usually the case, execution is the most important thing. Collins made his pitch too fat, Jeffress missed with the curve, but the thought behind the curve was probably valid, a somewhat wild pitcher with a fairly straight, flat, overthrown fastball is likely to try to groove heat on the first pitch to get ahead with the bases loaded in a close game. Hitter will sit on the fastball, like Morales did. Jeffress just missed.

Daniel, good point on Crow’s odd split. In ‘11 his leftie split was .311/.381/.538 and he was deadly on righties. Can’t find how that line has evolved over the year, but Crow has been more hittable since June. Not enough information.
Jay Hall
8 months ago

I think the heavy early season work for the bullpen is starting to show ill effects. Herrera, Collins, Crow, and Holland have not looked sharp the last week or so.

Herrera has already thrown more innings this year than he did last year at four levels. Collins equaled his innings with last nights appearance. Crow is within 4 innings of his total last season. Holland has already surpassed his usage, and he missed three weeks with an injury. I worried earlier in the season about burnout, and I think we are starting to see that.

This is another reason why we can’t just maintain the status quo in this rotation. Hochevar is a guy you know will get blown up once every 3 or 4 starts and only go 2-3 innings. That’s too much pressure for a bullpen that has to last 162 games. We have to go out and get 2 guys that can throw 185-200+ innings.
Phil Schreck
8 months ago

Lee, I’d like to hear your opinion on pitch choice, especially when the bases are loaded and the pitcher is known for his wildness. As I posted above, Ned was quoted as saying that Jeffress started off with a couple of breaking pitches when he should have tried to get ahead with fastballs and then use his “chase pitch.” If the manager says that’s what he should have done, why didn’t he?
Lee Judge
8 months ago

Phil: I couldn’t tell you why Jeffress started with breaking pitches without talking to all the people involved and that doesn’t always happen right after a game. (I may get a chance today.)

I don’t know if Ned gave those instructions or getting ahead with a fastball is what Jeffress always does and this time he decided to change up the pattern.

I know there’s a philosophy that the players have the best feel for what’s happening in the game and I know the staff doesn’t call pitches from the side.

I also know if something works everybody thinks it was a good idea and if it doesn’t, it might have been a bad one.

Collins said it was a mistake to start off Morales with a fastball. Maybe Perez didn’t want to make the same mistake with Hunter at the plate and Jeffress on the mound. They threw two curves, went to the fastball, went to 2-1 and then Jeffress missed with next two fastballs.

I also know Ned had some bullpen issues (Herrera unavailable, Bueno had thrown two nights in a row, Holland went an inning and a third in the last game)and Yost was trying to work around those issues. That limited his choices late in the game.

If I get a chance to talk with the people involved today I may have something more on it tomorrow.
Luke Healy
8 months ago

was at this game and while it was entertaining, it was also extremely frustrating. yost talked about jeffress not executing, did he take any of the blame on himself? he left chen in one batter too long at least, although i was surprised he came out for the 7th at all. he got one out and then the top of the order was coming up for the 4th time vs. chen. they got lucky only one run scored after that with two bases loaded strikeouts.

but there’s only so much playing with fire you can do. taking out crow was a huge mistake. morales may not be as good against lefties but collins’ splits against batters from the right side are terrible. the following three batters further illustrated this (why yost didn’t have jeffress up earlier before collins let three more righties reach is beyond me).

again, second guessing a manager after the fact is often unfair, but it would be nice if he took some of the blame for his mistakes, if he even sees them as mistakes (didn’t watch his post-game).

it was good to see the hitting though, just wish it would have mattered.
Daniel Wesley
8 months ago

Lee, I agree that hindsight is 20/20, but my frustration is that managers in general (certainly not just Ned) have a tendency to try and put their stamp on a game and end up over-managing - making simple situations into complex situations unnecessarily.

Last night, Crow looked sharp and even if Morales comes up hitting LH, Ned and his staff have to know that Aaron has pitched LH hitters incredibly tough this year.
Terry Payne
8 months ago

I was so hoping that the Frenchman’s go-ahead HR would stand up: Jeff needs some love.

Collins and Crow really seem to be struggling lately, especially Timmie. Anybody notice anything different in his delivery? His fastball doesn’t seem to have it’s usual finishing zip. I think it’s time to at least consider moving one of these guys to the rotation, or to the unemployment line.
Terry Payne
8 months ago

PS - it was REALLY nice to see the Frenchman go oppo, I think b/4 his hr. If he wants to stick here, he’s going to have to show a lot more willingness to do that.

The old Frenchie would have tried to pull that o/s pitch, and would have topped one to the ss.

A Frenchie with a willingness to hit the ball the other way? Now THAT is a keeper, esp considering that cannon that’s attached to his right shoulder.

Figure that in with his personality, his love for the community, his ability to get along well with his teammates. Frenchie’s still in his late 20’s, max upside. Just roll with the oppo, baby!
Phil Schreck
8 months ago

Thanks Lee!

Judging the Royals