Games » Atlanta Braves
Jun18Lee Judge
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Pitches have three qualities: velocity, movement and location. Generally, a pitcher needs two out of three to be successful. In this game Brian Bannister had one: movement. In fact, he moved a couple of pitches right into the ground. That’s two more wild pitches for a total of eight, which is a lot for a control guy.
If Brian doesn’t have movement AND location, he’s probably going to have a rough night…and he did.
Oh yeah, just to keep up the most consistent theme of this website: two walks scored and the Royals lost by two. IT’S MAGIC!
Pitching according to plan…
The Royals prepare a plan of attack for their pitchers at the beginning of each series. If they decide they’re going to pitch a batter away (they may go in for show, but they’ll stay away for strikes), they’ll set up their defense accordingly (shifted to the opposite field).
There IS another way to go about it.
The first time Danny Jackson pitched for me, I asked him how he wanted the defense set up. He told me, “Put ‘em in the bare spots, they’re there for a reason.” After I got done laughing, I asked him to explain.
He said he didn’t know what pitch he was going to throw until he saw the results from the last one. If a batter was diving to cover a low and away pitch, Danny knew he could go inside next. If the batter ripped a pitch inside foul, Danny knew the outside lane was now open.
Danny wanted his defense to play straight up to give him flexibility in pitch selection. He didn’t want to find himself in the position of wanting to pitch inside, but not being able to because the defense was swung around the other way.
Danny Jackson has two World Series rings, so I gave him what he wanted…plus, he’s bigger than me and I’m scared of him.
Rule of thumb…
If a batter fouls a pitch straight back, his timing is dead on, but he’s under. The pitcher can now go higher (climb the ladder) or change speeds to get out of the batter’s timing. If the batter pulls the ball foul, he’s early. The pitcher can throw the next pitch even slower. If the batter is late, the pitcher can move farther in.
What the pitcher doesn’t want to do is solve the batter’s problem for him. So if the guy’s early, you don’t switch to a harder pitch that gets the hitter back on time.
As with everything in baseball, there are exceptions. If you’re throwing to Tony Gywnn (sorry, about pulling out a retired player, but he’s one of my favorites), you can go to the well too often. Tony would adjust quickly. If you’re throwing to me, you can keep throwing the same stinking pitch over and over and I won’t have the skill to do anything about it.
In fact, I believe Jerry Dipoto threw me the same pitch for about two years running and I STILL haven’t adjusted.
Jason Kendall’s stamina…
Fans (and the media) tend to overreact to streaks, good ones and bad ones. The truth is all ballplayers are going through streaks all the time. If the streak gets long enough for someone to notice, then it becomes an issue.
Jason Kendall is going through a bad streak in terms of getting hits, so people are starting to talk about him being tired and needing to sit more. I have no idea if that’s true. I’ve never watched him closely for a full season before, so I don’t know what he’s capable of doing.
But before he gets sent to the bench for a rest he may not need, it’s important to remember he’s still being productive on both sides of the ball. He could hit like me (and I couldn’t hit Egypt if I fell off a pyramid) and I’d still want him out there for his defense.
You might also consider that Kendall’s hitting in the 2-hole. If a guy in the 2-spot takes a couple strikes while allowing the leadoff man to steal second and then hits a weak 4-3 to move the runner to third, that’s a hell of an at-bat.
Jason went 1-4 with a couple of strikeouts in this game, 1-2 with a couple of walks the night before and hit a sac fly, moved a runner to third, had a walk and then a groundout the night before that.
That’s 12 trips to the plate and seven of them were productive. Don’t get caught up in batting average. Look for the positive things that don’t show up in the numbers. (The way I swing the bat, I have to.)
Butler
DeJesus
Callaspo
Just out of curiosity...is there anyone else out there using a method like this to evaluate other MLB clubs?
Look at this point in the season, is anyone surprised at how high Betancourt ranks in the scoring compared to his teammates? Any ideas how well he'd do playing the same number of innings and at bats on another team?
As far as I know, there isn't another major league team using this particular evaluation system. Although they all keep similar stats.
The MVP system was developed by Ron Polk at Mississippi State to measure a player's contribution to his team. Ron would post it weekly, so I think there was also a motivational aspect.
If teammates are gaining points by breaking up double plays or outstanding defensive play, another player would probably want to do the same thing.
You've got a good point though: It would be interesting to see how Betancourt stacks up against other shortstops, or Butler against other first basemen, for that matter.
As the numbers add up, interesting patterns are developing. Clearly, the starters have more opportunity to score points than bench players or relievers. That only makes sense: starters contribute more to a team.
If you look at it that way, Betancourt is 5th among the starting nine and two of those nine (Maier and Aviles)weren't starters at the beginning of the season, so I'm not sure Betancourt actually ranks that high.
I've got no idea how Yuniesky would do playing for another team. I'm doing an intense study of trees and only dimly aware of the forest.
I still think the system provides some valuable insights. When Frank White looked at it, he said by the end of the season we would've developed profiles that defined what kind of player each Royal turned out to be over the course of a season.
I also think it helps fans (and me) think about things that don't show up in a box score and that alone makes it worthwhile.