4.29.2007
"This Game's Had Everything!"
So gushed Rockies FSN broadcaster Drew Goodman as this Sunday afternoon Coors Field slugfest rolled into extra innings. And he was right:
•Diametrically opposing starts from Atlanta's Kyle Davies and Colorado's Aaron Cook. The former "needed a map and a GPS tracker to find the strike zone" (said Goodman) as his control problems handed the Rockies a four-run second inning, while Cook was turning in the usual efficient, workmanlike stuff we've come to expect from him. But Cox showed faith in Davies, who recovered and got through five innings on a day when Atlanta's bullpen would dwindle down to tumbleweeds; meanwhile, Cook imploded as a sixth-inning hit parade tied the game back up at 5-5.
•A breakout day for Scott Thorman: 4-for-4, home run, 2 R, 4 RBI, and a ground-rule double to lead off the tenth against a tough lefty, Brian Fuentes.
•A tight situation in the seventh inning, with the game tied 5-5 and Chipper Jones batting with runners on first and second, no outs. Chipper is working hard to get to a full count, laying off some tough sliders from somebody named Zach McClellan, and when the runners Johnson and Renteria take off for the payoff pitch, Chipper shoots a liner up the middle, normally an easy single but this time catching Troy Tulowitzki the rookie shortstop right in stride as he comes over to cover. Catch, force out, tag out: ladies and gentlemen, you have just experienced the rarest documented event in baseball, the unassisted triple play. Only the thirteenth in major league history, don'tcha know. Having witnessed it in the normal run of play and not as part of a Sportcenter highlight, I can now legitimately check it off from my list of Things I Have Seen in Baseball. My life is officially slightly fuller, richer, and more complete than it was just a moment ago.
•Stellar relief work by the Braves, right up until Wickman waddles in for the ninth to protect a 7-5 lead. Wickman has been the picture of okay since coming over from the Indians last year, but today he's got the yips and issues two walks, a hit batsman and a couple of dink hits to cough up the lead.
•A big moment in that ninth with Garrett Atkins up, tying runs on first and second, no outs. A mound visit from Roger McDowell, immediately after which Goodman starts wondering aloud, in a tone betraying near disbelief, why Ryan Langerhans is playing straightaway left-center and leaving nearly a third of the outfield wide open to a right-handed pull hitter. Well, Atkins puts a charge in the second pitch he sees and the crowd reacts as if the game is about to be won...except that the ball lands in Langerhans' hans, without any running required.
•A tough call from Bobby Cox on when to pull your closer in such dire straits. He opted for bases loaded, two outs, tie game, winning run on third, Clint Barmes the batter. Out goes the shaky Wickman, in comes the uninspiring Tyler Yates. Barmes lines the second pitch he sees into right for what would almost always be a game-winning single, but Jeff Francoeur comes streaking from the right field line to make a diving, twisting, rolling, game-extending catch. Francoeur is currently tied with Pedro Feliz atop my list of most frustrating players to watch on account of their hammerheaded plate approaches, but in the interest of equal time I will admit that Francoeur is on fire the last couple weeks and when that's happening, he can carry a team (none of which is true for the dismal Feliz).
•Thirteen walks and two hit batsmen by Atlanta pitchers, a disgusting total only slightly evened out by their batters outhitting the Rockies 16-8. But even going back to Atlanta's middle-innings comeback, you got the feeling they were living on borrowed time at an usurious interest rate. So when Matt Holliday drove a fastball off Steve Colyer (who?) in the eleventh, the resulting 9-7 final was cause for exhalation and resignation as much as anything else. The Braves have always hated coming to Coors and seeing their pitchers get completely worn out -- baseball here is plainly just harder than it is anywhere else -- so stealing this game and completing a weekend sweep at Coors would have really exorcised some long-running demons and given another major burst of momentum to a team that's already starting to resemble a contender. Failing that, we march on regardless. Rockies 9, Braves 7.
•Diametrically opposing starts from Atlanta's Kyle Davies and Colorado's Aaron Cook. The former "needed a map and a GPS tracker to find the strike zone" (said Goodman) as his control problems handed the Rockies a four-run second inning, while Cook was turning in the usual efficient, workmanlike stuff we've come to expect from him. But Cox showed faith in Davies, who recovered and got through five innings on a day when Atlanta's bullpen would dwindle down to tumbleweeds; meanwhile, Cook imploded as a sixth-inning hit parade tied the game back up at 5-5.
•A breakout day for Scott Thorman: 4-for-4, home run, 2 R, 4 RBI, and a ground-rule double to lead off the tenth against a tough lefty, Brian Fuentes.
•A tight situation in the seventh inning, with the game tied 5-5 and Chipper Jones batting with runners on first and second, no outs. Chipper is working hard to get to a full count, laying off some tough sliders from somebody named Zach McClellan, and when the runners Johnson and Renteria take off for the payoff pitch, Chipper shoots a liner up the middle, normally an easy single but this time catching Troy Tulowitzki the rookie shortstop right in stride as he comes over to cover. Catch, force out, tag out: ladies and gentlemen, you have just experienced the rarest documented event in baseball, the unassisted triple play. Only the thirteenth in major league history, don'tcha know. Having witnessed it in the normal run of play and not as part of a Sportcenter highlight, I can now legitimately check it off from my list of Things I Have Seen in Baseball. My life is officially slightly fuller, richer, and more complete than it was just a moment ago.
•Stellar relief work by the Braves, right up until Wickman waddles in for the ninth to protect a 7-5 lead. Wickman has been the picture of okay since coming over from the Indians last year, but today he's got the yips and issues two walks, a hit batsman and a couple of dink hits to cough up the lead.
•A big moment in that ninth with Garrett Atkins up, tying runs on first and second, no outs. A mound visit from Roger McDowell, immediately after which Goodman starts wondering aloud, in a tone betraying near disbelief, why Ryan Langerhans is playing straightaway left-center and leaving nearly a third of the outfield wide open to a right-handed pull hitter. Well, Atkins puts a charge in the second pitch he sees and the crowd reacts as if the game is about to be won...except that the ball lands in Langerhans' hans, without any running required.
•A tough call from Bobby Cox on when to pull your closer in such dire straits. He opted for bases loaded, two outs, tie game, winning run on third, Clint Barmes the batter. Out goes the shaky Wickman, in comes the uninspiring Tyler Yates. Barmes lines the second pitch he sees into right for what would almost always be a game-winning single, but Jeff Francoeur comes streaking from the right field line to make a diving, twisting, rolling, game-extending catch. Francoeur is currently tied with Pedro Feliz atop my list of most frustrating players to watch on account of their hammerheaded plate approaches, but in the interest of equal time I will admit that Francoeur is on fire the last couple weeks and when that's happening, he can carry a team (none of which is true for the dismal Feliz).
•Thirteen walks and two hit batsmen by Atlanta pitchers, a disgusting total only slightly evened out by their batters outhitting the Rockies 16-8. But even going back to Atlanta's middle-innings comeback, you got the feeling they were living on borrowed time at an usurious interest rate. So when Matt Holliday drove a fastball off Steve Colyer (who?) in the eleventh, the resulting 9-7 final was cause for exhalation and resignation as much as anything else. The Braves have always hated coming to Coors and seeing their pitchers get completely worn out -- baseball here is plainly just harder than it is anywhere else -- so stealing this game and completing a weekend sweep at Coors would have really exorcised some long-running demons and given another major burst of momentum to a team that's already starting to resemble a contender. Failing that, we march on regardless. Rockies 9, Braves 7.
Labels: atlanta braves, colorado rockies, game reports, unassisted triple plays
4.20.2007
Cabrera v. Burnett
Pitching matchup of the week is tonight. So dubbed because it potentially decides my fantasy matchup this week vs. the Pimply Backs, with wins, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP all still in play. The classic bittersweet fantasy dilemma of owning two pitchers who are starting against each other is in effect. This is written in real time as we go. I'm coming in during the second inning.
Between opening up my laptop, learning of the 1-0 score and booting up the MLB.tv browser, it's already become 2-0 and the first thing I see is Cabrera nailing a batter in the asscheek. With Cabrera's two earlier stellar starts to begin the season, this is precisely what we hoped we'd never see again from the promising young pitcher, although we knew the other shoe was bound to drop sooner or later. "Someone's gonna have to come out here and calm him down," laments Gary Thorne, not noticing that Leo Mazzone has already skipped over the foul line and has made his way to the mound, lecturing Cabrera quickly and firmly, waving his hands frantically trying to express that everything is still all right. Cabrera calmly retires the side four pitches later.
Bottom 2nd: A. J. Burnett gets a 1-2-3 inning, which is good to see. Both these pitchers have better stuff than location, both tonight and in general.
Top 3rd: Cabrera nails Overbay on a classic Maddux two-seamer that backs up under the batter's hands on the inside corner. Only Cabrera throws it about six mph harder than Maddux ever did. That's the Mazzone influence right there, if it turns out DC (which I now dub him to save precious typing time) can master that deadly pitch.
Bottom 3rd: Ended before I could finish typing that last inning's summary, which was meager in itself so I guess that's what we're hoping for today: 18 two-sentence entries with no time for wit. This is exactly what I wanted to see out of A.J. Burnett tonight. Thorne, dutifully: "Burnett has faced the minimum nine as we come to the end of the third inning."
Top 4th: DC's having trouble keeping the ball down, which results in Aaron Hill sitting on a 3-1 cookie and calmly driving it to the opposite gap for a double. Then he gets ahead of Adam Lind -- who is currently a pending waiver claim of mine -- and is able to blow him away with the same recklessly high fastball that Hill could afford to lay off by being ahead in the count. An unlucky infield dink puts runners on the corners with two out, but then a laser right at the second baseman ends the inning. Luck evened out quickly for DC there, which doesn't always happen in games.
Bottom 4th: Burnett's fastball control is shaky horizontally, as opposed to DC's. He gets unlucky when a topspinned chopper skips right by Overbay at first. Outrageously, they score it a hit in a blatant act of homecooking that breaks up the perfect game to boot. I mean, Overbay whiffed on the grounder and they call it a hit! How can Thorne not even mention this travesty? The death of honest official scoring in baseball is a tragedy and borderline scandalous! There, I said it. Anyway, Brian Roberts proceeds to steal second and third in rapid succession, and Melvin Mora jacks one out to left, tying the score at 2-2. Oh shit. Burnett tried to go up and in with a full count, but his heart wasn't in it and he got punished by Mora. This is not good: I want both pitcherse to do as well as possible, but one of them needs to get the win and a tie score is decidedly suboptimal. Burnett's rattled now, slinging the ball all over the place, but his stuff is so good that all he has to do is find the corners two or three times per batter to get a pair of groundouts and a soft lineout to end the inning relatively uneventfully.
Top 5th: DC still coming in at 95, at least until he freezes Rios with a nasty unhittable curveball that nicks the outside corner. That's five strikeouts for Cabrera--oops, make that six as the Maddux fastball again rings up Gregg Zaun. Promising stuff here. Overbay slaps a single to the gap, but DC overpowers Frank Thomas (looking uncomfortable as always, but more so in a Toronto uniform) with the two-seamer running in on the hands. Foul out to third, inning over.
Bottom 5th: Burnett's stuff is very similar to and every bit as nasty as Cabrera's, but has been having trouble putting the hitters away tonight, running Kevin Millar to his seventh 3-2 count of the game (says Thorne) before losing him to lead off the inning. Uh oh, here we go. That's his second walk against zero K's, another bad sign. Aaand just as I finish typing that, Jay Gibbons chases an eye-high fastball to go down swinging. The more disciplined team in general should be victorious tonight. Burnett then goes 3-0 for the first time in the game (an odd juxtaposition) to Corey Patterson and eventually walks him as well. Pitching Coach Arnsberg out to chat, departs with a soft pat on the ribcage. And next up in this clutch situation? Paul Bako. Ha! He hits a soft topper to first for the second out. Brian Roberts, with two outs and ducks on the pond, tries to charge one but can only manage straightaway centerfield. Inning over.
Top 6th: Matt Stairs with the first-pitch flyout. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is a pitcher's best friend, particularly if the pitcher is struggling with control at times. Aaron Hill poses no challenge, Adam Lind more so until DC backs him off with a 1-2 chin-scratcher, leading to a 3-2 count. DC attempts to get yet another strikeout with the Maddux special but leaves it up and over just enough for Lind to fight it off into the deep LF gap for a double. That Lind is a good looking player and a player I'm happy to be condiditonally claiming. Even his foul balls were commandingly hit and came against some pretty tough pitches. Royce Clayton kills the inning though, with a feeble wave at a curve in the dirt. Should be seven Ks for DC, though Thorne says six.
Bottom 6th: Burnett has learned his lesson and is staying away from Mora, but again loses his advantage in the count and walks him. Starting the next batter (Markakis) with a pitchout seems like a questionable decision, no? Shit, now it's 2-0, here we go again...3-0, and then 3-1 before Markakis lashes an easy single to right, bringing up Tejada who is sitting dead red and goes down swinging on three pitches, fastball curveball curveball. Burnett's second K and a big one. Aubrey Huff hits one to the absolute deepest part of the park for out number two, unluckily for him. Kevin Millar ropes the first pitch he sees but right at the third baseman (who is Jason Smith?), and again we see how lucky a pitcher has to be to succeed while walking twice as many as he strikes out. AJ has one inning left, tops.
Top 7th: Pitcher's worst enemy? How about the four-pitch walk to lead off the inning? (I suppose a 17-pitch full-count walk would be worse for the pitcher, but you get the idea.) Alexis Rios strikes out trying to chase that same outside curveball he watched for strike three last time, only this one was impossible to reach. Gregg Zaun however fists one into LF for a single, so two on and one out for Overbay with two pitchers cranking it up in the Baltimore bullpen. DC starts Overbay off with a curve for strike one (ballsy), and the resulting advantage leaves Overbay off balance when he pops out on the next pitch. That's good pitch calling and good command paying off right there. Frank Thomas always intimidates of course, but he's 0-2 and under the Mendoza line so far on the season, so...ugh crap he's walked him. Bases loaded, two outs, and that's the end of the night for Daniel Cabrera. He's been great tonight and racked up the K's, but pulling him right now rather than allowing himself means some lefty named Parrish makes the difference between a no-decision and a loss, not to mention the difference between a positive start on the ledger for my fantasy team (Teen Girl Squad) and a borderline disaster. But also a win for Burnett in the process! This is a blunder by Baltimore, even though I understand they were trying to protect Cabrera's confidence, because Vernon Wells can now enter the game as a pinch hitter for the lefty Stairs and I would much rather have had the latter matchup. Sure enough, he rifles a shot off a diving Mora's glove into left and two go-ahead runs score. Aaron Hill grounds out to end the inning, mercifully, but Burnett is now poised to be the victor.
Bottom 7th: Burnett stays in and immediately gets some luck in the form of a diving catch by Lind along the LF line. Did I mention I'm happy to be potentially owning Adam Lind, if I become fortunate enough to do so? Corey Patterson bails Burnett out by popping up a 2-0 pitch to Hill at second base. Another full count, this one to the ever-feeble Paul Bako...and another walk. Jay-sus! Bako may be the worst hitter out there! Fortunately Brian Roberts cannot take advantage, as his frozen rope to center poses no threat to Vernon Wells.
Top 8th: And there's Shane Marcum warming up in the Toronto bullpen. Seeing as Cabrera and Burnett are no longer in the game, my rooting interest has waned and thus my recapping work here is done. Welcome to MLB fandom in the twenty-first century, bitches.
Final lines:
Burnett 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 5 BB, 2 K
Cabrera 6.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R (4 ER), 2 BB, 7 K
Gotta run, Hudson's shutting out the Mets....
[Postscript: Burnett left in position to win but Jason Frasor blew the save and the game for the Blue Jays...reeling from this mediocre dual no-decision, Teen Girl Squad were annihilated by the Pimply Backs in Week 3 by a score of 11-1-0...my waiver claim of Adam Lind was successfully processed, though he hasn't cracked the starting lineup yet.]
Between opening up my laptop, learning of the 1-0 score and booting up the MLB.tv browser, it's already become 2-0 and the first thing I see is Cabrera nailing a batter in the asscheek. With Cabrera's two earlier stellar starts to begin the season, this is precisely what we hoped we'd never see again from the promising young pitcher, although we knew the other shoe was bound to drop sooner or later. "Someone's gonna have to come out here and calm him down," laments Gary Thorne, not noticing that Leo Mazzone has already skipped over the foul line and has made his way to the mound, lecturing Cabrera quickly and firmly, waving his hands frantically trying to express that everything is still all right. Cabrera calmly retires the side four pitches later.
Bottom 2nd: A. J. Burnett gets a 1-2-3 inning, which is good to see. Both these pitchers have better stuff than location, both tonight and in general.
Top 3rd: Cabrera nails Overbay on a classic Maddux two-seamer that backs up under the batter's hands on the inside corner. Only Cabrera throws it about six mph harder than Maddux ever did. That's the Mazzone influence right there, if it turns out DC (which I now dub him to save precious typing time) can master that deadly pitch.
Bottom 3rd: Ended before I could finish typing that last inning's summary, which was meager in itself so I guess that's what we're hoping for today: 18 two-sentence entries with no time for wit. This is exactly what I wanted to see out of A.J. Burnett tonight. Thorne, dutifully: "Burnett has faced the minimum nine as we come to the end of the third inning."
Top 4th: DC's having trouble keeping the ball down, which results in Aaron Hill sitting on a 3-1 cookie and calmly driving it to the opposite gap for a double. Then he gets ahead of Adam Lind -- who is currently a pending waiver claim of mine -- and is able to blow him away with the same recklessly high fastball that Hill could afford to lay off by being ahead in the count. An unlucky infield dink puts runners on the corners with two out, but then a laser right at the second baseman ends the inning. Luck evened out quickly for DC there, which doesn't always happen in games.
Bottom 4th: Burnett's fastball control is shaky horizontally, as opposed to DC's. He gets unlucky when a topspinned chopper skips right by Overbay at first. Outrageously, they score it a hit in a blatant act of homecooking that breaks up the perfect game to boot. I mean, Overbay whiffed on the grounder and they call it a hit! How can Thorne not even mention this travesty? The death of honest official scoring in baseball is a tragedy and borderline scandalous! There, I said it. Anyway, Brian Roberts proceeds to steal second and third in rapid succession, and Melvin Mora jacks one out to left, tying the score at 2-2. Oh shit. Burnett tried to go up and in with a full count, but his heart wasn't in it and he got punished by Mora. This is not good: I want both pitcherse to do as well as possible, but one of them needs to get the win and a tie score is decidedly suboptimal. Burnett's rattled now, slinging the ball all over the place, but his stuff is so good that all he has to do is find the corners two or three times per batter to get a pair of groundouts and a soft lineout to end the inning relatively uneventfully.
Top 5th: DC still coming in at 95, at least until he freezes Rios with a nasty unhittable curveball that nicks the outside corner. That's five strikeouts for Cabrera--oops, make that six as the Maddux fastball again rings up Gregg Zaun. Promising stuff here. Overbay slaps a single to the gap, but DC overpowers Frank Thomas (looking uncomfortable as always, but more so in a Toronto uniform) with the two-seamer running in on the hands. Foul out to third, inning over.
Bottom 5th: Burnett's stuff is very similar to and every bit as nasty as Cabrera's, but has been having trouble putting the hitters away tonight, running Kevin Millar to his seventh 3-2 count of the game (says Thorne) before losing him to lead off the inning. Uh oh, here we go. That's his second walk against zero K's, another bad sign. Aaand just as I finish typing that, Jay Gibbons chases an eye-high fastball to go down swinging. The more disciplined team in general should be victorious tonight. Burnett then goes 3-0 for the first time in the game (an odd juxtaposition) to Corey Patterson and eventually walks him as well. Pitching Coach Arnsberg out to chat, departs with a soft pat on the ribcage. And next up in this clutch situation? Paul Bako. Ha! He hits a soft topper to first for the second out. Brian Roberts, with two outs and ducks on the pond, tries to charge one but can only manage straightaway centerfield. Inning over.
Top 6th: Matt Stairs with the first-pitch flyout. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is a pitcher's best friend, particularly if the pitcher is struggling with control at times. Aaron Hill poses no challenge, Adam Lind more so until DC backs him off with a 1-2 chin-scratcher, leading to a 3-2 count. DC attempts to get yet another strikeout with the Maddux special but leaves it up and over just enough for Lind to fight it off into the deep LF gap for a double. That Lind is a good looking player and a player I'm happy to be condiditonally claiming. Even his foul balls were commandingly hit and came against some pretty tough pitches. Royce Clayton kills the inning though, with a feeble wave at a curve in the dirt. Should be seven Ks for DC, though Thorne says six.
Bottom 6th: Burnett has learned his lesson and is staying away from Mora, but again loses his advantage in the count and walks him. Starting the next batter (Markakis) with a pitchout seems like a questionable decision, no? Shit, now it's 2-0, here we go again...3-0, and then 3-1 before Markakis lashes an easy single to right, bringing up Tejada who is sitting dead red and goes down swinging on three pitches, fastball curveball curveball. Burnett's second K and a big one. Aubrey Huff hits one to the absolute deepest part of the park for out number two, unluckily for him. Kevin Millar ropes the first pitch he sees but right at the third baseman (who is Jason Smith?), and again we see how lucky a pitcher has to be to succeed while walking twice as many as he strikes out. AJ has one inning left, tops.
Top 7th: Pitcher's worst enemy? How about the four-pitch walk to lead off the inning? (I suppose a 17-pitch full-count walk would be worse for the pitcher, but you get the idea.) Alexis Rios strikes out trying to chase that same outside curveball he watched for strike three last time, only this one was impossible to reach. Gregg Zaun however fists one into LF for a single, so two on and one out for Overbay with two pitchers cranking it up in the Baltimore bullpen. DC starts Overbay off with a curve for strike one (ballsy), and the resulting advantage leaves Overbay off balance when he pops out on the next pitch. That's good pitch calling and good command paying off right there. Frank Thomas always intimidates of course, but he's 0-2 and under the Mendoza line so far on the season, so...ugh crap he's walked him. Bases loaded, two outs, and that's the end of the night for Daniel Cabrera. He's been great tonight and racked up the K's, but pulling him right now rather than allowing himself means some lefty named Parrish makes the difference between a no-decision and a loss, not to mention the difference between a positive start on the ledger for my fantasy team (Teen Girl Squad) and a borderline disaster. But also a win for Burnett in the process! This is a blunder by Baltimore, even though I understand they were trying to protect Cabrera's confidence, because Vernon Wells can now enter the game as a pinch hitter for the lefty Stairs and I would much rather have had the latter matchup. Sure enough, he rifles a shot off a diving Mora's glove into left and two go-ahead runs score. Aaron Hill grounds out to end the inning, mercifully, but Burnett is now poised to be the victor.
Bottom 7th: Burnett stays in and immediately gets some luck in the form of a diving catch by Lind along the LF line. Did I mention I'm happy to be potentially owning Adam Lind, if I become fortunate enough to do so? Corey Patterson bails Burnett out by popping up a 2-0 pitch to Hill at second base. Another full count, this one to the ever-feeble Paul Bako...and another walk. Jay-sus! Bako may be the worst hitter out there! Fortunately Brian Roberts cannot take advantage, as his frozen rope to center poses no threat to Vernon Wells.
Top 8th: And there's Shane Marcum warming up in the Toronto bullpen. Seeing as Cabrera and Burnett are no longer in the game, my rooting interest has waned and thus my recapping work here is done. Welcome to MLB fandom in the twenty-first century, bitches.
Final lines:
Burnett 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 5 BB, 2 K
Cabrera 6.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R (4 ER), 2 BB, 7 K
Gotta run, Hudson's shutting out the Mets....
[Postscript: Burnett left in position to win but Jason Frasor blew the save and the game for the Blue Jays...reeling from this mediocre dual no-decision, Teen Girl Squad were annihilated by the Pimply Backs in Week 3 by a score of 11-1-0...my waiver claim of Adam Lind was successfully processed, though he hasn't cracked the starting lineup yet.]
Labels: baltimore orioles, fantasy baseball, game reports, toronto blue jays
4.12.2007
And People Say Things Were Better in Yogi Berra's Day
Second week of the 2007 season and already we have the quote of the year, from Ichiro re: the prospect of facing old rival Daisuke Matsuzaka in last night's game, which by the way was an incredible pitching display:
I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.Nothing more to add here, save for King Felix's Game Score: 89.
Labels: game scores, ichiro
4.06.2007
Who Wants to Be My New Favorite Pitcher?
Back in 1992 the Braves, looking to temporarily patch the back of their rotation down the stretch of an August pennant race, had called up Armando Reynoso, who had been signed a year before from Saltillo of the Mexican League, to take the mound against the San Francisco Giants. I remember watching Reynoso take his warmups as the TBS announcers reeled off the impressive list of pitches he commanded: four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, curveball, slider, splitter, knuckle curve, probably a changeup somewhere in there too.
I was twelve years old, just becoming a pitcher myself, and this was fascinating stuff. I'd spent a year and a half getting sucked in by the pitching stylings of Leo Mazzone's Braves by that point, and now all of a sudden here was a guy who commanded more pitches than Avery, Glavine, Smoltz, or Liebrandt. This was gonna be great! And I didn't even know what a knuckle curve was! (Still don't, actually.)
"Dad!" I turned around. "You gotta see this guy! He's got a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, curveball, knucklecurve, slider, splitfinger...."
Dad came over reluctantly from the next room. I think he may have been brushing his teeth. He took one look at the screen and started laughing.
"He's also got two runners on base with no outs and a 3-1 count," he scoffed, spitting toothpaste foam in tiny puffs.
I looked back at the TV: So he did. Reynoso had instantly become lodged in what would come to be known as his trademark predicament: at least two runners on, one or no outs, behind in the count on everyone, unable to get any momentum going which is what you really need before you can start impressing anyone with a wide repertoire of pitches, forced to pick runners off if he wanted to regain said momentum. (Turned out he also had one of the greatest pickoff moves ever for a righthander thanks to patience, persistence and quick footwork, although online evidence of this is sparse. And that second link is a PDF so be warned.)
Point is, Reynoso lasted a few years in the majors but never as anything resembling an asset, and ever since that day I've lusted for someone who can command the endless pitching arsenal and really, truly make it work. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you this guy.
As you can see, this is the real thing. This dude can make a ball move just about anywhere from two o'clock to eight o'clock, with speed and with command. He has that cocksure body language, too, of a guy who knows he has about two or three more weapons at his disposal than he even needs to make you look incredibly silly. Minus the pickoff move, he is the Armando Reynoso that my inner child never had.
No doubt you've heard of him by now. In fact, the Daisuke Matsuzaka bandwagon is already enormous right now and it will only get worse as he continues to succeed. So we're left with two options. The first is to enjoy Matsuzaka's starts, each and every one of them, and meanwhile manage to abstain from all other baseball coverage on ESPN, ESPN.com, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline, BP, and all the rest. (If it helps, YouTube has quite the treasure trove of his outings, going all the way back to his high school days.) That way it'll be possible to feel as if the Matsuzaka phenomenon is somehow still all your own, much in the way that it was possible, say, for me to enjoy RJD2's "Ghostwriter" right up until it stared appearing in commercials, big-budget movie trailers, sports arenas, etc.
(Bonus link: Here's Daisuke in the 1999 Asian Championship. Japan wins the game, but check out Jun-Nan Tsai, the guy going for Taiwan. Must make Ismael Valdes feel like he's wasted his whole life.)
I was twelve years old, just becoming a pitcher myself, and this was fascinating stuff. I'd spent a year and a half getting sucked in by the pitching stylings of Leo Mazzone's Braves by that point, and now all of a sudden here was a guy who commanded more pitches than Avery, Glavine, Smoltz, or Liebrandt. This was gonna be great! And I didn't even know what a knuckle curve was! (Still don't, actually.)
"Dad!" I turned around. "You gotta see this guy! He's got a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, curveball, knucklecurve, slider, splitfinger...."
Dad came over reluctantly from the next room. I think he may have been brushing his teeth. He took one look at the screen and started laughing.
"He's also got two runners on base with no outs and a 3-1 count," he scoffed, spitting toothpaste foam in tiny puffs.
I looked back at the TV: So he did. Reynoso had instantly become lodged in what would come to be known as his trademark predicament: at least two runners on, one or no outs, behind in the count on everyone, unable to get any momentum going which is what you really need before you can start impressing anyone with a wide repertoire of pitches, forced to pick runners off if he wanted to regain said momentum. (Turned out he also had one of the greatest pickoff moves ever for a righthander thanks to patience, persistence and quick footwork, although online evidence of this is sparse. And that second link is a PDF so be warned.)
Point is, Reynoso lasted a few years in the majors but never as anything resembling an asset, and ever since that day I've lusted for someone who can command the endless pitching arsenal and really, truly make it work. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you this guy.
As you can see, this is the real thing. This dude can make a ball move just about anywhere from two o'clock to eight o'clock, with speed and with command. He has that cocksure body language, too, of a guy who knows he has about two or three more weapons at his disposal than he even needs to make you look incredibly silly. Minus the pickoff move, he is the Armando Reynoso that my inner child never had.
No doubt you've heard of him by now. In fact, the Daisuke Matsuzaka bandwagon is already enormous right now and it will only get worse as he continues to succeed. So we're left with two options. The first is to enjoy Matsuzaka's starts, each and every one of them, and meanwhile manage to abstain from all other baseball coverage on ESPN, ESPN.com, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline, BP, and all the rest. (If it helps, YouTube has quite the treasure trove of his outings, going all the way back to his high school days.) That way it'll be possible to feel as if the Matsuzaka phenomenon is somehow still all your own, much in the way that it was possible, say, for me to enjoy RJD2's "Ghostwriter" right up until it stared appearing in commercials, big-budget movie trailers, sports arenas, etc.
(Bonus link: Here's Daisuke in the 1999 Asian Championship. Japan wins the game, but check out Jun-Nan Tsai, the guy going for Taiwan. Must make Ismael Valdes feel like he's wasted his whole life.)
Labels: boston red sox, daisuke, wistful remembrance
Pat Venditte: Switch-Pitcher
This story about Creighton's Pat Venditte, who can throw left OR right, is amazing. It appears Venditte could be a late-round pick in this year's amateur draft. Not only does he foil a LaRussa-esque righty-lefty-righty-lefty but it takes twice as long for his arm(s) to get tired! Makes me wish I would have worked on my left-handed delivery a bit more growing up.
4.04.2007
waiver wire
my throat is scorched
dig up one hitters
from the curb
find me someone
'take a bag
Labels: free verse
