A few notes in preparation for tonight's Sox/Twins tilt:
* Tonight, Glen Perkins takes the hill in a key game against the White Sox. Chicago will counter with the outstanding southpaw John Danks, so this is about as lopsided a pitching match-up as the Twins have seen all year. If they can find a way to win, I'll be extremely impressed. If not, the Twins will still have a decent shot at taking the series with Francisco Liriano toeing the rubber tomorrow night.
* I like Scott Baker, but one thing that has always driven me mad about his approach to pitching is his tendency to throw utterly hittable pitches on an 0-2 count. Last night, with the Twins leading 5-0, Baker left such a pitch up and over the plate to Carlos Quentin and Quentin drilled it over the fence for a three-run homer. At the time, it looked like a huge mistake for Baker, though his offense took any possible heat off his shoulders by continuing to crush Sox pitching all night. Nevertheless, the issue remains prevalent for Baker, who has allowed a .389 slugging percentage on 0-2 counts this year, compared to the major-league average of .214.
I, personally, am of the opinion that 0-2 pitches should rarely be anywhere near the strike zone. Sadly, it doesn't seem as though coaches in the Twins organization instill the same philosophy.
* I was honored when Rob Neyer approached me last autumn with a proposal to join his SweetSpot Network over at ESPN.com. Honored because I know Rob doesn't take such decisions lightly, and the fact that he felt this little old blog was up to snuff for his elite network meant a lot to me.
As such, I'm very pleased to see a couple bloggers I've started following with increased interest recently gaining similar recognition from Neyer. The Common Man (not to be confused with KFAN's mid-day host) and Bill from The Daily Something are now joining forces at The Platoon Advantage, which becomes -- to my knowledge -- the first non-team-specific SweetSpot blog.
If you enjoy smart, irreverent baseball analysis, I strongly recommend adding The Platoon Advantage to your daily reading list.
* I was featured in an interview over at TwinCitiesSpark.com earlier this week. If you're interested, you can click on over and learn more than you'd ever like to know about this blog's origin, history and impact on my life.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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10 comments:
Might have been nice to have Oswalt's 7 shutout innings tonight instead of Perkins' effort.
And despite your earlier protests, the Twins could've easily afforded Oswalt. The Nathan insurance money (as yet unspent, whatever amount it is) would've at least put a big dent in the roughly $5.5M left on Oswalt's 2010 contract, most likely it would've paid for the entire thing.
The Astros sent $11M along with Oswalt to the Phillies, meaning Oswalt costs $5M in 2011. There's a $2M buyout in 2012.
The Twins will spend more than $5M in 2011 to bring in a starter. They could've had Oswalt for the rest of 2010, all of 2011, with an option on 2012, all for around $7M plus the Nathan insurance money that's currently unspent.
where's your evidence that it's the pitching coaches and not Scott Baker? Does the entire rotation do worse on 0-2 counts?
Not to beat a dead horse, Nick, but yesterday's game was pretty much the definition of "letting off the gas". Twins looked like they had no interest in competing.
"Baker left such a pitch up and over the plate to Carlos Quentin"
I completely agree with your overall premise but I gotta disagree somewhat with that particular assessment. On that specific 0-2 count, Baker threw a two-seam fastball that wounded up just off the plate (albeit up). Both video and pitch f/x confirms it was out of the zone rather than over the plate although not by much.
For most hitters, I'd go so far as to say that it was a decent enough location - decent in that many wouldn't be able to do with that pitch what Quentin did. For Quentin, who is a hitter that dives over the plate with his swing, that pitch was obviously far too hittable.
That still doesn't excuse his other instances when he threw too many cherry pitches when he was well ahead of the hitter.
In general, Baker does hit far too much of the zone on 0-2 counts. He throws a lot of fastballs in those circumstances attempting to go above the zone/hitter's swing but it appears that a good portion end up remaining in the fat part of the zone. I'd certainly like to see him use his slider more in those counts (or at least execute better when attempting to go up with his fastball).
Someone read the BYTO game thread.
:D
Not to beat a dead horse, Nick, but yesterday's game was pretty much the definition of "letting off the gas". Twins looked like they had no interest in competing.
Or it was just a really lopsided pitching match-up. Either way.
where's your evidence that it's the pitching coaches and not Scott Baker? Does the entire rotation do worse on 0-2 counts?
Opponents are slugging .510 off Slowey on 0-2 counts, so he's been even worse. I realize that these are strike-throwing contact pitchers, so they're a different breed from someone like Liriano, who can throw a nasty slider in the dirt on 0-2 and realistic expect someone to swing at it.
But if I'm a coach on the Twins staff, I take Baker and Slowey aside and make clear that these hittable pitches on 0-2 counts are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
A bad pitching matchup that we enabled. Our so-called "ace" didn't want to pitch. So the Twins said, sure, no big deal, why not?
Did the Twins really think Glen Perkins was going to beat Danks?
They weren't expecting to win, and they played like it.
How many more games are we going to give away this year?
A bad pitching matchup that we enabled. Our so-called "ace" didn't want to pitch. So the Twins said, sure, no big deal, why not?
If you want to complain about the Twins giving away games with pitching match-ups, maybe you should complain about the last four or fives times Nick Blackburn was allowed to start. The circumstances last night were much harder to avoid.
There's no reason the Twins should be using pitchers on short rest in August. That's pretty dangerous considering this is the time of year that starters complain about having dead arms.
I did complain about the last few Blackburn starts, as well as the Sunday game vs. the Braves with the AA lineup, and a couple other Sunday gems. That's my point, they seem to be content just taking losses and moving on. Last night's game isn't as big of a deal if just a couple of the above losses were avoided.
Oh, and if Liriano and Pavano can't pitch on normal 4 days rest in August, how are they going to be able to do it in October?
Okay, yesterday's loss really isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.
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