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Wednesday, August 17, 2005 |
More Fallout From Last Night's Catastrophe
Via the Times:
- As expected, Anderson may be having a relapse of his arthritis. Rheumatologist David Brown is looking into it.
- Saunders got an immediate return trip to Salt Lake.
- McPherson is headed to Colorado to see hip specialist Dr. Marc Philipon.
- So much for him lacking confidence, Josh:
"Right now, I feel like I'm in the middle of a hurricane," Rodriguez said. "I feel fine. My confidence is fine. It's nothing to be panicked for."
Your confidence is fine. Your control is not. - Update: According to the Register, RHP Greg Jones has been recalled from AAA Salt Lake. Jones has a 1-1 record with a 3.05 ERA in 20.2 IP with the Stingers.
What kind of upside-down universe is it when teams send down a starter after a good outing like that? The rest of the league would be dying for a starter like that. "Sorry, kid, we've got too many good starting pitchers, but here's a Strat-O-Matic game as a consolation prize."
- Update 2: Reaction to the chatter in the comments that the Angels might be doing the Royals a favor and picking up KC's Mike Sweeney and most of the $33 million remaining on his contract:
Year Games VORP ================= 2005 92 33.0 2004 106 33.1 2003 108 29.8 2002 126 57.2 2001 147 52.7
So let me get this straight. I'm supposed to be excited to get a guy who's been a DH exclusively two of the last three years and even then can't stay healthy (has played in 120 or more games only once in the last four years), whose offensive output has been declining since 2002, and has two big, expensive years coming up, all the while he's in the middle of a protracted 5-35 skid? Dear God, Stoneman, no!
Update 3: Don't forget that during most of this decline, Sweeney was hitting in a phenominal offensive park. Yeah, he'll be a real peach in Anaheim.
- Update 4: Yet more on this from the Times. It seems Frankie's fastball clocked in around 89-92 last night, fueling my fears that his winter ball adventures have done some substantial harm to his arm by posting more miles on the odometer than the number of innings pitched with the Angels would indicate. For the record, Frankie blames command issues:
"The last 22 games, only three times on the mound? How do you expect the velocity to be there?" he said before Tuesday's game.
Uh, right. Stephen Smith has some good commentary on this one, noting that Frankie refused to fix his mechanics in the minors, which led to downtime because of his violent delivery. After being converted to a reliever in Arkansas, he inherited the closer role when Charlie Thames went down. The rest is history, with the postscript that Frankie never cleaned up his mechanics, and so here we are. While I like Stephen's suggestion of making Gregg the emergency closer, a little longer-term I'd like to see Escobar take on that role and move Shields and Frankie up an inning.He did not get the job done Tuesday, walking two and blowing the save. His velocity rebounded to 94 mph, and Manager Mike Scioscia attributed the trouble to flaws in Rodriguez's delivery.
"It's more due to a mechanical thing than to him being too rested or tired," Scioscia said.
Pitching coach Bud Black said the Angels had backed off Rodriguez after using him 10 times in the previous 17 days.
"We thought, let's get him as much rest as we possibly can," Black said. "That can affect command. That can affect stuff. That's probably what you saw."
- Back to Sweeney, Stephen links to a Kansas City Star article talking about the possibility of Mike Sweeney going somewhere. If in fact he has cleared waivers, it would make a trade less likely, not more. From the Star article:
If Sweeney did clear waivers, which is likely, the Royals would now be in position to trade him — although clearing waivers would, in fact, indicate such a deal is improbable.
But with the Royals unwilling to eat any part of Sweeney's contract, the chances of him going anywhere are slim. As mentioned above, I absolutely hope Stoneman doesn't go in for a second helping of Garret Anderson, made worse by the fact that Sweeney is bolted to the DH position. What we really need now is a return of Brad Fullmer, or someone remarkably like him, a guy who can absolutely mash right handed pitching.All 29 teams, by failing to submit a waiver claim, bypassed the chance to acquire Sweeney without giving up anything in return. Any successful claimant merely assumes the financial obligation of the player’s contract.
Comments:
well, to be fair, it may not be his control. It may be the wind from that hurricane that's taking his pitches out of the strike zone. He ought to look into that.
I suppose that is not exactly what I meant. But it has always seemed to me that he gets in trouble because he always wants to miss bats. The great thing is that he is excellent at missing bats. The problem is that if they aren't swinging, a goodly number of his pitches go for balls. I haven't seen him make many adjustments within an outing...either he throws a lot of pitches to the first guy and continues that trend teetering on a blown save or he dominates the first guy and has no problems.
So, from my view it has always seemed like a mental issue...certainly not overall confidence, but I think he needs the confidence to change what he is doing in the middle of an outing. Pitchers have bad games, part of getting better is learning how to get out of innings when your stuff ain't working.
So, from my view it has always seemed like a mental issue...certainly not overall confidence, but I think he needs the confidence to change what he is doing in the middle of an outing. Pitchers have bad games, part of getting better is learning how to get out of innings when your stuff ain't working.
Seitz: heh!
Josh: certainly, he used to be like that with guys on. Once he'd get a man on -- and this was especially true in 2003 -- his command would evaporate and he'd get incredibly wild. That may be back, but I'm betting on late season dead arm.
Josh: certainly, he used to be like that with guys on. Once he'd get a man on -- and this was especially true in 2003 -- his command would evaporate and he'd get incredibly wild. That may be back, but I'm betting on late season dead arm.
Yeah, but wasn't he still going out of the windup in 2003? I remember that being a problem in the WS, that he was a much different pitcher from the stretch. Now that he pitches exclusively from the windup, the man on base thing shouldn't be as much of an issue. Not to say that it isn't, but it shouldn't be.
OK, Rob, who would you suggest we get? I really like Sweeney. He hits for average and power. I wouldn't call him injury-prone although he has missed some games over the years. Yes, he's expensive, but I think he's the best match for us on the open market. If you still disagree, do you think we can win as is or do you have another suitable hitter?
I don't know if the team can win as-is, but that's maybe not the point. I viewed this year as a transitional year anyway. The point shouldn't be to win now, not with a bunch of kids nearly ready to come up; what will Sweeney do besides block Kotchman and/or Morales, and absorb a ton of payroll along the way?
That's my thoughts to win now. I checked Sweeney's stats, and you're right, he's more unjury-prone than I thought, but I think he could get us all the way over. If GA is out for a long period, we are sunk. Morales won't be ready next season and Kotchman can come off the bench. When Erstad leaves, maybe he can start. If we wait 'til next year, the Red Sox and Yanks will revamp. You never know what can happen in one year. Now, if the Royals want too many prospects, then the answer is no. Otherwise, he is the player.
I wonder that Frankie does not really recover from the arm injury which forced him to the DL in late May.
His BB/9 is only 1.06 before DL, but it's almost 7 since.
His BB/9 is only 1.06 before DL, but it's almost 7 since.
# posted by 
: 8/17/2005 02:08:00 PM
: 8/17/2005 02:08:00 PM
It's not a bad supposition. His control hasn't really been there.
Richard scoffed at the idea of sending Frankie back to Salt Lake, but in light of his need to clean up his mechanics, maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Richard scoffed at the idea of sending Frankie back to Salt Lake, but in light of his need to clean up his mechanics, maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Mechanics is the first thing to go when pitchers are tired. And when the mechanics change, that's when most pitchers get hurt.
K-rod's lack of control is understandable because he uses two release points, and the one with which he throws the slider is slotted near side-arm. I've always thought Jeff Weaver has a similar problem. He sometimes can't find the strike zone because of his release point. Generally pitchers with a more exagerrated 3/4 delivery have the most problems with control.
K-rod's longevity is suspect basically because he relies on a power curve, which can be terrible on an arm. AND because he relies on two different release points to produce his slider-ish tilt and crazy 11-7 motion on his breaking balls, everything comes back to mechanics.
K-rod's lack of control is understandable because he uses two release points, and the one with which he throws the slider is slotted near side-arm. I've always thought Jeff Weaver has a similar problem. He sometimes can't find the strike zone because of his release point. Generally pitchers with a more exagerrated 3/4 delivery have the most problems with control.
K-rod's longevity is suspect basically because he relies on a power curve, which can be terrible on an arm. AND because he relies on two different release points to produce his slider-ish tilt and crazy 11-7 motion on his breaking balls, everything comes back to mechanics.
# posted by : 8/17/2005 03:12:00 PM
: 8/17/2005 03:12:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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