Thursday, August 04, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
Washburn Goes To The DL
Chris Bootcheck gets another chance to start Saturday as Jerrod Washburn will hit the DL with that aforesaid elbow inflammation. The move is retroactive to July 25.Update: According to the radio broadcast, Casey Kotchman was called up today. Given reports of Erstad being beaten up lately, this is a good move.
Why I Couldn't Be A Sportswriter
It seems like every day I mangle something or other -- like yesterday when I misattributed Jason Phillips to third base instead of first (duh, I knew that, but sorry, brain fart). But this USA Today column analyzing what's wrong with the NL West is just amazing: Arizona's other big offseason pickups, aside from Shawn Green, were Javier Vazquez, Russ Ortiz, and Troy Glaus, not Tony Clark; or is getting an ex-Yankee, any ex-Yankee, supposed to be enough?Baseball Digest Daily Runs 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers Tribute
Baseball Digest Daily is running a tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers throughout this week. They start off today with a Diamond Mind game simulation, and will have later on in the week interviews with Carl Erskine and Johnny Podres, as well as interviews and recollections with fans and reporters.Swing Away, Baby
I've taken a lot of swings at Stephen Smith's "Contactball" idea; I still don't see how he's proved what he thinks he has. Nevertheless, one part of that philosophy got a boost recently over at the Baseball Analysts when Larry Borowsky discovers there's no penalty for first-pitch swinging, but there is one for not:The [data] does reinforce one Age of OBP doctrine: discretion is good. Better to get ahead 1-0 in the count than to swing on 0-0. But the blanket "take a strike" approach looks rather foolish per these data; when the first pitch was a strike, hitters who swung at it (even if they missed or fouled it off) were 40 percent more productive than hitters who took it for strike one. Even with respect to getting on base, the swingers were more effective than the takers: hitters who swung at the first pitch had an OBP 25 points higher than hitters who took strike one.
I'm not suggesting (nor are the data) that hitters should swing at any 0-0 offering that comes within a foot of the strike zone; these are macro figures which mask all sorts of micro situations in which it might make sense to take a strike. If the pitcher breaks one off on the corner or puts a sinker in at the knees and you can't do much with the pitch, might as well take. And if the pitcher is struggling with his control, maybe it's not a bad idea to see if he can follow up strike one with strike two. But it is a bad idea simply to take a first-pitch strike on principle. La Russa's instincts are correct: you ultimately score more runs if you attack the first strike you see.
Thanks
Thanks to Dave Studeman for the kind words about the automated minor league scorebook (appearing in the ongoing "Minor League Scorebook" posts) in today's Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week.
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