Saturday, November 05, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
Chisox Buy Out Frank Thomas
The White Sox bought out the remainder of Frank Thomas' contract for $3.5M.Hershiser Coming, Hart Staying
A note in passing, via Jon, that Orel Hershisher is coming back to the Dodger fold, while John Hart and his advice will stay with the Rangers. Two words: Kim. Ng. Or, yes, Theo Epstein if you can get him, Frank, but I just don't think so.On The Merits Of Pitching Coaches
[Sitting on the bench] gave me an opportunity to listen in on the pearls of Sal Maglie and Joe Schultz.... These pearls are of a special kind, absolutely valueless at best, annoying enough to upset your concentration at worst. For instance, a big hitter was up with two men on base and as [Dick] Baney looked in for the sign Joe Schultz hollered, "Now get ahead of this guy." And Sal hollered, "Get something on this pitch. He's a first-ball hitter."And just as he cranked up to throw, somebody (I couldn't tell who) yelled, "High-ball hitter. Keep the ball down."
If he takes all this advice Baney has to throw a strike at the knees with Chinese mustard on it. What the hell, if you could throw that kind of pitch every time you wanted to you wouldn't need any coaching. Christ, you'd have it made.
But Baney isn't Superman. He got behind. Ball one, low in the dirt.
The next piece of advice was, "Got to get ahead now. Nothing too good."
"Nothing too good" means don't throw it down the middle and "got to get ahead" means don't throw him a ball. In other words, hit a corner.
Of course, he still has the other advice ringing in his ears. So now he's supposed to hit a corner, low on the knees, with a hard fastball. This is wonderful advice. Ball two. Ball three.
"Got to come in there now, but not too good."
That's really beautiful advice. Especially with a good hitter up there who may well be swinging at 3 and 0. Sure enough, Baney threw a good fastball — belt high.It got hit into center for a double and two runs. And as the ball went out there Sal shook his head and said, sadly, "Too high, too high."
... And this kind of bullshit goes on during most ballgames. The same things are said over and over in the same situations. The all come to the same thing. ... This is the essence of the battle between the pitcher and the hitter, and it doesn't do any good to yell this kind of advice to a pitcher in a crisis situation. He knows it as well as he knows his name. But pitching coaches use shouted advice as protection. If they shout enough advice they can't be wrong.
Old Chicken Colonel Turner was a master at this. He'd sit in the dugout and shout to Stan Bahnsen, "Now, keep the ball down, Bahnsen," and Stan would throw a letter-high fastball that would get popped up into the infield and the Colonel would look down the bench and say, "The boy's fastball is moving. The boy's fastball is rising." Two innings later, same situation, the very same pitch, home run into the left-field seats. The Colonel looks up and down the bench and says very wisely, "Got the ball up. You see what happens when you get the ball up?"
-- Jim Bouton in Ball Four
Another half assed promise mccourt cant back up.
: 11/05/2005 07:37:00 PMfxbzduxs
: 11/06/2005 12:56:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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