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Tuesday, June 12, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
How Did Jeff Kent Not Make This List?
The active player Lead Glove Awards list, that is.The Players MLE's Missed
Minor League Equivalences are a, um, hit-or-miss thing, and often make some big gaffes, some of which Chone Smith recently detailed; one of them was the Dodgers' own Andre Ethier.Roster Notes
- Kelvim Escobar likes all those numbers in the W column attached to his 2007 record:
"I'm having better results," said Escobar, who will start tonight for the Angels against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. "My record is definitely showing how well I'm pitching, and it's making a big difference."
Mike Butcher says it's a result of better fastball command. - Mike Marshall is still looking for customers for his theories about pitching mechanics. If only he didn't have an attitude problem about getting results. Just ask protege Jeff Sparks about why the Devil Rays let him go despite a 3.54 ERA as a reliever:
"It wasn't anything else as far as I know," says Sparks, who had a spectacular blowup with his catcher and a minor league manager before his release. "[But] there are no other ways. You can't throw every day the other way. It hurts to throw the other way."
Maybe it was the fact that Sparks walked nearly as many as he struck out (18 BB vs. 24 K's in 2000). Marshall himself sure gets testy when asked about results!"These are great people. But not one of them got a scholarship offer to college," Marshall says. "Who, that gets drafted, is going to give that money up to come here and train with me? Asking me to get the pitchers I train in the big leagues is like asking a horse trainer to get a pony to win the Kentucky Derby."
Labels: ex-dodgers, sabermetrics
Comments:
Mike's a different guy, that's for sure. But as a "Ball Four" fan from way back, I've always wondered why more desperate pitchers who seem to keep suffering the same arm injuries over and over -- I'm looking at you, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood -- wouldn't at least look in to trying something different. "Different," alas, seems likely to be as welcome in the major league clubhouse as "gay." This is not a workplace known as a beacon of tolerance when it comes to independent thoughts, much less independent actions.
I would be willing to entertain the idea that Marshall knows what he's talking about, except that
1) he did not use the motion he advocates
2) nobody in the Show has been successful over an extended period of time with the motion he advocates
3) he has not been able to show his throwing motion prevents injuries
4) he has no published papers on his method.
He appears to me to be a crank, but what do I know.
1) he did not use the motion he advocates
2) nobody in the Show has been successful over an extended period of time with the motion he advocates
3) he has not been able to show his throwing motion prevents injuries
4) he has no published papers on his method.
He appears to me to be a crank, but what do I know.
Clarification on point (1): Marshall did not use the motion he now advocates when he was a pitcher in the majors.
You absolutely may know more about Mike than I do; his portrayal in "Ball Four" is where I get my overwhelming impression. And seeing as that was released in the 70's, based on the '69 season, certainly things may have changed! :) But the Marshall in the book is very much portrayed as a free thinker, much like Bouton himself; someone who has been "fighting", such as it is, against baseball orthodoxies for a long time... not unlike Sabremetricians, in their battle against old-timers who go by "feel." :)
That being said -- it's tough to judge Jeff Sparks on the basis of 20 big league innings. The sample size there is way too small. I would think Marshall's playing credentials -- his endurence is legendary, and his appearances per year, still the most in Dodger history, would speak for themselves.
And once you've been under the knife a couple of times, why NOT give Marshall's method a whirl?
One other (probably unrelated, but maybe not) thing: Dice-K likes to throw... a lot... and nobody thinks that's odd.
That being said -- it's tough to judge Jeff Sparks on the basis of 20 big league innings. The sample size there is way too small. I would think Marshall's playing credentials -- his endurence is legendary, and his appearances per year, still the most in Dodger history, would speak for themselves.
And once you've been under the knife a couple of times, why NOT give Marshall's method a whirl?
One other (probably unrelated, but maybe not) thing: Dice-K likes to throw... a lot... and nobody thinks that's odd.
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