Frankie Rod

[Frayed Knot]

not to be confused with Throb Rod.

I think it finally hit me what's so G-D agonizing about watching him pitch. This was occurring to me even before tonight's 9th inning blew up and then the results of that inning (small sample though it was) seemed to confirm.

All baseball fans know how favorable or unfavorable counts make batters much better or worse hitters. Tom Boswell recently had a column on this particular topic noting that simply by dividing the data in into 2-strike counts (any two strike count: 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2) and NON-2-strike counts (again, ANY count with less than 2 strikes) basically made the batter the equivalent of Mario Mendoza or Stan Musial.

But with Rodriguez the count seems to make no difference at all. Maybe the stats won't back me up on this, but I'd swear that he's just as likely to give up hits on 0-2 - as he did tonight to both Gwynn and Eckstein (and it would be excusable if it were the old, fat Gwynn but he was facing the young skinny one) - as he is to get guys out and/or make them look silly after falling behind. It's like the same things that make him an unpredictable and effective closer: the electric though wild stuff and a variety of pitches not often seen in a short reliever; are the same things that make the results unpredictable when he gets ahead or behind hitters.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The dude seems more enamored of his breaking pitch than Armando was of his fastball. When he's got it going, he sticks with it to the point where he curbs its effectiveness.

Sort of like Jerry uses relievers.

[metsmarathon]

[table:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]By Count[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]AB[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]R[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]H[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2B[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]3B[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]HR[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]RBI[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]BB[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]HBP[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]SO[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]AVG[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]OBP[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]SLG[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]OPS[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 0-0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]9[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.111[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.111[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.111[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.222[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 0-1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]6[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]3[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.5[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.571[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1.571[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 0-2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]10[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]8[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.2[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 1-0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]8[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 1-1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]10[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.8[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 1-2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]20[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]10[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.3[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 2-0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 2-1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]6[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.167[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.167[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.167[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.333[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 2-2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]16[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]8[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.25[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.25[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.5[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.75[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 3-0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 3-1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]3[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][tr:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]Count 3-2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]8[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]2[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]6[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]4[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.25[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.533[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]0.5[/td:6dih8r0q][td:6dih8r0q]1.033[/td:6dih8r0q][/tr:6dih8r0q][/table:6dih8r0q]

i had been thinking, "don't throw the 0-2 curve to eckstein"