roger_that

control is not a consistent thing. The ball doesn't feel right. The mound hasn't been manicured. Your crotch itches. You had an argument with your wife. Tom Seaver's favorite was "My mechanics weren't right". Exactly. And if a pitcher can't throw the ball where he needs to on this day, I get him out of there ASAP. Probably I have someone warming in the pen from pitch one. I need pitchers who can throws strikes in this situation, and that's my only priority. If someone cant manage that, with those specific instructions, this isn't a good day for him to be pitching for a team with a big lead.

Last two games, we've seen pitchers coming into games that were, essentially, out of reach, the Mets bringing in Medina on Saturday to protect a seven-lead and the Marlins' dude coming in yesterday to protect a four-run lead, and both times the relief pitcher could not throw a strike to save his life, his job, or his self-respect, raising the ever-lively question WTF? I maintain that this just demonstrates an effective refutation of the truism that asserts that throwing strikes is easy for a MLB pitcher. He will get creamed by throwing pitch after pitch over the plate, but he could do it (these truism spouters say) if he wanted to, but most pitchers prefer nibbling on the black and at the top and bottom of the zone to getting creamed. But these are special circumstances, in which getting creamed (giving up a run per inning, on average) is not so bad. The shift in pitching strategy is not very significant: a pitcher with a large lead to protect simply shrinks the zone. He challenges the hitters aggressively. He throws a strike on the first pitch for sure, and stays ahead of the hitters. (Every few batters, of course, he throws his best fastball high and tight to prevent them from feeling too comfortable up there.) He will give up hits this way, certainly, but he will also get some balls right at fielders, often fielders on the warning track, and he will get some Ks. He will also learn what hitters will do if he doesn't nibble, both positively and negatively. and he will definitely keep his pitch-count down, a virtue especially in this situation when he is likely saving the other staffers for another day. So what kind of pitcher comes into this sort of game? I would argue that your wildest, fastest, often youngest pitcher should be on the mound with a very short leash, with the instructions "I want you to throw strikes here, get ahead of the batters, and walk no one. If you start walking people I will yank you, but you can stay in the game for a long time if you don't." I think most young pitchers will respond positively to such instructions because I believe that every pitcher should be able to throw strikes on demand, and those who don't, don't because their strategy is to nibble. I think you will get killed every so often with this strategy. You will give up more than a run per inning, you will blow some leads by getting clobbered by three and four-HR innings, and I will be among those howling at the moon in such circumstances. But I also think you will blow fewer leads than you will by nibbling, and walking the ballpark, in these circumstances, in which the howling will be much, much louder. I am still emitting the occasional howl from Saturday's outing. (This takes the form, by Monday morning, of the muttered "WTF?" as I prepare my coffee.) In the current pen, who fits my description of the pitcher you want to see most on the mound in a blowout: young, fast, wild, and eager for the chance to show his stuff?

Newest nominee:https://cubbiescrib.com/2022/06/18/cubs-acquiring-pete-crow-armstrong-fleeced-mets/https://cubbiescrib.com/2022/06/18/cubs-acquiring-pete-crow-armstrong-fleeced-mets/ The Crow-Armstrong Deal!! Were We Robbed or Bamboozled?

Next month's lead feature: Double- and Triple-C on the '62 Mets catching (!) squad: Chris Cannizzaro, Choo-Choo Coleman: Coincidence or Co-incidence?

No? Nothing? OK, I think that's a little weird, but whatever.... How about this? The 1962 Mets' entire pitching staff, including such stalwarts as Larry Foss, Dave Hillman, Sherman Jones, Clem Labine, Vinegar Bend Mizell, Herb Moford, Bob Moorhead, who combined for 0 wins in the 91 games they pitched in, to the ones you've actually heard of, such as Roger Craig and Al Jackson, can ALL (that's seventeen--17, count 'em, 17--pitchers) be fit alphabetically into the first half of the alphabet. That's right, every one of them has a last name beginning with a letter between A (Craig Anderson) and M (the aforementioned Mssrs. Mizell, Moford, and Moorhead, plus Ken MacKenzie and both Bob Millers). I am not sure this is actually an all-time major league record* but I defy you to find another. You might suppose, in the interest of larger sample sizes, that this situation would reverse itself if we were to include the entire New York Mets squad, but no, not really. The presence of such memorable 1962 Mets as Gene Woodling and Frank Thomas and Charley Neal would seem to give the lie to my claims of alphabetical imbalance on that squad, but: of the 28 men who nominally swang a bat for the 1962 Mets, the overwhelming majority--20 out those fabled 28--could also be squeezed into that small bus labeled "A-M"--an anomaly of staggering proportions. It almost makes one conclude that there was some sort of massive conspiracy afoot here to restrict the players on the 1962 Mets, particularly their pitching staff, to the front of the alphabet. I cannot account for this imbalance otherwise, or explain why such twisted thinking might have lain deep in the minds of the Powers That Be. But there it is. * as listed in the Book of Phenomenally Stupid Baseball Stats

...that if Tyler Megill, Edwin Diaz, and Chris Bassitt put together spectacular Mets careers (very unlikely but not impossible), we will have retired uni numbers straight from 36 through 42?

Why were they swinging at the wild crap he was tossing? You're down four runs. You need baserunners, and this guy's handing them to you on a platter. Take them, fuck rice ache. Don't deserve to win this one.

Escobar's AB was awful. Like I said yesterday, the pitcher couldn't throw a strike to save his life, and he's swinging at shit out of the strike zone. Big lead, throw strikes, for fuck's sake.

Edgy MD wrote: Gittin' it done to the opposite field. Keep doin' that. Yeah, this is like DUH. Alcantara keeps pitching you outside and there's no fielders on that side of the field. Why would a lefty even try to pull the ball?

Bassitt: "Well, shit, I coulda done THAT."

FUCK!!!!!!!

Lugo time. Bases loaded, only one away.

I think that was Nido's second caught stealing of the season.

Couldn't put Berti away. Starts him off 0-2, but ended up walking him on pitches that weren't close.

Bassitt throwing strikes, ahead on the batters, on the black.

Marlins announcer sez Plummer looks exactly like Juan Soto at the plate. Does not hit like Juan Soto. K, ends inning.

Pete first-pitch doublin'!

The Marlins' announcing team is positively creaming over Marte's build, particularly his upper arms. "It's the gun show today, boys and girls!" "Man, is that one tight shirt!" "The man is popping out of his clothing, daddy!" "Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin'"

Gotta love Nimmo's batting eye. Ya throw him something low and inside and he looks at it like "You think I'm gonna budge this bat off my shoulder for that weak shit?"

Edgy MD wrote: Wait, I'm confused at how that's a no. "Did Buck say this thing about Nido?" "No, that was Buck, talking about Nido." "OK." My "no" was responding to KC's question "am I thinking of something else?" as in "No, KC, you're remembering correctly." And Edgy you did not use the image of a Cub Scout merit badge, that's my rephrasing of your sentiment. You just allowed as to how winning a batting title in the low minors several years ago wasn't exactly the most reassuring praise of Nido's batting skills you could have possibly heard from Buck's oleaginous mouth.

=kcmets post_id=96592 time=1655653625 user_id=53] I think Buck likes Nido. Didn't he remind us in a post-gamer that Tomas won a batting title in the minor leagues or am I thinking of something else?

Is something like a regular starting 9 and batting order beginning to emerge? I hope so. Buck kept switching things up too much for my taste, and it seems my request for some stability has been heard,

Try listening to the Marlins' crew. You will lose your mind.

Smith adds a K to today's tally.

Edgy MD wrote: Wait a micron. I get up to piss, and the Marlins get a baserunner? Wtf? Walked Chisholm on four pitches. Either a sign he was losing it, or else he was afraid of Jazz, which I don't think he was.