Braves sign Glaus

As annoyed as I was about the Cabrera trade yesterday, today is a little brighter with the signing of Troy Glaus.  Who knows whether he will be the player he was before his shoulder injury but it was a good, economical deal.

I am still annoyed they have not tried to sign Matt Holliday or Jason Bay.  Either one would have been the righthander needeed by the Braves.  With Freeman and Heyward coming on next year or the one following, 2010 would even be brighter.

Frank Wren still seems to be unsure as to what kind of team he wants to build.  Though he has stated before he wants speed and defense we all saw his idea of that last year.  And it wasn’t enough.  We all kinda forget the great job he did with Orioles in 1999.  Yeah, those O’s, considered one of history’s most underachieving teams considering their payroll.

Here’s the problem; Wren is now trying to have it both ways.  The obvious deficiency was power, right handed power.  Though Glaus could be very, very good he’ll probably be just okay after his injury.

That pitching with a decent offense would be an extremely formidable team.  Without more punch I’m afraid the Braves will fall just short again.

Cabrera for Vazquez

Are you kidding me?  Where’s he going to play, a corner?  With his lack of production?  Centerfield?  McLouth is probably not a better centerfielder (though he has won a Gold Glove) but is way more productive.  In fewer games McLouth had more rbi’s, homers and steals.  And the Braves have to throw in lefhander Boone Logan to get the future hall of famer, Melky Cabrera?  You mean Darryl Strawberry wasn’t available?

You mean to tell me Ryan Church wasn’t a better option?  Does Cashman have naked photos of Frank Wren?  I can’t throw enough insults in the direction of the Braves over this one.

When did George Costanza start working for the Braves?  He should tell Wren that the jerk store called, they’re running out of you.  And if that doesn’t work he should just say he slept with his wife.  Seeing as how she is not in a coma, that may just work.

Stephen Strasburg

Wow – over 15 million for Strasburg.  Is he worth it?  No amateur pitcher is worth that price.  Remember Brien Taylor?  Oh, that’s right, you never heard of him.  Todd Van Poppel – can’t miss, right?  First round draft picks who…weren’t worth it.

Here’s my beef.  You can sign two quality pitchers for the price paid for Strasburg.  If Washington had let the deadline pass they would’ve received a compensation pick.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying teams should avoid tough signs.  I’m saying the Nats paid too much.  Strasburg alone won’t solve the Nats’ problems.  They have a potent offense but lack pitching.

While this seems to contradict my statement about Strasburg not solving their problem it really doesn’t.  They aren’t one quality pitcher from contending.  They lack a lot of good pitchers.  Two or three quality relievers or starters would make a difference.

That’s all I’m saying.

Knob to the Ball

I haven’t posted in a long while yet people sometimes find this blog…they don’t comment but they read a little.

One thing that bothers me is when coaches tell kids to take the knob to the ball.  Proper hip rotation pulls the hands in an oval/circular hand path.  Neither power nor bat speed is facilitated by taking the knob to the ball.

I’ve used a boxing analogy before and it is apt here as well.  Imagine throwing a right handed punch directly at your opponent and then veering it off to the left as contact is made.  Huh?  Doesn’t make sense.  No, it does not.  You’re trying to combine a jab with an uppercut or roundhouse punch.  While the jab is quicker it lacks the power of the latter two types of punches.

The best swing is one where the hands are held back with hips rotating before the hands.  With proper torque the hands more or less go along for the ride when the turn of the shoulders takes place after hip rotation.

This definitely does provide more power and it gives the added benefit of giving the batter more time to judge the speed, type and location of the pitch.  Your hands and resulting swing are the only thing that can be adjusted to those three factors.  Because movement is initiated before the pitch leaves the pitchers hand you cannot adjust your stride or anything else besides the hands and when they move.

Yankees versus Red Sox

I’ve posted before of my disdain for the Yankees’ club building methodology.  Sadly for Yankee fans, nothing has changed.

“But mentalbaseball,” you say, “it’s early.”  Yes, it is only April.  However, they are old, their pitching staff is suspect and they have the highest payroll in baseball.  Here’s the sad fact that stands out like a sore thumb.  They have not developed an important every day player since the mid 90’s.

“Oh,” you say, “they’re success has worked against them in the draft.”  I don’t buy it.  First round talent falls to lower rounds in the draft EVERY year due to signability issues, agent issues, perceived college desires, etc.  Dexter Fowler is a great example.  He fell to a lower round, was signed by the Rockies for $900k and they have what looks to be a good every day player.

And the players they have developed…they have traded away for older stars.

Compare them to the Red Sox.  Ellsbury and Pedroia.  I could stop right there.  The acquisition of Bay.  Not a name to those out of baseball but solid as a rock.  Not an every day player but Papelbon.

I am not a Red Sox fan.  But I wish they were my team (Braves and Tigers).  Theo Epstein knows what he is doing.

Here’s my classic two lines; it’s not as if I could do better.  But clearly someone else can.  If you spend the most money you should get better responses.  If the Yankees believe their fans only attend games to see “names” they are insulting their base.  Truth be told, if you could guarantee a world championship by trading Jeter away, most fans would take that deal.

Ground Balls – Gotta Love ‘Em

I heard from a D1 college player the other day that his team was told by the coach that the reason they weren’t scoring more runs.  It was due to a lack of ground balls and too many strikeouts.

Well, he was half right.  Strikeouts never help.  However…more ground balls?  You mean the ground balls that are desirable as a pitcher are also more desirable as a hitter?

You have to be kidding me.

One of the great things about baseball is the way it can be broken down via statistics.  Though none of the quantifiers used to define success are perfect, I like OPS or on base percentage plus slugging percentage.  Players must get on base to score and the more bases you accumulate in an average at bat, the better.

And it comes down to this, a player focusing on hitting grounders will not accumulate more bases than one who looks to drive the ball.  Assuming, of course, relatively equal ability in on base percentage.

What makes Albert Pujols great is NOT just his batting average or on base percentage.  It is those things in combination with his slugging.

Old Yankee Mickey Rivers was a very good player with a good on base percentage.  But there will never be a discussion of him as an all time great because he was just a good singles hitter.  Part of what made Rickey Henderson an HOFer was his ability to drive the ball.

So why do some people still love the ground ball?  Mike Epstein, ex player and great independent hitting instructor explains it well.  To paraphrase him, larger ballparks, in vogue in the late 60’s and 70’s were bigger and had astroturf on them which was, at that time, little more than carpet on concrete.  Think Astrodome or Phillies’ Veterans Stadium or Old Busch Stadium with astroturf.

I never played on such a field but walked on them several time.  You could hit a simple grounder and have it roll all the way to the fence.  Choppers would bounce higher and grounders had more velocity.  You could be successful with grounders.  The Cardinals of the late 70’s, early 80’s were very successful with speed and defense and singles hitters.  Jack Clark was their power hitter averaging, I think, around 25 to 30 homers a year.

Most fields now, whether artificial or not, are not carpet on concrete.  Ground balls don’t work as well.

Teach kids to hit well AND drive the ball.  The ground ball era is dead and buried.

Hal Steinbrenner

I’m not sure if this actually changes anything for the Yankees.  They will continue to spend money like a drunken sailor on shore leave.  You wonder if there will ever be a day when they spend the money with a plan in mind.  As in like Theo Epstein and the Red Sox.

With their proposed spending on Sabathia and Burnett they seem to want to go back to their “throw money at free agents till we win” plan that has helped them make the playoffs but has failed to capture the brass ring.  I doubt next year will be any different.

Think about it, the Twins have been more successful that past few years than anyone by drafting properly, recognizing who to get rid of and when, not tying themselves to foolish long term contracts and fantastic amateur and professional scouting.

The Steinbrenners would be better off if they spent the $140 million on purchasing the entire Twins organization…not the club, but the GM, personnel people and scouts.  Or perhaps the Rays.

Oh yeah, it helps having the number one pick in several recent drafts like the Rays.  However, you have to draft and spend properly at that number one position and that’s not always easy (can you say Padres and Homer Bush?). 

You might say that players like Joba and Hughes et al, mean they are focusing more on player development.  However, the problem is that they should have been big time players for Peavy and they weren’t.  Simply because the cupboard of minor leagues is bare.  Who were they gonna trade for Peavy?  Or Matt Holliday or…anyone.  I’d rather have Peavy than Sabathia because he is cheaper, his numbers over the last three years are comparable and he is younger.

I’ve said it again and again.  With the Yankees’ money they should have the absolute best organization from top to bottom, including scouts, personnel, etc. in levels below the major leagues.  There truly is no excuse.  That’s why the Red Sox have improved so much recently.  They’re a better organization than the Yankees with somewhat the same amount of money to spend.  And they should own other countries with their money.  They could leave no stone unturned for offshore amateur talent.

It isn’t Yankee hating.  After all, if I hated the Yankees I would keep my mouth shut and let them screw up.  Again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

Sabathia and the Yankees

You’ve got to be kidding me.  The Yankees have offered CC Sabathia a 6 year deal?  The money almost doesn’t matter (as if $140 million doesn’t really matter).  Six years?

Don’t get me wrong.  Sabathia is one of the top five pitchers in the majors if not THE top pitcher.  What’s my problem then?  He has thrown a lot of innings.  He has thrown a lot of pitches.

If you could guarantee me that he would finish the six years and only lose, say, fifteen games to injury, I’d say go for it.  However, history says that he will be a top line pitcher for maybe three or four of those years.  Tops.

And there, folks, is why the Yankees are going to struggle each and every year to achieve what they and their fans believe to be theirs by birthright; World Series Champs.  They overpay for talent.  Pure and simple.

They’d be better off signing Lowe as a starter for a couple of years and Will Ohman for middle relief.  Maybe throw in another couple of pitchers to total $23 million a year.  The Yankees are losing a 20 game winner in Mussina and, conceivably, would gain one in Sabathia.

Does anyone think then that Sabathia alone will make them champs in 2009?  I know they are going after Burnett and others.  They have Swisher.  Still don’t think Sabathia is worth it.

Fielding in the Outfield – Do or Die

One thing that a lot of lower level amateur coaches (and some high school coaches I’ve seen) don’t teach is how to properly field a ground ball in the outfield.

Taking a proper route to the ball is highly important and I’ll probably address it in another post.  I’m just talking about fielding the ball here.

First, if there is no play anticipated at all after fielding the ball, the outfielder should NOT field the ball as if they were an infielder.  Instead, the outfielder should drop to one knee on the side of the throwing hand and block the ball so it does not roll past.  Nothing will irritate a coach more than a routine single being turned into a double or triple.

Second is the do or die version.  This is used if a play is anticipated AFTER the ball is thrown and the ball can be fielded directly in front of the outfielder.  As the ball is approaching the fielder, the ball should be caught on the player’s glove side in concert with the glove side leg being forward in the stride.  The next step is with the leg on the non-glove side.  That leg should effect a crow hop (a slight hop with the non-glove side to generate a little push) or a simple push off with that non glove leg while making the throw.

Priorities should be kept in mind with the do or die move.  First, the player should size up the situation in his head before the pitch occurs.  He should analyze the speed of the runner, the inning, the impact of a run scoring.  For example, if the slowest guy in the league is on second and the ball is hit sharply to the outfielder, the runner may not score.  

Another situation is a tie game at the bottom of the last inning.  Throwing the runner out at home may be all the stands between your team losing or going on to the next inning.  In that situation, the player may not even have to hit the cutoff man. 

In any situation other than the one described directly above, hit the darned cutoff man.  The catcher is the one making the decision (at least he should be) as to whether your throw will get the man at home.  If you don’t hit the cutoff man, the player hitting the single should be going to second.  Usually easily.  By not hitting the cutoff man you could be creating a big inning for your opponent.

How to Hit a Curve and How to Throw a Curve…Kinda

There are several ways methods people use to hit a curve.

The first is to be able to recognize, as quickly as the pitch is thrown, whether a ball is a curve or not.  One way to recognize is to look for it as it is leaving the pitcher’s hand.  This is basically looking for a thin wrist or fat wrist as the ball is being released.  A fastball is thrown with the palm facing the batter.  The bottom of the wrist, or the fat look of the wrist, is exposed as the ball is being released.  A curve is thrown with the palm facing the pitcher’s body.  The wrist looks thinner in this position so a curve is recognized when wrist is thin.

Another way to recognize is to see the spin of the pitch.  A fastball spins from top to bottom.  A curve spins from top to bottom and sometimes you can see a little dot form on the ball when a curve is thrown.

A different method is to guess.  Guessing gets a bad rap from some lower level amateur coaches.  However, an educated guess can give the batter a great edge.  Look, if a pitcher has thrown a curve when up 0-2 on the last 6 batters, what do you think he is throwing to the 7th batter?  If he throws a fastball to everyone when he is down, what do you think he is throwing to you?

Still the last way to hit a curve if you can’t hit it is to LOOK for a curve on every pitch.  I don’t recommend this in every situation but if you’ve played it straight in the first two at bats against a pitcher and you’ve looked foolish against the curve, what do you think he will throw you in the third at bat to get you out.   A curve.

And reading through this, you pitchers ought to get a clue as to how to pitch.

1.  A pitcher who can get three mediocre pitches over is superior to one who can only throw a good pitch over the plate.  That’s assuming you don’t always throw the same pitches in the same count all the time.

2.  If you can get your curve over, the way you pitch a team the first time through the order should be different than the way you pitch them the second time through.  You got a good team out with a fastball and curves.  How effective do you think if you could get a changeup over and can save it for the second time through the order?

3.  Why do you think a good changeup is so effective?  If coaches recommend the fat wrist/thin wrist method of recognizing a curve or the spin method of recognition, the batter has a hard time picking up a changeup because it spins like a fastball and is thrown with a fat wrist.

4.  Even if a batter can recognize a curve easily, if you as a pitcher can throw it at two speeds you, in effect, have two different pitches.  At higher levels, good hitters can sometimes sit on a curve if it always comes in at the same speed and the same break.

At each level the pitcher/hitter progresses in a career, the hitter/pitcher gets smarter and craftier.  That’s why experts will tell you that the difference for some in making the jump to the majors is not a physical jump but more of a mental one.