Tagged: Jim Kaat
Games 1 & 2: The essence of baseball
If you didn’t enjoy the first two games of the World Series you are either a Home Run Derby type of fan that enjoys seeing 
double-digit scoring and “digs the long ball,” or you get bored easily with games that don’t have a lot of scoring but get one’s attention in other ways. How each pitch, spectacular fielding play or occasional sloppy play in the field, alert baserunning and even a little bit of luck — like a bloop hit on a pitch that would usually get a hitter out — can have a lot more influence on the outcome than a three-run homer. I loved these first two games for those reasons.
I know, I’m an old fashioned baseball fan. I enjoy a game on a lazy summer afternoon with no noise in the park except the sound of the ball hitting the bat or hearing the players in the field talking it up on the infield. The voice of the vendor two sections away selling his wares. The game was intended to be more of a cerebral game than a lot of others like football or basketball. Those games are entertaining for other reasons, they can be more violent, have more constant action. Some of today’s baseball games during the regular season resemble a rock concert. I’ll take these last two games anytime.
What’s the manager thinking? How are these pitchers getting hitters out without throwing 98 miles an hour? Will they bunt, hit and run, steal?
Baseball was intended to be, if my dad explained it to me correctly, a game that you sat back and enjoyed the skills of the guys on the field executing the basic fundamentals of the game and didn’t have to be a 6’2″, 225-pound, carved-out-of-granite specimen to play it well. The average-size athlete can still compete and succeed.
I mentioned in my blog a couple days ago that facing hitters for the first time gives a definite edge to the pitcher. We’ve seen that. You can tell by the hitter’s reactions either swinging or taking a pitch that there is an element of not knowing what to expect or where to expect it. Quite a contrast to the Milwaukee/St. Louis series where they knew each other so well after playing each other 18 times during the season. Not to say the pitchers aren’t good pitchers anyway, but the lack of familiarity helps them.
Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus had quite a game as a middle infield combo didn’t they? Not just seeing Andrus make the stops and the acrobatic throws and the timing of Kinsler catching the throw and stepping on the bag just in time to get the out….What you don’t see on TV is the anticipation and preparation in advance of the pitch to get themselves in position to make those kind of plays.
Without knowing it at the time, I learned a lot about how the game should be played on my days between starts sitting next to a veteran like Pete Whisenant or next to a coach like George Strickland when I was in my early 20s. There weren’t any electronic screens showing meaningless minutia to “dumb you down” and take your mind away from the game. Thank goodness! Guys like Whisenant and Strickland would tell me to watch the hitter/baserunner after he got a hit to see if he rounded the bag and anticipated a bad throw and was ready to take the extra base. Elvis Andrus did that. It impacted the game.
The managers make moves one day and they work and make them look like they are really smart. If the same moves don’t work the next game they are open to second guessing from fans and media. These two managers know that and they are smart and secure enough to make the moves and live with the results, not affected by critics who have never been between the lines. They put their players in position to be successful with their matchups. Then it’s up to the players to execute correctly.
We are inundated with statistics in baseball. Graphics crawling across the bottom of the screen or little boxes giving us so much information one can’t follow it or digest it very easily. I remember one statistic that Lou Pinella mentioned to me 20 years ago when he was managing Seattle. It was the first time I had ever been made aware of the importance of it. Lou said, “Give me some hitters than can drive the runner in from third with less than two out 100 percent of the time and we’ll score enough runs to win a pennant with just decent pitching, not necessarily great pitching.
Josh Hamilton and Michael Young did that last night. Two sacrifice flys. Check out the Major League average sometime for doing that in those situations. A ground ball with the infield back, a sac fly, a soft single, a squeeze bunt… Anything to get the runner home. You’ll be surprised at how low the percentage of times it’s done during the season for all teams combined. Maybe not much over 50 percent.
And then, the element of luck. Jason Motte made a good enough pitch to get Kinsler out but give credit to Kinsler for putting it in play and getting a bloop hit. Hitters and pitchers have said for years that the breaks don’t even out. Hitters will say, I never get enough bloop hits to make up for all the line drives I’ve hit at people. Pitchers say the same about liners and bloops they’ve given up. Jason Motte will look back on that bloop single someday after giving up a scorching liner right at one of his infielders and have it end up as a double play and get some retribution.
I don’t think we’ll continue to see low scoring games with the subtle plays and alert baserunning impacting the outcome like these first two games but it has been fun to watch. Warmer weather and the excitement of opening games has passed, and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is hitter friendly. That adds up to a bigger challenge for the starting pitchers. At least we got two games of good, old-fashioned hardball. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
Alter the box scores?
Reading box scores has always been a hobby for a lot of avid baseball fans. It was for me growing up before TV and the internet made it easier to stay current with your favorite team or players. As a former pitcher I can tell you one of the most satisfying things to see the day after you’ve pitched is to look at the box score and see..Winning Pitcher..with your name after it.My friend, the late Joe Niekro, would hoist an adult beverage after he was credited with a win and say “Another one in the left hand [winning] column.” Conversely, no matter if you pitched well like C.J. Wilson did last night it’s disappointing to see…Losing Pitcher..with your name after it…
I had that feeling 237 times during my career and twice more in World Series play. Last night’s game reminded of the days when pitcher’s were the decision makers as to who to pitch to and when to walk someone. It didn’t always come from the bench. The situation in the bottom of the 6th inning last night brought back memories of that. Now…..please don’t read into this that I am second guessing Ron Washington or C.J. Wilson, if it was his idea to walk Nick Punto with Chris Carpenter on deck. It happened earlier in the game and Chris struck out to end the inning. It seemed the obvious reason was to get Carpenter out of the game and Ogando into it to face Allen Craig.
From a pitcher’s point of view I always liked to get the #8 hitter out and have the pitcher leading off the next inning…If you can do that a couple times a game it makes it more difficult for the leadoff man to get something started….Reflecting back on the 1982 season for a moment. I was fortunate enough to be a part of that team when we won the World Series. Ozzie Smith was our shortstop and a lot of times was our #8 hitter. One of the many subtle things that aren’t in the box score is how many times the #8 hitter gets a 2 out hit, the pitcher most of the time makes the 3rd out and Voila! The lead off hitter becomes the lead off hitter you want leading off the next inning.
Ozzie seemed to do that a lot. They probably could dig up a stat on that…This enabled Lonnie Smith or maybe Willie McGee or Tommy Herr to lead off for us instead of the pitcher. Back to last night’s 6th inning. If I were on the mound I would have much preferred to go after Nick Punto in both instances that he came up with 1st base open and the pitcher due up next. Why? First, I would love to have been sitting next to Cardinal great Bob Gibson last night when the situation arose. I can hear Gibby saying…”.if my stuff isn’t good enough to challenge the # 8 hitter and get him out, what am I doing out here.” I would echo his thoughts.
No dispespect to Nick Punto. I have always appreciated him as a good player going back to his days when I saw him play with the Minnesota Twins. I think of him as “Pete Rose Lite”. He plays with that same intensity. known more for his fielding and doing the little things like bunting a man over, hit and run, hit it to the right side to advance a runner..but not driving in a lot of runs…In pitcher’s pregame meetings when the #8 hitter’s name came up we would usually say…’he’s hitting 8th for a reason’…..I could almost see the smile on Mark McGwire’s face last night when Allen Craig got his chance. Mac thinks Craig will be an RBI machine in the near future. Maybe in this series.
So, here’s my point. If Ogando gets Craig out it looks like a good decision. But did C.J. Wilson have any input in whether or not to walk Punto or go after him? I don’t know. I don’t hear that question asked very often after games anymore. It’s an example of a starting pitcher being a pawn in the strategy of getting strong bullpens to match up against opposing hitters and as Tony LaRussa says, and he’s a master at it, ” I want to make it as difficult as I can for the opposing team to score”. I did read where C.J. said, “he didn’t chase” “was I suppose to throw him a fastball down the middle.?” If it were me that answer would have been a resounding YES…maybe not down the middle but trust your stuff that you can get him out and get the pitcher or pitcher’s spot in the batting order leading off the next inning. Maybe that’s why I have 237 losses next to my name.
So , did CJ deserve to be called the losing pitcher. If the decision to walk Punto or “pitch around him” came from the bench , NO….As Tim McCarver said on the FOX telecast, pitcher’s are trained to throw strikes and now you’re asking him to purposely throw balls. near the strike zone, but balls. It’s hard to do and often a pitcher will give up a hit doing that because he doesn’t throw the pitch with conviction. Aims it. doesn’t have crispness to it. When Bill Rigney, one of my former manager’s would come to the mound and hem and haw about pitching around a certain hitter, my response was quickly, “Do you want me to walk him or get him out”.? “Rig’ was the 1st manager I had that didn’t let me decide that myself in most instances. Again, that’s why the box score say’s Winning or Losing pitcher, not Winning or Losing manager. I felt for CJ last night. He may not have had a chance to determine his fate.
And please, it’s not to 2nd guess Ron Washington’s decision. If I were to see “Wash’ today, I’d give him a hug and tell him what a great job he has done and is doing with the Rangers. It’s just an example of how little decisions in baseball games can affect the outcome and they’re magnified in post season play. And when you see who the Winning and Losing pitchers are they’re often affected by decisions from the bench and not their own. As we see everyday during the regular season and more so in the post season, it’s a more specialized game and controlled from the bench as much as from the mound.
HMMM..THIS COULD BE INTERESTING
This World Series might be the most difficult to get an idea of who you would say is favored to win or how it could play out. The players on these teams have not competed against each other very often, some never; nor have the teams. Many Texas Rangers will get their 1st look at Busch Stadium, many Cardinals their 1st look at The Ballpark in Arlington. Advantage: Pitchers in their own park.
Why? Hitters like to feel comfortable at the plate and some of that comfort is the hitters background in center field and how the ball looks to them coming out of the pitchers hand. They’ll get some swings in practice today to get a feel for it. Also, the hitters will be seeing pitchers they haven’t faced very often if ever. Again, advantage pitchers.
A pitcher always has an edge facing a hitter for the 1st few times at bat. [I think we noticed how comfortable the hitters in the NLCS were facing pitchers they had faced a lot this season, what to look for and where to look for it. The starters had to be ‘spot on’ to be effective.] They haven’t seen how the ball looks coming at them, how their breaking pitches look, judging the speed. A good reason for Pitchers to ‘trust their stuff’ and throw a lot of ‘strike one’s’..get ahead and stay ahead. always a good approach no matter the hitter or the importance of the game.
My best example of experiencing that was the 1965 World Series when I was pitching for the Minnesota Twins and facing the LA Dodgers and hooking up against the greatest pitcher of my baseball lifetime, Sandy Koufax. The scout that signed me, Dick Weincek, was our advance scout. He had some detailed information. I said,”Dick, no disrespect for what you’ve given me but they have never faced me and I’m going with my strengths and not be overly concerned with their weaknesses.”
It worked fine the 1st time I faced them. We won 5-1, I pitched a complete game and my theory worked. A couple of side stories about that series. According to my baseball trivia experts the 1965 series was the last one where every win was a complete game performance by the winning pitcher. Mudcat Grant, myself, Claude Osteen, Don Drysdale, Koufax, Mudcat again and then Koufax again shutting us out on 2 days rest. he also shut us out in game 5. And, to give you an idea of how little national TV exposure baseball had during the regular season and before interleague play began, these games were the 1st time I had ever seen Sandy Koufax pitch in person and only in the 1963 series did I see him on television.
After 3 innings of watching him in game 2, I said to our pitching coach, Johnny Sain, “If I give up a run, this game’s over”. That’s how good he was and I was right. We were fortunate enough to score 1st in game 2 and win but in games 5 & 7, no chance. Both 9 inning complete game shutouts.
Contrast that to my 1982 World Series experience where Mike Caldwell of the Brewers pitched a complete game in game 1 and my teammate, John Stuper pitched a gutsy complete game win in game 6 through a few rain delays. Bruce Sutter was our closer that year and the Hall of Famer did what great closers do and saved game 7 to give us the series win.
Bill Lee, former lefty for the RedSox, quoted Buckminster Fuller during one of our visit years ago when I had mentioned that the complete game was becoming more and more the exception than the rule. The quote, ” Specialization breeds extinction”. And the complete game in world series play has become close to extinct.
So…..this brings us to the 2011 World Series. It seems like the winner will be determined by whose relief pitchers are most effective. The Cardinal relief corps has made an amazing turnaround when you consider all the leads they gave up during the season. Tony La Russa and his pitching coach, Dave Duncan, have been masters at matching up relievers vs. hitters since the 80’s in Oakland when they had Dennis Eckersley to save games and Gene Nelson, Rick Honeycutt, Todd Burns all getting key outs in the last 3 innings to set things up for “Eck”. Ron Washington has moved Ogando into the bullpen where he was last year and he is a great asset for Texas. He can pitch a few innings and be effective against righty’s and lefty’s.
How about these lineups where the LCS MVPs hit at the bottom of the batting order. Deep and powerful lineups with Texas having a little edge when you compare the season stats of both lineups. If one of the starting pitchers figures out how to work through these lineups a couple of times and hold them to a couple runs they could be the series mvp and be responsible for their team winning. If CJ Wilson finds a pattern and some holes in the Cardinal hitters he can exploit that could be helpful to Derek Holland and Matt Harrison…They’re all lefties. Chris Carpenter is who he is. Tough,seasoned veteran, not intimidated by any hitter. If he’s sharp and wins games 1 and 5, he’s your mvp. So many possibilities. The beauty of post season baseball is it’s so unpredictable. Nolan Ryan, that wily ‘ol fox, has said his Rangers will win in 6. Why would he say that? Because it diverts the attention and pressure from the players to him. He knows what he’s doing.
For me, this is a win-win, happy either way series. I love what the Rangers and Ron Washington and pitching coach, Mike Maddux have done. Mike is on his way to being to “Wash” what Dave Duncan is to LaRussa. I like the way Nolan Ryan has made a decision to take the dreaded pitch count out of play and allow the Texas starters to work out of jams late in the game. I love what the Cardinals have done because from playing there in the early 80’s and being on the 1982 team that won the World Series, I know what a great baseball town St. Louis is, I think of it as more a town than a city; with classy, passionate fans. Both have ownership groups that carry themselves with dignity.
I hope we get to see great competition which is a trademark of Tony LaRussa’s teams. He preaches competing, every pitch, every at bat, every inning. That’s how they came back from the baseball dead. Texas manager Ron Washington is a guy you can’t help but root for, passionate, openly excited for his players when they do well in a controlled, tasteful manner. I couldn’t root for either of these teams to not win.
The deciding factor could turn out to be the big flaw in determining home field advantage. The NL winning the All Star game. That means more than winning your division and having the best record of the 2 teams? That’s wrong. Hope good baseball men address and change that in the off-season. But, despite that flaw, I’m going to sit back and watch two teams that are there because they deserve to be and watch for those subtle little things that I like to look for that can determine who wins. A pitch here, a play there, a timely hit, a key stolen base. Let the games begin.
Kaat's Korner 