Comments on: Batista gets hit while down

By: em

em — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:14:53 +0000

dw; I was at that same game with my wife and her work group. LF high up. That day marked the beginning of the end for Freddy in Seattle.

If Franny is found guilty, the publicity will be a “jackpot” of true value..

By: Dan W

Dan W — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:11:00 +0000

This is great – Derek joining the growing fraternity of Halo-haters (or at least guys that the Angels think hate them), along with Jeff Sullivan and Jose Guillen. Good company.

I’m sure Derek will point out that he doesn’t hate the Angels, thinks their championship in 2002 was built on solid play everywhere and backed up by the numbers, and in fact admires the strength of their pitching staff. But don’t believe him.

By: Gomez

Gomez — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:56:41 +0000

The worst game I ever saw in person was Aaron Sele’s last start in 2005, where he threw batting practice to the Indians for 4 innings, and I left before Shiggy plunked somebody and set off that beanball war. Sele’s performance was about as pathetic as Batista’s was today, though to Sele’s credit, he didn’t balk anybody in.

I’ll give Batista a mulligan for now.

By: dw

dw — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:50:45 +0000

If no one has yet, someone alert Derek that he has hit the jackpot.

It was on Deadspin yesterday as well.

By: Gomez

Gomez — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:47:14 +0000

If no one has yet, someone alert Derek that he has hit the jackpot.

By: dw

dw — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:37:02 +0000

That was the worst game I have ever been to. Should have gone with me in 2003. I was at an event for my wife's work in a group suite. When Freddy's wheels fell off, half the place cleared out.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:39:34 +0000

I’m not saying we can’t learn anything from a pitcher’s body language. I just don’t think Batista’s lack of anger in one start is enough to tell us that he’s a Garcia-like flake. As noted, he’s a pretty smart fellow, an author, and a 54 year major league veteran. I’m not surprised that a bad inning here or there doesn’t phase him at this point in his career.

By: Mariner Fan in CO Exile

Mariner Fan in CO Exile — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:27:11 +0000

Fair points, Dave. I do think you can see something of the pitcher’s attitude that is not colored completely by the results – it was one of the larger frustrations I had with Freddy Garcia – but if some things had swung Miguel’s way, I would have cautious optimism rather than pessimism today, you are right.

The A’s were also held down for 2 games, so naturally some hitters were going to start doing something. A bad convergence of circumstances, I suppose. But it’s helpful for me to hear you felt his stuff is still there, and I’ll hope the next one is an 8 inning 2 hitter.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:17:01 +0000

But I am not focusing exclusively on statistical results from the first outing. I’m talking about what he showed me on the mound. He was sluggish, didn’t adjust to the A’s’ approach, basically sulked after the 2nd got tough, and had troulble putting together any kind of coherent strategy to minimize damage after the big inning.

It’s impossible to look decent while giving up 8 runs in 4 innings. You’ll never hear a fan leave a game where a guy posts an ERA of 15.43 and say “he got rocked, but he showed me something.” You are talking about his performance, because that’s what’s causing you to infer the beliefs about his sluggishness, apathy, and general suckiness. If the A’s had missed a few of his mistakes or hit into a well timed double play, you’d probably have been more impressed by his ability to work out of a jam, even if what he did actually didn’t change at all.

This isn’t a criticism of you personally – it’s just a fact of how results color our interpretations of what we see. The results yesterday were horrible, but the A’s hitters were a big part of that, sitting on every mistake he made.

His stuff is the same as it was last year, but his command was off yesterday. We knew when we signed him that he didn’t have great control of his fastball, and there will be times when he’s leaving his fastball up and getting hit. As a pitch-to-contact guy, this kind of start is inevitable. So is the one where the hitters aren’t timing him well, he’s keeping the ball down, and he goes 8 innings on 90 pitcheswhile only giving up a couple of hits. It’s just the facts of life with this skillset.

If Batista was throwing 85-88, I’d be concerned. But he wasn’t. He just didn’t have command of his fastball last night, and the A’s whacked every pitch he left up in the zone. It happens, but it’s not predictive of anything.

By: capmblade

capmblade — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:59:19 +0000

That was the worst game I have ever been to. A balk. A hit batsmen. Athletics running all over the place. Another balk that scores a run. No home runs. No flashy leather. Nothing. I guess the only thing for the night was seeing Crosby commit another error.