Someone Just Wants The Season To End
Dave · August 18, 2010 at 7:37 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Top 2nd – C Kotchman grounded out to first, J Lopez to third, F Gutierrez to second.
Top 4th – C Kotchman flied out to center.
Top 6th – C Kotchman grounded out to first.
Top 8th – C Kotchman hit a ground rule double to deep center, R Langerhans scored.
That looks like a play by play log of Kotchman’s night, right? Wrong. It’s a pitch by pitch log. Four times, Casey Kotchman walked to the plate tonight. Four times, he swung at the first pitch he saw. Four times, he put it in play.
Four at-bats, four pitches. I’m no historian, but I’m willing to bet that’s a record.
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For a second there I thought there was a USSM post all about me and was overcome with emotion.
Well, I do remember a certain Yankee right fielder swinging at 4 straight pitches and putting all 4 in play, but that was over the course of 2 games.
Not that I’m comparing Kotchman or anything…
I definatley want the season to end.
Oh wait this isn’t about me and everybody else. 40 more games everybody. Just 40 games.
Not that I expect this to happen, but now that the M’s have won 2 out of every 3 the last five series, do you realize that if that keeps up, the M’s could end up with 75 or 76 wins, which, well, it’s something…
…otherwise, I’m with Kotchman. Enough already.
(Especially with the Yankees, BoSox, Twins, and Angels coming up, I don’t expect the good times to keep rolling. Ever the eternal optimist, I know).
I want the season to end every time I see Kotchman approach the plate. He is a reminder of the least fulfilling season of mariner’s baseball in my 30 years of following the team.
Only Jose Loafez makes me feel more ill than Kotchman.
Correct me if I’m wrong, of course – but home runs aren’t considered “in play” are they?
@ Farmer Cam
I know Lopez isn’t exactly a good baseball player, but I do think he gets a bad rap for being “lazy”; a thought that I further believe in based on Shannon Drayer’s latest blog article.
Barabuski —
I agree with you, I think, but would go so far as to say he is a “dumb” ballplayer; if he were lazier, maybe he would be slower to make all the stupid mistakes he routinely commits. In any event, I’ll be glad when he’s no longer in an M’s uniform…only 41 games to go!
Lopez may or may not get a “bad rap” regarding laziness – but I think Drayer is too close to the players to make those sorts of judgements in any reasonably objective way. I seem to recall she was very defensive regarding Yuni as well – until after he’d left.
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy her writing a lot, and I think she does a great job with the clubhouse insights. But in my opinion one reason she does those so well is she gets invested in the players and their lives, and (again in my opinion only) there are occasions where that can work against certain other types of reporting.
Remember, Yuniesky Betancourt was on this team for years. That may not be a safe bet.
If in fact Kotchman wants the season to end, he is in good company.
At least he was making contact. Against some pitchers first pitch swinging isn’t a bad idea. I don’t know much about Guthrie but he doesn’t walk too many, so he is around the zone.
Swinging at every pitch is the approach I’d take against Cliff Lee for one. It’s not like you’re going to work a walk by taking a pitch or two.
As a very negative person, I gotta say you’re being really negative. In a season this depressing, Kotchman hit an RBI double and you complained about him. I don’t blame for you for being negative, but you have such an awesome blog, and you decided to dedicate a post to berating Kotchman based on (your pet peeve) a small sample size! I’m just sayin’ I’ll take an RBI double anyway I can get it. True, it’s a bit odd and Kotchman’s putting up crap numbers, but still.
As a person with a sense of humor, I’ve determined that you were born without one.
If the last few days have taught me anything, its that people will decide what a writer intended without any regard for logic, fact, or reason.
Once again, so much for Derrida: authors do have intent and words do have meaning, it turns out…
I bet this happened all the time in the 70’s. I’ll guess the record is 6 AB’s with 1st-pitch Ball-In-Plays. Do HBP or catcher’s interference’s count? I think the CI’s technically aren’t pitches…
how bad of a day at the plate is this from a statistical/advanced analysis perspective.
Is advancing 2 baserunners the first time and hitting a ground rule double/RBI enough to be considered a league average hitter?
yes, i know being league average (not replacement level but actual MLB average) is not what champtionship teams strive for but for this year league average is okay by me.
Thats a lot better than watching four pitches over the heart of the plate for strike one. Isn’t strike one “the best pitch in baseball” Taking a ton of pitches and getting deep in counts is why this team strikes out so much.
Really? I’d be willing to agree this is in the running for the most deflating season vs pre-season expectations (though there have been some other contenders in the last 15 years). But least fulfilling even compared to that 59 win, seventh-place 1980 team? Or that almost-unwatchable 1983 team?
What makes you think that’s what Derrida meant?
In that case, you remember wrong: she was surprisingly (at least to me) critical of him, particularly in that last partial-season (here’s an example, and another from the pre-season; there are more).
That was what I remembered, that she was particularly critical of Yuni’s work ethic, especially when compared to Beltre and Lopez. Seems to me she has mentioned on air that Lopez had grown away from his Doublemint Twin because Yuni had no interest in changing.
Really, Dave, you just learned that?
I have no idea whatsoever what Dave might be talking about!
Recall can be inaccurate then, eh?
So what we need is a new group and field of study. I propose SASR – the Society for American Sportswriter Research. Among other things, SASR will develop statistics to dispassionately measure a writer’s intent and slant over a large number of articles written. This will allow us to more accurately determine a writer’s position, so we’re not influenced by one or two “breakout” articles that might not really be representative of that writer’s overall production.
HA! Good one, Joser…touche.
Did you ever watch Yuni. He has had to have pulled off this milestone. The only reason he might not have is if he swung and missed.
I was thinking the same thing. Not HBP, but the catcher’s interference. Or that there are other ways for a batter/pitcher matchup to end without an actual pitch being thrown. I know of one other way: if a batter breaks from third and the pitcher steps off the rubber and throws to home plate (not a pitch), the hitter is out on interference if he swings and makes contact with the throw.
Totally obscure, but I’d bet that’s actually happened before.
You are wrong.
By this logic, Sweeney wanted the season to end in April.