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This Day in Baseball Another Saturday Night Game
Who schedules a game for 7:15 on a Saturday night? Do they expect me to watch it?


Of course, I saw the whole thing.

Yesterday's Game, Executive Summary: Roy Halladay...and a bunch of hits from other guys.

Star of The Game: Roy Halladay. Though I must say, the lack of strikeouts is sort of worrying. I suppose 14 groundballs makes up for it, but he's barely about the Michalak Line after this start with 41 in 80 innings.

You mean they use twelve pitchers? Watching the game with a friend of mine who's not really into baseball and explaining the roster construction. He asked that question; I don't think anyone understands why a team needs seven relievers. He's only watched about four games and each time he's tuned in, Pete Walker was pitching, so he naturally assumed there were "like, five or six."

But I have nine home runs today! I said that some teams need all those pitchers because their manager likes to manage like Mr. Burns. He got it right away. Funny, that.

But wait, there's more: Two more, in fact:
"He used to be in the NBA? Odd."
"Wait, so they're all brothers catching in the Major Leagues?"

Boxscore: Right here.

Oh yeah, Defensive Play of the Game: Joey Gathright jumping over an imaginary car in CF to make one hell of a catch.

Elsewhere: Kelvim Escobar walked five and the Angels' defense looked unangelic as Cleveland won X-2, where X is a really really big number that I don't remember.

Through the magic of digital cable, I was going to check out the Sportsnet Pacific game for once, but upon seeing "Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners" we decided not to. Good thing, because it was a stinker -- as if any Royals game can smell nice -- with Seattle winning 12-1.

Does anyone else find it funny that there are four half-decent closers in the AL East? Now it's Rivera, Papelbon, Ryan, and Ray. Think back a few years ago, when it was Rivera, Nobody In Particular, Nobody Interesting, and It's-The-Orioles-Who-Cares?

Maybe it's just me.

Since when did the All-Star Game become NL vs. New York and Boston? A chart, if you please:
Position Rank of NYY Rep Rank of BOS Rep
C 3 1
1B 2 1
2B 1 2
3B 1 2
SS 1 ?
OF 1 2
OF 5 9
OF 7 11

Of course, Nos. 5 and 7 are injured anyway, so there's a chance that Melky Cabrera and Terrence Long take their place.

Terrence Long? Really?? Yep. Blew me away too.

Today: Gustavo Chacin and Doug Waechter. Game time is not 7:15. (Who schedules a game for 7:15 on a Saturday night??)
Posted by Rob on Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 11:30 AM EDT.
Another Saturday Night Game | 19 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mudie - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 12:42 PM EDT (#148250) #
Well Mr.Burns had done it
The Power Plant had won it
With Roger Clemens clucking all the while...
It is very disturbing too me at least that the Yankees and Red Sox players just need to have a good first half of the season to get a quarter of a million All-Star votes. At this rate in 2 years all we will see is the Sox and Yankees vs the Mets and Dodgers for the mid-summer classic. Abolish fan voting, if it can’t be done fairly what is the point of doing it at all?
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Mark J - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 01:47 PM EDT (#148255) #
I'm not worried about Halladay's lack of strikeouts. Most of the opposing managers in the post-game interview say he's one of the best if not the best in the league, and comment on how he has nasty stuff. I think the opposing hitters know he is going to throw strikes, so they go up hacking, more or less. He has very low pitch totals, often has like 7 or 8 pitch innings, there just aren't enough deep counts to ring up big strikeout totals.
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Dave Till - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 07:41 PM EDT (#148261) #
I was thinking about Halladay today, and reached the same conclusion as Mark J. Normally, I would worry about the low strikeout total. But I agree that pitches per inning is an equally valid measure of pitcher dominance, and I suspect that Doc is at the top of that particular pile.

Batters know that Halladay is going to throw strikes and know that he isn't going to make mistakes, so they swing at whatever they can reach, resulting in routine ground balls.

I'll start worrying when he starts needing more than 85 pitches to get through eight innings, or gives up more than two runs. Or if he ever loses again.

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Pistol - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 09:07 PM EDT (#148263) #
And it seems, more often than not, that the grounballs off Halladay are easy groundballs. 

I know that popups for pitchers aren't normal flyballs and are good things.  Perhaps really weak grounders are in the same boat in that they're even better than 'normal' groundballs?

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Gerry - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 09:13 PM EDT (#148266) #

Chacin's ERA by inning for 2005 and 2006 from cbssportsline.com.

                        2005          2006

1st                    2.38          6.75

2nd                   2.65          2.25

3rd                   3.58          3.38

4th                   5.40           5.14

5th                   2.67           5.14

6th                   7.04           4.15

Chacin struggles the second time through the order.  Those stats look like a reliever to me.

 

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krose - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 10:55 PM EDT (#148269) #
I didn't see Halliday's last start, but in several of his previous games he has not looked as strong as he has in the past two seasons. Not only is he striking out fewer batters, but he appears to have lost some speed off his fastball (92-93 instead of 95+) according to the radar gun shown on the screen.

I've wondered for some time if he has fully recovered from the forearm strain.
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timpinder - Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 10:59 PM EDT (#148270) #

Gerry,

I absolutely agree and I've been saying that for about a year.  If the Jays pick up a pitcher, or if McGowan or Purcey find control of their breaking pitches, I think it will be Chacin, not Janssen, that will be sent to the bullpen.

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Rob - Monday, June 05 2006 @ 12:29 AM EDT (#148273) #
Batters know that Halladay is going to throw strikes and know that he isn't going to make mistakes, so they swing at whatever they can reach, resulting in routine ground balls.

I know, and I'm not a strikeout-only guy. If the argument is "Halladay can sustain a lower K rate than most pitchers" then that's hard to argue against. Still, look at his strikeouts per nine innings in the last five years: 6.3, 6.9, 6.4, 6.9, 4.6.

I think it's cause for concern. I'm not saying this to bring everyone down from Super Doc Admiration Level 5, since I'm probably at Level 9, but this still worries me. He has a much lower strikeout rate against the good teams (that is, New York and Boston) this year, too.
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rtcaino - Monday, June 05 2006 @ 03:57 AM EDT (#148276) #

Perhaps he is just saving his K stuff for when needed. I wonder if he's realized he doesn’t' need to K that many guys. But when the time calls for it, such as runner on third and one out, then he brings it out. Thing is Doc doesn't seem to need it very often.

I’m probably at adoration level 10. My son may just get named Leroy.

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Fawaz - Monday, June 05 2006 @ 01:39 PM EDT (#148296) #
From the AP report on his last start: "I enjoy facing a team like that where I can get an out on one, two or three pitches," Halladay said. "It gives me a chance to be a lot more aggressive."

From his start 23/5: "The first two pitches I'm looking for an out, ground ball or a fly ball out," Halladay said. "I'm trying to get quick outs. I've never been a big believer from the very first pitch trying to strike a guy out. Normally, you end up behind in that situation."

While this would seemingly alleviate any concern (he doesn't want to strike anyone out!), I seem to recollect similar comments from him in past years. He could be making a more concerted effort to force the ball into play early in the count  this year (fewer breaking balls out of the zone), or teams are, as has been suggested, hacking away because they know he's not going to run up a high pitch count anyway.

I will say that it seems like more balls are being hit hard this season, a notion supported by his increased line drive % (from THT). I think it's something he'll live with as long as the net result is positive. He stated (the obvious) after his last start when he said "Winning games are more important than anything else". If teams start stringing a lot of hits together off him, he's still filthy enough to start blowing them away if he needs to. The opposition certainly still seems to think so.
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