Chronicles of the Lads

Somewhat. At BTF.

There are two out in the eighth inning. You lead by two. The bases are loaded. Two left-handed batters are due up. The pitcher you have on the mound is right-handed and has a career 7.13 ERA.

If you're not going to put in your multi-million dollar left-handed closer that has only pitched once in the last five days, then why is he even on the roster?

I don't have any words for this. If any of you have been around here for awhile, you know I followed Nick Adenhart from the moment he was drafted:

One intriguing draftee is Nicholas Adenhart, a high school pitcher who measures at 6'4'' (or 6'3'', if you believe Baseball America) and can hit as high as 93 on the gun. The MLB scouting report pegs him as a "definite blue chipper" and a "potential frontline [major league] starter," and BA ranked him as the second-best high school pitcher in the country (he actually held the number one spot for much of the season). Why did he go 413th in the draft? Well, he's having the Tommy John surgery. (The video shows that he has very smooth mechanics, but scouts had idenified him as having a "stiff front side" prior to his injury.) Adenhart has a full ride at North Carolina, and his father speaks glowingly of the chance for him to get an education.

So, is he signable? It will be interesting to see. I would suspect that he'll go to college and up his stock, but you can't blame the Angels for trying, and it may work out.

After he signed, he immediately entered the Watch List I used to do of prospects. And my notices were glowing, as as a pitcher young for his leagues Adenhart always at least held his own or excelled.

I liveblogged his MLB debut last year, which didn't go well, and he struggled when he returned to AAA. I was pretty much out of the blogging game by then, but I wasn't worried -- he was still young for his leagues, and you could see the stuff that he had.

Last night's game demonstrated both his potential and his struggles. He had not yet mastered his command, but had such a live arm, with a good moving fastball, a solid curve, and an excellent change. He had an absolutely marvelous sequence against Jason Giambi with men on base, shocking Giambi and myself with back-to-back changes for a strikeout. I thought it was an absolutely fantastic plate appearance from the pitcher's perspective, and it really indicated to me that this was a kid that gets it. And he was going to get there -- he hit the majors younger than Ervin Santana did, younger than John Lackey did, younger than Chuck Finley did, with for the most part terrific minor league numbers.

I don't mean to be insensitive in talking about his pitching or selfish in referring to my own previous blog entries, but this is the arena in which we as fans knew Nick Adenhart. We forge these connections with people we never meet or see outside of a uniform. And they mean something to us -- it's about us being part of something bigger than ourselves, of joining with others and cathartically sharing their joys and disappointments.

And if this incident has this kind of effect on us, I can't even imagine the effect on his family and friends. To watch this young man battle through injury and work hard and achieve his dream, and demonstrate such improvement and progression in his chosen life of work, to have the effect he seemed to have on those who knew him, and have that all seized by an act of such randomness and horror ... I cannot imagine it.

Even Scott Boras wept.

Condolences to all who knew and loved Nick Adenhart.

Labels: Nick Adenhart

As linked at Halos Heaven:

What Teixeira has done, according to Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, is change the culture of hitting in Los Angeles. He's taught teammates to be more patient, to take walks if the perfect pitch to hit isn't there.

"He definitely adds a lot to our lineup with that on-base percentage; a guy that works the count," Hatcher said. "It's good for some of my players to watch that. He's brought that into our lineup. Ever since we got him he's had a lot of big hits for us. He gets on base to help us create more runs. He plays unbelievable defense, and I think that makes our pitching staff that more confident. He's just fun to watch."

Mark Teixeira played his first game for the Angels on July 30. Up until that point, the Angels had walked unintentionally 270 in 3,884 eligible plate appearances (PA minus intentional walks, hit-by-pitch, and sacrifice hits), for a walk-per-PA rate of 6.95%. From July 30 forward, the Angels walked unintentionally 159 times in 2,135 such PA: 7.45%.

Of course, a lot of that is Mark Teixeira, who had 28 UIBB in 226 "E"PA (12.39%). Taking Teixeria's contribution out, the rest of the Angels walked 131 times in 1,909 EPA: 6.86%.

Before: 6.95%. After: 6.86%. Not looking good so far for the Mickster.

But there's one thing to check ... let's take Casey Kotchman out of the equation in the "before" category. 15 UIBB, 390 PA, taking that out gives the Angels 255 UIBB in 3,494 PA, giving us ... 6.54%.

So the rest of the Angels did walk more often after Teixeira was acquired than before. By 0.32% walks per plate appearance. That's a difference of seven walks.

I'm certain Scott Boras will include this in the portfolio he submits to teams seeking Teixeira's services this winter.

So it says here our boys have traded Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek for Mark Teixeira.

I am both sad and hopeful about this. Sad because I really like Casey and think he's going to be a productive hitter over the rest of his career (I'm betting on his June and most of July this year being an aberration), hopeful because Teixeira is an improvement and Marek isn't a huge loss. I don't really know if I see the Angels re-signing Big Teix after this year, so, Kendry Morales, you better be ready come 2009.

Back when we traded for Jon Garland, I tried to figure out what made him tick, how he got guys out. I got nowhere with this, and put it aside, figuring maybe after watching him a couple times per week I might get it.

After his first few starts, I began to think the answer to the question "How does Jon Garland get guys out?" was "He doesn't", but he's turned it around, and has been taking names all around the league for more than a dozen starts. I've been watching, and I must conclude that I simply have no idea how he's doing it.

But in watching him, I have come to yet another conclusion about Jon Garland: he is the most boring major league pitcher I have ever seen.

What do I mean by this? Well, you know, most major league pitchers, especially quality ones, have something about them that's exciting. A hot fastball, like Ervin Santana. A bendy breaking ball, like Francisco Rodriguez. A hot bendy fastball, like Scot Shields.

What does Jon Garland have? I don't know. A low-90s two-seamer: ho-hum. He throws a curve, but from the footage we've seen on telecasts, it was twenty times better in high school than it is now. I guess he has a change, too, I don't know what he's doing. The guy struck out two men with a guy on third and no outs today, and I literally had no idea it was happening until it was over.

And he doesn't have any personality, either. I don't mean in life, maybe he's the most personable guy there is, I have no idea -- I mean on the mound. He doesn't seem to gesture or show emotion or do anything. Has he ever talked to a catcher or anything on the mound? He congratulated Juan Rivera after his fine throw today, by the dugout, but that's not really on the field. He just doesn't seem to do anything -- except for slow down his pace painfully when multiple guys get on base. Which is boring. And he doesn't seem to being making any kind of impact on local media, either.

Quite frankly, I don't even know what Jon Garland looks like. If he wants to come to my house he better be wearing his jersey otherwise I'm calling the cops about a stranger trespassing.

I was pondering these two Jon Garland facts, as I do, the fact that I don't know how he has success with such non-phenomenal stuff and by striking out no one, and the fact that I've never seen a pitcher so boring, when I finally had an epiphany:

Jon Garland bores opposing hitters to death.

I mean, think about it. When you're facing a big-time pitcher like John Lackey, you're on your game. You have a lot to think about. "Oh, is he going to throw his fastball? What about that curve? What do I do? What does he do?" You think about what's going on. You're engaged. Lackey's still gonna get you, but you know what's happening to you.

And when you face a bad pitcher, like Justin Speier Puts Gas On the Fire over the past month, you're at your best attention: "Now's my chance to get a hit, I gotta focus." You're in the game.

What are you thinking when you're batting against Jon Garland? "Oh, I guess here comes a sinker *YA-AWN* oh hell I better swing" and you tap some week grounder to the second baseman, and then you go back to the dugout and you've already forgotten what happened. And Garland strikes out three guys a game and gives up a not-unusual number of groundballs and ends up with an ERA better than the league average year after year after year. All by being uninteresting.

Well, whatever works.