Friday, August 26, 2005
JOHN LACKEY AGONISTES
He has a right to be unhappy. The Angels left enough guys on base in the Orioles series to give another meaning to Steve Finley's shoulder tattoo. But, on the bright side, at least we had guys on base to strand!
Speaking of getting guys on base: the Times also reports that Orlando Cabrera is advising the Angels to be more patient at the plate. This strikes me as being roughly equivalent as me advising the rest of the Halosphere to start using less statistics in their posts. Cabrera has drawn a whopping 29 walks in his 405 at-bats this year; the league average in this category would typically have him at around 40.
Anyway, some quotes from Orlando Cabrera, Guru of the Free Pass: "It seems like when we get people on base, we want to swing right away." I will turn down the snark, because The OC also confesses, "I do it too. I'll swing at the first pitch. This has never been a patient team, and it killed them in the playoffs last year."
Anyway, he says some other things which you can read. And though I tease, of course I think he's right. But it doesn't matter; this is the team that cares more about getting guys into scoring position than actually getting them on base. Hal Bodley of USA Today tells the world about this obsession today. Scioscia provides an inscrutable sound bite to Bodley:
"We have to look at how many guys we get in scoring position. That's where we differ from other approaches. We cannot let on-base percentage die on the vine."
Um, okay. I'm not sure how that last sentence follows ... I'm guessing he's saying that a team that emphasizes OBP but neglects advancing runners is letting OBP die on the vine by stranding runners. Or something.
But whatever we've been doing also runs the risk of letting ERA die on the vine. Just ask John Lackey.
"It hasn't been a season where we can pitch OK to win; we have to pitch well to win. We know the potential of this offense. We have a lot of great players who can swing the bats. Some guys haven't had the years they thought they would have, but sometimes you run into some bad luck too."Both of those inspiring quotes come from John Lackey today in the LA Times. I don't know that the second one is something you want to hear a pitcher saying -- a batter, fine, but a pitcher saying that almost sounds like, "Hey, buttheads, it was Rodrigo Lopez. Thanks for nothing, and great bolshy yarblockos to thee and thine."
"Lopez pitched well, but we've got to find a way to beat guys like that to get to where we need to be, because we'll be facing plenty of them."
He has a right to be unhappy. The Angels left enough guys on base in the Orioles series to give another meaning to Steve Finley's shoulder tattoo. But, on the bright side, at least we had guys on base to strand!
Speaking of getting guys on base: the Times also reports that Orlando Cabrera is advising the Angels to be more patient at the plate. This strikes me as being roughly equivalent as me advising the rest of the Halosphere to start using less statistics in their posts. Cabrera has drawn a whopping 29 walks in his 405 at-bats this year; the league average in this category would typically have him at around 40.
Anyway, some quotes from Orlando Cabrera, Guru of the Free Pass: "It seems like when we get people on base, we want to swing right away." I will turn down the snark, because The OC also confesses, "I do it too. I'll swing at the first pitch. This has never been a patient team, and it killed them in the playoffs last year."
Anyway, he says some other things which you can read. And though I tease, of course I think he's right. But it doesn't matter; this is the team that cares more about getting guys into scoring position than actually getting them on base. Hal Bodley of USA Today tells the world about this obsession today. Scioscia provides an inscrutable sound bite to Bodley:
"We have to look at how many guys we get in scoring position. That's where we differ from other approaches. We cannot let on-base percentage die on the vine."
Um, okay. I'm not sure how that last sentence follows ... I'm guessing he's saying that a team that emphasizes OBP but neglects advancing runners is letting OBP die on the vine by stranding runners. Or something.
But whatever we've been doing also runs the risk of letting ERA die on the vine. Just ask John Lackey.
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