Tuesday, March 23, 2004
GARBAGE IN, THOUGHTS OUT
So I saw the Mariners/Rockies spring game tonight on FSNNW. I came away with some thoughts...
-- Ron Fairly: senile. He told some story that I think involved hanging people. I think this was after Doc Holiday's great-grandson was batting for the Rockies.
-- Freddy Garcia: looked fairly good in 5 2/3 innings. Last August (chat transcript post here), Dave Niehaus and Ron Fairly talked about the possibility of Freddy tipping his pitches. I thought for the longest time that maybe this tipping Freddy may have been doing was something complicated. Then I thought I might have noticed something (though obvious to me) -- whenever Freddy threw a fastball, he would do his leg kick, then bring his arm back, and then he would have this herk-jerk stop in his arm movement before he brought his arm up and threw the pitch. Whenever Freddy threw a changeup, he would do the leg kick, and the arm motion would be smooth all the way through, an uninterrupted circle/ellipse of a path on his way to throwing the pitch. In tonight's game, Freddy had the same arm motion for all of his pitches. He was getting the pitches over, which was definitely a good thing. The only problem I see is that from all of what I've heard and have been taught over the years, short-arming the ball (which is what Freddy is doing with this new motion of his) is something that will lead to injury, and therefore, full (as full as possible) motion and extension of the arm is best. Freddy's short-arming isn't quite along the lines of Bob Wolcott or some Major League catchers, and it sure as hell isn't the quality of a graduate from the Ken Hill College of Short-Arming, but it's short-arming nonetheless.
-- The mammoth bomb that Garcia gave up to Todd Helton occurred with Dan Wilson behind the plate, but I'll be damned if Bob Melvin laid into Wilson after the game.
-- The play where Wilson had a ball in the dirt, tried to nail the runner going to second and threw the ball short and wide of Willie Bloomquist and into centerfield...I'll be damned if Melvin nailed Wilson for that.
-- Ramon Santiago is basically on the team, baserunning blunders tonight be damned. First, he got hung up between third and home on a weird play, and apparently abandoned the bag at third even though he was entitled to it. The runner coming from second was tagged, because I guess Ramon should have been on third. Anyway, it was a double play. Bob Melvin tried to argue, but fell to the ground in diabetic shock induced by root beer barrels, Bit-O-Honeys, Pixy Stix, the leftover stuff from when you're done with all the pieces in a package of Sour Patch Kids, Air Heads, and four shots of one part Hershey's chocolate syrup and one part Karo brand corn syrup. Okay, so that didn't happen. What did happen: later in the game, Santiago was picked off of first. Midseason form!
-- Bloomquist whiffed on a ball low and away in the dirt. Midseason form!
-- Bucky Jacobsen is a big guy. He has a shaved head. He wears number 33. When he was facing away from the over-the-field camera, my mind was trying to tell me David Wells was playing first base.
-- Jose Lopez looked good at third. He should have looked good at shortstop, but let's face it, the organization has a hard-on for that other guy that made the baserunning mistakes, you know, the one that probably won't get nailed by Melvin in the press because he likes him too much.
-- A pitcher getting lit up in spring training is one thing. A batter getting blown down in spring training by a fastball or getting fooled by a curveball is one thing. Making baserunning errors (no matter when) is a purely mental mistake. I'm looking at you, Senor Ramon Santiago!
-- My gut instinct wants to tell me Jason Jennings is a fatass as much as Bartolo Colon is a fatass. Fairly commented, saying Jennings had "big powerful thighs," three words that I hope to never hear out of Fairly's mouth ever again. Of course, neither of these two have legs in the ballpark of CC Sabathia. I've always thought he has the lower body of a woman. Seriously. I don't mean this in a good way, either. More like CCCC Sabathia. Each leg needs more than one letter C until he decides to get in some more running or lift for more reps and not sets, sheesh.
-- Scott Atchison, without my aid of a media guide or immediately available internet info (I'm typing this offline right now) looked like he was about 6'2" and 160 lbs, looked a tiny bit like Jeff Fassero (facially), and looked like he was about 35 years old. I'll probably dig up Atchison's file later and realize how grossly wrong I am in all those guesses.
There you have my thoughts on tonight's 3-3 10-inning tilt between your Seattle Mariners and the Larry Walkerless and Preston Wilsonless Colorado Rockies.
-- Ron Fairly: senile. He told some story that I think involved hanging people. I think this was after Doc Holiday's great-grandson was batting for the Rockies.
-- Freddy Garcia: looked fairly good in 5 2/3 innings. Last August (chat transcript post here), Dave Niehaus and Ron Fairly talked about the possibility of Freddy tipping his pitches. I thought for the longest time that maybe this tipping Freddy may have been doing was something complicated. Then I thought I might have noticed something (though obvious to me) -- whenever Freddy threw a fastball, he would do his leg kick, then bring his arm back, and then he would have this herk-jerk stop in his arm movement before he brought his arm up and threw the pitch. Whenever Freddy threw a changeup, he would do the leg kick, and the arm motion would be smooth all the way through, an uninterrupted circle/ellipse of a path on his way to throwing the pitch. In tonight's game, Freddy had the same arm motion for all of his pitches. He was getting the pitches over, which was definitely a good thing. The only problem I see is that from all of what I've heard and have been taught over the years, short-arming the ball (which is what Freddy is doing with this new motion of his) is something that will lead to injury, and therefore, full (as full as possible) motion and extension of the arm is best. Freddy's short-arming isn't quite along the lines of Bob Wolcott or some Major League catchers, and it sure as hell isn't the quality of a graduate from the Ken Hill College of Short-Arming, but it's short-arming nonetheless.
-- The mammoth bomb that Garcia gave up to Todd Helton occurred with Dan Wilson behind the plate, but I'll be damned if Bob Melvin laid into Wilson after the game.
-- The play where Wilson had a ball in the dirt, tried to nail the runner going to second and threw the ball short and wide of Willie Bloomquist and into centerfield...I'll be damned if Melvin nailed Wilson for that.
-- Ramon Santiago is basically on the team, baserunning blunders tonight be damned. First, he got hung up between third and home on a weird play, and apparently abandoned the bag at third even though he was entitled to it. The runner coming from second was tagged, because I guess Ramon should have been on third. Anyway, it was a double play. Bob Melvin tried to argue, but fell to the ground in diabetic shock induced by root beer barrels, Bit-O-Honeys, Pixy Stix, the leftover stuff from when you're done with all the pieces in a package of Sour Patch Kids, Air Heads, and four shots of one part Hershey's chocolate syrup and one part Karo brand corn syrup. Okay, so that didn't happen. What did happen: later in the game, Santiago was picked off of first. Midseason form!
-- Bloomquist whiffed on a ball low and away in the dirt. Midseason form!
-- Bucky Jacobsen is a big guy. He has a shaved head. He wears number 33. When he was facing away from the over-the-field camera, my mind was trying to tell me David Wells was playing first base.
-- Jose Lopez looked good at third. He should have looked good at shortstop, but let's face it, the organization has a hard-on for that other guy that made the baserunning mistakes, you know, the one that probably won't get nailed by Melvin in the press because he likes him too much.
-- A pitcher getting lit up in spring training is one thing. A batter getting blown down in spring training by a fastball or getting fooled by a curveball is one thing. Making baserunning errors (no matter when) is a purely mental mistake. I'm looking at you, Senor Ramon Santiago!
-- My gut instinct wants to tell me Jason Jennings is a fatass as much as Bartolo Colon is a fatass. Fairly commented, saying Jennings had "big powerful thighs," three words that I hope to never hear out of Fairly's mouth ever again. Of course, neither of these two have legs in the ballpark of CC Sabathia. I've always thought he has the lower body of a woman. Seriously. I don't mean this in a good way, either. More like CCCC Sabathia. Each leg needs more than one letter C until he decides to get in some more running or lift for more reps and not sets, sheesh.
-- Scott Atchison, without my aid of a media guide or immediately available internet info (I'm typing this offline right now) looked like he was about 6'2" and 160 lbs, looked a tiny bit like Jeff Fassero (facially), and looked like he was about 35 years old. I'll probably dig up Atchison's file later and realize how grossly wrong I am in all those guesses.
There you have my thoughts on tonight's 3-3 10-inning tilt between your Seattle Mariners and the Larry Walkerless and Preston Wilsonless Colorado Rockies.
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