It's The Little Things In Life

As I was watching the Yankees/Twins game yesterday, I was lucky enough to witness the following exchange between Michael Kay and whoever the other guy was (it wasn't Al Leiter or Ken Singleton... Paul O'Neil maybe?). It happened with Javi Vasquez on the mound and someone on second base with one out. Enjoy:

Michael Kay: Right now, Javier Vasquez wants to get a groundball right back to him, so he can look the runner back to second. If the ball goes to anyone else, that runner can move over.

Other Guy: Yep, and Javi knows that there's a pitch that can get him that result. If he throws a backdoor breaking ball right here, it'll get the batter to tap the ball right back to him.

*Javi Vasquez throws a backdoor breaking ball. Jason Kubel pulls it into the right-center gap for an RBI double.*

 Ahhhh. It's moments like these that make life worth living.

Pitching 101

Kevin Gregg. Dude. I like you. I defended you when the Jays signed you and everyone was calling you a sack of shit. But, seriously, what the fuck was that last night? When the plate umpire is gifting you a strike zone ten feet across, you don't slap him in the face by throwing meatballs down the middle of the plate.

I don't care whether you're up by 1 run or 10. Pitch smart. Leads can disappear really fast when you're lazy.

Well... That Was Unexpected

John Buck hitting a trio of homers. Never would have guessed that. It's probably a bad thing in the long run, because Cito will likely ignore the rest of Buck's season and point directly to this game when Buck's hitting 6th and not getting pinch hit for in August. For right now, though, it was pretty cool.

That Was Fun

Jays lost. I don't really care. The game was entertaining, which is what's important. David Price flat out dominated. Brandon Morrow pitched like shit, but looked better than he was because the Rays were expending all their energy "keeping the Jays defense on its toes" (translation: running into outs).

Travis Snider sat against the lefty so that Cito could squeeze JMac's potent bat into the lineup. Retarded, but I fully expected it.

Frasor got lit up again. His velocity is down, and he was only an average reliever when he still threw hard. I thought the Jays should have traded him during the offseason because I thought his ERA last year was a fluke. If this decreased velocity is a permanent thing and he can't learn to throw his splitter within a foot of the strike zone, he might not be worth anything come the deadline.

P.S. The Phillies just extended Ryan Howard for 5 years at $25MM per. You are never ever complain about Vernon's contract or call Ricciardi the Worst GM Ever or whatever now. Ruben Amaro Jr. and Mike Rizzo (and Brian Sabean and Dayton Moore) still have jobs and are way, way worse.

I'm Excited

If you asked me, I'd probably say that I prefer slugfests to pitcher duels. Pitcher duels are often decided by some solo home run in the 3rd inning and end rather anticlimactically with a few quiet groundouts in the ninth. Slugfests at least keep the tension high throughout.

But the types of games I really like and the unpredictable ones. The ones where I have no idea what to expect coming into it, and a blowout is just as likely as a close game. A pitcher duel which can turn into a slugfest at any moment. That type of game is today.

Today, the Jays send Brandon Morrow against Tampa's David Price. Both pitchers are fully capable of dominating one moment, and being completely unable to find the strike zone or get anyone out the next. We could just as easily see a 2-1 duel as we could a 9-8 slugfest or a 10-0 blowout or anything in between. I honestly have no idea. I'm excited, and you should be too.

This should be a fun one.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Well that was fast. The other day I said Cito did a good job of managing the game. Not yesterday. Yesterday Cito went back to managing like a stroke victim.

In the 7th inning, the Jays had the bases loaded with 2 out. Joe Madden brought in lefty specialist Randy Choate (career .224/.307/.322 line against lefties) in to face Fred Lewis (.250/.335/.340 against lefties). This is the exact right time to pinch hit with Randy Ruiz and try to build your lead. Of course, Cito hates rookies and doesn't pinch hit and is afraid to ruin a "young kid" like Lewis' confidence (I guarantee you that Cito thinks Lewis is like 23) and, let's be honest, Cito was probably napping at the time--8:30 is late for people his age to be up, after all--so, of course, Lewis hit for himself and, of course, Choate struck him out. If Cito ever decides to have a kid, I guarantee you he adopts because those kids have been around awhile, and Cito doesn't want to raise some inexperienced young punk baby.

Then in the 8th, Downs gave up a single to Evan Longoria, then followed that up by walking Carlos Pena. It was at this point that Cito should have immediately brought in Gregg for the 2-inning save. The tying and winning runs were on base and there was no one out. This is the highest leverage point in the game, so you should be going to your best reliever (i.e. the closer). Even if you don't think Gregg can go two full innings (there is no reason to think this, by the way, but let's say he can't), you should still bring him in to preserve the lead now, and then you can go to someone else to close it out in the 9th.

Of course, Downs stayed in, and then gave up the game tying single to Upton. Cito finally went to the bullpen, except he brought out Janssen. Janssen has pitched well so far, but he isn't the team's best reliever. He shouldn't be pitching in high leverage situations right now. By the time the inning was over, another pitcher had been used and the Rays were up by 6 runs. At no point was Gregg even warming up. And I don't for the life of me understand why. The game is on the line right then and there. Use your best pitcher. Don't save him for some theoretical situation which may never come. I think that's the most frustrating thing about the way Cito manages. He always makes moves with a theoretical future in mind, like how last year when Cito wouldn't bring in Overbay to hit for Millar against righties because then the other team might bring in a LOOGY to face him later on. Except that you have Millar hitting against a righty right now, which is just as bad, and you have no way of knowing if that LOOGY ever comes.

Of course, if Cito managed the team properly, then I'd never have anything to write about...

Good to have you back to normal, Cito.

In Case You Needed Any More Proof Spring Training Means Nothing

So one of the stories out of Spring Training this year was Aaron Hill's apparently newfound patience. Welp, only 3 games into the season, and Aaron is hacking up a storm worse than ever. Check out the pitches he's swung at so far.

A whole lot of junky offspeed pitches up and away that no one has any business swinging at. There's a cluster of about 6 fastballs in the middle of the strikezone that are good pitches to swing at, whereas everything else should really be taken unless there's 2 strikes. And check out some of those pitches outside the zone. Aaron's already swung at 8 pitches at least a foot and a half out of the strike zone, and in only 14 plate plate appearances. This is not a good model for success.

In a tragically ironic twist that hurts my very soul, see that fastball that's about two and a half feet high out of the zone? That's the pitch that Aaron homered on last night. Ugh.

By the way, last night Hill saw 15 pitches and swung at 11 of them. That's not counting his intentional walk in the 8th. Yikes.