Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Genius Maker 4-30

Going back to the CC game.  While the results were good, CC still did not have good use of his changeup or his plus fastball.  He was normally around 92, but he did spot it pretty well and his breaking ball had a good break to it.  I was watching the game with my brother and I commented that because he only had 2 real pitches, he shouldn't just lay in his first pitch curve ball for a strike; he needed to get it outside.  Then he did exactly what I said he shouldn't do but they didn't hit it.  I repeated what I said and then he did it again and Fielder took him deep.  My brother just looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders.  Seemed obvious to me.

The Granderson HR was a highlight to watch as it was almost a great catch by the guy we traded away to get Granderson.  I thought he had it live, but he jarred just enough for it to trickle out.

Last night was one of the games I enjoy that many people find boring.  Every pitch was important.  Setting up the batter was important and there was a lot of chess going on.  I said don’t get down on Kuroda after he got blown up a few starts ago as the box score didn’t tell how he pitched; since then he has been very solid.  He is a professional pitcher with very good location and good movement with ok velocity.  He spotted his pitches very well, had good movement and can throw any of his pitches for strikes.  He is not overpowering, but he will be solid.

Well once again Girardi is behind the blog.  In the comments section from April 20th, my brother and I discussed that Nunez should play in LF until Gardner gets back.  This was in line with the reasons why I didn’t want Ibanez and wanted a younger player with upside who I felt would be overall more productive (including defense).  Well, Girardi realized it was a good idea and put Nunez out there and he paid dividends right away making a sliding catch coming in on a ball that neither Jones or Ibanez would have gotten to and then later on caught one over his shoulder at the wall that neither guy would have reached...then of course, in what could have been a game losing play, Ibanez misplayed what should have been a pretty routine into a single that allowed Kuroda's only run (should have been unearned as he miss-timed his jump badly).  Kuroda only allowed the one run that went to 3rd on the play and pitched really well all game.  Baltimore is not an offensive juggernaut but Kuroda only allowed 3 hits and a walk not counting Ibanez's bad play.  I think Girardi also is realizing that his comments I criticized the other day as being disingenuous were BS because he replaced Ibanez with Andrew Jones for defensive.  This also shows why I said having a defensive specialist made so much sense...I just don't get how inconsistent Girardi is in his thought process?

While on dumb comments...I couldn’t believe Michael Kay was praising the great defensive play by martin on the ball that got away from him when Kuroda tagged out the runner trying to score.  I give Martin credit for his great throw pegging the SB attempt early in the game and I also give him credit for hustling after the pitch and making a good toss to the covering Kuroda...BUT, what about the poor use of his body in blocking the ball in the dirt that allowed the runners to move up to 2nd and 3rd with one out?  That was a huge play.  Now, as a catcher, the blame was on the pitcher, but the when the catcher does not get his body turned back toward home plate he didn’t give it his best effort.  What I am referring too is when you block a ball you should be trying to direct the ball back toward the plate and not leave your right shoulder behind your left shoulder when shifting to your right (or from the pitchers view the left).  On the wild pitch Martin didn’t turn his body and he could have (sometimes you just can't).  Then on the one that we got the out on he did the same thing to the 3rd base side where he didn’t turn back toward the plate, although he did hustle.  Kay kept praising him and it was pretty naive if you ask me.

Robertson was (and has been) amazing by throwing 92-94 but his movement was Rivera like!  He has 10 scoreless innings this year with 15 k's. 

The Baltimore starter Hamel was impressive. Good fastball good control. He made some very good pitches, particularly an AB against ARod where he threw very well located first pitch curve ball on the outside corner, then came in with a very well located fastball for strike 2, then just missed inside and then finished ARod off with a perfect 2 strike pitch breaking ball just off the plate.  He also got Granderson on a great changeup and then after getting that in his mind blew him away with a fastball.

And the Genius Maker gets another tough one run save.  Since his 5 base runners and 2 runs allowed in a 1/3 of an inning on his opening day, he has pitched 8 scoreless innings allowing 3 hits no walks and 7 k's!  He is amazing and I hope he can continue being great at the age of 42.  

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