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M.T. Karthik

~ works, thoughts, events of 1977 – 2017

M.T. Karthik

Category Archives: Relief Pitching

Who will be our Scutaro, Ross, or Peavy This Year?

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by mtk in Relief Pitching, Uncategorized

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The Trade Deadline is 11 days away and it is clear the Giants, like many other teams, need a consistent reliever who can close. But I think we also need another bat even though Panik, Pence and Duffy are coming back. I would love to pick up a DH-style bench bat that can produce runs. If it’s an outfielder, even better.

Who will these players be?

Well, the Marco Scutaro or Cody Ross or Jake Peavy of 2016 will likely NOT be Aroldis Chapman as it looks like the efforts of the Cubs or Nationals are more intensely focused than ours to get him.

Evans was on Buster Olney’s podcast and said they’re actively scouting in Philadelphia and New York and elsewhere looking for the reliever, but that most of baseball is doing the same. He also said the Giants would have to find someone better than what we currently have for us to make a move. This is going to take some effort to pull off.

Grant Brisbee listed whom he thought qualified as better than what we have over at McCovey Chronicles on Monday:

  1. Aroldis Chapman
  2. Andrew Miller
  3. Dellin Betances
  4. Alex Colome
  5. Ryan Madson
  6. Ryan Dull
  7. Will Smith
  8. Arodys Vizcaino (DL)
  9. Hector Neris
  10. Tyler Clippard
  11. Daniel Hudson

“Maybe add in Huston Street and/or Joe Smith if you’re still a believer, but you get the point. Some of those up there are stretches. Some of them, like Dull and Betances, probably aren’t even available because they’re young and cheap. And because I’m a moron, I’ve almost certainly missed a couple. Still, that’s close to the full list of pitchers I might trust more than Hunter Strickland, Derek Law, and Sergio Romo in the eighth inning. That’s 18 teams looking for impact relief help and maybe — maaaaaaybe — 11 relievers who qualify. – GB”

He goes on to argue that Giants don’t seem to have enough to deal to beat out some of the other teams that are looking for relievers as well.

It is a conundrum.

 

 

Lincecum Showcase

10 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by mtk in pitchers, Relief Pitching

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Tags

AT&T, baseball, cain, corner, Francisco, giants, League, Lincecum, matt, mlb, mtk, National, park, San, series, sf, Tim

It’s been an up and down couple of weeks for the Giants – with Bumgarner, Cueto and Samardzija providing the ups and Peavy, Cain and the batting lineup bringing us down.

And of course last Friday brought the highly anticipated Tim Lincecum Showcase, made glaringly significant by the failure of Cain and Peavy. I watched the Lincecum showcase on the ‘net and my opinion is:

1. CSNBayArea still sucks. Their cameraman was an idiot who set himself up in the wrong position (directly behind the plate) and kept fiddling with the zoom button – making it practically impossible to fairly judge what Timmy was doing. And they had no gun.

So basically, CSNBayArea capitalized on the interest to make us all watch it on their site and, typically, gave us a crap product to watch. CSNBayArea remains so transparently interested in their own bottom line and drawing in non-baseball fans – being the soccer mom’s channel for watching baseball. When it comes to anything that matters, they can’t even film it right.

2. I’m glad John Shea (@SheaHeyKid) was there because he is reasonable and sound of judgement, but also because he provided some of his own footage from an angle that made it easier to see what was happening.

3. That said, to me, Timmy looked a little off-balance at first, most likely a bit of nerves, and then settled down by using a really good-looking breaking ball,  which seems to have impressed everyone else, too.  He also worked location on the fastball, which was average. If, as everyone says, he touched 92 and averaged 90-91mph, then the location on those fastballs was not bad. I think against a real batter, and with a real ump it would be much easier to judge.

4. And so in conclusion, 41 pitches, facing no batter in front of a handful of scouts is no way to judge if Tim Lincecum is ready to be a starting pitcher in the major leagues again.

However, Jake-Ed and Matty are pitching really, really, poorly right now. Nobody is afraid to just jack them, seemingly at will. They have cost us every single week and are hampering the starting three SPs and the rhythm of the team.

I could easily see offering Tim Lincecum a deal where he gets to work himself up to being a starter and gets his shot, as long as he is willing to return to the ‘pen as long relief if it goes poorly. I would be content with that. Tim Lincecum is beloved in the Bay Area. I would be proud to have him back.

We can’t deal Matt Cain because we owe him too much money, but we could deal Jake-Ed, who has two rings with two teams in the last three years and thus has trade value as a veteran with experience.

Conclusion: Promote Heston and sign Timmy. Keep looking for an SP before trade deadline, when we rid ourselves of Peavy.

Developing Middle Relief – Masterful Bochy Evolves

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by mtk in Relief Pitching

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Tags

50-49, Bochy, Bruce, cain, closers, day, developing, development, freakswing, George, innings, Kershaw, Kontos, LaRussa, manager, matt, middle, opening, pitchcount, pulling, pulls, relief pitching, relievers, Tony

Last year, forced into it by injuries to staff, Bruce Bochy became masterful at relief by committee and in so doing joined managers of the future who recognize that the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series in 2011 under Tony LaRussa by allowing the pitching game to change into a game of specialists and team play.

In the past, fans like myself struggled with Bochy’s decision to repeatedly leave starting pitchers in because he wanted to believe in their toughness and ability to get it done or because, as many said, “he’s a player’s manager.” But last year, forced to create a platoon of relievers to carry tight games (the only kind we really play, since we don’t have a lot of big bats), Bochy learned what Tony LaRussa understood when LaRussa became the first manager in MLB history to win a postseason series using relievers for more innings than starters (50 – 49 in the 2011  ALDS).

Purists and 20th century guys grumble about the closer and middle relievers, but let’s face it: there will never be another 300-win pitcher in the MLB again. Over a long season, it makes no sense to leave a guy in there while your opponent uses a middle reliever to go two innings, a specialist lefty to get one batter out and a shutdown closer to end games.

I’ve been saying this for more than half a decade and most people either disagreed or found it an ugly truth they wish would go away. Instead, it grows and flowers in teams like the 2011 Cardinals and the 2012 Giants. It is an inevitability of the post-steroid era, and of course, pitching wins pennants.

It’s been a long time coming and began with the development of a specialist: the closer.

Now we have left handed specialists like Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt, and hard throwing middle relievers like Mijares, Ramirez and Casilla. We are developing a staff that, if necessary, could pull Timmy or Zito out of a game in the fourth inning of a horrible outing and still win the game. But I think Bochy and Co. are thinking of it out of concern for longevity of our starting five. With any other staff, our glaring weakness would be lack of depth at starting pitcher. LaRussa had to throw Carpenter out there three times to get it done. So resting Cain in the first half is a smart idea.

Developing middle relief has to start early in the season and be massaged and worked all season long. It requires unselfish play by starting pitchers, team play and good defense at all positions and a willingness not only to understand your role as a pitcher but to have the fire and desire to want to perfect it.

But most of all it requires a Manager with the courage to take risks for the sake of the long season’s final outcome.

Yesterday, on Opening Day, I was thrilled to see Bruce Bochy pull starter Matt Cain in a tight game against Clayton Kershaw early in the season without hesitation because he wanted relievers to get work under pressure and on the road. He wants to develop middle, long and late relief alongside a closer. He wants, and doesn’t fear, options.

Bochy, who has gone from good to masterful in the past four years, may just end up as one of those managers who deserves the title of genius.

M.T. Karthik

This blog archives early work of M.T. Karthik, who took every photograph and shot all the video here unless otherwise credited.

Performances and installations are posted by date of execution.

Writing appears in whatever form it was originally or, as in the case of poems or journal entries, retyped faithfully from print.

all of it is © M.T. Karthik

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