So, about that new intentional walk rule ...
The count on Adrian Gonzalez on Monday afternoon was two balls, no strikes. Third inning, two out, man on second base. The Dodgers weren’t yet routing the Padres, but it was coming, and manger Andy Green wasn’t taking any dumb chances with a Jhoulys Chacin-Gonzalez matchup, so suddenly, subtly, confusingly, Gonzalez was trotting to first base.
“Hit him?” from the guy next to me in the press box.
“Dunno. Didn’t look like it.”
“Get him in the foot?” from the guy in front of me in the press box.
“Dunno.”
“Which foot?” from the guy on the other side of me.
“Dunno. Not limping. Seems fine.”
“Wait, what was the count?” The guy in front of me again.
“Two-oh. I thought. Coulda missed one.”
“Is it too soon to get more ice cream?” The guy from the local paper.
Point being, it’s going to take some getting used to these automatic intentional walks, and there probably needs to be an overt signal from the bench so the rest of us can follow along, and it still stinks that the league no longer requires a pitcher to execute that part of the game.
The boys on Park Avenue need to rethink it. They probably won’t.
***The Great Brian Wilson Knuckleball Experiment has not caught on. He threw for a handful of clubs and most of those clubs’ scouts decided Brian Wilson throws a pretty mean knuckleball, but no concrete offers followed.
Former teammates rave about a knuckler Wilson, who turned 35 last month, has been throwing for years. This, alas, was still not enough to get him into a big-league camp.
According to those close to him, Wilson would like to give the knuckler a shot and is considering how best to do that. He could go the minor-league/extending spring training route. He could pitch in Mexico. He could go to Independent ball, where he’d be a nice draw, though the first two are the more likely options.
***Kendall Graveman, who stepped into Sonny Gray’s place on opening night in Oakland, threw 104 pitches against the Angels, three of which registered under 91 mph. In fact, only eight came in under 93 mph. For six innings, Graveman humped up on four-seamers (that hung around for a couple innings at 97 mph), two-seamers and cutters. He threw one or two sliders and a changeup. The rest? Let ‘er fly, dude.
Scouts generally regard Graveman as a league-average starter, primarily because he does not amass a lot of strikeouts. His average per nine last season was 5.2. Only four times in 31 starts did he strike out more than a batter per inning. He struck out seven Angels in six innings Tuesday night, however. Maybe that’s one night when his adrenaline was running hot and the Angels were missing (according to Fangraphs, 15 percent of Graveman’s pitches in 2016 were changeups or sliders) so why change. Or maybe he’s onto something new.
***Maybe it was the WBC innings/eagerness and maybe it wasn’t, but Mariners lefty Drew Smyly is going to miss at least a couple months of the season because of a damaged elbow. The experience — in particular a start against Venezuela — demanded more from Smyly than in spring starts past, so the man with the average fastball (90-ish) was suddenly throwing 96, and afterward he’d said, “Obviously, there was a little extra adrenaline.”
He returned to Mariners camp, was hit hard in two subsequent appearances, and a few days later was diagnosed with the flexor strain.
Then, well, Mets right-hander Seth Lugo, a stud for Puerto Rico in the WBC, went down with a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament.
And now you know the two names that will be kicked around when many of the best pitchers decline to (or are forbidden from) competing in the 2021 games.
***Chris Archer, who beat the Yankees on opening day, turned his 2016 season around (3.25 ERA, 5.42 strikeouts-to-walks after the All-Star break) in part by concentrating on throwing strikes. Sounds simple enough. His goal, every start, is to throw 70 percent strikes, which is a lot.
The leader among qualified starters in 2016, Clayton Kershaw, threw 69 percent strikes, which should read “strikes or swung at.” Bartolo Colon was second at 68.2 percent. Archer was at 62.9 percent.
Against the Yankees, Archer threw 108 pitches, 66 of them strikes, or 61.1 percent.
What he said in spring: “I can’t tell you why. I just wasn’t myself the first two, two-and-a-half months of the season. I just wasn’t. After having some talks with people, one of them being Kevin Cash, I was like, I’m gonna simplify this. I’m not gonna think about my mechanics. I’m not going to think about striking people out. I’m going to — however I have to — throw the ball over the plate at least 70 times a game, or 70 percent. If I throw a hundred pitches and throw 70 strikes, I’m going to be successful. You’re going to be ahead of everybody. You’re not going to waste pitches. You’re facing a good pitcher. Good pitchers, they throw strikes at this rate.”
***Rickey Henderson says he sneaked into Oakland Coliseum as a youngster. There’s no reason to doubt he did. But it does seem every professional athlete who grew up near a ballpark/arena/stadium regularly found open windows, unlocked doors, distracted guards and El Chapo tunnels. What’s clear is, we all needed to invest in camo-wear and befriend future pro athletes.
Dave Roberts on March 11, re: Yasiel Puig: “I’ll bet on him.” Dave Roberts on April 3, re: Yasiel Puig: Yeah, well, he’ll bat eighth against righties; I’m not an idiot.
Incoming: Bronson Arroyo, who has not thrown a big-league pitch since June 2014 and has since celebrated his 38th, 39th and 40th birthdays, is scheduled to start for the Reds on Saturday in St. Louis. Arroyo, in mid-March, on why he was taking one more shot at baseball: “What you don’t realize is it has embodied everything you are. It’s not you and it. You become your life’s work. You can’t separate the painting from the painter.”
