ifreezn's Minnesota Twins Baseball Blog

Unhittablest!!!!

2009-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

Dumber words were never (OK, rarely) spoken. This was the term used by your highly paid and (supposedly) expert crew on ESPNs Baseball Tonight to describe the upcoming slew of "Nasty" pitches. Now that's high quality journalism!! ;)

Shortly thereafter, we were subjected to a "breakdown analysis" of Cliff Lee by former backup catcher (and apparently newly crowned pitching expert) Eduardo Perez. I was all set to be enlightened about why he's struggling early in the season. We were treated to 3 clips of last year's Cy Young winner hurling first pitch strikes, all right at the target set up by the catcher. Then we were treated to two video clips from this season of him NOT getting a first pitch strike, and - gasp! - completely missing the target.

The final analysis: Cliff Lee is getting first pitch strikes at a much lower clip this year as opposed to last, and that's why he's struggling.

Wait. That's it?

I know that, Gump! I don't need you for that!

Am I the only one feeling like I just went through the In 'n Out drive-thru only to get home and find out they forgot my fries? (That's never happened to me at In 'n Out, BTW - just for the record, but their fries are the only ones I like enough to be really pissed off about their omission.) Shouldn't experts like these guys be analyzing why he's having trouble getting his first pitch over for strikes? After watching his last two starts frickin' E.T. could tell you he doesn't have the same command of his fastball that he did for most of last season. Where was that analysis?

Where in Whitey Ford's name is Orel Hershiser? Orel could tell me why Cliff's having trouble spotting his pitches, or why he's making mistakes up in the zone, but I haven't seen Orel in ages. Instead we get Eduardo Perez, another in a long line of former player/analysts/meatheads that are about as articulate or analytical about baseball as George W. Bush is about Tolstoy. (Ahem... John Kruk, Fernando Vina, and now we get Todd Jones twitching and sputtering sentence fragments on MLB network.)

My goal with this blog is to not only call out "lazy" analysis by these supposed "in-depth" baseball shows, but to try to provide links and access to whatever real analysis I can find. I don't want to turn this into a "fire Joe Morgan" type thing, I just want to try to fill the gap when professional prognosticators don't do their job. I also want to try to call out when those prognosticators DO provide great analysis. What can I say, I'm all about fairness. ;)

My take: It's just early season rust.

Check out this website breaking down Cliff's mechanics from last season.

Then watch Cliff's last two starts (MLB.tv is a great way to go, you can even jump to specific innings now).

The mechanics look the same to me, save for a little rushing now and then (all pitchers do it from time to time). He also had a pretty tough umpire behind the plate in game 1 (Jerry Crawford awarded the 2nd highest BB/9 among all umpires last year) and Randy Marsh (today's home plate ump-du-jour) is only moderately better.

Here are the umpire stats for 2008, if you're curious.

No one expects Cliff Lee to repeat last year's amazing performance, but he's better than he's showing now. His velocity is normal and his curveball is breaking, and those are good indicators. Caught something interesting in a Terry Pluto article:

"Willis stressed the mental approach, mentioning that Lee pays attention to scouting reports and needs to attack hitters. Willis added that Lee's throwing sessions between starts have been very good, his velocity normal."

Interesting stuff. I definitely noticed more of a tendency to "nibble" in his two starts this year which can really hurt you with tough umpires behind the plate. There is a fine line between attacking the corners and nibbling around them, and in his first two starts this year, I'd definitely put him in the "nibbler" category more than the "attacker of corners" category.

I'm a Twins fan, but Cliff Lee was a great story last year, and the Indians are going to need him to pitch well if they're going to contend in the AL Central this year.

The bad news? His next start looks to be against the C.C. and the Yanks in their Grand Opening.

The good news? He gets K.C. after that. ;)

Until next time...

Baseball Season is back!!

2009-04-09T23:35:00.001-07:00

That's right, kiddies, it's baseball season again!

Written somewhere in the as-yet-to-be-documented "Rules of baseball blogging" handbook is this rule:

Rule 1.a.44.z.# - You must post your division, playoff, world series and awards picks sometime before they're easy to pick and get right. You know, so your visitors have something to ego-pummel you with later.

Far be it from me, the blogging rookie, to violate rule 1.a.44.z.# (clearly, the handbook was formatted by the same people who write baseball's rulebook, DMV literature and Microsoft Word formatting rules). So here goes:

NL WEST:

Dodgers
Diamondbacks
Giants
Rockies
Padres

NL CENTRAL:

Cubs
Cardinals
Reds
Brewers
Astros
Pirates (Sorry, guys. Your days in the cellar will end someday).

NL EAST:

Mets
Braves (ladies & gentleman, I present your NL Wildcard)
Phillies (Yes, I'm serious)
Marlins
Nationals

AL WEST:

Athletics (Yes, even with Nomah at first)
Angels (Even before the loss of Adenhart, their pitching's not what people think)
Mariners (Amazing what good defenders will do for decent pitching)
Rangers

AL CENTRAL:

Twins (only 8% of this pick is driven by my overzealous fandom of the Twins, OK.)
White Sox
Indians (Where have you gone, C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland loves you more than you will know...)
Royals
Tiggers (even Jim Leyland can't fix this mess).

AL EAST:

Red Sox
Rays (AL Wild Card!)
Yankees
Orioles
Blue Jays

AL Divisional Winners: Rays over Twins, Red Sox over A's
NL Divisional Winners: Cubs over Mets, Dodgers over Braves

AL Champs: Red Sox
NL Champs: Cubs

World Series Champs: Chicago Cubs

That's right, I'm pickin' the Cubbies. I don't believe in curses and if you look past big names and big numbers, this team has a great complementary makeup. If anything bites them in the butt, it'll be their outfield defense, but I don't think it'll be bad enough to do them in.

NL MVP: David Wright
AL MVP: Justin Morneau (by a nose over Evan Longoria)
NL CY: Cole Hamels
AL CY: Felix Hernandez
NL ROY: Maybin (by virtue of the fact he'll actually be up all season)
AL ROY: David Price (hopefully he gets called back up soon)

Nothing too revolutionary or daring, here, especially among the rookies. For the first time I can remember, the rookie pool isn't that deep!

That's it, folks! Should be a great season, and I'm really looking forward to bringing a little fun, flair and superfluousness to it all. Thanks for stopping by! Tell your friends!

Rebirth of Schtick...

2009-04-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Ladies & Jellyspoons!

The blog lives again!