(#103)
I like the wrist bands the players wear. I would have some personal messaging on their cards, like “6-6-6- Throw a freaking strike!” “4-2-9”- Fastball coming. Sit on it and don’t miss it.” Could even silently tell him to sit on the breaking ball on a 3-1 count and hit it out of the park. And maybe even some 160 character much needed frank talk. Et cetera.
We should play each half inning on the clock. Use a stopwatch. Consistently long innings on offense and short innings on defense. How long can we hit and score on “O” and how quickly we can get off the field on “D.” I think we would would win all of the games like that. That would be an interesting stat.
At any time, the hitter is either ahead on the count (any count before two strikes) or behind on the count (two strikes). Ahead is a selective count. The hitter controls what he swings at. Behind is a protective count. The pitcher and umpire controls what he has to swing at. Selective. Protective. Two completely different approaches. On a 1-1 count you are still ahead because you don’t have 2 strikes and on a 3-2 count you are behind because you do. Know what you are looking for, know where it is going to show up and attack it with the barrel when ahead. Make two strike adjustments and get the ball in play when behind.
When a player pulls his brain muscle, he pulls all his muscles. Performance suffers. It all begins with that six inches of real estate between the ears.
Confuscius (and Greg Maddux) say, “You never walk hitter if you never have 3-ball count.”
When we merged with Utica for the 1989 season, I will never forget the look on Curly Farris’ (longtime Gulf Coast head coach) face when he saw the Utica umpires walk through the gate to call our doubleheader in Raymond. Leon, Floyd, Terry, Donnell, etc. PS- We got all the calls and won two, just like George always did at Utica… just like Curly did at Perk and Thompson at Delta… and Rags and Joe at Delgado, etc.
Every pitcher has to go into “closer mode” a couple of times a game in order to get out of and “save” a tough inning. It might even mean throwing “slider, slider, slider, slider” or whatever that pitch the hitter does not want to see. Sometimes if you don’t save the fourth inning, you ain’t gonna win.
I’d like to have one of those ambidextrous pitchers on my team. He could pitch both games of the doubleheader twice a week. Sore right arm? Throw left-handed. It’s perfect.
Pitchers need to get more 1-pitch strikeouts. Routine ground balls, cappers, jam jobs, easy pop-ups or fly balls. Get ahead, force contact, make him swing, make the bat go ping. Go for the strikeout when you get 2 strikes. It works better like that.
At my age, I wish the scoreboard was in the bleachers instead of in the outfield, so I could see it or perhaps on my phone or smart watch.
The slider (that looks just like a fastball) is the best pitch in baseball.
How tired would Barry Bond’s daddy be if he chased down all of Barry’s home run balls?
Why can every pitcher in the world throw a strike on a 3-0 count but not on an 0-0 count? I have my theories.
I can call strikes for the umpires from the bleachers (or the dugout). They just need to listen for my signal. They can’t see, so maybe they can hear. On all check swings, they should appeal to me. I’ll tell the truth. I never tried to sway the umpire on a pitch I didn’t think was a strike (or a ball) to begin with. And I only got thrown out games that we had no chance to win; we lost a lot!
I saw a 5-5-3 play the other day. On a routine ball hit the the third baseman, he caught it, he dropped it, he picked it up and then threw the runner out. 5-5-3. (Third baseman to the third baseman to the first baseman). I’ve even seen a 4-4-4-3 play several times.
I had a shortstop one time that made so many errors, I changed his uniform number to E-6. His double play partner’s number was E-4.
After he would make a couple of crucial errors, usually on routine ground balls, I would go to the mound like I was going to make a pitching change, but the call went to a new shortstop who came in from the bullpen. Rule: The routine ball is an out. It must always be. Just give 27 outs, not one more.
The most important pitch in baseball is strike one. Strike one on the first pitch, not strike one on the 2-0 and 3-0 count. We need more 0-2’s than 2-0’s. MLB batting average for the 0-2 count is .149, 1-2 count is .161, and 2-2 count is .181. It’s probably pretty similar in your league. I’ll take those odds. Strike 1. Strike 2. Make something happen within 4 pitches. Both efficient and effective.
When a pitcher starts an at-bat with strike one, there is a 92.7% statistical chance that at-bat will result in an out. Try it. Use the data.
Other than the first pitch strike, the 1-1 pitch is most important one. It is the pathway to either a 2-1 hitter’s count or a 1-2 pitcher’s count, two distinctively different counts for both hitter and pitcher. Anyway, you need strikes on two of the first three pitches to be consistently effective. Race to two strikes and make them hit what they don’t want to hit. The 0-2 pitcher is the Hall of Famer. The 2-0 pitcher becomes a manager.
Last weekend, Mississippi State whipped Tulane 19-2 in the opener, led 10-3 midway through game two and lost in extra innings and then the Green Wave came from behind to win the series on Sunday. But their second baseman when catching a routine two-out pop-up, almost dropped it while “styling and profiling” trying to make the catch with one hand. Imagine what a disaster that could have been for his team. Rule: No matter what the big leaguers do, if you a) have two hands, and b) can catch the ball with two hands, catch the ball with two hands. Look it into the glove. Two eyes, two hands. Secure it. Be cool on the bus ride home. It drives me crazy! Stop it!
Until Volume 2.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 