Bullp*n!

They say baseball's relationship to time is unique among sports; only a baseball game can be infinitely long, where it's merit, and not time, that continues or ends the game. As such, predictability goes out the window, as we could be here awhile.

Not so when watching an archived game on mlb dot com; the video player likes to say how much time is left in the file. So when I can't watch a game live, mlb punishes me, destroying the illusion of infinitude, endless possibility and unlimited expanse; they insist on not just finitude, but the precise amount. They say if you can't quantify it, it don't exist, but, well...

So it wasn't enough that after missing the live game after teaching, avoiding newscasts and emails to watch the battle for first unencumbered by what was by then historical fact, free to revel in my own narrativologizing (not a real word, methinks), that the internet had to crash in a game tied at 1 in the 8th inning, and I had to wait until Wednesday morning to see the predetermined conclusion. No, I had to sit there, watching the Rays get the lead runner on in the 9th, and see that there was about 3 minutes left in the video file of the game. When you can see the end of the tunnel and there isn't any light...

Now of course they can't hear you when you scream at the tv, and they really can't hear you when the game isn't live, but that swing and miss by Pena on a 1-1 count with a runner on in the 9th that got reversed like a McCain policy in a campaign (ha), because apparently an umpire had called 'time', not simply to name it but to stop it, because Tampa's answer to 'what part of 'bullpen' don't you understand?' is 'pen', you know, the 'enclosure' part, because a stray ball just moseyed onto the field just before the pitch, though unbeknowst to the relevant parties, and so the strike didn't count and Pena ended up walking on a full count instead of whiffing, well, i still yelled 'horsesh*t' at the computer and its stupid finite video file. Or horsepen, or whatever.

In any case, Beckett was fantastic. Threw two tons of curveballs, with great command. Got some called third strikes on fastballs after setting them up with a curve. (See how that works, Josh?) Beckett and Tek even seemed not to bicker, for once. At one point, (the 4th?), Tek went out to the mound on a full count to Hinske, 1st and 2nd one out, and Beckett threw his first changeup, to get the whiff. Good communication, good strategy, not a law of nature that Beckett has to throw a fastball there. He's ready for the playoffs.

Varitek the Wise Pitch Caller; Fastball Fastball Fastball Fastball Fastball Fastball Fastball Fastball

Ted Williams hated pitchers. Thought they were dumb. As an amateur pitcher: hey! As an everything else, he may have a point.

But somebody has to be smart out there. Crash told Nuke "Don't think, Meat, just throw." If the pitcher's the meat, the catcher's the soul, the ghost in the fleshy machine.

So we leave it to Captain Varitek to steer the ship, (to be the homunculus piloting the meat-craft?). After all, Tek is renowned for his preparation. And we all know how well he handles the pitching staff.

But in the last game before the non-waiver trading deadline, the Sox were humiliated by the Angels 9-2, who swept the Sox for the second time in 2 weeks. And Varitek put down the fingers.

Beckett breezed through 3 scoreless innings. In the 4th, Maicer Izturis lead off. Fastball, fastball, fastball, fastball, fastball, fastball for a double. Beckett then starts Teixeira with a fastball strike, drops a curve, and then gets the whiff with the fastball. Fine. But then Vlad Guerrero steps up. Fastball, fastball for an RBI single. Then Torri Hunter. Fastball, Fastball for a double, 2nd and 3rd. 1 out. Anderson steps up. Fastball. 2 run single.

John Farrell visits the mound. Kendrick to the plate. Curveball, curveball, curveball, curveball for strike 3. Then Mathews. Curveball, Fastball, fastball, and then Beckett took something off, and got Mathews to tap back to the mound.

I bet John Farrell could hit .215. But that's not his job.

After Beckett tossed a scoreless 5th, and the Sox got 2 back to cut the lead to a single run, Remy calls on Ace Beckett for a "shut-down inning" in the top of the 6th.

Beckett starts Hunter with a curve for a ball, then walks him after 3 straight fastballs. Then 3 more fastballs to Anderson, and the shot hooks around the Pesky Pole for a two run dong faster than you can say Hanley Ramirez.

When Beckett is a two-pitch pitcher, he's hittable. When he's a one-pitch pitcher, he's terrible.

But he's just the meat.

The fastball that Anderson hit for the 2 run single in the 4th was down and away, possibly even out of the strike zone. Perhaps not such a bad pitch. I believe it was at this point that Remy said "you've got to tip your hat to the hitter sometimes." Maybe so. But that particular pitch shouldn't be hittable, and a pitcher- and a catcher- do bear some responsibility for allowing it to be hit.

I have a theory of pitch complements. Basically, every pitch needs a complementary pitch that looks like it but isn't, in order to create doubt and hence delay in the hitter's mind on any given pitch. A fastball down and away, as textbook as it sounds, is worthless without a changeup (or splitter) down and away that that fastball might be, as far as the hitter is concerned.

From Anderson's point of view, he sees the pitch moving down and away. But there's no chance that that pitch is a breaking ball because breaking balls can't start that low, and because Beckett NEVER THREW A CHANGEUP, that leaves a 100% chance that that pitch is a fastball. So Anderson's neural timing mechanism yells 'swing, dummy', and he is able to get out in front and pull a Josh Beckett fastball that is down and away from him, and hook it into rightfield, which should be next to impossible.

If Beckett's been dropping changeups there all night, or at least once in a while, there is no way Anderson leans out and hooks that pitch. Instead, concern about the change either has him take that pitch, or slows him down enough that he tops over it and grounds out to second.

And whose job is it to have Beckett drop some changeups down there? Captain Varibelli, that's who. He's the brains of this operation. The guy whose great catching and pitch selection is what makes his atrocious hitting palatable. Everyone knows Manny isn't the leader. Varitek is. And he hasn't figured out how to lead the staff against the Angels, who have battered the Sox for a 6.26 ERA over these 8 straight Angels victories.

I've said it before- Josh Beckett is only as good as his changeup. In '06, there wasn't enough differential between his 95 mph heat, and his 90 mph changeup. In '07, he got the change down in the mid to high 80's, and was dominant. Now, he's abandoned the change, it seems, in favor of two seamers and an alleged cutter, in the 90-92 range. Not good enough. He needs that third speed, an offspeed pitch down in the zone to complement the low fastball, to get the hitter a) looking low, and b) waiting on a low pitch, both of which then make the high 4 seam fastball that much more difficult to reach.

I don't care if Beckett isn't "feeling" the changeup that day. Meat doesn't feel. Meat's a zombie. Meat throws. Varitek should know better.

Zinging San Diego

From the Archive: June 24, 2007

I like this team. I watched the San Diego broadcast on the internet, and when the final out was recorded, the broadcaster said something to the effect of 'this weekend, the Pads got a first hand look at why the Boston Red Sox have the best record in major league baseball.'

Damn motherf**king right, I said.

Until now, that was not broadcast on the internet.

This team has a swagger; they know they can win. Though some of the hitters (Papi, Youkillis) get a little cranky with the umps. If they were any bitchier they'd be on E!

I love winning close low scoring games. each pitch's importance is magnified, and each time its executed its just that much more impressive, and fosters an ever-increasing sense of dominance and control of the situation. the other night, the bullpen rocked. Delcarmen was throwing gas, and Okajima and Papelbon shut the Padres down like cops at a high school kegger.

damn motherf**king right.

The sox bullpen this year, as a whole, has an era under 3. the padres are at 2.5, which is absurd, but the next closest after the sox is someone or other, at 3.50. they just come in and shut it down like crooked health inspectors don't.

And Beckett is just nasty. with the tying run on and 2 outs in the 7th, he dialed it up. 94 mph fastball outside corner at the knees for strike one, 95 mph fastball outside corner at the letters for strike two, and he drops a nasty hook at the ankles for the whiff.

Damn motherf**king right.

Papelbon's whiff of kouzmanoff was ridunkulous. three straight fastballs, up and in, three straight whiffs. He gets hitters to wave like they were Queen Elizabeth.

Anyway, i'm just feeling pretty pumped up after this win. many things were in the face of various padres, and my feelings reflect as much. Young hard throwing pitchers who locate with late movement are cool. I know that's pretty controversial, and i'm going out on a limb, but its just the way I feel.

First Impressions of Josh Beckett

From the Archive:4/17/06

I watched Josh Beckett pitch today. First time I saw him pitch since game 6 of the 03 World Series, I think. This was, as you may recall, shortly after the Grady debacle. Speaking of that Greek philosopher Debacles... see, that gag doesn’t work as well in writing. You gotta say 'de-bah-clees'. Nothing like a little phonetic rendering to excite the ladies.

Anyway, Beckett. I gotta say I was quite impressed. Having only seen the stat line from his prior starts, I wasn't excited by the last one, because he only had 2 K's in 7 innings, and although he only had allowed 3 hits, K’s are more projectible than hits.

So at first I was a little surprised by how many fastballs he was throwing. Over the first 5 or 6 innings or so he had absolutely no command of his curveball, which he only attempted half a dozen times or so, most of which ended up high above the letters. I liked that split change dill he mixed in, but he only threw a couple, and the slider was tight the few times he threw it, but he didn't throw it much; it was really all fastballs. I liked how he'd go down the middle early in the count or on the first pitch, perhaps hoping for some quick contact and some quick outs, and then expand the zone and work off the corners with the fastball as he went deeper in the count. Generally a good strategy.

But this was no real test, as he was just relying on his gas, and I couldn't say I was learning all that much about his style and makeup guts and all that crap that working class people talk about, as of yet. But then I think it was Ibanez hit the triple in the 6th, and he was the tying run on 3rd with 1 out, with Sexson and Beltre coming up. So this is a huge situation. Schilling had k'ed Ichiro in a similar situation on Friday, with a great sequence of fastballs up and away then finishing with a split low and away, which was pretty cool. Now it was time to see how Beckett adapted to the situation. And after not having coming close to having thrown a decent curveball all day, and needing a big strikeout to prevent any contact- sac fly or whatnot- he went not once but twice with the old aunt sally, the deuce, the curveball, getting a called strike two down and away and a swinging strike 3 with two great breaking balls. That was really impressive- to trust that pitch that hadn't worked for him all day in that pressure need a k scenario, but knowing he had to use it to change up the sequence in this Sexson's 3rd or 4th AB, and to actually execute it against their best power threat. And then not losing focus and going right after Beltre, and setting him up with breaking stuff away before overpowering him inside for another k. it was awesome. That was post-season stuff. Real Deal Holyfield and whatnot.

And if you're not impressed by that sort of thing, watch matt clement pitch some time. That’ll teach you perspective.

On the other hand, I was slightly putt off by the number of times Beckett shook off Varitek, particularly given that he threw so many fastballs overall. But maybe that'll work itself out.

Also, Papelbon must have some crazy movement because he didn't change speeds or hit his spots consistently today, but he still gets outs.

Mike Lowell looks like he's 42 years old. I haven't seen Youkilis hit the ball hard yet. That lefty who struck out Ortiz in the 8th was impressive- he brushed him back with only 87 mph cheese, but it was enough to get Papi to wave at the next one outside instead of him leaning over and nailing it. He eventually whiffed.

[the next morning, after Mark Loretta's Patriot's Day walk-off]

…Get back, Loretter.

That’s what they say. 2-0 fastball right down the shoot, and he shot it.

Pretty neat, pretty neat.

I think Trot came to bat with Cash's 'I walk the line' playing. As in Trot walks the line between roster and disabled list.

He was clutch today, though.

I thought Foulke looked ok, could have had Beltre struck out on a flip a coin call. Bad luck.

Why was trot going flap-style, i.e. two earflaps on the helmet? Bellhorn didn't die, did he? I only caught the game from the 6th.

Maybe they explained it. Oh yeah. Did anybody catch in yesterday's game when a ball girl went to pick up an errant foul, and Remy says 'mm mm mmm', as if he were ogling her? It was awkward and weird. Maybe he was eating a donut or something.