I hate myself!

his irrational distaste for ryan franklin derives merely from a chemical imbalance in his brain. luckily i’ve laced some kool-aid with a powerful ssri. here, drink up!

when he wants to send a message to the worms behind home plate.

The Florida batters helped him a bit…… like the batter who swung on the first pitch (fly ball to center) after Wellemeyer loaded the bases on a four pitch walk.

at bat: ?

You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs…..

Yes, I was referring to the MSM, not the blogosphere. Many people have been critical of Duncan’s magic touch, especially within the VEB community. I believe that a measured approach to Duncan’s abilities is necessary. He can’t turn lead into gold, or a career jobber into a No. 3 starter. I should have spelled this out better in my post. Az pointed to two P-D articles (by writers that I like) in which Duncan discovering how a pitcher tips his pitches was crucial to their renaissance, as well as Duncan citing some mystical fastball share as a reason why Pineiro is now a good pitcher again. All that I would like is for people to give a more measured appraisal of Duncan as pitching coach.

As for Wells versus Pineiro. “A LOT better” would not be my conclusion. This year, Pineiro has a FIP of 4.50. In 2007, Wells had a FIP of 4.86. Wells was not signed to a two-year deal worth $13M. Taken as a whole, I’d say the two are about equal. My problem is that it seems the organization bought Duncan as renaissance man wholeheartedly when they signed Pineiro after a handful of starts. It was silly because the peripherals in no way supported a sustainability in what Pineiro was doing.

I’ve seen re Duncan points out that his best contribution isn’t so much in the area of spotting or fixing mechanical flaws, as much as it is in developing solid game plans for pitchers, i.e., getting them to think in more detail re pitch selection, situational pitching, etc. Guys like Lohse (or Weaver in 2006) have basically said that what Dunc did for them was to change their approach to a game plan. And as in any other job, there are guys who do a better job of sweating the details than other guys, and apparently Dunc is one of those.

As I have said, he has had many successes and should be credited for those. And gameplanning is very important. Strategic thinking is very important. Not walking batters is very important. No matter what his approach, it has produced a mixed bag of results. It seems to me that he gets a free pass a lot of the time on those failures while gets write-ups in the USA Today lauding his turnaround powers. One of his faults seems to be a “my way or the highway” attitude. He is perhaps a little too inflexible with his strategizing.

Duncan’s seeming rigidity struck me when I read this piece on Greg Maddux in ESPN: The Magazine and this anecdote in particular:

One day last summer, Greg called reliever Heath Bell into the film room. The Padres were playing the Cardinals, and Maddux wanted Bell to see something he’d picked up from a St. Louis hitter.

“I can’t do it, but with your stuff, you can throw your fastball inside and handle this guy,” Maddux told him. Bell started to answer, "But the scouting report says … "

“I don’t care about the scouting report,” Maddux said. “I’m saying your fastball can get this guy out.”

After relaying the story, Bell says, “I listened. I got him out. Maddux knows best.”

To be sure, the Cardinals tend to gravitate toward a certain type of stuff. And that stuff is best tailored to Duncan’s approach, which is smart. Duncan has a system and the Cardinals seek out pitchers that are good fits for that system. However, sometimes a pitcher’s repertoire might allow him to work in ways that are contrary to a scouting report.

I’m not saying that Duncan should abandon his strict strategizing approach and I don’t know what goes on the strategy sessions. I don’t have time to analyze pitch location data to see how he leverages results out of certain pitchers. But, as we shift from dumpster diving to farm harvesting in our rotation filling philosophy, Duncan’s seemingly rigid approach may need to be tweaked for more flexibility as pitchers with different skill sets come up. That is, if he returns to St. Louis at season’s end.

Didn’t know that!

Thanks for the debunkification.

learn something new every day. Btw, Jel Sert (maker of Flavor Aid as well as Fla-Vor-Ice) is right down the street from me…..

Where a pitcher left the Cardinal Organization and was a better pitcher after leaving us? (I think Reyes is a possibility but to soon to tell)

But, the Cards’ pitchers lead the NL in pitchers’ RBI with 22.

RISP AB:

It seems like we’ve had about 66 AB from starting pitchers with RISP. In 2006, by comparison, it seems like we had about 74 AB with RISP. This is pure guesswork where I just looked at who started games for the season and then looked TLR’s penchant for PHing and using the ’pen. Again, a double split function on some website would be nice. You have the pitcher come up with RISP no matter what.

Just something I’ve been thinking about for awhile now, but Tony’s rationale for the pitcher batting eighth is that over a full season, Albert gains so many at-bats by hitting third, and with a position player ninth, has more opportunities to have men-on-base.

But in the playoffs, there isn’t time to draw those extra plate appearances or necessarily set up for a 9-1-2-3 “first four after the 1st.” So does Tony drop the pitcher back down if we make it in? By his defense, I think he may have to , since “in the long run” doesn’t mean caca in the playoffs.

So, be conscious of what you say because it may have an effect!

unfortunately I won’t be able to watch it. going to be at the gallery thing

to help Joel pack his bags if we got that offer.

It would be retroactive to the 11th.

Bernie didn’t say….. but it would make sense.

6 if you include Lopez.