…is when he uses a garbled phone convo to find literally everything there is to know about these particular Albanians within about 34 minutes. I think that’s how that works. Right?

I was drawing a huge blank on that one. A tip of the cap to you.

for Statham – Handsome Rob from “The Italian Job” and Turkish from “Snatch”.

(in Mo’s defense, though, HD-DVD has SO much more upside…)

something needs to be done about the Cardinals players playing when they are so hurt they don’t even have the full use of their limbs. seriously, that’s unacceptable.

oh & here’s the audio of Dave’s interview in case anyone was interested

that explains a lot… I like the idea of using the best guy in any situation though

Or…um, yeah probably not. In any case, while it’s annoying that Duncan’s been playing while incapacitated, if this is true (keep in mind the “finally healthy” spring training mantra) then it’s good news. On the other hand, Mulder said he was “feeling the best he has since being in Oakland” and promptly tanked, so one never knows.

As for the closer-by-committee…I’m happy with that, I guess. I think if they extend it doing that in innings 7-9, not just the 9th, then we’re really onto something.

pitchers in AAA pitch too.

if he’s still effective with that, and we don’t overexpose him, he can slowly develop in the majors… why not?

The reason the minors are a better place for working on pitches is that you can spend a disproportionate amount of time throwing that pitch until you feel comfortable with it, while not giving much thought to the results. If Motte goes down and throws 50% fastballs, 30% infant-changeup, and 20% slider, yes, he might get knocked around a bit at first because the pitches lack effectiveness, but he’s eventually going to become more confident in breaking stuff. (While 20% doesn’t sound like much, Motte has never thrown any offspeed pitch with that kind of frequency in his pitching career. He’d be throwing two different offspeed pitches that much. And, frankly, he could probably go higher.)

If Motte is pitching at the major league level, a) there’s not really a chance for him to work on a pitch between games because relievers rarely get enough rest to merit bullpen sessions and b) results are the priority, so there wouldn’t be any leeway for him to throw a developing pitch and watch it get knocked around a little bit while he works on developing and controlling it. So when is he going to develop secondary pitches? I can tell you from experience, finding a new game-worthy pitch typically doesn’t happen overnight. It took me six months to get enough confidence in my knuckle curve to throw it in a game — though I wasn’t throwing it with the regularity Motte would be afforded by a minor-league stint.

Sending someone to AAA to work on hitting outside sliders isn’t a good practice unless you can convince opposing AAA pitchers to throw him a steady, unrelenting, disproportionately large diet of outside sliders. So, unlike the Motte situation, the games aren’t much use for working on that particular skill. As for between-game workouts, well, there’s no difference between AAA and the majors in that regard. And, in fact, it’s likely that finding a way for a guy to face some BP/cage sliders is significantly easier at the major league level.

I think we all know that Motte is major-league “ready” now — that is, that he can hold his own against MLB hitters. But it’s not about whether he’s ready, it’s about whether he’s as good as he can be. It’s one thing to tell a guy who has four pitches already to work on a new one and keep his other ones fresh — that could be tough. But Motte is expanding on a single pitch. He could easily keep his fastball fresh while picking up a change or sharpening his slider.

If sending him down for a few months and telling him to work relentlessly on his changeup and slider regardless of the results it yields helps him improve, then that’s the way to go. Think about it this way: right now, he could be good. But add a slider to a 100 MPH fastball and you might be looking at 2006 Joel Zumaya (1.94 ERA) or better — Zumaya threw his fastball (98.6 MPH) about 80% of the time that year, and his curveball 15% of the time, but he’s never had great command of the breaking pitch. Add a changeup and maybe you’re looking at, I dunno, Rich Harden bullpen edition? I saw Harden throw a 100 MPH fastball and then baffle a hitter with a 90 MPH changeup in the first inning of a game once (I think it was this game in Japan). Harden basically throws exclusively fastball-changeup but he has such a dominant fastball and a wicked changeup that he doesn’t need a third pitch to rack up ridiculous K/9 numbers — 8.99 career, 11.01 in 2008 (note: Harden also possesses a slider, but after 2006 he basically stopped throwing it, probably to help avoid injury and also because he clearly doesn’t need it very much). And Motte’s fastball is better than Harden’s — Harden only throws his in the low-mid 90s, usually — so he wouldn’t need that same ridiculous movement that Harden gets (people have been mistaking Harden’s changeup for a splitter for his entire career). I mean, can you imagine Harden in the bullpen?

Point is, Motte is an interesting prospect now, but he’d be a super prospect if he had even a passable second pitch. Can he get guys out with just 100-MPH heat? Sure. Would he be better at it if he had a good second pitch (or even a third)? Definitely. Is developing a pitch in the majors as easy as developing a pitch in the minors? I think I’ve provided good reason to think not.

The one place that DOES serve the same purpose as the minors in this regard? Spring training. If I were the Cards, I would have Motte warming up his arm playing catch with a changeup grip, throwing tons of offspeed pitches in bullpen sessions, and throwing tons of offspeed pitches in games. If Motte comes out of ST with a second pitch, then all of this minor league talk is unnecessary!

Long rant. Sorry about that.

Just for fun: here’s a home video of Zumaya throwing a curveball. So nasty, even if he often has no idea where it’s going.

but he is AAA coach for a reason. I’m sick of “experts” who don’t understand that professional major league coaches sometimes send players to the minors to be coached by professional minor league coaches, who are apparently payed to coach players exactly like jason motte.

all minor league coaches who teach a guy a thing or two before he moves up to the major league level suddenly become worthless once that player is sent back down, right?

because motte has been “exposed” to duncan, he suddenly can’t learn from anyone else??