Kalamity K

The Daily Chaos of Kalamity K
2005-09-20 03:24:15 (UTC)

In the Clubhouse

So I'm here to do something I haven't done in a long time -
talk baseball.

Had anyone told me when I was younger I would become, what
appears to some others, at least, a pretty serious
baseball fan, I would have blinked in shock. Of course,
back then, I knew more about the players and stuff than I
do now, but less about the actual mechanics and analyses
of the game. I don't for a moment lay claim to being
anything but a total lay person in the study of the game,
but some people think I'm a hardcord fan (which is funny
since I don't even know the names of the divions, past the
AL and NL). It's a bit hard to explain. I love baseball
and know things I shouldn't, but yet don't really pay all
that much attention, etc. I would have fur sure thought I
would be a hardcore hockey fan, but the lockout managed to
turn my attentions to baseball for an entire season. I
think that is the key. I've watched this season from the
first pitch, put the game on every night, etc. It's been
kind of cool - it's been kind of special, too.

But still, it's strange for me to be coming in here
analysing baseball.

But I can't not right now.

Miguel Batista.

I've been defending this guy all year, sticking up for him
and pointing out that he has actually done not a bad job
as a closer, etc., etc., etc.

But tonight, for fuck's sake, he gave up a grand slam in
the top of the 9th. We were previously winning by 1 run.
It was his shot at 29 saves out of 35 or 36, I think, so
his percentage isn't really that bad...

It's so frustrating. The 9th inning, when Batista comes in
the game, has been nicknamed the "Nervous Ninth" by some
sportscasters and I have long joked about how I close my
eyes and pray when Batista comes into the game. He often
comes in in non-save situations and sometimes isn't used
in save situations. That's all fine, but it's sort of
glaring, too, to see the closer throwing alright in non-
save situations and not even used in save situations.
Then again, the save situations make everyone nervous.

Now here's the thing. Batista is a good pitcher. He used
to be a starter and he had a great year with Arizona a few
or couple of years back. He was a starter with the Jays
for a year (I think) but was moved to be the closer this
year.

I think you can safely say it has not worked out the way
anyone has hoped.

Perhaps I was spoiled when I was learning about baseball.
I'm the same age as my beloved team, so as they were
growing and getting better, so was I. I don't really
remember the terrible first five years or so, save the
famous picture of the third baseman sneaking up on the
running - and leaving footprints in the snow! I barely
remember the first pennants that we won. I remember,
though, going to the games with my dad and always sort of
being used to the Blue Jays either improving or contending
or at least making things very exciting. And I have
incredible memories of Tom Henke, a closer if I've ever
seen one. I don't profess to know where he stands on the
list of "best closers in baseball history", but I know I
cheered when I saw him come on the field, that you watched
him and got the feeling nothing could get past the
Terminator, that the job would get done. Opponents? They
might as well not have even tried - he slammed that door
but good - at least according to my memories. I think he
was the first Jays closer to get to 50 saves in a season.
And I remember a strange/funny/odd statistic, something
about him saving 50 gaves but he finished the season with
losses but no wins. I always thought that was pretty
hilarious.

When Tom Henke took the mound, I felt confident. I knew
the man was in the game. I knew the other hitters came
out and thought, damn, Henke's in the game. I knew he
would throw a smoking fastball (or whatever he threw,
though I think he did have a fastball, but you know, who
the hell am I?). He looked confident. He looked great,
actually. Business-like and intense and like he had a job
to do. In short, you knew that job would get done.

But with Miguel Batista, I can't even watch. I get
nervous. The bad kind of nervous. Not the "come on, Tom
Henke, get your fiftieth save" kind of nervous, but
the "oh god, what's going to happen next" kind of
nervous. Even when he saves games, they aren't clean, so
to speak. A run scores, a few hits are given up, and had
someone in the stands breathed out instead of breathed in,
that long long long fly ball to straight-away centre field
would have been over the fence. It's nerve-wracking. But
worse than being nerve-wrackng for the team and the fans,
I'm sure it gives the other team greater confidence. What
would you rather see? Mariano Riviera dispatching your
batters like they are second thoughts? Or Mariano Riviera
giving up hints of hits, long fly balls and many foul-offs
in a row, a walk or two, maybe even a run. My point is
that even if you aren't giving up runs, if you aren't
closing the door in a team's face, they get the feeling of
growing opportunity. They see those long fly balls and
think a home run isn't out of the question. They see
sharp line drive type hits come off the end of the bat and
realize that but for a crazyily athetlic and defensively-
minded 2nd basemen,they would have had a hit. And they
are convinced that it will come. But when you sit there
and watch unhittable strike after strike go by, when all
you can do is hit into sad little groundouts and double
plays and weak-ass popups, frustration sets in along with
the feeling that hits won't be achieved.

Miguel Batista is a smart guy, but he's too smart for his
own good. He outthinks himself. He doesn't look
comfortable. In fact, he looks like every pitch is a
gigantic struggle. So much of pitching, I believe, is in
presentation. Dave Stewart, man, he was a guy I would
never want to mess with. Yeah, sure, he was a great
pitcher, too, but minus the Dave Stewart stare, he would
have been a bit less great. Roger Clemens has it, Randy
Johnson has it, Roy Halladay has it, a whole bunch of
pitchers have and have had it, the look, the intensty, the
aura. Miguel Batista increasingly looks like a player out
of his depth. He looks ordinary to other pitchers'
extraordinary. Worse - he looks infinitely human.

It's frustrating to see starters go deep in the game, into
the seventh or even the eigth inning, and still look good,
but get pulled for the closer...who (too often) can't
close. If I were a starter, I'd be a control freak and
make myself finish my games because I couldn't stand having
to have my statistical fate, to so speak, rest in someone
else's hands. That, at least, isn't a Batista thing - it's
a me thing, but short of having the game's best closer
behind me, I'd be terrible at giving up the ball. I'm a
team player - to a point. In all the team sports I've
played, I've always ended up in the role that was team-
oriented but yet solitary (e.g.: keeper in soccer, goalie
in hockey, etc.) But I digress.

It's frustrating, too, to see other pitchers in the Jays'
bullpen, Frasor, Speier, League on occasion, get a chance
to finish out a ballgame and fare better than the closer.
It's frustrating to hear people describe Frasor
as "fearless" and talk about how he doesn't back down from
a situation, and then to hear them say in the same breath,
Batista is game for any situation but...

You don't want to hear a "but" about a closer.

I question why they have stuck with him so long this year
when it seems like it just isn't the role for him and that
Frasor doesn't do a half bad job. Even Triple G (Gregg
Zaun, what a great guy!) came out and said Batista has to
change his approach if he's going to make it as a closer.
I am not one of those who are Monday morning quarterbacks,
or who second guess every twitch and start a manager or GM
makes. Let them do their job and let it play out long
enough to see how it goes. One game does not a season
make. One week, one month even. I mean, look at the
Chicago White Sox. Up fifteen games and down their lead is
down to...TWO. That didn't happen in one move, one day,
one week or even a month. Well, maybe a month, but I have
no idea about the comings and goings of CWS. I'd be
surprised to hear they lost 15 games in a month, though.
That's probably something like losing over half their games
in that month. So...likely not a month. Likely more a
slow steady erosion. But whatever. I'm not hear to talk
about the White Sox. Back to the managers. I don't
generally second guess them. And I really admire J.P.
Ricciardi as G.M. The guy doesn't pull any punches with
the media, unlike Raptors' G.M. Babcock, who pretty much
refuses to answer every question he is asked, to the extent
that the media make endless fun of him. "Due to the
legalities and complexities of the situation and the
ongoing [whatever], I cannot answer that question." But
it's not a legal thing at all. He just doesn't want to
answer. FOR ANYTHING! Do you think you'll be better or
worse this year? He will waffle. Dude, the Raptors were
PATHETIC last year. They won like, 32 games or something.
If you can't answer that question, your ass should have
been out of town months ago. (In fact, his ass SHOULD have
been out of town months ago. I cannot figure out why he is
still present, taking up valuable management space. ARGH!
And I don't even WATCH the Raptors and know all this. THAT
is how well-known his wafflings are!!!!!!!) But back to
J.P. The guy is great. He comes on every Wednesday night
after the games and he answers the questions. One of my
favourite answers was this, to a caller asking, would you
trade any of your stars, e.g. Halladay or Hudson? The
atmosphere is that a vehement NO WAY (at least for
Halladay) is expected. What does J.P. say? Every player
on this team has been traded five times. Any G.M. who says
they don't do this is lying. If it could make your club
way better, you have to consider it. But no, we don't want
to trade Halladay, etc. I mean, I laughed out loud because
it's so nice to hear a real answer for once! The guy even
come on at like, two in the morning, after a West Coast
game. They had offered him to come on before the game. I
mean, really. That is super cool. I really like the guy.
Not sure how he stacks up against the other managers in the
league (I think Toronto may even be his first gig as a head
G.M., I think he was an assistant in Oakland, perhaps not,
before he came here). And I don't question him. He has
his vision. He has his 5 year plan. When everyone got
hyped up early about the Jays potentially being able to do
super-well and why isn't Ricciardi moving to make them
better, he simply said: we are better than we expected
this year but I'm not going to jeopardize next year and the
year after for a run at something this year that wasn't
supposed to happen and very well may not happen. And he
was right. As it turns out, the Jays are playing
about .500 dead on and there will be no post-season for us,
minus some strange cosmic intervention. Gibbons, I have
respect for him, too. He seems to be a good manager, etc.,
etc., etc. I trust him. I trust J.P. But that makes is
more puzzling to me why they are sticking with Batista as
closer. Maybe it's a stop-gap until the younger guys come
up and until Frasor has an extra year under him filling in
as closer. I don't know. I don't get it. No matter which
way you slice it, I just don't entirely see the logic. And
that upsets me the most, because I can normally see it.
And the worst - I LIKE Miguel Batista. I really do. I
think he's probably still a GOOD pitcher. But something
isn't working. Obviously. Maybe middle relief. His
starting wasn't completely stellar, either, before they
moved him. I don't know. I just don't know. I don't see
him as the overpowering 1 inning guy. I see him more of a
distance guy, which is why I said middle relief, maybe.
Not too long to get him worn out, not the expanse of 9
innings stretching out in front of him to get that brain
around, not the intense pressure of having to get 3 guys
out lickety split. Enough time to relax but not to get
weirded out. I think. I've heard the guy can throw a
crazy amount of innings in a year, that's he's just tough
and able to do it...maybe that's why the closer thing is
his right now. I mean, Toronto doesn't have any outright
pitching stars, other than Halladay. I mean real, true,
blue chips. Lilly was on the All-Star team a year ago or
something, two years maybe, but he's been all fucked up
this season, too. Then Halladay has to break his damn
leg. SIGH.

Wow that was a major digression. Back to the story. Sorry.

I don't mind athletes being smart - at all! I was one of
them. But Batista is too cerebral. He's too artsy. The
guy had something like 7 or 8 pitches he can throw. Can
you imagine pitching and having to run through a catalogue
of 7 or 8 pitches before every throw? It would drive you
nuts! He did this, with the big pitch availability, when
he was a starter but as a closer they've wanted him to
concentrate on one or two pitches that will get a guy out.

It hasn't really happened.

(I say this stuff about his pitches, etc., as stuff that
I've heard analysts, etc., teammates, GMs talk about about
him before...I'm not making it up, no matter how weird it
sounds!)

I wonder what the clubhouse will be like tonight. I
wonder if there is growing dissension or anything. I used
to play high-level sports. I know how it is when you screw
up and it was absolutely your screw up. But I rarely had a
locker-room that I had to walk into and face deafening
silence from. Or teammates trying to stay out of my way
because they knew I was in a bad mood or because they were
in a bad mood at me. Don't get me wrong - I had a temper
on me and people knew damn well to stay away - just never
had the locker room dilemna until I was in university.

I can imagine it so well, though. You just lose by a
grand slam and your closer, who got one guy out, comes
in. I can't imagine it would be comfortable. I imagine
normally there would be a few words of encouragement, a
pat on the ass or somethng. I don't see that happening
any more. I see people getting frustrated and angry.
It's all conjecture. Just what I think might happen.

I feel bad for the guy. He seems like a nice, thoughtful
guy who is very smart and probably writes outstandingly
well. (He is a poet and is writing a novel.) I wonder if
he'll go home tonight, uncork a bottle of wine and write a
murder scene. (He is writing a novel about a serial
killer...I think maybe the first draft is done...I think
it's his first novel and for some reason I think it's
meant to be a trilogy but I could be completely off
base.) The even profiled him as "The Thinker" in the Blue
Jays' programme.

But he's not a closer.

I'm not even sure if he's a starter any more, truth be told.

I think, if he did have a gem of year in Arizona, that I
hope it wasn't a fluke.

But then, of course, it kills me when I see former Jays,
like Chris Carpenter, leave the team and then go on to
great things. Sometimes a change in scenery does a person
a lot of good. It would kill me if that were the case
with Batista.

See...I really think we need to move him. I reserved
saying that until tonight. But we have some good up and
coming pitchers and alternate closers and he just isn't
workng. I think he's still good enough to get something
decent in return and I would hope that he would go well,
wherever he ended up. But I really think his time here is
limited. Frustrating, because I really did want him to do
so well here...

And weirdly - it's not that he's been so BAD, at least
stats-wise or paper-wise. It's just that he hasn't been
the kind of good we need, either. He's been good when you
want great. He's been ordinary when you need
extraordinary. And when he's been great, well, that's what
you expect, so it doesn't make the news. I guess. I want
him to do well. I want to be cheering for him and
confident in him. I want to believe in him. I want him to
stay! But yet...I just have this uneasy feeling that it's
not going to happen, at least not in Toronto.

So that's it from the bullpen. I'm very tired and fell
asleep twice writing this, so don't mind the incoherent
bits (likely all of them).

And Clemens didn't go very well tonight, which always
makes me sad. Frustrated, really. I was really hoping
he'd have a good outing tonight. I don't know what his
final line was, but I saw the score at the top of the 9th
was 7-0 or something stupid. He's never pitched in
Pittsburgh before - I couldn't believe that when I heard
it. I guess he was with AL teams a ton, but still. Seems
so strange to me, more like unlikely or something. He's
been around for so long... I almost hope he got tagged for
5 runs or something - only because then he really just
lost, as opposed to pitching brilliantly and getting
another fucking no-decision and having no run support and
being frustrated as hell. Sometimes it's easier to just
fucking lose outright than to have a no-decision when
you've thrown so bloody well.

All of this being respectfully submitted as my humble and
uninformed baseball opinions...I've got to go to bed
soon. Too bloody tired!

Later,

K2




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