SB Nation User Blog: King Richard

Brett Hunter Strikes Out 8 in 2.2 innings...

King Richard — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:00:33 -0000

Brett Hunter Strikes Out 8 in 2.2 innings...

This is the box score of the Kane County game from tonight.

Notice that Brett Hunter came in out of the bullpen and pitched 2 and 2/3rds, striking out 8, for every out he recorded...

His last outing he struck out 4 in 2 innings and also gave up no runs, so perhaps he's finally turned a corner...

Best Pitches of the Year

King Richard — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:29:58 -0000

Best Pitches of the Year

Continuing with my ongoing persuasion that Dallas Braden has more potential than anyone else will give him credit for...

This link, Baseball Analysts' Best Pitches of the Year So Far states that in fact, Dallas Braden's changeup has been the best changeup in baseball so far...

Just thought it was worth a look...

This is a fun little thing to look at also.

Dallas Braden: The Expectation Gap

King Richard — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:29:33 -0000

Dallas Braden, in my opinion, is going to be a star.

Before I go on to backup my opinion with controversial evidence, I would like to explain, for what it's worth, that I've held this belief since the very first time I saw Braden pitch in 2007 and am only using the opportunity of one of his most successful major league starts to espouse my optimistic projections, not merely jumping on his bandwagon after one good start.

Firstly, there seems to be absolutely no contingent of ANers, Scouts, Bloggers, or even fans who agrees with me. Even the most optimistic projections I've seen have claimed that Braden can be a good #3 starter.

Before the year started, there were a fair amount of people that believed Braden would eventually end up in the bullpen, and most figured that he didn't enter into the A's plans after 2010 with the affluence of young pitching about to break through.

So, why you ask, will Braden be a legitimate star major league pitcher, an ace in a major league rotation, a guy who can throw 200 innings with a sub-3 ERA?

For a few reasons. In the first place, he has excellent command. Often you hear about pitchers who "throw strikes," which is sometimes code for "well, he can get it over the plate, hopefully his movement will do the rest..." Braden does not simply throw it over the plate, Braden hits targets. He has all the way through the minors with impeccable BB/9 rates, and he has from his very first hitter who he struck out looking with a 3-2 fastball right on the inside corner.
In fact, one of the few balls that's been hit hard off of Braden so far this year, the Youkilis homerun, was on a fastball right on the inside corner. The pitch was with two strikes and was a bad call by Suzuki, as Braden had gotten two called fastball strikes on Youkilis in the at-bat, and he would have been dead on a changeup as he was in the sixth inning.

Next, Braden's changeup is one of the best pitches I've ever seen. A 15 mph difference (87.2-72.8 avg speeds, according to Fangraphs) is devastating, and Braden generates a ridiculous amount of swinging strikes on the pitch. In fact, he appears to use swinging strikes more to keep hitters off balance and later induce weak flyouts a la Justin Duchscherer rather than to generate strikeouts, a remarkably intelligent strategy which will ultimately help him limit his pitch count (like today) and go deep in ballgames. With the amount of swinging strikes that Braden gets, he easily has the ability to be a high strikeout pitcher, but it would be a waste of pitch count, and Braden isn't playing for the scouts or the projection systems, he's playing to win.

This is one of the reasons I think that Braden hasn't gotten the projections that he deserves. His minor league career is second to none. His K/9 numbers throughout the minor leagues were 15.43, 11.77, 5.40, 9.75, 10.41, 9.11, with the 5.40 being a single start in AA in 2006.

Dallas Braden has not just pitched well, but ultimately dominated every level he has reached, and he is showing no signs of letting up in the Major leagues, steadily improving, start by start.

I am not here to convince everyone that Dallas Braden will necessarily be a legitimate ace. But I am here to add that possibility to the conversation.

Too long have scouts written off players because of 87.2 mph average fastballs.

Dallas Braden reminds me a lot of Tom Glavine (though the similarities do not extend to personality), another lefty whose fastball averaged about 85mph throughout his career.
In fact, their minor league numbers are fairly similar:

Braden ERA: 3.30
Glavine ERA: 3.61
Braden H/9: 8.05
Glavine H/9: 8.31
Braden HR/9: 0.75
Glavine HR/9: 0.81
Braden K/9: 10.13
Glavine K/9: 6.08
Braden BB/9: 2.39
Glavine BB/9: 4.01

Again, I'm not saying that Braden will win over 300 games and be a probable hall of famer like Tom Glavine, but I'm saying that his fastball is faster, his minor league numbers are better, and there's no reason to write off an optimistic possibility.

Also, I really love Dallas Braden... he's fun to watch...

All those 2 game series...

King Richard — Fri, 04 May 2007 03:53:37 -0000

Every year, the schedule changes. Sometimes, from our perspective, this is good, sometimes it's bad. The people behind the scenes in the MLB keep working it and working it, in a seeming constant search for perfection. Interleague play, Bay Bridge Series, Unbalanced schedule... These are some different types of innovations that are used to try and, hopefully, achieve balance in all schedules.

However, one thing which is often overlooked by the casual refridgerator-magnet-peerer is the frequency of 4 game series, the frequency of 3 game series, and now 2 game series. I am a personal fan of the four game series, at which you can really feel like you have achieved something if you win, and even more so if you sweep. Still the three game series provides a thrill with the sweep, and a pleasant feeling of accomplishment with a 2 out of 3. But the 2 game series...
The 2 game series is a different matter. If you get swept, you've been swept. There's no concillation there. You've played a team, and you've lost.
A split then feels just indecisive. In a four game series, if you split, you can say to yourself, "well, I think we're pretty evenly matched teams", or "darn, it's too bad Harden was injured", but if you split a two game series, no conclusive results can be found whatsoever, except perhaps, "well, we'll see what happens when we play them more times"...
And then, there's the problem with sweeping a two game series. A sweep of a 2 game series? That's not even a winning streak. Sure, you beat the other team! All... 2 times.
My questions are these: Why have there been so many 2 game series so far in this 2007 season, and what does everybody else think of the Two Gamers?

Poll

What's the Best Amount of Games in a Series?

5: I'm insulted by your thinking that just because I like a good 5 game series, I'm a Yankees fan.

3 votes

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

0 votes

1: Love those rainout make-up games.

0 votes

2: With only two games, people will think our offense just must be slumping.

3 votes

3: The good ol' 3 gamer.

35 votes

4: Gimme a good dose of them, and see what happens.

7 votes

5: I'm a Yankees fan.

1 votes

49 votes | Poll has closed