Roundtable on Ramirez' Makeup
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Last time at-bat, Dr. D gave you his own barometer on "makeup." An athlete with good makeup --- > is one who responds to things going wrong by --- > getting more competitive. As Al Pacino told Keano Reeves, "Under pressure, some focus. Others fold."
Felix Hernandez has pitched in a whale of a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 deficits. He reliably goes into Nasty Mode.
Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about your species, sez Starman? You are at your best when things are worst. Felix is automatic this way. Keeping my own definition of "makeup in mind, the anti-bully personality ... name me a finer competitor than Felix Hernandez. See? There is no such thing. Which is why we want a Game Seven for him, man.
50 words in, I'm already off topic...
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G-Money came back with a response to my accusations of possible makeup issues for Ramirez. His response was the ideal one from my point of view, that being (1) a guy who knows more about it than I do, tell me that (2) I got nuttin' to worry about.
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Not worried about Erasmo's makeup
- See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/article/pick-yer-poison#comment-138846
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Thanks G ... I'm gingerly shifting my opinion back to, "Ramirez' makeup is okay." Let's hope it works out that way.
As Mo' Dawg has also reminded us, the TECHNICAL issue is that:
- the shorty right-hander cannot afford centered pitches, as we-all discussed last year in detail
- Lloyd McClendon was on this like Malcom Smith on a Peyton Manning pinata-ball
- Erasmo has quite obviously "nibbled and picked" this year, in a concerted effort to implement McClendon's commandment
- Adjustments take time
Ramirez is capable of striking out 7+ batters while walking 1+, and that means he is a kid you can point your finger at and say "THAT one." If so, then you have the obligation to endure his growing pains.
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Fungibility
A pitcher you can win your next pennant with? It seems so. But on this club, that might not be good enough!
I'd like to see an A's-style situation in which Ramirez, Elias, and Young play musical chairs on the 5 SP / Long Man slots all year. Now that would be fun.
On the radio, Billy Beane was on talking about his payroll limitations, and he believes that he can beat the Rangers and Angels because:
- They have expensive players
- But he has agile roster slots
In the big picture, Beane almost seems to believe that the ability to switch out players is more valuable than the ability to acquire players with excellent track records.
Stars & Scrubs bab-eh,
Dr D
He's always been a fighter. He has a couple problems:
1) His way of being a fighter and not giving up looks like bland-faced sweating to a lot of people. Michael Jordan had a GREAT AngryFace. His AngryFace made grown men wet themselves. Erasmo has more of a Japanese disposition out there, blank-faced, searching for zen in angry moments. He's a fighter, I promise - I've seen enough of him getting worthless strike zones in the minors or pitching at altitude where his changeup doesn't dive and his curve and slider are useless to know that. Being a sweater doesn't make him less warrior-like. His problem yesterday was the next problem.
This is an interesting point.
Walter "Sweetness" Payton cracked me up this way. He'd tear around the corner, bounce off two linebackers at opposing angles, go down in a pigpile, lay there for 8 seconds on his back ... wobble back to the huddle like he was KO'ed .... trudge to his spot at I back ... and then rip off another 15-yarder.
I'm going to have to re-visit. In the mind's eye, after you ignore the "Siiiiighhhh, when do they let me go home" facial expression .... his body language is still erect and leaning into the action (shaddup, Beavis) but his pace does seem to drag. I dunno.
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2) Without his changeup, Erasmo is bringing a knife to a gunfight. Erasmo has two weapons: control, and his changeup. When he has both those things working, he's nasty. When he only has his changeup but is missing his fastball control he can gut it out. Yesterday he didn't have either. As Matt noted, he had TWO (2) swings and misses all game. When you can't throw pitches where you want them AND you can't change speeds to make people swing through stuff in the zone, it's gonna be a long day (or rather, a short one on the mound full of anguish and annoyance).
So if he could cobble a 5 IP, 3-4 ER start out of those days, I'd be good with that.
Some guys are just very clear examples of the Old Baseball Cliche's ... the A game and the B game. You do accept that good pitchers will have bad days.
In the mind's eye, I don't remember many games in which Erasmo's changeup was useless, do you?
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We watched Moyer have long days. Erasmo's need is not to get more of a warrior mentality - how do you go to war with a dull butterknife against the As? Especially when your pitching coach walks out, tells you to throw a strike and let your defense handle it... and then that pitch sails over the wall. Erasmo has to figure out how to gut out 5 innings and keep his team in the game when he has nothing. Minor leaguers would bail him out. That doesn't happen as often in the bigs.
So until he figures that out, the problem with Erasmo comes down to this: how often is he gonna go out there with nerf weapons against the real thing?
# of times Erasmo hasn’t gone 5 innings in a start: 6-of-23
# of quality starts: 11-of-23
As long as he keeps a 2-to-1 ratio in that, he can compete for the #5 spot in the rotation. Now, to be fair, I believe Beavan kept a 2:1 or better there too when he was starting - it was his 5 innings of 5 run ball that chewed us up. Can Erasmo limit runs on his mediocre days? I believe so, but we'll need him to if he's gonna get that pitching slot.
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If you just joined us, 25% DIS (disaster) ratio is acceptable from a young, talented pitcher. He needs 30% DOM (dominant) starts to balance it, and as Gordon says, needs to make some effort to control damage, to turn a DIS start into something where his team has a chance to poach a few games.
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Erasmo has the ability to save the pen even when he's having a bad day, because he won't be using a lot of pitches to be terrible. He can go deeper and eat his own bad day rather than making the team suffer... assuming we're out of it. That ability is less useful if we're gonna be in every game.
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Reasonable. With a Brandon Maurer, you might be talking about burning through your bullpen in the first day of the series, and that's the issue that real managers are most afraid of. So it's an important point. I hadn't noticed it.
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Erasmo needs his better stuff next game, at home. I expect him to have it. If not, well... Taijuan's back soon. ;-)
~G