When the bases are getting full or runners are in scoring position his reaction is NO different than when the bases are empty and he has a 5 run lead. Beavan's night was made easier by some VERY nice plays by Ackley (starting a DP, making a great throw to 1st, leaping in the air to snag a soft liner) but anybody with his skillset is gonna rely on fielders since he's striking out exactly no one.
I DID love his 2nd K though - a tight breaking ball at the bottom of the zone that was so good the first time the ump called it a ball...so he threw the exact same pitch in the exact same spot and got the punchout.
Beavan's gonna get crushed one of these days, but it won't make his pulse flutter. And he'll come back out and do the same routine the next time, trusting that it won't get hammered.
That mentality is not always a plus. My memory of Jeff Weaver has him as the same kind of "Sure I got tagged for 8 runs in 3 innings, but no big, next game I'll have the same approach" sort of mental approach. Cha Seung Baek was also like that. Jeff Halama. Ryan Franklin.
In Ryan Franklin's case it paid off - he's had a LONG career off of "I only made two mistakes and we lost, so next game I won't make em." The Here-It-Is, Hit-It approach can be functional if you're in the right park and you can make sure not to center too many balls. Halama couldn't. Fister absolutely can.
Beavan...Beavan might, at least for a while. For me the question is whether he can function long enough to get that curve ball to be functional and useful instead of meat served up on a platter.
That 2nd K says...maybe. :) Right now the mushy FB and the "eh" change are doing well. The Angels announcers kept pointing out how his body and arm action slows down for the curve and he's telegraphing it, and aren't sure why the second time seeing him the Angels aren't crushing it.
"Maybe he's harder to read from the plate than he is from the side," one mused. I just remember seeing his arm action in Spring Training and expecting the radar gun to say 95 instead of 88. He LOOKS like he should throw really hard.
Hopefully those looks stay deceiving enough.
~G
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