PTI on Johjima and MLB Dogma
Doc, FYI, from Shannon Drayer, what do you make of “he calls pitches right”?:
[begin quote] [Felix] enjoyed throwing to Ramon Hernandez.
“He is unbelievable. He calls pitches right. He told me you have to get ahead, and if you throw the fastball for strikes the breaking ball will be better.”
He spoke about the importance of his fastball, both the 4 seamer and 2 seamer but when I asked which of his pitches he would least like to see if he was a hitter he said his curve or slider. No doubt after a well established fastball. [end quote]
LOL :- ) I make of it, that IFelix was part of the circle that trashed Johjima-san in 2008. The groupthink in the M's rotation -- Washburn, Silva, now obviously Felix, and Bedard asked for his own catcher after three games -- focuses on the negative. That is precisely how you get 102 losses out of a $100M roster, and the reporters were wonderful facilitators for the "major league way to play" mindset.
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Team Japan just finished winning .... that's W-I-N-N-I-N-G ... the championship tournament, thrashing MLB (TM) while they were at it. Kenji Johjima worked wonderfully with the championship pitchers, though he obviously worked terribly with pitchers losing 102 games the right way.
That said, it's interesting that Felix (who is NOT an Entitled Loser) hated throwing to Johjima, enough so that even he would throw his teammate under the bus like that. When they are ALL doing it, there's something very drastic going on.
For my own part, I love NPB baseball and the Japanese culture, so am biased towards Johjima-san. But fair's fair. I declared Erik Bedard the objective litmus test for this problem: if Erik Bedard came in, fresh perspective, great pitcher, and didn't like Johjima, then fine. ... Bedard threw to Kenji Johjima 2-3 times and all of a sudden, had his own personal American catcher every fifth day.
So fair's fair. I'll concede that the root cause of the problems was, by definition, my man Kenji. That's not to say that you would find he was the root cause of ANYTHING (except pennants) in Boston or Atlanta. But in Seattle, Johjima's the changeable part here.
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Felix' quote about calling pitches "right" reflects the dogma that too often afflicts American baseball. Did Team Japan play baseball "wrong" this last week? They played baseball wrong, pitching backwards in the first inning and taking walks with first base open and men on and all that stuff. They did happen to finish games with more runs than the other team, but that doesn't make their way right....
Johjima plays the game wrong, but did start at catcher for the team that won the "World" Series, a team that happens to feel that Johjima plays it right. So you can see why amigos like Joe Morgan are so incredibly uncomfortable broadcasting the event. It is a very real challenge to MLB (TM) dogma.
Kenji Johjima is an intersection point for all of the various dogmatic beliefs, and entitlement attitudes, that afflict baseball. He's a ley line, so to speak, for many things that are fractured about the game. He's a great Japanese catcher, very effective when playing for the Japanese. He's a catastrophe for a 102-loss team that doesn't have much right to claim the high ground, about anything.
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Just the same, there's a disconnect, and it continues to sound like it's unfixable. What I make of Felix' not-too-classy quote is, there's not a lot of hope for a Death, Burial and Resurrection for Joh-san under his new manager Wok.
I don't suppose I have to tell you that no ballclub ever won, if 5 members of its rotation were complaining to the public that their catcher calls the game wrong. Unless Wakamatsu can change that ATTITUDE (not merely the news quotes) of those guys and TODAY, the ballclub remains a mortal lock for 90+ losses. Backup centerfielders or no backup centerfielders. :- )
Again, my eyes aren't filling with tears, exactly :- ) over Johjima's or Ichiro's plight, because we all know how an American would be treated in Japan if he did not accept his role as being seen and not heard. Jason Varitek would probably suffer a worse fate in the Central League than Joh-san has here. So we should keep the cultural bias in perspective.
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WHOEVER the catcher's going to be -- Gregg Zaun or Scrapiron Stinson or whoever -- ANYTHING would be better than a catcher (unjustly) loathed by all five starting pitchers.
Wakamatsu said that Johjima's starting role will depend on his productivity: read, if things aren't going well, they'll make a change.
If Wok doesn't change attitudes in March, things won't go well.
Cheers,
Dr D