Rox Recap 8/5/08 (Winning Baseball Games For Dummies)

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Rox Recap 5/23/08 (The League of Clutch Just Got a New Member)

Lately, it seems the only team more snakebit than the Rockies are the NY Mets. No longer anyone’s favorite squadron, the NY Mets endured a collapse of historic proportions last September, blowing a 7.5 game lead to the Phillies in the last 17 days of the season. Then they went out and landed their big gun, their noisy cricket, by trading for “Don’t Mess With the Johan” Santana, figuring he would be the rock they needed to take them to the upper echelon of Major League teams and erase the bitter taste of their late season choke. Instead, the NY Mets are scuffling along at 22-24, Santana has been decent (5-3, 3.36 ERA, 58/15 K/BB ratio), but there have been rumblings about his lack of velocity and inability to win important games. Their manager Willie Randolph is on the hot seat to keep his job and has begun to gripe to the media about what he believes is a racial bias in how he is portrayed. Add all that up and you have got one dysfunktional team heading for a major overhaul in the way they play the game and who will actually be there to play it. It’s only fitting that they then come into our house and become the victims of our first walk off win of the season.
1) Big Daddy only went 2-7 in this 13 inning affair but man did he make the 2 count. With 1 out and nobody on in the 9^th, down by 1, he stepped to the plate against uber-closer Billy Wagner who came into the game sporting a spotless 0.00 ERA and 9 saves. He hadn’t given up a home run either until Matty unloaded on a fastball on the outside corner. He roped a home run to dead center field that couldn’t have gotten more than 15 feet off the ground at any point of its trajectory. Then, in the 13^th, the game still tied at 5, he took an 0-1 pitch from Aaron Heilman to right field to knock in Johnny Herrera with the game winning run. Talk about clutch. For a team that hasn’t had many clutch moments to brag about this year, this was a game to remember. Though the calendar said May, it sure as hell felt like September.
2) G-Rain (that’s Greg Reynolds, I’m trying to get it to catch on) pitched an uneven ballgame. A sinkerballer not known for the strikeout, Reynolds tallied 5 in 6 innings of work. He was pitching efficiently though his ball/strike ratio wasn’t exactly impressive (37/47) until the 6^th inning when he served up cold, hard blasts to Carlos “The Latin Travis Hafner” Delgado (that’s not a compliment, look at their statlines the last few years) and Fernando “Omar Minaya owed me a favor” Tatis who was last seen stocking shelves at your local Kroger. He did only allow 4 hits, but he also walked 3 including the opposing pitcher Oliver Perez. It will be a process to get him going like it is with most young pitchers but he showed enough promise last night to make me believe he’s going to be special.
3) The turning point in the ball game (besides the obvious homer in the 9^th by Big Daddy) was T-Rex’ pick off of Jose Reyes at second base with nobody out in the 10^th inning. After leading off with a double, you can imagine the groans and gripes about Fuentes, especially after blowing the lead in his last appearance on Wednesday. But Fuentes’ move to second can be lethal in small doses, not unlike the underwater black wasps from Anaconda. Right before he picked him off, I leaned over to Eric and told him that Fuentes had a killer move to second and maybe he could catch Reyes napping. Lo and behold, 5 seconds later, Reyes is trudging back to the dugout, the fans are going nuts, and the Rockies have avoided what could have potentially been a back-breaking moment. It also showed that I know a thing or two about a thing or two.

4) Grimes sprained his right knee and will probably have to go on the disabled list, adding to the laundry list of unfortunate occurrences that have befallen the Rockies this season. Our hottest hitter now will spend his next couple of weeks from the sidelines while we try to get our season going. Fantasmatic.

5) Taylor Buchholz, come here, let me hug you. You’ve done nothing but dominate hitters with a steely stare, a yellow snapdragon Uncle Charlie curveball and a Linda Ronstadt fastball (the ol’ Blue Bayou.) Last night you came through once again and pitched 3 strong innings in relief and picked up the win you so rightfully deserved. Cheers to you, Taylor Buchholz. Keep that ERA where it is (1.27) and I think we’ll be just fine.
A turnaround game? Who knows. I’ve already used that one this year. All I know is that we’re 4-3 on this current homestand and need to start winning series if we’re ever going to reach the .500 mark, much less contend. The Franchise goes today, so let’s take 2.
P.S. Congrats to my cousin Justin Masterson who picked up his first Major League win with 6.1 inning of 1 run baseball against the Royals on Wednesday. It will be the first of many. You heard it here first.

Christopher vs. Yorvit—There can be only one Highlander…

Anferny discussed this earlier and I think it warrants some elaboration. After all, catcher is one of the most important positions out there. There is the chubby, high potential kid (Chris Iannetta) and the sprite Venezuelan (Yorvit Torrealba). Both have their merits, but one is more meritorious than the other. One’s meritivty is more meritified than the meritations of the other meriter.

Neither has hit very well in their major league careers. Actually, both have been well below average. Their career OPS+ is exactly identical (80). The problem is, Yorvit has had 1078 more at-bats than Christobald. Jorvy is 29 and passed his prime years (26-28). Chances are he ain’t getting any better. Christoph, on the other hand, is in his younger and more vulnerable years at 25. Add to this how he got jiggy wid it in the minor leagues (OBP: .409, SLG: 509) and there’s a good chance Ian will hit better than Tory over the long term. Obviously, minor league numbers don’t equal major league numbers, but there is a relative correlation. Yorvit’s are pretty similar, if slightly better in the majors. So far this year, in a very small sample size, Iannetta is OPSing 971 (nah, nah, nah, nah, na-nah, nah, getting’ jiggy wid it). The Duke of Torrealba, meanwhile, is OPSing 641 (nah, nah… no). Then again, perennial all-star and first ballot hall of famer Gabe Kapler is OPSing 1410 so far. So… conclusion? Iannetta and Torrealba have hit about the same so far in their careers, but Iannetta is younger and has a much bigger upside. Advantage: Iannetta

Defense is hard to judge. The stats are slippery and you can’t watch every single play. It seems like just about everyone who covers the Rockies says Torrealba is a terrific defender, yet he rarely throws runners out and he can’t seem to block the ball very well (though he was credited with only 4 passed balls last year). Iannetta is also supposed to be a very good defender, but he seems to be flawed like Torrealba. Apparently Yorvit is a better game-caller (catching ERA 4.12) than Iannetta (CERA 4.71). The stats seem to back that up. My only qualm with this is that both of them look into the dugout before they call their pitches. Is there a puppeteer in the dugout? I can’t say for sure. For lack of clear evidence, I have to say… Advantage: Torrealba.

The other advantage that Torrealba supporters claim he has is that he’s clutch. He reeks clutch. If he had a cologne, like Jeter, it would be called Clutch. The problem is that if you look at all his “clutch” stats (2 outs w/ RISP, late and close, within 1 run) he is worse than normal. In fact, the only time he hits better than his career average is with a margin of more than 4 runs, where his OPS is 28 points higher. As for late and close games, when you would think it matters most, his OPS is significantly lower (134 points lower!). So, if you believe in clutch hitting, which I personally don’t, you cannot say truthfully that Yorvit is “clutch.” Just because he hit a homer in the playoffs, it doesn’t mean he’s clutch (ahem… JETER!). Iannetta also doesn’t eat, breathe and shit clutchness; so this category is a wash, as the mystical attribute of clutchbat should be.

There are other arguments that could be brought up: Yorvit is good with the young latin pitchers (so just start him for Morales and Jimenez) and that Torrealba costs 7,575.75 times (not dollars) more than Iannetta (ok, there is no point in arguing that). So, I suppose the question comes down to: Is Iannetta’s bat and potential worth more than Torrealba’s defense? I think the answer is unequivocally, yes. Instead of wasting $3 mil on Torrealba, we could have had a capable catching tandem of Iannetta and Edwin Bellorin. But wasting money is what Dan O’ Dowd is good at—Hampton, Neagle. So unless his royal clutchness starts to hit well for the first time in his career, Clinton of Hurdle might find his team scoring more runs with a line-up including Christopher Domenic Iannetta instead of Yorvit Adolfo Torrealba. Oh, I forgot to bring up the “whose name is better?” argument. Yorvit Adolfo Torrealba wins in a landslide. I forfeit. Torrealba should start merely because of the majesty of his name.

"Oh, I just wanted to say good-bye and remind you that the good guys always win, even in the eighties." - Academy Award winner Barry Bostwick in the hit 1982 film Megaforce