Comments on: New coaches, Gillick interviewing in L.A.

By: ML

ML — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:19:52 +0000

I can’t agree with that after his long string of team leading ERA’s he put together with the Yanks, but I guess you can always argue that he had a hell of a lot of talent. Stottlemyre not even good though? Don’t tell Aaron Small. That’s a ludicrous statement IMHO…

By: roger tang

roger tang — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:44:53 +0000

#73, Stottlemyre no better than Chaves? I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t buy that.

A lot of people do. I’m profoundly unimpressed with the job he’s done on New York; I’m not convinced that he’s even good, let alone the best guy….

By: ML

ML — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 05:24:14 +0000

#73, Stottlemyre no better than Chaves? I don’t buy that. Smacks of more cheap personnel in Seattle and a continuing slave to the dollar mentality instead of getting the best guy for the job…

By: Emerald

Emerald — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 01:15:53 +0000

Also, one of Don Baylor’s beliefs was to be a little more pull happy than not, could have also effected Beltre. Funny thing is Don didn’t encourage Beltre to get closer to the plate like he once did and THEN try pulling the pitch.

By: Shoeless Jose

Shoeless Jose — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 01:08:39 +0000

Beltre’s stance was a little more closed in ’05 vs the times I saw him playing for LA. I don’t know if that was related to the injury or what. Now this is purely wild-ass speculation, but it seems that if your stance is a little more open, those outside pitches seem a little farther away. And if they seem a little farther away, you might not be as tempted to go after them and fail your way into a strike.

Just a theory.

By: Emerald

Emerald — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:43:16 +0000

So what your saying is all I have to do is “accidentally” pull a Tonya Harding on Beltre and bingo?

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:39:01 +0000

76-

The theory isn’t as farfetched as it sounds. There are a number of players who attribute peak years to changing approach due to injury. Phil Garner, for instance, mentioned in one of Ron Luciano’s books that in 1979 he had a hand injury that made him change his swing, and he had his best year for average and OBP ever, and tied his high for SLG.

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:33:51 +0000

Can anyone see Pat Gillick interviewing with the Red Sox, AND getting the job? Ã¢â‚¬Â¦hehÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ RS fans will be bouncing off the walls more than usual after a couple of years of Ã¢â‚¬Å“Stand PatÃ¢â‚¬ÂÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Actually, Henry sounds like the kind of guy who’d hire DePodesta, bad relations with sportswriters in LA and all. Gillick’s pretty old-school.

I also would like to mention that, while I think Bill Bavasi’s a good guy and I think it’s justifiable to give him another year, I would happily tell him he gets paid for doing nothing in 2006 if it meant Theo Epstein would be the M’s GM. This front office DESPERATELY needs an infusion of thinking from outside the “conventional baseball establishment”, and while Bavasi’s pretty open, he also isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to exhaustively examine the M’s organizational failures. Frank Mattox comes to mind- he seems to embody the Peter Principle that is the old-boy’s club in MLB, and one I don’t think Bavasi’s going to challenge.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:24:10 +0000

This theory's been around for a while. Check out this old post at Peter's and my old blog.

By: JS

JS — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:19:51 +0000

check out this series of posts from a dogder’s blog last year:

Howard, you’re saying Beltre OVER-performed because of his bad ankle? I guess we won’t know until next year, but I’d bet he does even better at 100% health.

Posted by: Jerry at December 16, 2004 04:36 PM

Next year when Beltre hits 20 homeruns in Seattle and hits 270 again, you are all going to say how you all knew we should not pay him the big money. Remember this next September.

Posted by: Howard Fox at December 16, 2004 04:36 PM

At 100% health, he tried to pull everything. This year he couldn’t, he went the other way, and voila!! He tried pulling everything the last week or so of the season and during the series with St Louis….check his power numbers during those 2 weeks.

Posted by: Howard Fox at December 16, 2004 04:38 PM