Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 09, 2007
Pulling Pitches

I thought ESPN missed a great chance at analysis in the top of the fifth inning in tonight's Indians-Angels game. Sizemore leads off the inning, pulling a double to right field, not down the line, but to the left of the rightfielder. Cabrera follows up with a double he pulls into the gap deep in right-center. The interesting thing to me is that K-Zone showed both pitches away from the batter. Sizemore's was about 3/4 to the outside edge of the plate, and Cabrera made contact with the ball over the outside edge of the plate. I always hear announcers say how you should go with pitches away, but here were two cases when pulling the ball more outside than inside resulted in long hits. I'd love to hear Joe's explanation for that.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:48 PM | Offense | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Isn't asking for intelligent analysis from Joe Morgan sort of pointless?

Posted by: Adam at September 9, 2007 10:03 PM

Actully, I've worked with Joe in the past and he is quite capable of doing intelligent analysis. Doesn't always happen.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 9, 2007 10:23 PM

firejoemorgan.blogspot.com has about a thousand posts documenting the times when he doesn't.

Posted by: Adam at September 9, 2007 10:35 PM

Yes, I'm well aware of Joe's short comings.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 9, 2007 10:47 PM

Hah. Bring back Reynolds!

Posted by: Tan The Man at September 10, 2007 12:22 AM

Don't get me started on Morgan. But I've noticed that many announcers shy away from commenting about - or even noticing - the electronic whizbangs that can now call pitches.

The problem is that the gadgets can show up an announcer all too easily. For instance, if he rhapsodizes about how the pitcher nailed the corner with a beuatiful slider, and the gadget shows the slider missed by three inches, he has to do an embarrassed "too close to take" shuffle.

This gets really tricky in local telecasts. Announcers will consent to use the gadgets when they show a ball-and-strike call went against their team. They're not so willing - to put it mildly - to look at the results on questionable calls that went against the opposition.

The gadgets are just too damn good. They show up umpires, they can make announcers look silly, they don't behave like players want them to. That's why people in the game hate them so much - remember Schilling attacking the QuesTec camera?

Posted by: Casey Abell at September 10, 2007 01:01 PM

I hate all these computers, especially that robot that wrote Moneyball.

Posted by: Little Joe at September 10, 2007 03:46 PM
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