Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 27, 2005
Mike Off

The more I look at Mike Mussina's stats, the more I think he's approaching the end. He just keeps getting hit. The Angels have eight hits tonight in six innings, and two home runs have made the score 5-1 Anaheim. The Moose is just not striking out enough people given the defense behind him. He's throwing a lot of pitches, which tells me the batters are willing to take pitches or battle him with lots of fouls. Mussina needs to make an adjustment. He's probably needed to make that adjustment for two years, but pitchers have a difficult time accepting the loss of their fastball. Mussina won't survive with an ERA over 5.00.

A-Rod homered again tonight, his eighth of the year. If he hits another, I believe he ties a record for consecutive games.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:07 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

What kind of effective adjustments could Mussina make? Is it just a matter of will, or do some pitchers who attempt such change fail?

Posted by: Anton at April 28, 2005 12:23 AM

It's a good question. Mussina has always had pitches other than his fastball. My guess is that there's not enough difference between his pitches anymore. He may want to start throwing his change up even slower, for example.

Maybe it's his pitch selection. I heard a story about Rod Carew facing Catfish Hunter, Munson catching. As Hunter was about to deliver each pitch, Carew would call it out to Munson, and what the result would be. The last pitch Carew called and said, "Double down the left field line." Sure enough, he got that pitch and hit a double. Maybe Mike has become predictable. Maybe he should go out and throw 20 knuckle curves in a row, get everyone looking for that, and then start throwing fastballs.

There are lots of adjustments pitchers can make. Of course, it might not matter if Mussina has hit a physical wall.

Posted by: David Pinto at April 28, 2005 08:03 AM

I think it was Kaat who commented that hitters just look too comfortable in the box, that Moose needs to use his fastball inside.

Posted by: RobertJ at April 28, 2005 08:51 AM

As Mussina himself admitted last night, his velocity was down, though he had been expecting more. Still, the bottom line seems to be, he just can't make himself do what he wants to now, most of the time. And to me, that's a clear sign of the end being very near. Watching how Mike handles this is an interesting human interest story, but obviously, it provides little comfort for Yankees fans in the midst of this difficult season.

Posted by: Jan at April 28, 2005 09:02 AM

Kaat also told a funny story on himself. He kept trying to work inside, but the ball kept wandering over the middle of the plate and getting hammered. Kaat's pitching coach, Johnny Sain, finally said that the Dodgers had their double-D in Koufax and Drysdale, and he had his own double-D in Kaat, the Dumb Dutchman.

If Mussina's going to come inside, he's got to bury the ball in. Otherwise, batters have time to get around on his less than ferocious fastball. Maybe he should try the Glavine route and look away, look away, look away, Dixieland.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 28, 2005 11:34 AM

Oops. The Dodger's double-D was Don Drysdale all by himself, of course. Kaat got it right. I goofed.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 28, 2005 11:39 AM

Mussina should take a lesson from David Cone's book. After Coney lost most of his fastball, I think he pitched three or four years without ever throwing a strike - inside, outside, upside down. Cone was a master at geting guys out with finesse rather than heat.

If I'm not mistaken - the home run record on the Yanks was Donnie Baseball with 10 homers in 8 consecutive games.

Posted by: Lyn Collins at April 28, 2005 06:16 PM
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