Hideo Nomo Has a Posse

Was last night a refutation of the idea of developing theory of best pitcher at the most needed time vs. a routine three-pitch closer? Jonathan Broxton came into the game in the 8th inning with two runners on an induced a flyball out to end the inning. Then he sat, for approximately fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, throwing no pitches. And we all know what happened in the ninth. He couldn’t find the strike zone: seven of his twelve pitches were outside of it. Jimmy Rollins aptly dealt with one down the middle, the Dodgers find themselves in a 3-1 hole and Joe Torre looks ready for a long winter’s nap.

I suppose the best pitcher @ the most needed time isn’t a new theory, rather a return to the older days when routines were not so well defined, but in today’s game perhaps it doesn’t make sense to have your closer enter in the eighth when he’s going to have to sit an indeterminate about of time without being able to throw any warm-up tosses. Sure, you’re at a critical juncture where a proven, reliable arm would be the most statistically prudent decision for that particular moment, but if you’re thinking about the ninth, the win, then maybe your decision changes a bit.

Do the rules state the pitcher has to return to the dugout in between innings? Can he not go back to the bullpen and toss a bit?

Would if I could get a screencap of Manny Ramirez at bat in front of a drugfree.org/playhealthy link. That’s just delicious irony. We also need a drugfree.org/fortymillioncontract sign. Just so the kids get all sides of the story.

I want to apologize for apparently jinxing poor Mr. Clayton Kershaw last night in game one of the NLCS. 30 Rock was on, you see, the season premiere no less, and we tuned to it right after I made my now unfortunate-seemin Sandy Koufax comment. Kershaw came off the rails in the fifth, giving up a single, a wild pitch, a walk, then a home run, and that was just for openers. All told, Mr. Kerhsaw allowed five runs in the inning. He seemed to lose control of the strike zone. Here is the PitchFX data for innings one through four.

And here is the data for the fifth. He’s all over the map, and the balls he puts across for strikes are right in the middle of the zone.

Credit to the Dodgers for keeping it close, and coming back to within two before falling in game one. As I write these comments, Pedro’s perfect through two and looking quite good. It’s great to see a postseason with Pedro. All postseasons, for all times, should include #45.

There surely are some ass-dumb comments flowing early here in game one of the National League Championship series. Consider Buck Martinez who claimed that Raul Ibanez was not really 37 years of age (Mr. Ibanez is 37 years of age) because he did not play a lot of baseball early on. Then, consider Ron Darling, who attempted to validate Joe Torre’s decision to start Randy Wolf in game four by asserting that Randy indeed would be good in that game because he started the first game in Citizen’s Bank Park.

NO ONE CALLS THEM ON THIS SHIT. Chip Caray blabbers on. Attempting, I would assume, to cover for them. As though not talking would provide too much space in which the viewer could contemplate what was just said and probably vomit on their televisions.

There’s a whole lot of stupid being thrown around here. The frequency of stupid is easily higher than in the ALDS Twins/Yankees series, during which it was just Caray and Darling. The addition of Martinez promises to up the stupid to levels unseen, levels possibly unbearable.

Buckle in folks. Good news is Clayton Kershaw is out there doing his best Sandy Koufax. BELIEVE IT.

In the brightest of pleasant hiking parks in urban Austin, Texas was uncovered the lost camera on which the following footage was found. BRACE YOURSELF.