Post by John on May 19, 2006 10:13:59 GMT -4
Insider: Closers trying to shut door on early struggles
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
HOUSTON -- Not that the Houston Astros needed a closer this week while San Francisco was waxing them by a combined score of 34-5. But for that day when the Astros might need a closer again ...
Hours of video later, Brad Lidge, pitching coach Jim Hickey, manager Phil Garner and the rest of the gang are pretty sure they have proof that the demoted closer's struggles have nothing to do with any remaining psychological scars from surrendering October walk-off home runs to Albert Pujols and Scott Podsednik and everything to do with a flaw in his delivery.
"My whole career I've gone from the windup," says Lidge, who was removed from the closer's role by Garner earlier this month following three blown saves and a rash of walks. "After the first couple of games this year, I stupidly decided to go from the stretch. And I had a rough month, and there was a lot of talk that I was tipping my pitches from the stretch."
Does he think he was?
"I know I was," says Lidge, whose exile from the closer's role now is expected to conclude as soon as this weekend. "I throw two pitches -- a fastball and a slider. If you know which one is coming, I'm in trouble. Anybody is.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to avoid that now."
As far as coughing up games, Lidge isn't exactly the Lone Ranger. One of the dominant threads running through this season is that life as a closer isn't exactly all cookies and ice cream:
* In recent weeks alone, Seattle manager Mike Hargrove has replaced Eddie Guardado with a closer by committee with J.J. Putz being the chief guy, and Texas' Buck Showalter has subbed out Francisco Cordero for Akinori Otsuka.
* Wednesday, Kansas City manager Buddy Bell hooked Ambiorix Burgos from the Royals closer spot after Burgos blew saves in each of his past three opportunities -- including back-to-back games Sunday and Tuesday.
* Los Angeles manager Grady Little, playing so far without one-time ubercloser Eric Gagne, was forced to stop riding Danys Baez in the ninth innings after the former Tampa Bay closer blew four saves in six opportunities. Last week, Little promoted Takashi Saito.
* Earlier, of course, Boston shoved ineffective Keith Foulke aside to make room for the game's newest ninth-inning star, Jonathan Papelbon.
Just goes to show, if you're expecting perfection, that's a tall order. Even the sainted Mariano Rivera blew a save in the Yankees' exhilarating and maddening 14-13 victory over Texas on Tuesday night.
"It is very difficult to do," Astros general manager Tim Purpura says. "You look around baseball and see closers struggling. Billy Wagner (three blown saves in 11 opportunities with the Mets), Eddie Guardado (three blown saves in seven opportunities) ... it happens.
"You expect perfection from these guys, and you aren't always going to get it. Brad is as near to perfect as I've seen from a closer, and we've had some of the best here -- Wagner, Octavio Dotel."
Lidge was told by several folks, including Joe McEwing, the former Met who is in his first season in Houston, that a subtle move before his delivery was tipping batters as to whether he was about to throw a slider.
Consequently, hitters would lay off of the slider -- which looks like a fastball but breaks down and hard late, usually dropping out of the strike zone -- and sit on his fastball.
Maybe going exclusively to the stretch compounded Lidge's problems, maybe not.
He sure as heck hopes that going back to the full windup, and tuning up his mechanics, gets him back on track.
At the very least, his confidence was shaken earlier this season -- if not from last October, then from the way he was issuing walks.
"A couple of outings, the leadoff guy got on base and ran," he says. "We thought it would be easier for me to go from the stretch, like a lot of relievers do."
Looking back, he now thinks he suddenly couldn't find the plate as consistently as he usually does -- - 16 walks in 19 2/3 innings -- because hitters knew to lay off of his slider.
And that, combined with opponents running to get into scoring position, completely shot his rhythm.
"He's already feeling better about himself having switched back to the windup," Astros catcher Brad Ausmus says.
And, like a Porsche just out of the garage that's purring again, he's produced consecutive solid outings. Which is why Garner is about ready to reinstall him as the closer.
"I've never been worried about Brad Lidge," Ausmus says. "I think these are definite positive steps. His stuff is too good. He might have been tipping his pitches.
"There have been nights where opposing hitters tell you, and even Albert Pujols said this, that he's too good, his stuff is too good."
Lidge was quizzed about last October so much in spring training that, about midway through, Garner, worried that the questions might prod him into some sort of mental funk, put in a moratorium on the subject. He told Lidge he didn't want him discussing it anymore, and if anybody had a problem with it, he said, tell them it was the manager's decision.
Then, when he blew three saves early, Lidge -- who blew only four all of last season -- was shoved under the microscope more rapidly than those frogs in your old biology class.
With good reason: His 16 walks this season? He issued only 23 all of last season, in 70 2/3 innings.
"A few years back, there was a time when the closer people thought was the greatest of all time, Mariano Rivera, had some tough outings and was getting booed at Yankee Stadium," Ausmus says. "He's in a position where you're going to have some bumps in the road.
"I firmly believe that, by the end of the season or next season, nobody is going to remember this valley that Brad is going through, or climbing out of."
Meanwhile, speaking from the Misery Loves Company section of the demoted closers department, Lidge has noticed that he's not exactly alone in choking up ninth-inning hairballs.
"I look and see what's going on," he says. "I've talked to Wagner and Todd Jones (the Detroit closer, who converted his 12th save in 13 opportunities for the Tigers on Thursday). They're two great guys. I know some other closers have had trouble."
Oh yeah? Like, who?
Guardado was yanked from his role by Hargrove on May 4. Like Garner with Lidge, Hargrove said it was just a temporary thing, until Guardado gets himself back together again.
Since then, Guardado has turned in four scoreless performances, one inning each. How long until Hargrove reinserts him? Well, there are a lot of eyes on that one. The Mariners have employed a closer by committee, leaning hard on Putz, a 29-year-old who not only brings talent but is an eager student as well.
"He's a guy that wants to learn, a guy that works hard and a guy that's strong mentally," Guardado told Dave Andriesen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I told him the other day, no matter what happens in your career, whether it's closing or setting up or whatever, don't ever forget where you come from. That's going to take you a long way."
In Texas, Otsuka, acquired from San Diego over the winter along with starter Adam Eaton for starting pitcher Chris Young, has scooped up five saves in six opportunities since Cordero's demotion. Cordero? He's 3-2 with three saves, a 7.94 ERA -- and no save opportunities since Showalter removed him from the role in late April.
Nomar's hit parade
Some batsmen are so good they're said to fall out of bed hitting (while the rest of us repeatedly hit the snooze alarm).
In Los Angeles, Nomar Garciaparra fell off of the disabled list hitting.
After missing the season's first three weeks with a strained muscle in his right rib cage, he eased back into the Dodgers lineup on April 22 with a two-hit game against Arizona -- and hasn't stopped swinging since.
He was hitting .337 at midweek -- which, had he enough at-bats to qualify for the batting race, would rank sixth in the NL -- with five home runs, 25 RBI and a .418 on-base percentage.
And through this week, still breaking into his new toy box of a position at first base, Garciaparra had handled 204 chances without an error. The only other NL first baseman to field more than 100 chances without an error is St. Louis' Pujols.
But enough about the leather. Everybody knows the Dodgers signed Garciaparra because they thought he could still swing it. And has he ever.
"I think the type of injury he had actually was good for Nomar for hitting when he came back," says Dodgers manager Little, who became familiar with All Things Nomar when Little managed Boston and Garciaparra was his shortstop a few years back.
"Instead of that big, full-bodied swing Nomar always had, it made him use his hands more. And I think he's kept swinging like that ever since."
Ignorant no more
Maybe they were the tools of ignorance in the past. But over the past several days, the catching equipment has been little more than a prop for the coming-out of a couple of catchers.
While his team was being soundly thrashed 10-1 by San Francisco on Monday night, Houston's Ausmus was freed from his plate duties and asked to play second base during the game's final three innings. He had one fielding chance at his new position -- and made a sweet play on Mark Sweeney's ground ball, throwing him out at first.
Meanwhile, Detroit manager Jim Leyland liberated Pudge Rodriguez from catching in Baltimore on May 9, actually starting him at first because Chris Shelton needed a night off and Dmitri Young wasn't physically ready to play in the field after coming off of the disabled list.
In Ausmus' case, last time he played second in an organized game, he was in the seventh grade. He has, however, now played all of the infield positions at one time or another in the majors.
"I need to get to the outfield," Ausmus quipped a day later. "I've played all of the infield positions.
"I'm going to go and take some fly balls before the game today and hope Garner notices."
Ausmus has pretty much been a full-time catcher since his junior year in high school. He played shortstop as a sophomore, being forced from behind the plate only because the varsity team captain was the catcher.
His range as a shortstop?
"I'd like to say good, but I have no idea," he said.
And here's how fragile a career can be, depending on which fork in the road you take: Out of high school, Ausmus signed a letter of intent to attend Dartmouth, but signed instead with the New York Yankees when they drafted him. Dartmouth might be Ivy League, but the coach planned to make Ausmus his shortstop.
Years later, that sure doesn't seem Ivy-League-smart.
"Thank God I signed with the Yankees," Ausmus said, knowing that remaining behind the plate probably saved his future major-league career.
He shudders at where he might be had he gone to Dartmouth instead and played shortstop.
"I probably would have been an evil lawyer," he said.
As for Rodriguez, he had never played anything other than catcher or designated hitter through his first 1,914 games, as Danny Knobler of the Booth (Mich.) Newspaper Service reports. Yet he did fine at first -- and started strongly, stopping a hard-hit grounder down the line in the first inning.
"Just give me the glove," Rodriguez told reporters afterward. "I can play anywhere. Trust me, I can play anywhere."
Batting around
San Francisco right-hander Matt Morris' five favorite road restaurants:
1. Metropolitan Grill, Seattle: "I like the atmosphere, and they've got a good wine list."
2. Balaban's, St. Louis: "They've got all kinds of (different) food. It's a nicer restaurant with good wine. And they usually have a jazz band playing."
3. Arturo's, New York: "My favorite. We always went there when I was a kid. It's northern Italian, hard-core. It's a very small place with good food."
4. Capital Grille: "They're all over. The Stoly Dolies are great. It's Stoly vodka sitting in a big pineapple jug."
5. Mo's, Milwaukee: "It's a steakhouse. I've just had a bunch of great times there."
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
HOUSTON -- Not that the Houston Astros needed a closer this week while San Francisco was waxing them by a combined score of 34-5. But for that day when the Astros might need a closer again ...
Hours of video later, Brad Lidge, pitching coach Jim Hickey, manager Phil Garner and the rest of the gang are pretty sure they have proof that the demoted closer's struggles have nothing to do with any remaining psychological scars from surrendering October walk-off home runs to Albert Pujols and Scott Podsednik and everything to do with a flaw in his delivery.
"My whole career I've gone from the windup," says Lidge, who was removed from the closer's role by Garner earlier this month following three blown saves and a rash of walks. "After the first couple of games this year, I stupidly decided to go from the stretch. And I had a rough month, and there was a lot of talk that I was tipping my pitches from the stretch."
Does he think he was?
"I know I was," says Lidge, whose exile from the closer's role now is expected to conclude as soon as this weekend. "I throw two pitches -- a fastball and a slider. If you know which one is coming, I'm in trouble. Anybody is.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to avoid that now."
As far as coughing up games, Lidge isn't exactly the Lone Ranger. One of the dominant threads running through this season is that life as a closer isn't exactly all cookies and ice cream:
* In recent weeks alone, Seattle manager Mike Hargrove has replaced Eddie Guardado with a closer by committee with J.J. Putz being the chief guy, and Texas' Buck Showalter has subbed out Francisco Cordero for Akinori Otsuka.
* Wednesday, Kansas City manager Buddy Bell hooked Ambiorix Burgos from the Royals closer spot after Burgos blew saves in each of his past three opportunities -- including back-to-back games Sunday and Tuesday.
* Los Angeles manager Grady Little, playing so far without one-time ubercloser Eric Gagne, was forced to stop riding Danys Baez in the ninth innings after the former Tampa Bay closer blew four saves in six opportunities. Last week, Little promoted Takashi Saito.
* Earlier, of course, Boston shoved ineffective Keith Foulke aside to make room for the game's newest ninth-inning star, Jonathan Papelbon.
Just goes to show, if you're expecting perfection, that's a tall order. Even the sainted Mariano Rivera blew a save in the Yankees' exhilarating and maddening 14-13 victory over Texas on Tuesday night.
"It is very difficult to do," Astros general manager Tim Purpura says. "You look around baseball and see closers struggling. Billy Wagner (three blown saves in 11 opportunities with the Mets), Eddie Guardado (three blown saves in seven opportunities) ... it happens.
"You expect perfection from these guys, and you aren't always going to get it. Brad is as near to perfect as I've seen from a closer, and we've had some of the best here -- Wagner, Octavio Dotel."
Lidge was told by several folks, including Joe McEwing, the former Met who is in his first season in Houston, that a subtle move before his delivery was tipping batters as to whether he was about to throw a slider.
Consequently, hitters would lay off of the slider -- which looks like a fastball but breaks down and hard late, usually dropping out of the strike zone -- and sit on his fastball.
Maybe going exclusively to the stretch compounded Lidge's problems, maybe not.
He sure as heck hopes that going back to the full windup, and tuning up his mechanics, gets him back on track.
At the very least, his confidence was shaken earlier this season -- if not from last October, then from the way he was issuing walks.
"A couple of outings, the leadoff guy got on base and ran," he says. "We thought it would be easier for me to go from the stretch, like a lot of relievers do."
Looking back, he now thinks he suddenly couldn't find the plate as consistently as he usually does -- - 16 walks in 19 2/3 innings -- because hitters knew to lay off of his slider.
And that, combined with opponents running to get into scoring position, completely shot his rhythm.
"He's already feeling better about himself having switched back to the windup," Astros catcher Brad Ausmus says.
And, like a Porsche just out of the garage that's purring again, he's produced consecutive solid outings. Which is why Garner is about ready to reinstall him as the closer.
"I've never been worried about Brad Lidge," Ausmus says. "I think these are definite positive steps. His stuff is too good. He might have been tipping his pitches.
"There have been nights where opposing hitters tell you, and even Albert Pujols said this, that he's too good, his stuff is too good."
Lidge was quizzed about last October so much in spring training that, about midway through, Garner, worried that the questions might prod him into some sort of mental funk, put in a moratorium on the subject. He told Lidge he didn't want him discussing it anymore, and if anybody had a problem with it, he said, tell them it was the manager's decision.
Then, when he blew three saves early, Lidge -- who blew only four all of last season -- was shoved under the microscope more rapidly than those frogs in your old biology class.
With good reason: His 16 walks this season? He issued only 23 all of last season, in 70 2/3 innings.
"A few years back, there was a time when the closer people thought was the greatest of all time, Mariano Rivera, had some tough outings and was getting booed at Yankee Stadium," Ausmus says. "He's in a position where you're going to have some bumps in the road.
"I firmly believe that, by the end of the season or next season, nobody is going to remember this valley that Brad is going through, or climbing out of."
Meanwhile, speaking from the Misery Loves Company section of the demoted closers department, Lidge has noticed that he's not exactly alone in choking up ninth-inning hairballs.
"I look and see what's going on," he says. "I've talked to Wagner and Todd Jones (the Detroit closer, who converted his 12th save in 13 opportunities for the Tigers on Thursday). They're two great guys. I know some other closers have had trouble."
Oh yeah? Like, who?
Guardado was yanked from his role by Hargrove on May 4. Like Garner with Lidge, Hargrove said it was just a temporary thing, until Guardado gets himself back together again.
Since then, Guardado has turned in four scoreless performances, one inning each. How long until Hargrove reinserts him? Well, there are a lot of eyes on that one. The Mariners have employed a closer by committee, leaning hard on Putz, a 29-year-old who not only brings talent but is an eager student as well.
"He's a guy that wants to learn, a guy that works hard and a guy that's strong mentally," Guardado told Dave Andriesen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I told him the other day, no matter what happens in your career, whether it's closing or setting up or whatever, don't ever forget where you come from. That's going to take you a long way."
In Texas, Otsuka, acquired from San Diego over the winter along with starter Adam Eaton for starting pitcher Chris Young, has scooped up five saves in six opportunities since Cordero's demotion. Cordero? He's 3-2 with three saves, a 7.94 ERA -- and no save opportunities since Showalter removed him from the role in late April.
Nomar's hit parade
Some batsmen are so good they're said to fall out of bed hitting (while the rest of us repeatedly hit the snooze alarm).
In Los Angeles, Nomar Garciaparra fell off of the disabled list hitting.
After missing the season's first three weeks with a strained muscle in his right rib cage, he eased back into the Dodgers lineup on April 22 with a two-hit game against Arizona -- and hasn't stopped swinging since.
He was hitting .337 at midweek -- which, had he enough at-bats to qualify for the batting race, would rank sixth in the NL -- with five home runs, 25 RBI and a .418 on-base percentage.
And through this week, still breaking into his new toy box of a position at first base, Garciaparra had handled 204 chances without an error. The only other NL first baseman to field more than 100 chances without an error is St. Louis' Pujols.
But enough about the leather. Everybody knows the Dodgers signed Garciaparra because they thought he could still swing it. And has he ever.
"I think the type of injury he had actually was good for Nomar for hitting when he came back," says Dodgers manager Little, who became familiar with All Things Nomar when Little managed Boston and Garciaparra was his shortstop a few years back.
"Instead of that big, full-bodied swing Nomar always had, it made him use his hands more. And I think he's kept swinging like that ever since."
Ignorant no more
Maybe they were the tools of ignorance in the past. But over the past several days, the catching equipment has been little more than a prop for the coming-out of a couple of catchers.
While his team was being soundly thrashed 10-1 by San Francisco on Monday night, Houston's Ausmus was freed from his plate duties and asked to play second base during the game's final three innings. He had one fielding chance at his new position -- and made a sweet play on Mark Sweeney's ground ball, throwing him out at first.
Meanwhile, Detroit manager Jim Leyland liberated Pudge Rodriguez from catching in Baltimore on May 9, actually starting him at first because Chris Shelton needed a night off and Dmitri Young wasn't physically ready to play in the field after coming off of the disabled list.
In Ausmus' case, last time he played second in an organized game, he was in the seventh grade. He has, however, now played all of the infield positions at one time or another in the majors.
"I need to get to the outfield," Ausmus quipped a day later. "I've played all of the infield positions.
"I'm going to go and take some fly balls before the game today and hope Garner notices."
Ausmus has pretty much been a full-time catcher since his junior year in high school. He played shortstop as a sophomore, being forced from behind the plate only because the varsity team captain was the catcher.
His range as a shortstop?
"I'd like to say good, but I have no idea," he said.
And here's how fragile a career can be, depending on which fork in the road you take: Out of high school, Ausmus signed a letter of intent to attend Dartmouth, but signed instead with the New York Yankees when they drafted him. Dartmouth might be Ivy League, but the coach planned to make Ausmus his shortstop.
Years later, that sure doesn't seem Ivy-League-smart.
"Thank God I signed with the Yankees," Ausmus said, knowing that remaining behind the plate probably saved his future major-league career.
He shudders at where he might be had he gone to Dartmouth instead and played shortstop.
"I probably would have been an evil lawyer," he said.
As for Rodriguez, he had never played anything other than catcher or designated hitter through his first 1,914 games, as Danny Knobler of the Booth (Mich.) Newspaper Service reports. Yet he did fine at first -- and started strongly, stopping a hard-hit grounder down the line in the first inning.
"Just give me the glove," Rodriguez told reporters afterward. "I can play anywhere. Trust me, I can play anywhere."
Batting around
San Francisco right-hander Matt Morris' five favorite road restaurants:
1. Metropolitan Grill, Seattle: "I like the atmosphere, and they've got a good wine list."
2. Balaban's, St. Louis: "They've got all kinds of (different) food. It's a nicer restaurant with good wine. And they usually have a jazz band playing."
3. Arturo's, New York: "My favorite. We always went there when I was a kid. It's northern Italian, hard-core. It's a very small place with good food."
4. Capital Grille: "They're all over. The Stoly Dolies are great. It's Stoly vodka sitting in a big pineapple jug."
5. Mo's, Milwaukee: "It's a steakhouse. I've just had a bunch of great times there."