Royals-Sox: Kason Point
Editor’s Note: OK, we typed up a few random baseball thoughts Monday night while watching the TV broadcast of Boston’s Kason Gabbard (who?) throwing a three-hit shutout against the Royals. However, unlike our usual random thoughts column – where we throw all of our thoughts into one, long, rambling, blog – we’re going to try something new here and put each in a separate blog. Hey, we’re always experimenting here at TSOB.
-- I’m not kidding about that parenthetical “Who?” after Kason Gabbard’s name. Before the game began, I sent an email to Bill James with six words, “Who the heck is Kason Gabbard?” I have not heard back from Bill yet, but I’m sure his response will be a doosy. The guy looked like Jamie Glavine Rogers Lopat Ford.
Gabbard’s performance Monday (he generally threw his fastball in the 85 mph range) fits into this thought I’ve been having lately about the use of radar guns in baseball. I wrote about this in Sunday’s paper, and I don’t have a lot to add except to say that watching Gabbard baffle the Royals for nine innings with his assortment of changeups, curves and pretty well located fastballs reaffirmed my belief that pitching is still about upsetting timing. A big fastball certainly helps immensely. But it's not the only way to do it.
It seems to me that as teams look for market inefficiencies, this could be the new frontier -- pitchers with secondary pitches, above average command, control and below average radar gun readings. It seems to me that those guys are pretty available right now while so many people are staring at the radar gun.
In 1978, before the radar gun really took hold, you had a pretty good collection of successful pitchers who probably -- at least at that time -- had below average fastballs (Grimsley, Figueroa, Splittorff, Hooton, Niekro, Flanagan, the other Niekro, Sorensen, Knepper, Gura, McGregor, Caldwell, Perry, et. al). I know the game has changed some, but I suspect many of these guys could still get people out.
Postscript: I just heard back from Bill, and he was also impressed with Gabbard's performance. Apparently during the game John Henry told Bill he thinks that they should play the Army song whenever Gabbard pitches because "That Kason goes rolling along."
7 comments:
fantastic. Gabbard pitched well this year...he's been a great fill in for Schilling and i would not be surprised if he replaces Tavarez as the Red Sox 5th starter when Curt comes back. No need to rush up Buckholtz or Lester if they aren't ready...Gabbard's only had one bad outing as a member of the team this year. he pitched well last year, too.
Gabbard has fun stuff. 8K's on a very free swinging Royals team, i'm even more excited to see them deal with Wakefield tonight!
Joe, fyi, I sent a link to this post over to Bostonist.
-t
Loved the Sunday feature, Joe. Radar guns seem to be like a lot of other nifty tools we have today, regardless of setting: if the tool *seems* useful enough, it will be used within an inch of our lives, regardless of payback. So we enslave ourselves to, I don't know, e-mail or power drills or ROI analysis or whatever it is, often failing to stop and ask, "Is this the right tool to use?"
This is particularly ironic because of all the great examples you give (Quiz, Splitorff, et al.) of non-power pitchers who *won games*. I like the approach the Royals are taking with Hardy: if he's getting everybody out, he's a good pitcher, period - and let him keep moving up until he's not getting everybody out. Maybe in five years he'll be racking up wins in the Bigs and we'll be calling him the second coming of Moyer, John, or whoever.
And you're right - it's a market inefficiency just waiting to be exploited.
i'm not sure that the market for this type of pitcher isnt already being exploited. command/control moyer types advance in the minors and get to the big leagues based on some of the more "moneyball"ish stats (low walk rates, high swing and miss rates, more ground balls than fly balls, etc.)
the problem i see is that it is very difficult for guys like this to sustain themselves over long careers. or maybe it is hard for these guys to have long careers as ONLY this type of pitcher. purely anecdotal i know, but jeremy sowers looked like a finished product last year, ready to settle in as the next moyer. but i think the difference between him and gabbard is K's.
i guess what im saying is dont think that what these guys bring to the table isnt undervalued the way OBP used to be. guys who get hitters out get the call no matter what they throw. and the ones who can't usually end up on a bus to somewhere
Or you could have gone with:
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I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
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Hey Daltonic Mr. Wakefield gave up 6 earned in 6.1 innings tonight. GO ROYALS!!
it's true! wake got tattood...a shame. i like the royals, though. young scrappy kids w/ mark g. in there is a good mix.
i still wouldn't trade teams, though.
but i would trade you willy mo for just about anyone if you're intersted.
and thats a drag because i LOVE him, he's just got to play. and in KC he'd be loooooved. more power than any one human should have at the plate.
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