TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Another Night at the Park
At the game last night I sat behind a father and son. The kid was in his young teens, and had wild "I told you to get a haircut!" hair. By their body language, you could tell that the two weren't very happy with each other at the moment. The kid was a little bored, and at one point got up to get some food.

Bad timing. His dad erupted. "I can't believe this! I take you to a Giants game, and you get up to leave when Bonds is coming to bat! You don't want to see Bonds?! Why did I even bring you?!"

The kid did a microscopic eyeroll. Yeah, he had screwed up. And probably in his dad's eyes, had screwed up yet again. The kid decided to choose his battles, shrugged, and sat back down next to his father. When he did, he put his hand on his father's shoulder. The tension evaporated from both their frames.

That was the last chance for anybody to see Barry for a while. His father Bobby passed this morning. Everyone knew it was coming, but it's still a shock. If you haven't done it in a while, take your family to a ballgame. It will be good.

---

I think that everyone who writes about baseball is required to have a Dontrelle Willis column this year. Here's mine, I saw the rookie last night at Pac Bell Park. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed. A good part of that has to do with the fact that I'm putting a lot of weight on a sample size of one game, and this was one of the worst he's put out at the big league level. He threw a lot of pitches early, and lost effectiveness in the sixth. With a kid with a big leg kick like Dontrelle, that might be the proper strategy - wait on pitches and let him tire himself out - the baseball equivalent of the Rope-A-Dope. Note that after watching Tony Phillips for a few seasons, and reading Ted Williams on hitting, I would recommend this strategy 90+% of the time, I just think it would be even more effective against a pitcher with an involved motion. Mechanics get sloppy when you are tired, and that's when you can really go to town.









A few more thoughts about last night… Dontrelle left several hundred tickets for family and friends (he grew up across the bay in Alameda). Where do you find a few hundred extra seats in Pac Bell Park? Dontrelle faced Barry Bonds three times, giving up two walks and a hit. But he got two strikes on Barry on each occasion. How hard must it be to be a rookie pitcher trying to get the benefit of the doubt from the umpire when Barry is at the plate?

Barry has 119 walks this year, so who do they stick in the five hole behind him? Edgar Alfonzo and his .362 slugging percentage. When you look at 3-4-5 hitters, do you ever see a guy with HALF the slugging percentage of the guy in front of him? Do the Giants really need to do this? Let's look at some other players on the Giants:

Galarraga	.508
Grissom	.470
Santiago	.442
Cruz	.419
Snow	.413
Young	.413
Aurilla	.401

In fact, the only Giant with any real number of at bats with a lower slugging percentage than Alfonzo is Neifi Perez at .331. For crying out loud, the opposition is itching to walk Barry anyway, why make it more inviting? Bonds has a .523 OBP and projects to 152 walks. I don't think those are going to decrease in the stretch drive. The OBP would clock in at #5 in the Modern Era and the walks would be #8. It would be his fourth 150+ walk season. Ted Williams had three and Ruth two.

posted by David 1:10 PM