"Kent's the perfect example of a guy who knows what to do with a pitch you can hit," said manager Joe Torre. "What I'm seeing in Jeff, he's not going out of the strike zone, like we've seen when he knew he's the one we have to count on."A big part of getting your pitch is who's protecting you. Jeff feels responsible, whether he's naked or surrounded by Manny. I'm just giving my perspective. It's been a benefit to the two guys who back-to-back have been a force in this game."
Dear Mr. Torre: Correlation does not equal causation.
That is all.
6 comments:
It's interesting to see how Torre's so-called genius has been exposed away from that All-Star-esque roster.
If I were a Dodgers fan, I would probably have a good cry.
Has an MLB pitcher ever said, "Yeah, I threw that fastball right down the middle because I don't want to face the next guy who will surely hit a home run off me."? Seriously, I can understand that you would be walked more if you're the only good hitter in the lineup, but no one is going to pitch differently to you. There is a scouting report on you, and the pitcher will pitch according to that scouting report no matter what. Maybe it's just that Mr. Kent has more confidence.
Or...maybe it's just a small sample size.
Logic would say that if you have a great hitter on deck, the pitcher might bear down on the hitter at the plate even more.
This would be a great application for the MLB pitch-track data. How many more fastballs does a hitter see when the guy on deck is on a tear?
Chris, while your analysis of Torre is spot-on, there are those who are going to just look at the standings, and say "Torre went from the Yankees to the Dodgers, and now the Yankees are a third place team and the Dodgers are tied for first", and he's going to get some credit anyway. The world's tough like that.
Yeah, I know, Drew. It's just one of those things.
But the rest of us...oh, we know.
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