jimbo92107

I have an idea: Let's all pretend that Robbie Grossman came up through the Twins system, and we knew all along that he was gonna be a good one.

Pitching a baseball is an act of great beauty and elegance. The complex, synchronized motion required to throw a baseball with great speed is impressive all by itself. As you increase the demands by varying speed, spinning the ball in different directions and spotting the ball within inches of where you want, the precision and athleticism approaches the level of professional ballet. Except when it doesn't. Rick Porcello is an excellent example of a pitcher that has mastered the centerline of his balance, a concept familiar to any skateboarder or surfer. He goes through his entire pitching motion as if he's on a balance beam and intends to stay on top of it. The result is that Porcello has consistently good command, from pitch one to pitch one hundred. Pat Dean doesn't stay on his centerline as well as Rick Porcello. Dean is good, but if you compare the two pitchers, you can see Dean's upper body falling off just slightly to the left or to the right. Usually Dean's off-center motion is fairly small, maybe half a foot to a foot. However, as he approached 100 pitches at the start of the 7th inning, suddenly Dean starting falling off his centerline by a foot, two feet, and worse. The result was that Dean lost command and started walking people. Clearly Paul Molitor saw this, and he wisely yanked Dean at that point. Another difference is that Porcello's pitching motion is more mechanically efficient than Dean's. Porcello has a beautifully tight arm whip and rhythm that gets good velocity without as much leg drive as Dean. Porcello's delivery requires less energy, so he can throw more pitches before he gets really tired, and his later pitches don't require max effort. Going forward I hope the Twins pitching coach (whoever it is) stresses to Pat Dean that centerline balance should never falter, no matter how tired you are. The drill for that is to do something exhausting, like fifty squat-thrusts, and then spot pitches with perfect balance. It's part of what a good pro athlete must learn to do - control their body, even when shaking with exhaustion. It's what a Jack Morris did in the tenth inning of a World Series game. Dean can learn to do that, too.

Watching the game today I was impressed by Byron Buxton's gradual improvement as a player. Nothing amazing, but incrementally Buxton is having better at-bats, and slightly better reads stealing bases. Especially with base stealing, I think Buxton got by all the way from grade school through the minor leagues with no notion of technique, just his blazing speed. When he finally got the major leagues, pitchers and catchers finally caught up to Buxton's speed, prompting the young star finally to work on all the little things that slower players must master - reading the pitcher, getting a secondary lead, dropping the lead foot back a little, etc. He still doesn't do the foot chopping, head fakes or skips, but then Buxton seldom fakes stealing... instead, he just goes. Eventually I hope he develops a much more refined and disruptive approach to base running. Pitchers already are keenly aware of him, but Buxton could greatly increase their agitation by hand and head fakes, plus much busier feet. It's all perfectly legal, not bush league, and frankly crowds love it. Ricky Henderson, y'all. At the plate, I see less obvious improvement, but definitely less fear. He seems to have accepted the fact that it's going to take a while for him to develop a more effective approach to hitting, so he's a bit more relaxed and doesn't get down on himself when he strikes out. Dealing with failure is crucial for a hitter. Instead of simply cussing your own stupidity, you have to learn from each at-bat. How did he get me last time? Should I look for the same thing? Talk to Bruno, try to do what he says next time up. Gradually you hope it sinks in. For all his physical gifts, success for Byron Buxton is going to require tons of hard work. He is an amazing athlete, but not a natural baseball player.

Technical difficulties are forcing me to go outside and play. See ya!

I like to talk about a pitcher's "broomstick," how it must fall towards home plate for a pitcher to have command. That last batter Dean's broomstick was falling right, left, right left, right. That's why his pitches were drifting wide. You don't see that much left/right fall off with Porcello, which is why he has such good command of the zone. The good news is, Pat Dean can get better command if he learns to center his balance a little better when he's getting tired. Then he might be able to finish seven innings.

Piranha attack!

Pat Dean is pitching just about as well as Porcino.

We've all seen Walking Dead... A pickax through the temple is the only way to be sure. Good times! ;-)

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." - Slogan above Gate 34, Target Field.

Yikes. There is no rolled up newspaper sufficient to spank this bad team, bad team.

Typical yips for a young pitcher. I have no idea if JT Chargois is any good. Won't know for a couple more outings. Live arm...

News flash for Chargois: MLB hitters can handle fastballs down the middle.

Shang-wei. Schmarz-waagh. Sn, sn, meghaaa. Cthulhu?

Arcia finally gets a fly ball he can handle.

But see, I had a plan! Nunez bunts down the third base line, Kepler breaks early for third base, but instead of sliding, he keeps running through the bag. Third baseman fields and fires to first. Kepler scores on a shockingly aggressive play. Fun times! Oh, and I forgot about Buxton. He rounds third when Kepler is half way home. On the bad throw to home, Buxton scores, too! Yahoo!

Whoa, Molitor... Don't yank Rogers now. He was pitching fine! Leon is just super hot, but Rogers looked good otherwise. Over-managing.

Why do the Twins seem to do so little cool stuff?? They didn't double steal. They didn't bunt to advance the runners. All the stuff they don't do adds up to a lot of nothing!

Or Nunez could have bunted down the 3rd base line... better than his pop-up. Ghaaaaa!

I'd love to see a double steal here. Kep and Buck have plenty of speed.

Wow, what a nice at-bat by Byron Buxton. Darn near wore out that pitcher all by himself. Good stuff.

One of the few reasons to watch the Twins these days... Kepler at first, Buxton trying to advance the runner. We should be seeing this for many years to come.

Just noticed something. Ball four to Kepler got past the catcher and went back to the wall. Kepler runs to first base, but before he stopped at first, the catcher had handed the ball to the ump. That's a live ball. Anybody remember when Pete Rose stole second off a walk like that? Hard to do that if the ump calls time during an ongoing play.

Gotta love Gibson gesturing at third, like, "Hey, who...? Oh, me."

How strange is baseball... Gibson has out-lasted Rodriguez.

Twinkies catch up! Plouffe plunks a sac fly!