Great Day To Be A Hitter; Lousy Day To Be Mazzaro

by Nico on Mar 22, 2009 4:33 PM PDT

Final Score: White Sox 12, A's 10

At the end of one inning it was 4-2, but the game didn't end 36-18; close, but not quite. On a day when the wind was blowing out to all fields, Vin Mazzaro's bid to sneak into the big league rotation likely came to a crashing thud. A good sinker is a great weapon against the long ball, but not only was Mazzaro unable to keep the ball on the ground, the hits off of him weren't cheap.

After walking the leadoff hitter, Mazzaro was lit up for 5 hits and 4 runs in the 1st, then for 3 more in the 2nd courtesy of a Carlos Quentin 3-run HR. Mazzaro's line for the day: 2 IP, 6 hits, 7 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.

Braden pitched the next 5.1 IP for the A's and was generally good, except for 3 solo HRs (Betemit, Thome, Fields) that comprised the 3 runs on his ledger. Meanwhile, the wind was blowing so hard the players were dropping, like, flies. (Isn't grammar fun?) The White Sox were charged with 4 errors in the game, Oakland for 2 more.

How did Oakland put 10 runs on the board? Kurt Suzuki had a 4 for 4 day, including a triple, Ryan Sweeney (.432) continued his assault on the Cactus League with 2 hits, Daric Barton blasted his first HR of the Spring and went 3 for 5, and Cliff Pennington's went 3 for 4 with a pair of SBs, as the A's fought back from an 8-2 deficit to put the tying runs in scoring position before Rajai Davis popped up with runners at second and third to end it.

With Duchscherer and Gio shelved, Jerome Williams already optioned, and Mazzaro now having been lit up twice in a row, it now appears as if Braden, Gallagher, Eveland, E. Gonzalez, Outman, Cahill, and Anderson are the last seven men standing for five spots in the A's April rotation. Should be a fascinating couple of weeks.

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in fairness, Mazzaro faced the White Sox

on a day with lots of wind, while Cahill faced the split-squad Giants yesterday.

I remember that Haren had problems with his splitters not dropping during spring training in Arizona a few years back.

I still hesitate about having any of MAC anointed as starters just yet…but it appears that at least one of them may make it – and not only because of how good they are but unfortunately what the alternatives are.

by OaklandSi on Mar 22, 2009 4:42 PM PDT reply actions

wind shmind

the difference is that Cahill has had 30 groundouts to 7 in the air this spring – the wind doesn’t make a difference when the opposing team can’t get the ball off the ground. I just read this:

“154 pitchers have managed to accumulate more than 10 innings pitched this spring and none of them has a better ratio of groundouts to flyouts than Cahill.”

by oakballnack on Mar 22, 2009 7:37 PM PDT up reply actions

perhaps you don't remember the problem Haren had

it wasn’t with the wind, but with the difference in Arizona climate taking away the downward bite to his slider. There was actually quite a bit of discussion at the time, including by Haren. Since Mazzaro is supposed to be known for his pitches having a heavy sink (thus resulting in lots of ground balls), I was wondering if he wasn’t having the same issue as Haren had experienced.

Again, Cahill pitched against the Giants (remember what kind of offense they have? and it was also a split squad). The White Sox have quite a bit more offense.

by OaklandSi on Mar 22, 2009 8:33 PM PDT up reply actions

I dunno...

the Giants’ spring training hitting has been better than the White Sox. Just sayin’…

             AVG    OBP     SLG    OPS

Giants      .314   .359    .512   .871

White Sox   .286   .350    .471   .821

Probably won’t hold up, but one never knows for sure.

Clowns to the left of me... Jokers to the right...

by FoolshGame22 on Mar 22, 2009 10:20 PM PDT up reply actions

probably has more to do with who is and isn't hitting

and who and who isn’t playing every day in Spring Training.

I don’t think there’s any question that the White Sox’ offense — both on paper today and during 2008 –– is superior to that of the Giants.

by OaklandSi on Mar 23, 2009 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions

er

that’s 30 ground balls to 7 fly balls over the course of the spring – that’s each of his outings, not just the outing against the Giants. And he’s been pitching in the same climate. Pitchers can look for whatever excuses they want, but it really comes down to performance. Why do some sinker pitchers have more success in Colorado? Howabout because their sinkers are BETTER than average. Cahill’s sinker is just better, he can command it better down in the zone, and it is a more devastating pitch than Mazzaro’s. That’s no knock on Mazzaro – Cahill is one of the best pitching prospects in the game, after all.

btw – Haren did just fine last season in Arizona’s climate

by oakballnack on Mar 23, 2009 10:30 AM PDT up reply actions

he didn't when he was with Oakland

by OaklandSi on Mar 23, 2009 1:08 PM PDT up reply actions

eh, yeah

that’s my point. When he was with Oakland, it was during spring training and chances are his pitches just weren’t at their tip top shape – but last year during the regular season, he had an excellent season in that same exact climate – so how does that make any sense? Mazzaro has apparently been reassigned to minor league camp, anyhow, so this discussion is moot, really.

by oakballnack on Mar 23, 2009 4:05 PM PDT up reply actions