October 19, 2004

From Baseball Prospectus. Will Carroll, in his Under The Knife column:
"In his bullpen sessions, Schilling has been pitching with a "soft front leg," meaning he's not getting a solid plant, allowing his injured push ankle to come up quickly and not take any more stress than necessary. It's a natural reaction and one that could be overcome with his normal painkiller injection. Once he takes the mound, we'll know almost instantly how Schilling will pitch ..."
Also from BP, Joe Sheehan on last night's game:
"What's most interesting about the last two nights is how the events don't fit the storyline. Were it the Red Sox -- or the A's or Twins -- who had blown two late leads and lost games in extra innings to the Yankees, it would be easy for the media: use the words "clutch," "experience" and "veteran leadership" as many times as possible. ...

As it usually does, this is manifested most clearly in the case of Derek Jeter. Jeter has had a terrible series, batting .182/.357/.227 and making a couple of errors in the field. When he booted a ground ball last night, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver nearly hurt themselves in the rush to point out the bad hop that caused the miscue. ... That Jeter had bad at-bats in important moments doesn't make him a bad person or player. The point is that he's the same player in big situations that he is at other times. He doesn't have the ability to "will" his way into hits; no player in baseball does, because the game isn't designed that way."
Sheehan then looks ahead to tonight: "The Red Sox will be down 6-3 in the eighth, and David Ortiz will hit homers in the eighth and ninth to tie. He'll then throw two innings of shutout relief, striking out four and walking none, then win the game in the 11th, stealing second and third after being intentionally walked, and scoring on a blooper that falls in front of Bernie Williams."

Works for me.

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