Considering Matsuzaka and Kazmir

Dice-K and Rays’ pitcher Scott Kazmir are very much alike in 2 significant ways.

1. They both have incredible “stuff”.  Most MLB pitchers would sacrifice digits on their catching hand to have that much talent.  Most hitters want nothing to do with either of them.

2. They work against themselves with a lack of aggressiveness.  Both guys went 5 innings last night.  They don’t go deep because they have too many innings with high pitch counts.  They are trying to finese guys, avoiding contact, rather than getting guys out.  Down here in Florida, it is the big wrap on Kazmir.  He should be the team ace, but Shields and Garza are out-pitching him.  They are aggressive, not trying to get a guy to swing at a bad pitch which leads to 3-2 counts and long innings.

Successful pitchers recognize that the goals are:

1. Get guys out.  It doesn’t matter how.  You can pitch to contact if you have a great defense.  Save pitches by getting pop ups and weak grounders.

2. Don’t allow runs.  This happens if you play around and walk guys.  It will catch up with you.  It has been Dice-K achilles heel all season long.  Too many walks leading to runs.

3. Eat up innings.  You can’t do this with high pitch count innings.  Their job should be to get to the 7th or 8th inning 80-90% of the time.  5 inning outings ruin the bullpen.  I saw it coming last night.  And the bullpen fell apart.  The Rays’ bullpen almost gave the game back (with help from some uncharacteristically weak defense).