Or maybe we should say: Brian Wilson tries to throw around the raindrops.Because if there is one thing that we've gleaned from our first few consecutive nights of watching the Giants douchey bullpen ace, it's that he has a very similar approach to that of the Jays' jarheaded closer: Keep throwing shit off the plate, and pray to your Affliction t-shirted higher power that either the umpire buys in or the hitters can't help themselves.
Not to belabour a point that we've been making all through these playoffs, but if Brian Wilson had to face the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays with any regularity, we doubt that his stature as a Big League Closer would last for long, given their penchant for keeping their bats on their shoulders.
(And if we were handier with Pitch F/X tools, we'd back this assertion up with a graphy-graph. Alas, Brooks Baseball seems to be preoccupied with stuff other than baseball right now.)
19 comments:
wow, you have no clue what you're talking about.
Wow, I said the exact same thing to the girlfriend last night. Dude works exactly like Gregg, just with a much more white power look about him.
Okay. Fine. But how many pitches has he thrown in the strike zone over the past few outings?
(No really...I'm asking? Because it looked on the TBS graphic as though everything he was throwing was outside.)
Last night, Wilson threw (via MLB Gameday):
20 pitches outside the zone.
5 pitches inside the zone.
Apparently it's anon @3:17 who has no clue. Not surprised. Better luck next time.
Yep, agreed. Anon 3:17 is a moron.
Crazy, I was thinking the same thing. Though I'd admittedly not seen much of Wilson before the NLDS - so maybe he's just having an uncharacteristically Gregg-y week? He definitely hasn't looked like the dominant closer I've heard him described as all year.
Interesting thing about Gregg, though, is that he used to pitch over in the MLB-Junior too, and he wasn't really any more effective there than he was as a Jay this year. And it's not that he really changed his tendencies - check this out:
Year - % of pitches that were strikes - O-Swing%
2008 - 59.1% - 21.5%
2009 - 61.4% - 26.1%
2010 - 59.3% - 28.1%
He's always nibbled at the strike zone... but, completely against what I would have expected, AL hitters actually swung at more pitches outside the zone than NL hitters did. Weird.
Over the past 3 years, Wilson is 12th in K/9 for relievers(with several of the people ahead of him throwing significantly fewer innings), 9th in FIP, and 9th in XFIP. So he's clearly one of the best relievers in the game right now.
His worst K/9 of the past 3 years (9.67) is better than Gregg's career high, and he's beaten him in BB rate the past couple of years.
Wilson had a brutal night. It happens. Hell, if you watched Pujols only once or twice a year you might see the only game or two where he struggles and looks mortal. But don't let that one game colour your opinion of Wilson - he is one of the more dominant relief arms in the game.
It may be fun to gang up on Anon, but in this case he's got a point. Wilson's a hell of a lot better than you guys give him credit for.
Dear Brian,
I like your beard
I find it interesting that the best closer in the history of the game never has to resort to caveman-like histrionics.
Also interesting is that apparently women like beards? Maybe that's why so many guys are wearing them now...
Oh no, an anonymous individual is insulting me on the internet (and he is using trendy adjectives like 'self serving'). It's very easy to make blanket statements (with no validity) from behind a veil of anonymity isn't it?
In this case, anon 3:17 was correct. Maybe if he had supported his comment, like Mark did, then people wouldn't have assumed he was a troll. When I try to make a point, I usually support it with data and facts (in this case I didn't because I was lazy, and why should I bother when the best argument posed was "you don't know what you are talking about").
You know who I am, because I use the same name everywhere. Meanwhile here you acting tough as an anon (how original). What does that say about you?
hee hee, that was funny.
I too thought, based on two observances of Mr. Wilson, that he pitched in a similar fashion to Mr. Gregg, but for a couple of MPH on the FB. He may be a better pitcher, but I don't think his schtick will stick, long term.
For my next act, I'm going to get drunk on rye, and post links to rebuttals I made where I think won the debate hands down.
Oh wait, I've done that already.
Man, I'am so vain.
Anon 10:08 said:
You're just as anonymous as everyone else moron
and then said:
I see you all over other bloggs
and I find that pretty funny.
Yea Ty, I have stopped responding to him because it just doesn't matter that much to me. I don't know what I did to him, but he is looking for a reaction. I won't give him one (unless indifference counts as a reaction).
We're all mostly anonymous though in fairness. There's certainly little accountability.
I don't know about that... I mean, if you just started dropping racial epithets willy-nilly I'd think "Man, that Gil Fisher guy is a total dick," and that would be the attitude with which I'd read anything you had to say after that. But if you posted the same thing as "anon", nobody would have any idea it was you.
It's not like real life, no, but anonymity is relative, I think. There's at least a certain level of accountability that comes from using an actual Blogger account vs. posting completely anonymously.
Wilson is a pretty funny guy.
link
Quite helpful piece of writing, thanks so much for this post.
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