Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Trembley the latest AL victim

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Trembley the latest AL victim

by Matt Smith

WhgbHlSqDave Trembley was sacked from his position as manager of the Baltimore Orioles last week, becoming the second manager to lose his job this season following Trey Hillman’s departure from the Kansas City Royals in May.  

As with Hillman, Trembley’s fate was widely predicted prior to the decision being made.  The team was playing poorly and there was little evidence that Trembley had any answers to prevent the slide from continuing. 

His ability to take the team forward was undoubtedly hampered by injuries and offseason additions that haven’t paid off.  Garrett Atkins has been terrible, while Miguel Tejada’s 2009 renaissance with the Astros looks like being one final flourish by the veteran rather than a sign that the decline he had showed prior to that had been reversed. 

Both outcomes were entirely predictable and General Manager Andy MacPhail therefore has to shoulder some of the blame; however the injuries to Mike Gonzalez and Brian Roberts have been a cruel blow to a team that could not cope with the absence of such important players. 

Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley listens to a question from the media before the Orioles MLB American League baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Baltimore, in this file image from Maryland July 10, 2009. The Baltimore Orioles have fired Trembley as they try to end their worst start in 22 years, the team said Friday. REUTERS/Joe Giza/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

The Orioles have the misfortune to play in the AL East and when you look at their results this season you can have some sympathy for Trembley’s plight.  Their 15-41 record prior to Sunday’s game against the Red Sox includes a 6-23 record against their division rivals who amount to the best two teams in baseball (Rays and Yankees) and two others that are in the top ten (Blue Jays and Red Sox). 

Still, unless the divisions are realigned or the unbalanced schedule is changed any year soon, that’s the standard they have to meet.  With no sign of a considerable investment in free agents on the horizon (not as though that offers any guarantee of success anyway), Baltimore’s hopes of competing in the AL East centre on developing their own.  The doubts raised about Trembley’s ability to help the likes of Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz develop in the Big Leagues were too much for MacPhail to overlook.

And any manager that consistently puts Corey Patterson in the lead-off spot, despite plenty of evidence showing he is not effective there, can’t grumble when he gets kicked out of the door. 

Who’s next?

Hillman and Trembley are the latest victims of the American League pressure cooker.  They were the two most likely to be sacked prior to the season, so who might be sitting uncomfortably now as the next head on the block?

Even though the Cleveland Indians have the worst record in the junior circuit, Manny Acta was appointed over the offseason to lead a rebuilding project and his job is safe regardless of a poor win-loss record this season.  The Seattle Mariners’ Don Wakamatsu doesn’t have that safety net.  General Manager Jack Zduriencik has tried to take the pressure off by stating that he never felt the roster he had put together was quite the postseason certainty that others were claiming, but a 22-33 record prior to last night’s game is nowhere near good enough. 

The same can be said for the Chicago White Sox’s form.  Unless major improvement is seen over the next month, several players could be on the trade block (Paul Konerko and Jake Peavy to name two) and ‘Out of Left Field’ regular Ozzie Guillen may take his distinctive personality to a media outlet. 

August 30, 2007 - Arlington, Texas..Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington during the game against the Chicago White Sox at The Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington, Texas on August 30, 2007. Washington's contract was extended through 2009 on Wednesday by the Rangers. .The Texas Rangers defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-1 to sweep the three game series. .Jeff Etessam / CSM Photo via Newscom

It would seem strange to say that the person managing the team leading the AL West could be the most in trouble, but my hunch is that Ron Washington could be the next AL manager to go.  The reason for doubting his future with the Texas Rangers springs from his offseason troubles and the uncertainty surrounding the impending sale of the team. 

Much as I like Wash, I still get the impression that the Front Office will act quickly if the team hits a rough patch, almost waiting for an excuse to replace him with someone else.  The Rangers’ June schedule looks favourable, but they have a tough sequence directly after the All-Star break in July (3 away to Boston, 3 away to Detroit and then 4 at home to the Angels) and they also face the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays in order during August.  Either stretch could be decisive if GM Jon Daniels does have an itchy trigger finger, particularly if the new ownership group is in place by then.

Meanwhile in the National League, the Brewers’ Ken Macha and the Diamondbacks’ A.J. Hinch both need their teams to find some form soon, otherwise they will find themselves joining Hillman and Trembley on the sidelines.

A gander at Galarraga

Thomas Ogilvie of the Checked Swing blog suggested comparing Armando Galarraga’s ‘perfect game’ to those of Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay, in line with the analysis in last week’s WHGB.  So here we go …

The Brooks Baseball website data shows that Galarraga took on the Indians with just two pitches: a fastball averaging 93 MPH and an 86 MPH slider (the three 2-seam fastballs and single change-up are probably wrongly classified by the MLB.com Gameday algorithm).  The key was not so much what variations he used, but the way he approached the batters.  Quite simply, he pounded the strikezone.

  Pitches Strikes 1p strikes GB FB SO
Halladay 115 72 14 8 8 11
Braden 109 77 17 7 14 6
Galarraga 88 67 24 14 10 3

‘1p strikes’ = first pitch strikes

Three-quarters of his pitches were strikes and all but four at-bats (he faced 28 batters, don’t forget) quickly moved to 0-1.  The two figures that stand out the most to me are that he only struck out three batters and he only threw 88 pitches in total.  This shows that he wasn’t over-powering the Cleveland batters, indeed only five of the sixty-seven strikes were of the ‘swing and miss’ variety, two of them accounting for the 3rd strikes against Mark Grudzielanek and Jhonny Peralta. 

More often than not, the Indians either let a pitch go for a strike or they connected and didn’t do much with it, either fouling the pitch off or hitting into an out.  Cleveland are one of the worst hitting teams in the Majors so far this season, so their batters probably didn’t help themselves too much at the plate; however Galarraga should take the credit for exploiting this and holding his nerve right to the end.

It was an outstanding performance and an incredible story, made all the more memorable by the dignified way in which Galarraga handled the immense disappointment of seeing his bid ruined by an umpiring mistake at the very last.  While it will not go down in the record books, it will always be remembered.

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This week’s ‘early’ MLB game schedule

We’ve got nine early games this working week, spread over three days.  Chicago Cubs fans are very well served as their team is in ‘early’ action three times, the third game of which is the opener of the latest ‘Windy City’ series against the White Sox on Friday.

Although it doesn’t start at a convenient time, I’m sure many UK-based baseball fans also will be tuning in to ESPN America or logging on to MLB.com at five past midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to make his Major League debut for the Washington Nationals against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the most eagerly anticipated debut that I can recall.

All times are in BST.

Monday 7 June

17.35. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh (Carlos Silva – Dana Eveland)

Tuesday 8 June

No early games

Wednesday 9 June

No early games

Thursday 10 June

17.35. San Francisco at Cincinnati (Todd Wellemeyer – Mike Leake)
18.10. San Diego at NY Mets (Jon Garland – R.A. Dickey)
19.05. Detroit at Chicago White Sox (Max Scherzer – John Danks)
19.10. Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee (Ryan Dempster – Randy Wolf)
20.10. Houston at Colorado (Roy Oswalt – Jhoulys Chacin)
20.35. LA Angels at Oakland (Ervin Santana – Trevor Cahill)
20.40. Atlanta at Arizona (Tommy Hanson – Dontrelle Willis)

Friday 11 June

19.20. Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs (Jake Peavy – Randy Wells)

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

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3 comments

Owen June 7, 2010 - 1:56 pm

This week is all about Strasburg. Having seen him in Holland for Team USA and last year in the Arizona Fall League he is the real deal. I have an extra 16×12 inch Strasburg signed photograph for sale if anyone is interested.

Is anyone heading out to Haarlem next month?

Cheers

Reply
Matt Smith June 7, 2010 - 5:58 pm

Hi Owen. It’s going to be a huge event and it’s great that Nationals fans finally have something to get excited about. With the Nats expected by many to select Bryce Harper with the first overall pick tonight in the amateur draft, it’s going to be quite a couple of days for fans in Washington.

I wasn’t able to work out a trip to Haarlem this time, unfortunately. Hope you have a great time if you go.

Reply
Owen June 7, 2010 - 7:39 pm

Yes you are correct that they are shaping up well with Harper also.

I plan to be in Haarlem for a few days to see the Cuabn guys.

The Dutch All Star game the week before could also be worth checking out. Home run derby and old timers game with the main game to follow.

Reply

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