Mormon Baseball

Its an old story in baseball. The pitcher performs extremely well, but the team behind him doesn’t, and the pitcher ends up with a loss. That was the story for the Toronto Blue Jay’s Josh Johnson last week.
Over 5 innings Johnson pitched fairly well. He gave up 1 earned run and 7 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 2. While that perhaps isn’t a great performance, it should be sufficient to win the game. What’s missing is that the the team gave up a total of 6 runs, 5 of which were unearned, due to errors made by Johnson’s teammates.

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Sometimes just when things are going well, that’s when something goes wrong. Mitch Maier was very hot last week, hitting .571 with 2 runs, 3 rbis and 2 walks. And for the season he has also done well—he sports a .315 average with 3 home runs in 108 at bats. But halfway through the week he injured his oblique and ended up back on the DL—Maier already spent much of the season on the DL and only has half the at bats of most other players. As a result he doesn’t qualify for the stats leaders boards, but if he did he would be among the top ten in batting average, on base percentage and OPS in the International league.

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After starting the season strong, Royals’ pitcher Jeremy Guthrie has struggled, loosing ground from an era of 2.28 after his May 9th game to 4.11 at the end of this week. But this past week’s game was a quality start, despite a loss, so perhaps Guthrie will turn around his season and do better. Guthrie led the Mormon pitchers in the majors this past week with a 2.84 era, striking out 4 and giving up 6 hits and 2 walks over 6.1 innings. His performance was marred only when he was hit in the hand and taken from the game. But subsequent news reports indicate that Guthrie won’t miss his next start.

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Yankees prospect Nik Turley, who planned to attend BYU before he was drafted, seems to be improving at the AA level, but his progress seems to come in fits and starts, a strong start followed by a weaker start. This past week Turley lasted 7 innings, while not giving up a single run. He gave up 5 hits, walked 2 (a 1.00 WHIP for the game) and struck out 4. But Turley’s previous start was a 5-inning loss with a 10.80 era. Still, overall he seems to be making progress, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that he may start in AAA next year.

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Mormon baseball fans should perhaps be looking to Boston at the moment, where Jacoby Ellsbury just had a great week. In addition to retaking sole posession of first place in stolen bases in the majors, Ellsbury hit .400 for the week, scoring 6 runs and earning 4 rbis and boosting his season batting average to .289—back in the range of what he has performed in the majors in previous years. And at his current rate of stealing bases, Ellsbury may have one of the best years of his career. He has stolen 32 bases so far, on track to come close to the 70 bases he stole in his best year so far (2009). He should be able to best his second best year (2008), when he stole 50 bases.

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How long does it take before a player becomes accustomed to a new level of play? And how do you tell when they just need more time to get acclimated, or have reached the most of what they can do? Managers and players alike must wonder as they ponder when to promote or demote those who are struggling or performing well. Take Taylor Cole, for example. He pitched very well last year for Vancouver in the Northwest League (A short season), earning a 0.81 era. This year he is still fairly good (3.99 era), but has struggled at times, basically alternating a good start with a start in which he struggled — kind of like his first year in Vancouver (5.88 era).

Given this past week’s performance, it looks more like Cole is just becoming better accustomed to the new league. He struck out 7 in 7 innings without giving up a walk and just 2 earned runs (both solo home runs) for his 4th win of the season. Keep it up, Taylor, and managers will have to believe you’ve become accustomed to this level of play.

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Lets be honest. The expectations of backup players are lower. You don’t expect a better batting average. You don’t expect a lot of home runs. You expect a solid player who can do the job when needed and perhaps hit in a clutch situation. And you are very pleased when the backup comes through. So the Royals are likely very pleased with Elliot Johnson this week. He was 7 for 18 (.389) with 5 runs, 4 rbis and 2 stolen bases. And, yes, he hit a 3-run home run against the Red Sox, his 2nd of the year.

It may not be quite right to call Johnson a backup player—he has played 2nd base about 40% of the time behind Chris Getz, whose numbers aren’t much better than Johnson’s — and, in fact, his performance at the plate isn’t quite as good—Johnson is hitting .252/.286/.346 compared to Getz’ .212/.273/.288. And Johnson has 10 stolen bases vs. Getz’ 4 and his proportion of stolen bases to plate appearances would put him among the best in the majors on the base paths. If Johnson could keep hitting as well as he has, Getz may end up taking the backup role.

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If summer hasn’t arrived yet, can we be in the “doldrums of summer?” I don’t think so, but if you look at the Mormons playing in baseball’s minor leagues, you might think that we’re in some kind of doldrums. It doesn’t seem like anyone is playing very well, with some few exceptions.

One of them is Marcus Littlewood, the catcher for the Clinton Lumber Kings (Midwest League – A). Littlewood was 5 for 16 (.313) during the week, scored 4 times, earned 3 rbis and hit his 2nd homer while striking out just 3 times. The performance brings his season average up to a respectable .253 over 75 at bats.

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Royals’ starter Jeremy Guthrie finally notched his 6th win of the season last week, after struggling through much of May and losing 3 games in a row. This game brought his season era down to a respectable 3.66, but still quite a bit above the phenomenal 2.28 era he held on May 9th after his 5th win.

Guthrie’s pitching was perhaps bested among the Mormons pitching in the majors by both Matt Lindstrom and Brandon Lyon, relievers who each pitched 3 or more innings during the week without giving up a run. Lindstrom (White Sox) is perhaps slightly more impressive, with a season era of 2.96 over 27.1 innings, but Lyon (Mets) has a 19-6 strike out-to-walk ratio, much better than Lindstrom.

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Returning from the DL is sometimes a struggle, and sometimes its rejuvenating. Where some return and struggle to get back to form, other players start hot, as if the break put them back at the top of their game. With his strong return, Mitch Maier must be feeling great. During the week since he rejoined the Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA), Maier has hit .353, including 5 runs, 6 rbis and 2 home runs, while managing 4 walks and a stolen base. His average for the season is now .333 — among the best in the league, except for the fact that he hasn’t enough plate appearances to make the stats lists.

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