Mota and the Mets

by Jeffrey R on Sep 21, 2006 4:49 PM EDT

By way of Joe Sheehan in today's BP, I noticed this story on Mota and the Mets:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09122006/sports/cheap_thrills_sports_joel_sherman.htm

"The stat department divined that Mota's percentage of changeups thrown was way down from when he was an elite set-up man with the Dodgers in 2003-04.... It is a small sample, but in his first nine appearances Mota has a 0.93 ERA, 12 strikeouts and just two walks in 92/3 innings."

I have the impression that the Indians have a strong statistical approach to player evaluation. I guess it surprises me that the Mets saw something that the Tribe didn't.

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Re: Mota and the Mets

why would that surprise you our staff does not know when have two or three strikes.

Fan in Texas

by fanintexas on Sep 21, 2006 5:04 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: Mota and the Mets

That would be a great question for Hoynes or Hamilton Hegan or someone in the Cleveland media to ask Shapiro. "Any comment on the report that Mota's success with the Mets is due to his throwing more changeups, like he did when he was successful with the Dodgers? Were your people aware that his changeup pct was down?" Don't expect it to happen.

by plato on Sep 23, 2006 3:25 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: Mota and the Mets

Although it wasn't any brilliant insight on anyone's part. I remember reading about Mota's great changeup, and how he learned to throw it from Gagne, and how it was a big reason why he was so effective in LA. And I remember watching him pitch for Cleveland and wondering why he didn't throw more changeups.

by plato on Sep 23, 2006 3:35 PM EDT up 0 recs

Re: Mota and the Mets

I think an appropriate answer would be, "We don't have Rick Peterson"

by Brandini on Sep 24, 2006 12:41 PM EDT up 0 recs

Re: Mota and the Mets

I think that's too easy an answer. The article seems to give credit to the Mets' "stat department", to LoDuca, even maybe to Pedro Martinez (although I think he throws a different changeup than Mota does), but not to Peterson. I'm sure some other pitchers Peterson has coached have thrown changeups effectively but I don't remember that as being anything like his specialty. Anyway, a pitcher should know how to pitch and throw what works so the pitching coach can't get all the credit. But if your point is that some of the fault is Carl Willis', you may be right.

by plato on Sep 25, 2006 1:26 AM EDT up 0 recs

Re: Mota and the Mets

When Jarret Wright won 15 games for Atlanta, he credited the Braves staff for pointing out that he might be better off sacrificing some velocity for better location and movement.

It's hard to believe that nobody on the Tribe staff ever mentioned that.

My point is, sometimes players are stubborn. Some guys won't pay attention until they've been traded / demoted / released.

Of course, I'm not sure if that applies to Mota, and I have no idea what advice Willis gave him.

I actually thought that Mota was coming around, but by the time he was getting straightened out, the Tribe's season had imploded, and the youth movement was on.

by CaptainEasy on Sep 25, 2006 11:00 PM EDT up 0 recs

Agreed on Wright and the Indians!

Hello CaptainEasy,

From what I remember, heard, and read, the Indians did try to get Wright to decrease his velocity so that he could better command his fastball, but for whatever reason, he wasn't able to do it here.

I also agree on Mota - he seemed to be getting some command of his pitches and the one game I was at later in the year (against Detroit, in July or August, I think,) he seemed to look a bit like his dominating self from his Dodger days. But like you said, at that time, the youth movement was on and he was a possible trading chip.

I talked about this with a Mets fan, MetfanBren, on MinorLeagueBall.com; what is the chance that the PTBNL is 2B prospect Anderson Hernandez? He started as the Mets starting 2B this year (he was actually a SS, but because of Reyes, shifted over to 2B, and has a comparable arm to Reyes, according to this Mets fan,) made some excellent defensive plays, but struggled a bit at the plate. Then he hurt his back, Jose Valentin did better than him offensively, and he was sent back to AAA, where he continued to struggle. Whether the AAA struggles were due to his back injury or were legitimate, proving his 2005 season was a fluke, we're not sure. MetfanBren did say that Hernandez's play reminds him more of Rey Ordonez than Jose Reyes though.

MetfanBren also told me that Omar Minaya has gotten rid of "AAAA" players before, like Prentice Redman, Angel Pagan, and Wayne Lydon, among others, so if they now consider Hernandez more of a "AAAA" player, maybe he COULD be the PTBNL for Mota, especially if the Indians determine that Crowe should remain in the OF.

Here are Anderson Hernandez's stats.

I'm not saying he'd be the answer to our 2B hole (his BB/K ratio is weak and he doesn't hit for great power or average,) but perhaps is another option Shapiro would look at to possibly fill it eventually, in case Hernandez can bounce back once he's healthy. He'd only be 24 next year, and considering what Mota's value was when we traded him, perhaps that wouldn't be a bad player to acquire to see if he could turn it around and be a decent ML player.

Just a thought.

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Sep 26, 2006 12:18 AM EDT 0 recs