Ballpark Banter- Saunders remains undefeated

1) Joe Saunders pitched the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to a 2-0 victory Tuesday night, in a tidy 2-hour, 9-minute ballgame. The southpaw improved his 2008 record to 5-0, remaining undefeated in April games in his brief career. Saunders was so clean, he didn't allow a runner to third base the entire night, surrendering only four hits along with 5 strikeouts over eight innings. Francisco Rodriguez pitched his typical entertaining ninth inning for his MLB-best 11th save.

This was typical Joe Saunders, right here. Not an overpowering lefty by any means-- he will work 89-91, usually-- but mixes and matches his pitches as good as anyone on the Angel staff. The strong outing came on the heels of a blowout where the Angel bullpen was heavily taxed. It was important for Saunders to take the ball deep into the ballgame.

The thing that sets Saunders apart from other pitchers is his mentality and approach. Saunders does not pitch like a command and feel lefty normally would. He uses his offspeed, but he does not attempt to lull the opposition to sleep by serving up soft stuff the entire ballgame. No, what Saunders does is attack the strike zone in every sense of the word. He attacks with his fastball, resulting in a lot of weak outs when it is located well. Saunders will run his heater off the plate to get good swings, but he has enough behind it to where he can challenge guys inside.

Every offspeed pitch is thrown off of the fastball. If the fastball isn't good, the hitters can afford to sit on the breaking ball or changeup a little bit more without the fear of being beaten with the hard one. That is the strength of Saunders, which in return makes his curveball and change that much better. More so, Saunders pounds the zone early in the count with his offspeed stuff. He does not throw it out of the zone-- unless he wants to-- and try to get hitters to fish. When he is on the mound, the defense can have confidence because they know Saunders is coming right after the opponent and the innings will be short and quick.

A great performance from the other dugout will go unnoticed tonight. Greg Smith, acquired from the Diamondbacks in the Dan Haren deal, threw a complete game, giving up 2 runs on three hits while striking out five. Smith is Saunders' shadow. Also a lefty, Smith pounded the zone with his fastball-- working it around 88-90 mph-- and was smart with the location of his offspeed pitches.

This was the first chance I got to see Smith pitch, and I came away impressed. I loved the confidence he displayed for facing one of the best teams in baseball, and he was a real bulldog on the mound. That is unusual for a kid who is 24 years old, making his first full season in the big leagues. His stuff is very playable and he can win a lot of games if he locates it well. But the demeanor is what the A's should be very encourage about, and is probably what played a big role in them asking for him in the Haren trade. I'm a believer in this kid based off of his mentality alone. He had enough presence to make his pitches to a loaded lineup and keep the game tight when the other pitcher is dealing. This is a tough-luck loss, but Smith will be a fine pitcher if he improves upon outings like this one.

The Angels are the alpha dog of the American League West, there is no discrepancy there. But sitting right beside them in th standings are these fiesty Oakland A's, whose GM never seizes to amaze me. Billy Beane spun off two big time trades this offseason-- the aforementioned Haren and Nick Swisher-- and all but welcomed the rebuilding process. What we didn't know was the quality of players he was getting in return for his big chips.

I guess it really isn't that big of a surprise why this affluent organization tends to be in contention down the stretch. I do not know for sure, but I am guessing the strength of the organization is their scouting and player development departments. Has to be. No question, right? I have the slightest clue what sets the Oakland people apart from the rest of the other organizations, but I'm thinking Beane has a group of baseball people who are so in tuned with what type of product he wants on the field in Oakland, that they are able to create this tunnel vision when they evaluate players and pick the ones they know for sure are big league ready and that fit the Oakland mold. I don't know how they do it, but they seemingly never miss on an evaluation. I am excited to witness another piece of the scouting fruit on Wednesday night-- soutpaw Dana Eveland.


2) If I'm Roy Halladay these days, I'm thinking, "What the hell I gotta do to win a freaking game around here?". The ace of the Toronto Blue Jays is on a streak right now that is so unheard of across baseball these days that well... that is the reason why you haven't really heard of it. Halladay pitched his fourth consecutive complete game Tuesday night, only to lose 1-0 to the Boston Red Sox on a Kevin Youkilis RBI single. The problem is that Halladay has lost three of those complete games.

In a day and age of pitch counts and limited workloads, Halladay says the hell with that and takes the ball looking to give the bullpen the night off. And his offense can't say thank you by giving him even two damn runs? Hey, I guess that is the game that we chose to love and some days the hitters just don't scamper across that white plate. The way it is and the way it's always been in this game.

But nonetheless, I am completely in awe of what Halladay is all about. I love watching this guy pitch because he feels a responsibility, a deep loyalty to his teammates, to do his job and give the club the best chance to win the game. He is a true ace; every time he takes the ball the bullpen has a great chance to heal up. But how can a man keep going at this pace and keep himself mentally sane if he can't even win half of those game? Beats me. There is a serious kind of funk going through the Toronto clubhouse, and for some reason it's only landing in the batters box.

There may be no more efficient pitcher this side of Brandon Webb than Roy Halladay. Halladay may say screw Webb, I'm the guy. I don't know, but I probably wouldn't disagree. I haven't looked at any stats on average pitches per inning or some other analysis along those lines, but I don't really care to. I'm not talking effiecieny in the purest form of the word. I am talking about maximizing your pitches and getting weak swings and weak outs-- while throwing fewer pitches.

So you could say that a three pitch inning is as efficient as you can get. Which is technically true. But if those three pitches are three zingers that go to the warning track, that is not exactly what I'm looking for. Halladay keep his pitch count reasonable all the while making hitters look foolish. How many broken bats do we need to see before a hitter decides to do some a little bit different? Maybe it is because Halladay is always one step ahead of the hitter. He will throw his cutter inside just when the hitter is looking for that sinker running away from him. I would need to diligently watch each one of Halladay's starts to form a thorough analysis of his plan of attack, but for now I enjoy the view from the bleachers.

What cannot be lost in the shuffle is that as good as Halladay was Tuesday night, Jon Lester was that good or better for the Red Sox. Lester allowed one hit over eight innings-- a single in the fifth inning-- and struck out six. He did not get the win; that belonged to Jonathan Papelbon who came on in the ninth in a tied ballgame. We know how good Lester can be. We have seen him pitch at 92-94 mph with his fastball, and mix in a good change and a good breaking ball. We have seen him pound the bottom half of the strike zone and mix up his monotonous of groundballs with some strikeouts.

It is all about consistency for this kid, as it is for every other guy who is still young. Too many times I have seen Lester pitch great, and then his next start he walks for and is at 108 pitches in the fifth inning. If he is going to be a premier starter in baseball, those starts must be eliminated. But I think he will do that and make that kind of progress. He already has the stuff to be a very good pitcher. And if you are going to tell me that a kid who has already beaten cancer does not have the toughness or the maturity to make adjustments in a baseball game, I am not buying it. Lester is going to be big for Boston.