Orange and Blue Blood

這是今天在New York Times看到的一則報導：
In Wagner’s Evolution as a Pitcher, Less Is More
OK...Billy Wagner老是用直球滑球交互運用的策略又再被拿出來討論一次，不過Wagner這回到是換了個心態來投球：

“I’m evolving more into a pitcher than a guy who’s trying to get his stats,” Wagner said. “Strikeouts have always been a big part of what I’ve done, but I don’t expect them as much anymore.”

看起來Wagner從去年開始偶爾的後援出錯其原因導於太想運用他過人的球速來三振打者，今年他想換個投球心態，不強求三振，當個有效率的closer，不過在文章中發現了一個問題：

The strikeouts are not the only numbers that are down; so are his walks (none) and earned run average (0.00), and Wagner said that was hardly a coincidence.

這段文字想表達的就是不強求三振所以BB和ERA的數字降低了？作者這樣寫很奇怪，開季到現在Wagner他老兄才丟了5 IP而已，從短短的五局裡就能導出這樣的結論實在是有點牽強，個人認為像Wagner這樣只有兩種球路的投手應該是沒什麼本錢像王一樣投給你打就好，除非你這兩顆球路是很quality的，照目前Wagner的型態看來，直球大概都在93~96 mph在跑，slider一直以來也不算優秀，所以春訓時Wagner又多練了一個 split-fingered changeup：

To go along with his fastball and slider, Wagner developed a third pitch in spring training, a split-fingered changeup that he can use later in an at-bat to induce ground balls. But he said he had hardly used it because hitters were putting the ball in play so early in the count.

看來他自己也沒啥信心，這狀況很尷尬，沒有三振能力的closer幾乎很難在聯盟中存活，除非你有很強大的運氣來掩蓋掉你三振率過低的缺點，偏偏Wagner又只有兩種球路可以用，求三振也不是，不求三振也不是，這看起來還蠻糟糕的，個人認為去年他的挫敗是球技和心態層面都出了問題，今年則還要再觀察一下...