Dallas Braden Has Moxie
Once a pitcher holds the Yankees offense to two runs in six innings, fantasy owners sit up and take notice. In their defense, the 39% of Yahoo fantasy owners that still don’t own Dallas Braden have an excuse. For most of his career, Braden has had a strikeout rate closer to five than to the ML average (usually in the high sixes). That poor strikeout rate hasn’t been mitigated by a nice groundball rate either – Braden only burns worms at a 37.6% rate over his career. In fact, it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s done right, except a better-than-average walk rate (2.87 career) and a good changeup (+12.9 runs career).
Well, something’s changed, hasn’t it? Change is the key word here because Braden’s success this year has come from eschewing his fastball (-17.9 runs career) in favor of that changeup. So far this year, he’s throwing the changepiece 32% of the time (compared to 21.4% and 20.1% over the past two years). Just judging by the linear weights, that’s been a good idea, but there’s more to it. His changeup is getting a 22.1% whiff rate this year (anything around 20% is generally thought of as elite – for comparison’s sake, Johan Santana‘s changeup had a 17.4% whiff rate last year). Braden’s fastball? A 7% whiff rate. What’s even better is that the fastball only got a 4.4% whiff rate last year – so using his changeup more has made his fastball even better.
Finally, we get to today’s start against the Yankees. Braden threw 81 pitches, and 21 were changeups, for a slightly-below average 26% for him. Even today’s number was above last year’s level, and it’s important to note that these numbers came from a crude Gameday tally, which may have classified some pitches a little differently. In any case, Braden is still going to the changeup more often, even though the 21 changeups today garnered only one whiff. A quick (sanity) check of last year’s whiff totals on the pitch shows that he got 13.7% whiff rates on the pitch last year in a larger sample size. It is reasonable to assume that using the changeup, and its better whiff rates, more often than his fastball is a good choice for Braden and that it will lead to better results.
It seems that Alex Rodriguez ran across the mound while heading back to first after a foul ball in today’s game. Some pitchers – like Braden – take offense to a player touching his mound. The event was timed to coincide with some discussion about Billy Beane saying that Braden had moxie. Well, Braden showed his moxie by barking at Rodriguez and showing him who was king of the hill, and then willing the Athletics to a victory despite two home runs and a triple play by the Yankees. Hopefully, he’ll combine that moxie with continued focus on his changeup. Fantasy owners will rejoice.
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What you call moxie I call childish whining.
YMMV I guess.
It’s a pretty silly word to take seriously, don’t you think?
You know, I’ve been thinking of a way to express how too often the people who come to this site value being the smartest person in the room WAY over anything else, including having fun.
But Joel nailed it for me and I didn’t have to come up with anything!
This site is awesome in many ways, but people, come on, RELAX already!
Good point, Joel. I wonder if Pedro Martinez had done something like this a few years ago, would it be considered moxie or arrogance?
Pedro could justify an ego problem with the numbers he put up. Braden on the other hand…
I think it could be seen either way – but he was playing at home, so the crowd saw it this way I’m guessing.
@Bobby: Arrogance or moxie it doesn’t matter. It’s just something that you don’t do. Difference is Pedro would have drilled someone.
As great a player he is, Arod has shown time and time again that he is a classless jerk. His little “go away” gesture really shows that. Good for Braden for calling Arod out.
Calling A-Rod out for what exactly? All I see here is some dude acting like a child for no reason, especially considering he wasn’t pitching badly at all and very well would have earned a level of respect had he not started running his mouth.
“Calling A-Rod out for what exactly?” – Since you have no idea, I’ll let you know what for, especially since the above article doesn’t describe it properly at all.
What happened: A-Rod was on first, and took off on a pitch which was fouled off. Braden received the next ball and was on the mound when A-Rod decided on his way back to first that it would be a good idea to run across the mound and step upon the rubber. He was trying to be a dick and mess the Braden, and Braden took exception to it. Braden stayed focused and in the game (not letting it bother him while he still had to pitch), and finally after inducing a gdp to end the inning he took it up w/A-Rod to let him know he didn’t appreciate the douche bag move. And of course we see A-Rod continue his doucheness afterwards by not apologizing for what obviously bothered someone, and instead insulted Braden stating how he couldn’t understand someone w/so few wins could get upset at him.
Article now edited to reflect better information regarding exact situation.
As for who is the ass in this situation, there has to be some blame on both sides. A-Rod did not really react well, and Braden may have been stretching it – unless A-Rod really meant to screw with him.
At the heart of this, though, is what is either an unwritten rule or a rare occurrence (stepping on the mound). I’m not well-versed in unwritten rules.
Unwritten rules are usually a reference to a certain sense of decorum which certainly do not need to be written down. In this instance, it’s painfully obvious that A-Rod was trying to mess with Braden by running across the mound and making sure to step upon the rubber while Braden was still on the mound. And then Braden decided to let A-Rod know at the time he didn’t appreciate A-Rod being a douche. A-Rod disrespected Braden in this instance (b/c apparently, according to A-Rod, Braden is simply beneath him so he doesn’t even need to recognize him). And so after the inning Braden decided it was the right time to let A-Rod know what he thought of him being a douche and disrespectful, without simply letting A-Rod get away with it all. And that was really the end of it all, until Braden and A-Rod were asked about it later on by reporters – where we see Braden calmly and intelligently discuss it with class and humor; while we see A-Rod continue to be a classless douche by simply stating he’s too good to be dealing with the likes of lowly peons like Braden.
@ Nick Forgive me if I don’t find anything neither calm nor intelligent from either party in this affair. A-Rod acted like an ass, Braden acted like a child, and now we all have something to talk about for the next few days.
@ Nick
FYI – Braden wasn’t on the mound at the time. He was off the mound, toward home plate. In any case, I’m tired of players always finding a reason to show how tough they are by picking a fight with Arod. It’s beyond predictable at this point. My biggest problem with Braden was the fact that he was still bitching after the game and talking about “retribution.” Excuse me? Who is this guy to threaten anyone?
Giants’ announcer Mike Krukow was on the radio today saying that while he admired a pitcher taking charge like that, it’s an unwritten rule he’s never heard of. (You didn’t use the phrase “unwritten rule,” but a lot of people have been.) Krukow basically said he’s just never seen a baserunner do it before, so it hasn’t come up. Most baserunners just naturally run around the mound to avoid potential injury from the change in the ground…
Keith Hernandez said the same thing. He had never heard of it. Big mouth David Wells took Braden’s side… shocking, I know.
One time when I was playing SS in an American Legion game – I was 14 or 15 at the time – the coach came to the mound and called the infield in to the conference. The bases were loaded or something and he wanted to discuss coverages etc. While he was talking I aimlessly kicked at the pitching rubber a couple of times. The coach stopped what he was saying and asked WTF I was doing? He kind of got in my face and in no uncertain terms let me know that unless I was pitching I was NOT to touch the pitching rubber when our guy was on the mound and that it was generally off limits at all times to non-pitchers.
Clearly Krukow did not play for Coach Brandt…
MM
seeing as how arod has a history of classless moves (two main ones come to mind: yelling at infielders while running the bases & swiping at the glove hand of a tag while running to first…claiming that it was simply how he ran) i’m not surprised by this move.
I saw the replay of the foul ball and arod CLEARLY goes over the mound and pitching rubber while braden is getting a ball back from the ump at the base of the mound. freaking bush league right there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty54Rjrb3QI
i gotta give braden kudos for standing up to him. was he over the top? maybe, but it’s great to see someone standing up a classless player who thinks he can do anything he wants and get away with it.
Exactly el jefe. Add it to the list. A-Rod’s post-game, “who’s he?” remarks just show how little respect he has for the game or anyone else. Oh that and using PED’s, but that’s another topic… To paraphrase Braden, “he should learn some class from his captain.”
Baseball’s a gentleman’s game at heart, with it’s own unwritten rules. Anyone who’s played the game should know that. How about a catcher kicking dirt around the batter’s box just for shits and giggles? I’d have gotten an earful from my father if I ever ran over the mound.
It’s really a shame that A-Rod’s such an unlikeable prick. I love to watch great players display their enormous talents, but I find him absolutely impossible to sympathize with – and for the record I’m hardly a Yank hater. I’m not a fan, but I admire the organization for doing whatever it takes to put a winning product out on the field for their fans.
Thanks Nick for hitting the nail on the head and extrapolating my “calling him out,” statement.
The Arroyo incident is a PERFECT example of Arod being held to a different standard than everyone else on the planet. Had Paul O’Neill done that, it would be called “gritty.” Meanwhile, what’s lost most in that play was Arod’s only mistake was not hitting Arroyo hard enough. He should have driven his shoulder into him and sent him into the right field bleachers. That’s what Pete Rose would have done.
It’s funny. I never knew the pitcher owned the mound, even if he’s not standing on it and the price for somebody having the audacity to touch their precious possession is “retribution.”
I remember when Arod hit a grand slam against the Mets and LoDuca took exception to Arod’s bat flip after hitting it. It was literally no different than David Ortiz’s reaction EVERY TIME he homers, but LoDuca was somehow a hero for calling out Arod’s milquetoast bat flip. The reality? LoDuca was acting like a sore loser, pissed that Arod just cleared the bases off of him and whatever sad sack Mets hurler was on the mound.
In any case, had Jeter done that and Braden reacted the same way, everyone and their mother would be defending Jeter. But Arod? Everyone’s favorite punching bag, so….
No, if Jeter had intentionally run through the mound, flapped his wrist dismissively at Braden, and then insulted his “handful of wins,” we’d all be sitting here thinking, “wow, did Jeter just become a giant dickhead like ARod?”
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