Bleak House killing you?

Second best of Dickens, in my opinion, after Hard Times.

Here is an interview with Guthrie and Bergesen via Baseballprospectus.com

Brad Bergesen and Jeremy Guthrie are brothers in arms when it comes to the art of pitching. The Orioles right-handers aren’t all that similar in style—the 25-year-old Bergesen is a sinkerballer and the 31-year-old Guthrie is more of a hard thrower—but each approaches the craft with a studious mindset. They sat down together during the final month of the season to talk about who they are and how they think on the mound.

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David Laurila: Brad, how would you describe Jeremy?

Brad Bergesen: Jeremy has been our ace this year. He’s been very consistent. I like to think of him as a power pitcher who really attacks the zone. His fastball usually sits around 91-92 [mph] on the low end and gets up to 96-97 once in a while.

He works fast and keeps the defense in it, which is a real big thing at this level. He’s very intuitive with what he’s doing; he’s a thinker who always has a plan out there. He works diligently and works very hard. I guess that’s kind of Jeremy in a nutshell.

DL: Jeremy, do you agree with the power-pitcher label?

Jeremy Guthrie: Yeah. I’d like to have more strikeouts, but that comes with executing your pitches a little more consistently. High praise from Mr. Bergesen for sure.

DL: How would you describe Brad?

JG: Brad is throwing the ball really well this year. He relies on the sinker traditionally, but he’s shown recently that he’s going to throw the four-seamer as well. He can power the fastball by you; his velocity has crept up with that pitch. He has to keep the hitter honest so [they] can’t just sit on that sinking fastball, which generates all kinds of ground balls for him.

[His] slider comes out of the same plane, so it’s deceptive. You’ll see guys take some bad swings at it. He also mixes in the changeup, and I feel like—as I’ve watched him mix in the changeup more consistently, as well as the four-seamer—it has made a big difference in the way hitters look against him. They take a lot of bad swings.

Ultimately, what he’s trying to do is get a quick out, a quick ground-ball out, staying down in the zone. He works a very quick game. He works quickly and pounds the zone, which is important.

DL: This question is for either of you: Is pitching simple or is it complicated?

BB: I think that we, as pitchers, make it very complicated, but when you look at it as a whole, it’s a very simple task. What we’re trying to do is throw a ball and get a guy out. Yet there are so many scouting reports that we’re informed on; there are so many statistics, so many charts that we look at. Sometimes we even go information overload instead of just sticking to our strengths and what we do best.

DL: Jeremy, are strikeouts important for a pitcher?

JG: I think they are. Certainly, a strikeout in a big situation—man on third and nobody out, or second and third and one out—becomes an important part of the game. But you can’t always shoot for one because at times that will run your pitch count up.

For me, strikeouts have always been a result of stuff as well as location. I feel that if you have strikeouts, that means you’re locating your pitches. I’ve seen guys with not necessarily overpowering fastballs have very high strikeout totals. That speaks to how well they execute their pitches and their location and deception. Certainly, strikeouts are an important part of pitching for any pitcher.

DL: Pitchers sometimes talk about how the ball comes out of their hand. What does that mean to each of you?

BB: I’m a big feel guy, so when I’m feeling all the right pieces to my mechanics, the end result is that it feels good coming out of my hand. What that means is that my arm is in the right slot, the ball is getting released at the right point, and my hand is staying behind the ball.

That goes as well as for my off-speed pitches. There are different feelings for those. With my changeup, I need my hand out in front and good arm speed and good hand speed. And then with my slider, I need to stay on top of that as well. With all three pitches, there’s a different feeling that comes, and when everything is going right with the mechanics, it feels good coming out of the hand.

JG: Feel is what pitching is. It adds to your confidence when everything feels like it’s in sync, or everything is working together. That’s what a pitcher tries to do when he gets in a good groove; it feels like the ball is coming out very easy. He doesn’t have to try hard to generate his movement or his velocity when it comes out with everything in sync, and in motion together.

DL: Craig Breslow once told me that he rarely throws two pitches identically. Does that make sense to you?

JG: No. (laughs)

BB: If that’s what works and that’s what gives him that confidence, and the right feel, I can understand that, but I don’t think it’s the case for everyone. You throw a certain pitch… say you throw an 83-mph slider and you put it in the exact location that you want, with the exact movement you want, and you make a hitter look silly. Why wouldn’t you want to double up on that pitch and do the exact same thing? Now, there are always the cases where the hitter up there is a big-time power hitter, so you can’t necessarily do that, but I agree with Jeremy. I think it’s a good thing to throw two of the same pitch when it’s going well.

DL: I interpreted what Breslow said as meaning that the ball doesn’t always come out of his hand the same way, and thus doesn’t have the same action. Does that make sense?

BB: Not necessarily. There have been times that I’ve doubled up on a pitch where I’ve seen almost the identical pitch.

JG: I think the same way. I think I’ve thrown the same pitch many times in my career where it comes out the same: the same location, the same movement, the same feel. So, I would disagree with what Craig said. I feel like I’ve thrown a number that I’ve repeated. I think that it happens quite often.

DL: Pitchers have tendencies, and most hitters know what those tendencies are. What does that mean to you out on the mound?

JG: I’m not sure, so it doesn’t mean much to me, I guess. You hope he doesn’t know exactly what you’re going to do.

BB: I think that goes back to how you were asking, “Is it a simple game or is it a difficult game?” from a pitching standpoint. We have so much information on them, as well as they have so much information on us, like tendencies and what we’ve done against each other in the past. What it really amounts to at this level is a chess match. He’s trying to do something and we’re trying to counter back. We get him out one way, so do we keep doing the same thing or do we try to do something different? You have to make constant adjustments in this game.

DL: Jeremy, how much do individual hitters dictate what you do on the mound?

JG: Well, you watch the scouting reports. I feel like it’s important to understand what their strengths are and you factor that into what you’re going to do. That doesn’t mean you alter what… if their [weakness] is one of your weaknesses, I still feel like you should stay with your strength, the thing that you’re able to more consistently execute. But I really feel like I can learn a lot from watching a hitter, watching him against similar pitching styles and kind of seeing the results. You try to factor that in and put it into your memory bank. If there’s a certain pitch or a location that he looks like he struggles with in a certain situation, I’ll try to remember that. If I get into that situation, I‘ll try to go there like another pitcher may have.

DL: Brad, John Farrell has said that the ability to throw your fastball on both sides of the plate is key, and should be considered two different pitches. Do you agree?

BB: Without a doubt. It is two different pitches; they’re different locations. If you can’t throw to one side of the plate, but you throw to the other side very well, the hitter is able to eliminate [one side] right off the bat. He’s able to look at one location, so it makes it much more difficult to pitch to that side. You feel like you have to pinpoint it, and you can’t really make any mistakes. But when you have both sides of the plate… it’s two different pitches.

JG: I agree with that for sure. A fastball away and a fastball in are very different, and that’s the key to any pitcher’s success, being able to consistently throw a fastball to one of those two locations.

DL: What do the two of you talk about when it comes to pitching?

BB: Sometimes we’ll break it down. If I see Jeremy do something, I’ll let a couple days go by, whether it was a good or bad thing, and I might run it by him and say “What did you think here?” or say “Hey, should I do the same thing to the hitter as you did to him?” We’re really two completely different pitchers, but we’ll throw things off each other every now and then.

JG: Most of the time that I find myself talking to another pitcher it’s about a specific hitter, or a specific instance, or a pitch. I feel like that’s where you can learn the game. When you’re facing this hitter, what did you do to him? How did you get him out? Then they can give you their opinion on what they saw. I like that. That helps build some of that memory storage about different hitters and what they may or may not do well.

DL: Any final thoughts, on pitching, from either of you?

BB: It can make a lot of us become head cases. I think it goes back to the question you were asking about how we keep it simple, and that’s the constant battle I have with myself, and I’m sure it’s the same with many other pitchers at this level. We make it much more difficult than we need to, and you just need to concentrate on what you do best and stick to that.

DL: Jeremy, you get the last word.

JG: I just think pitching is fun. You get the ball in your hand every time and you get to dictate how the game goes, good or bad. It’s fun. That’s what I think about pitching

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12393

Bleak House. Oh man. Only time I ever admitted defeat reading a book.

Great doorstop, though.

hey--i am a major fan of dickens--bleak house has it all. the best parts are how dickens goes after the british legal system and well-meaning but hilarious missionaries. Especially how he does this with wicked sarcasm.

The change in narrative voice is also interesting.

Hey Pete,

Halberstam's the mam! His sports books are first-rate, and I highly recommend "The Fifties" if you haven't already read it. Shame he's no longer with us.

By the way...what's your pick on who wins the war? I'm taking the Koreans and the points.

The Korean War book was interesting---learned about an era I knew nothing about. Try the Einstein biography by Isaacson. I actually managed to understand the theory of relativity...for about 5 minutes.

Pete--Here a few exceptional novels that I recommend reading:

Action, by James Guetti

Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, by Gilbert Sorrentino

Underworld, by Don DeLillo

i first read sorrentino in a short story anthology called Superfiction, which I lost and its now out of print...a great introduction to barth, pynchon, john gardner(the sunlight dialogues,beowolf) , hawkes, and a host of others

while hunting around i found this link...http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/65832-barthelme-s-syllabus

it would make for an interesting book club at the local establishment...

Classics can be tough. Last classic I read was Crime and Punishment.

Some great authors:

John Raban, Tony Horwitz, Larry McMurtry.

Why can't the Ravens put their foot on an opponent's throat and just lay down a thorough trouncing? They could have had 50 points yesterday.

I am also reading some Korean history by coincidence. "A New History of Korea" by Ki-baik Lee. It is also going slow. I'm stuck in the 12th century, but hopefully I'll catch up to you, David Halberstam and the 1950's soon enough.
I am living in Jeju, South Korea which is my reason for the book. There are a lot of Japanese bunkers around my town left over from their occupation of Korea. Many of them are shaped precisely to fit a few fighter planes in them, hidden in the fields. They were built to defend against the Allied invasion that never made it this far because of the nukes.
There is also a site where about 250 blacklisted Korean civilians were killed by their local police during the civil war.
Thanks for the recommendations Mr. Schmuck!

You mean 3 days ago featured comment, don't you?

Pete--You really need to tear yourself away from Bleak House. We haven't heard from you in a couple days.

You might not be able to get through it until the All-Star break.

Don't you see what this book is doing to you?

Yeah Pete,

If you don't show soon..... we are not going to vote for your blog as the bestest in all of Baltimore Sun! The Bestest!!!!

Sad Sad Reader.... We Miss You!!!

This blog is going down the shitter. Way to NOT keep on it, Pete. Give it up or shut it down.

Way to NOT keep on it, Pete. Give it up or shut it down.

Posted by: Anonymous

I take it that YOU won't be voting this Blog as the Best Blog in town?

I take it that YOU won't be voting this Blog as the Best Blog in town?

Posted by: Anonymous | November 9, 2010 6:54 PM

well, typically someone who runs a blog actually acts like he/she gives a crap about it. The Ravens win, the Hot Stove is on, MLB is giving out awards......and Charles Dickens is the featured comment on a sports blog?

The only time Pete bothers to respond is when someone calls him out. Very rarely does he ever join in an educated baseball or sports discussion.

The blog has become a waste of space and has been going down hill ever since Roch moved on.

Schmuck has hit the bottle!

The only time Pete bothers to respond is when someone calls him out. Very rarely does he ever join in an educated baseball or sports discussion.

Oh, I don't know about that.
I think he posts under assumed names sometimes.

And I am not him doing that just right now.

Anyway, he's a bit more of a maverick then some over there writing on the Orioles Insider. In some ways a lot more.

He did take on MacPhail at least twice.
this year.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/2010/09/orioles_pitching_woo_and_the_p.html

I mean what else do you want?

Peter, I just wanted to share my appreciation for your interview of Brenda Frese. I really enjoy these interviews you've been doing- it shows a different side of some of these sports figures and gets past the noise of the usual press coverage to something a little more insightful.

Like most area sports fans I spend most of my time rooting on the Terps men's team. But the more I hear from Coach Frese the more I like her, and the more Gary Williams suffers by comparison. One can't help, when reading your interview, to account for how a similar interview with Gary would differ. For example:
-Coach Frese talks about relishing the higher expectations after winning a championship, and the athletic dept's commitment to be "top 10 in everything." Gary Williams seems to resent higher expectations, and in fact appears to bristle at any outside goals whatsoever for "his" program.
-Coach Frese's personality shines through as primarily positive/optimistic and thoughtful in general, with a great sense of perspective; nobody would ever attribute either of these traits to Williams. Instead, with each passing year he seems more selfish, entitled, confrontational and at times completely out of touch with the world (his public comments in the heart of the economic meltdown about how bad he had it- after a round with the AD- were particularly galling)
-Coach Frese seems to be capable of productive, adult relationships with other people, and it always impresses me how genuinely grateful she appears to be for the people in her life. Aside from his players (specifically the ones he views as a mirror of himself), Gary only seems to note other people when he perceives that they are getting in his way or stepping on his toes.
-At the end of the day, Frese comes off as simply smarter than Williams on virtually every aspect of their jobs- from coaching and developing players, to recruiting, to running a team within a multi-million dollar athletic department within a major university.

Don't get me wrong- as every Maryland fan should be, I am grateful to Gary Williams for coming to Maryland with the program in shambles and leading it to pinnacle of college basketball. However, past success doesn't excuse someone from being an insufferable a--hole, and I think he would do well to look down the hall to the womens program for some lessons in coaching and in life.

Dave in Glen Burnie:
I'm not sure how that interview fits into this particular blog, but I'm sure glad you posted it.
It shows the inner workings of the pitching minds of two very cerebral members of the O's staff.
I liked it a lot.
Thank you.

If you're not going post a new entry for 4 days, probably don't leave off with one entitled 'Today's featured comment'

Lame.

If you're not going post a new entry for 4 days, probably don't leave off with one entitled 'Today's featured comment'

Lame.

Yeah, this blog has really gonme to the Dawgs....... hehehehehe lol

.............................................................................................
Pete's reply: Sorry, but I have blogged heavily through all of my vacations, but didn't have time on this one.

Bear,

Glad you appreciated it. There has been a lot of Oriole interviews on that website and I'm surprised it isn't recognised by the Baltimore Sun. Earlier this year they interviewed Jim Palmer.

Hi Pete, Save some time reading the Bleak House. Just attend an Oriole game for the condensed version. Same effect much less effort!!!

Peter S where R U????????????

Counselor! C'mout, C'mout wherever you are!

OK, now I'm hooked. Now I check in to see not WHAT you wrote, but IF you wrote. Cheeky monkey.

I wanted to thank you for this great read!! nike sb
I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post