Carlos Gomez's patience

[Mass Haas]

Carlos George extended the inning to the major leaguer and Gomez wasted no time putting the Rattlers in front. Gomez jumped on the first pitch from Murphy and hit a no-doubt home run to left field to give the Rattlers a 5-3 lead.

 

The game took an interesting turn as Drew Tyson relieved Murphy after the home run and hit Max Walla with the first pitch of his appearance. Tyson was immediately ejected from the game by plate umpire Fernando Rodriguez.

 

***

 

What TC07 wrote at the time:

 

A little bit about Gomez... he looked horrible until his HR. He struck out in his first AB, skyed a pop-up to shallow left field in his second, and nubbed a grounder to short in his 3rd AB. The pitch he hit for a homer was some kind of hanging off speed pitch that was belly button high on the outer half and he just crushed it, the announced distance was 412 ft. However, he cadillaced the home run trot (really, in A ball) horribly and didn't pick up the pace until he was halfway between 2nd and 3rd. Obviously Burlington was pissed about Gomez showing up an A ball pitcher so they actually threw at Max Walla, the ball rode up and behind Max's head skipping off his shoulders in the area where one would hold a squat bar when doing squats. Ben McMahan was on-deck absolutely livid and started jawing at the pitcher. The home plate umpire immediately tossed the pitcher, warned both benches, then he went for straight for McMahan to stop him before another Rattler came out of the dugout to calm him down. The base ump also raced in to settle things down and of course the Burlington manager came out for his token ejection. After the game Gomez ended up having words with one of the Burlington coaches over by the T-Rats dugout and then literally gave the guy the blow off good-bye wave and went down into the dugout. Horrible pitch, great hit, and a bonehead move, but that's kind of Carlos in a nutshell.

 

***

 

Photo array of Carlos Gomez' A-Ball home run admiration

 

***

 

Unfortunately, the Post Crescent link below is "dead" (pay only):

 

The Post-Cresent Rattler game story includes another Carlos Gomez video interview, Gomez' thoughts on the HBP post-HR theatrics, and more.

 

“That’s bull,” said Gomez. “I’ve been in the big leagues for six years and no one’s ever hit me yet for something like that. That’s not the way you teach young players. If they’re mad, then hit me, not someone else.”

 

My comment that night: Tough for the Bees to do when you're dancing in the dugout, dude...

[Mass Haas]

Here's Chris account which includes video of the HR, the admiration, and even the dugout dance.

[rluzinski]

I put little stock in spring training numbers lot's a free swingers are defiant regarding ever being more selective at the plate. At least Gomez is recognizing that patience at the plate may benefit him. Proof is in the pudding, however.

[Noche]

Does anyone actually think Carlos Gomez has a mean-spirited or egotistical bone in his body?

 

Lighten up ya old cranks.

 

By most accounts, Gomez is pretty wonderful to be around.

[Nottso]

Does anyone actually think Carlos Gomez has a mean-spirited or egotistical bone in his body?

 

Lighten up ya old cranks.

 

By most accounts, Gomez is pretty wonderful to be around.

 

Mean spirited, no. Egotistical, yeah, he kinda does (and I'm a pretty big fan of his).

 

After watching the video in the link Maas Haas posted, I just don't understand; what's all the hub-bub, bub? Gomez definitely gave the ball a Pujols-like stare as it left the yard, but when the camera came back to him he was just rounding first base and it looked to me like he was cruising along at a pretty fair clip.

 

I certainly wouldn't call that "Cadillac-ing it" around the bases. I didn't see the first 70 or 80 feet from home plate, but from where the camera picked him back up, he was going a lot faster than most players. As for the dancing in the dugout I saw it as relief that he finally got off the 0 for 9 schneid, and quite possibly a healthy dose of self deprecation.

 

Before I get told that my opinion is garbage, please go back and watch the video again. You'll notice that when Carlos George hit his HR, he was digging hard out of the batter's box (as he should) but then slowed to a trot when the ball went over the fence. I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with that and I don't see anyone complaining about it so I guess I'm okay thus far. Oh... and it took Carlos George twenty seconds to land back on home plate from the time contact was made.

 

When Carlos Gomez hit his HR he paused for the Pujols stare because he knew it was outta there, which I absolutely did not care for, but then went on around the bases at what looked like a pretty good pace to me. And it took Carlos Gomez twenty-TWO seconds to land back on home plate from the time contact was made. "Cadillac-ing it?" Hardly.

[dlk9s]

Good lord, who cares about all this?

[Invader3K]

I don't mind a bit of cockiness from baseball players. I haven't seen anything from Gomez on the field to suggest it deters from his play.

[RobDeer 45]

Good lord, who cares about all this?

 

Yep. Dude plays hard and maybe show boats a bit but he's not a bad guy. He's always hustling and I love that!

[Warning Track Power]

Did you guys see Carlos almost punch Lucroy in the face after the walk-off yesterday? Lucroy looked angry for a split second and then realized it was in celebration (around the 33-second mark).

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_04_01_colmlb_milmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=25940701&tcid=vpp_copy_25940701

 

Then in the post game interview he said he was going to go punch Gomez and didn't look real happy about the shaving cream pie. Not trying to stir the pot at all but it definitely felt a little tense.

[liveforoctober]

Did you guys see Carlos almost punch Lucroy in the face after the walk-off yesterday? Lucroy looked angry for a split second and then realized it was in celebration (around the 33-second mark).

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_04_01_colmlb_milmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=25940701&tcid=vpp_copy_25940701

 

Then in the post game interview he said he was going to go punch Gomez and didn't look real happy about the shaving cream pie. Not trying to stir the pot at all but it definitely felt a little tense.

 

Gomez did take a pretty big swing towards Luc in the post sac fly celebration ... but obviously it was just in the moment.

 

The shaving cream in the face I thought was all in fun. Luc audibly said "Dang it" with a laugh as it was happening .. I thought it was all in fun. Didn't feel any bad blood in it.

[dlk9s]

Did you guys see Carlos almost punch Lucroy in the face after the walk-off yesterday? Lucroy looked angry for a split second and then realized it was in celebration (around the 33-second mark).

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_04_01_colmlb_milmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=25940701&tcid=vpp_copy_25940701

 

Then in the post game interview he said he was going to go punch Gomez and didn't look real happy about the shaving cream pie. Not trying to stir the pot at all but it definitely felt a little tense.

http://i.imgur.com/KPzH4.gif

[Mass Haas]

Gomez did take a pretty big swing towards Luc in the post sac fly celebration ... but obviously it was just in the moment.

 

The shaving cream in the face I thought was all in fun. Luc audibly said "Dang it" with a laugh as it was happening .. I thought it was all in fun. Didn't feel any bad blood in it.

 

Lucroy discusses it in his WSSP interview Tuesday AM (audio).

[Mass Haas]

Sorry about the contribution to the thread hijack, was just providing the background detail to TC07's reference.

 

If we can steer any future discussion back to Carlos' actual plate discipline going forward, great, thanks.

[xisxisxis]

If we can steer any future discussion back to Carlos' actual plate discipline going forward, great, thanks.

 

Like when there's actual evidence that he has better patience?

[logan82]

Maybe halfway through the season. Probably after.

[Baldkin]

Per B-Prospectus, it tends to stabilize after about 170 PA's.

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/14215

[James Zumstein]

Every time I see a chart like that, I think, "Some people have way too much time on their hands." And that I wish I was one of them.

[xisxisxis]

Carlos Patience Watch....

First AB tonight he saw at least 5 pitches - result = 2B

2nd AB, 1 pitch - result = out

3rd AB, 1 pitch -result = out

[logan82]

Per B-Prospectus, it tends to stabilize after about 170 PA's.

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/14215

I know some stats stabilize sooner than others. It might take more for a guy who is at the far end of the spectrum. He only walks about once a week. A good stretch of games where he walks would be a drastic improvement over a short amount of time. I wouldn't even bother with the stats in this particular case until about halfway through the season.

[fondybrewfan]

Carlos did have a 9 pitch AB on Opening Day though. And one of his first pitch swings yesterday was a rocket to 3B; can't remember the other one.

[logan82]

Marco Estrada had an 8 pitch at bat on Tuesday.

[dlk9s]

Carlos Patience Watch....

First AB tonight he saw at least 5 pitches - result = 2B

2nd AB, 1 pitch - result = out

3rd AB, 1 pitch -result = out

To be fair, the number of pitches he saw wasn't an indicator of how well he hit the ball. His two outs, IIRC, were hit hard. He got robbed on one of them.

[Ennder]

Last year he saw 3.39 pitchers per PA. So far this year he has seen 3.5. It is too early to read anything into this but he doesn't seem to be on a different path yet. You can generally throw out the first 2 weeks of the season though because they always are so goofy.

[monty57]

Gomez had 51 spring PAs and had 9 walks. He now has 8 regular season PAs with zero walks. Should we wait a week and a half or so, so we have an equal sample size to compare?

 

It was great seeing his increased patience this spring, but I agree with xis and Logan that we'll need to see him show that patience for a prolonged period of games that count before declaring that he's changed his ways. He's a Brewer for the long term now, so I really hope he has "found it" and will continue to put up All Star numbers like he did the second half of last season.

[Fear The Chorizo]

sometimes spring training patience has more to do with bad pitchers who can't throw strikes and batters wanting to see as many pitches as possible to work on their timing and pitch recognition.

 

I hold out hope that Cargo wants to focus on having good at bats and identifying good pitches to hit instead of going up their with a swing at anything mentality - I don't want to use spring training stats to validate that hope, though. The proof will be in the regular season #'s.