Quote:
Originally Posted by ksushi
Right.
If you've ever experienced high level competition or practiced a strict discipline of any kind, being told to work on part of your game or craft after what you considered to be a milestone success, it can mess with you a little. In the case of baseball, he probably got sloppy due to over-confidence, but even AA hitters know what they're doing and can take advantage of mistakes etc. Getting sent down to work on secondary pitches is still getting sent down. What he needs to improve are innings at an appropriate level of competition. Double A clearly ain't it. 91 pitches through 6.1 innings of shut out ball at the major league level means you're clearly playing above the heads of your class-AA mates. His AA seasoning should be over.
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A sinkerball/sidearm pitcher will give up more hits at AA on groundballs that find holes that don't exist at the MLB level. Tito didn't seem concerned about the recent AA numbers during the press gathering after the game. He did a great job of recognizing last night's performance, then putting it into perspective regarding the kid's ongoing development - including promotion to Pawtucket.