Now this is getting ludicrous to the max. BIG TIME.
JA Happ is not the second coming of Sandy Koufax or Steve Carlton – may Carlton the door man. The way the Toronto sports media chronicles Hyperbole’s…ah, Happ’s success, it conveys this image. During yesterday’s game the effusive cheerleaders Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman – both showing no sign of being journalistically unbiased – were in orgasmic delight over Happ’s exploits. It was revolting.
If you had not watched the game to see the performance for yourself – or any of Happ’s starts this year – a reader would, wrongly, presume that the reports are accurate. Sadly, the stories written always include comments from the manager and fellow players. Well, what the HELL are they supposed to say? That he sucks as opposed to that he is great.
This speaks not only to the rank dishonestly and lack of integrity of the sports chroniclers but also to their massive ignorance.
Happ’s history coming into this season was a 62-61 record over 9 seasons in the bigs with win totals as follows: 0, 1, 12, 6, 6, 10, 5, 11, 11. The top end is 12. This season Happ is 33 years old turning 34 in October. That is the history.
Pretty .500.
And so at 33 years old Happ, a lefthander- which goes in his favor big time, has suddenly found his groove? Well, that is arguable. It is without debate that as players spend more time in the Majors, they learn more about the game, themselves and other players they all hope this translates into better performance. For pitchers, toss in a new pitch and there is a good chance that you may do better.
In Happ’s case there is no new pitch and no new mechanics. What has happened is run support – almost 7 runs per game. Carlton the Doorman could win 15 with that type of run support. (Please see Vukovich, Peter.) Meanwhile his fellow pitching teammates have not benefited from this support, particularly R.A.Dickey, who has gotten zero support. So Happ has been – dare it be spoken – lucky (shhh).
Luck is not the only factor. Happ has one of the highest percentages among major leaguers of fastballs thrown in a game against other pitches in his repertoire. Happ is no Aroldis Chapman and has an average – at best – fastball. And his mechanics do not give his fastball a natural sink or special movement. Like any pitcher in the majors, he can manouever the ball but it is not Maddux-esque.
Happ has done what all pitchers try to do each game – get ahead of the hitters, pound the strike zone. And it starts with the fastball as a pitcher must have control over his fastball to, not only, set up other pitchers, but also to be able to work on the edges. If a pitcher can do that consistently, he will be a big leaguer for a long time. That and being a lefty is a guarantee. Well Happ is a lefty, but the former has not been in evidence over 9 years as shown by his record.
Those are the stats and facts. However, there is another element that goes unstated by all, that is the MOST important element in Happ’s success. And that is that hitters are swinging at fastballs OUT of the strike zone.
His 17th win game was the epitome of what is going on with Happ. Because he has average pitches and will not either fool anyone or blow it by anyone, opposing players are racing to the bat rack to get to the plate. They cannot wait to hit against this guy. And that leads to two things – first pitch swinging and over anxiousness on the part of the hitter.
In this game –which PSR watched – Happ had 9 K’s in 7 and 1/3rd inning pitched. PSR counted 5 K’s that came on swinging at fastballs clearly out of the strike zone. Not even close pitches. That coupled with too many first pitch swinging to count, enabled Happ to earn the win – of course with run support even though the Yankees infield scuffed the ball around in an inning allowing the Jays to score 4.
PSR has seen a few of Happ’s start and the theme has been the same – too many swings at fastballs out of the strike zone. Because he is throwing over 90 % fastballs, hitters are digging in and being very aggressive. While Happ may give up more dingers, he is covered by the run support.
The sycophant Toronto media waxes orgasmically about Happ’s prowess this season – the doofus Buck Martinez even had the lunacy to say the Happ is having a “break-out year” – are you shite-ing me? At 33. Give it a rest moron. But they are not watching. When you watch any pitchers in a game, the best way to see if he has got his stuff is to watch the catcher. If he is hitting the decker – or close to it – and not 12 inches away from it – like Happ does – then one can tell if the pitcher has got control that outing. If he is not hitting his spot, then trouble lurks in a big way. If a pitcher can prevail with bad control, it is most likely to hitters recognizing the bad control and becoming impatient leading to swings as pitches out of the strike zone and swinging a bad strikes.
That is the real, true history of J.A Happ for this season. Happ seems like a very good guy and a professional. He is not a head case – like Marcus Stroman – and he goes about his business. PSR was struck with the image of Happ yesterday pacing in the dugout looking like a deer in the headlights. The reason why – to PSR – is that he cannot believe his good fortune and is so nervous when some reliever is in there trying to protect the lead, that Happ is almost going out of his mind.
Using a terribly overused term – this is not a ‘break-out’ seasons for J.A. Happ. This is good fortune shining on a good guy for this year. This is a story that countless major league players have encountered.. And if he is honest, he knows this. Better still for him, he is believing in himself and very confident which goes a long, long way in athletic success. Keeping it up and managing the now over-the-top expectations will be the issue. And it will not be helped by the cheerleading sports media in Toronto.
