Schadenfreude
From Dictionary.com:
scha·den·freu·de [Shahd-n-froi-duh]
- noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.
I have to admit, that last night watching Armando Benitez give up a game losing 3-run homer to Eric Byrnes in the 9th, with 2 outs, and an 0-2 count felt good. It was like seeing an ex-girlfriend at the mall for the first time in months. She treated you like hell, walked all over your heart, and left you a broken man. But to your surprise the next time you see her, she’s gained 30lbs and has a weird new mole on her forehead. Sure, you casually smile and say “Hi, how are you? How’ve you been?” but damn, it feels awesome on the inside. Schadenfreude.
The scenario of a failed relationship fits well with Armando Benitez and the Giants. He was brought it with great expectations that were never met and in turn many people soured on the whole thing. It limped along for a few years with minor periods of joy alongside many times of woe. It sounds like the archetype for every bad relationship except that I won’t have to get back all my T-Shirts and Radiohead tapes after the breakup. Armando was shipped off to Florida in exchange for RHP Randy Messenger and no one’s looked back since. Brian Sabean termed Armando a “whipping boy” for the fans, an easy source of frustration on a struggling team. Tonight, fans may be forced to look back, as the Fish roll into town for a three game series. I expect a Dodger-worthy boo if Armando makes it into the game. Baseball sometimes is more like a circus than anything else.
But amongst the Armando-hate fest is Randy Messenger. Messenger has done a nice job since coming into town, generally throwing strikes and not balking in Jose Reyes. I’m not overly thrilled with Messenger’s peripherals (he’s not striking out a lot of guys and is generally relying on the defense to turn hits into outs) but you can’t dispute that since the swap, he’s pitched well for us, regardless of how flukey it might be. Let’s take a peak at some stats for Benitez and Messenger.
Messenger vs. Benitez (Since trades)
| Name | W | L | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | ERA | ERA+ | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benitez | 2 | 3 | 21.3 | 23 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 13 | 22 | 6.33 | 65 | 1.688 |
| Messenger | 0 | 1 | 25.3 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 1.07 | 402 | 1.184 |
My only gripe with Messenger is that I wish he had a higher K-rate, with the type of stuff he has (mid-90’s FB, decent curve, a changeup) you would expect him to srike out more guys. Messenger has, on the year, given up more hits than innings pitched (51 H’s to 49 IP) The potential is there, he made Chipper Jones, who’s hitting everything this season, look pretty bad in an AB during the Giants-Braves series. Benitez has a better strikeout rate but he’s walking more guys, something that Messenger has avoided since he came to SF. In games that I’ve seen him pitch, he seems to throw srikes.
Relievers, except elite ones (Hoffman, Rivera, Nathan, etc.), can tend to bounce around performance wise between seasons. Messenger could very well blow up next year but he’s been a nice addition so far this year.
28/07/2007 at 2:22 am Permalink
Messenger I like. He’s a local guy - Reno - who is a big Giants fan and glad to be here. The Giants should do more of that sort of drafting, much like the Braves concentrating on the Georgia area, though they have to be careful as there are a lot of A’s fans, like Tulowitski of the Rockies, who has stated his hatred for the Giants before. But if they can get Giants fans, signings should be easier, and if they make it to the majors, it will be more meaningful to them plus they might give a hometown discount when they go free agent.
Messenger is lucking out right now with a HR/FB of 1.5% - way under the 10% mean pitchers regress to. He’s never been a strikeout guy, except for a year in AA in 2004 when apparently he applied his knowledge of the league from the year before, when he stunk, and did really well, in fact, he was their closer that year, saving 21 games and finishing 45 games.
Looking at his past seasons, he appears to counteract his lack of K’s by inducing the groundball more often than other pitchers. And his control, while not impecable, is OK, around 3.0. But typically you want relievers to have a K/BB ratio of 2.4+ and he’s been only in the high 1’s in his short career thus far.
He appears to have figured out the majors at age 25 (he’ll be 26 in 3 weeks), after having really bad seasons (5+ ERA) the past two seasons, he has done well this year, particularly after joining the Giants, apparently he was jazzed at joining the Giants. His K/BB with us is a nice 2.33, but his K/9 is around 5.0, and BB/9 is around 2.15, which is excellent, and his BABIP while with us is approximately .280, so he’s right around the .300 mean. With his fastball, he should be striking out more, hopefully Righetti will help him with that, not sure what the problem is. But that was his pattern with AA in 2004 and 2005, he did poorly, then figured things out. He could have a nice bust out year for us in 2008 then.
Of course, the low HR/FB is going to result in poorer results going forward, but he’s been doing really well for us and looks to continue going forward. That’s not too bad a haul for Benitez and $5M.