The Hook

Week 3 MOTW: Tom Glavine vs. John Smoltz

After we had a pair of power lefties going last week, we're bringing you a classic in Week Three. Tom Glavine and John Smoltz pitched together with the Braves for over a decade as part of the best triumverate of starters that we've seen in the past 25 years. While Smoltz always provided that big power righty, Glavine is perhaps the premier finesse lefty of the past 20 years. Both figure to be on their way to the Hall of Fame, though only Smoltz remains one of the better fantasy options as a starter. Glavine remains a very good pitcher, though he maintains a high WHIP and keeps a low strikeout rate.

Of Note

- Since signing with the Mets as a free agent prior to the 2003 season, Glavine has struggled against his old mates. He entered the game 3-10 lifetime against Atlanta with a 5.55 ERA and 1.57 WHIP against the Braves.... As expected, Glavine is particularly tough on lefties. He limited left-handed batters to a .200 average last season as opposed to a .287 average against right-handers... Glavine was considerably better at Shea last season as well, going 8-3 with a 2.88 ERA and 1.24 WHIP as opposed to 7-4 with a 4.72 ERA and 1.43 WHIP on the road.

- Though he was just .500 against the Mets last season, Smoltz was still brilliant, allowing just a 2.33 ERA while striking out 31 batters in 34 innings against them.... Lifetime, Smoltz is a pretty similar pitcher on the road to what he has been at home. However, he was much stronger at home in 2006. His home ERA was more than a full point lower at home, while he shaved nearly a quarter of a baserunner off of his WHIP in Turner Field. Considering this start is at Shea, this doesn't bode well.... Smoltz has struggled quite a bit more against left-handed batters in recent years than he did when he was younger. He allowed a .278 average against lefties last season while keeping a 1.46 WHIP against them.

Tom Glavine

Arsenal
81-87 Four-Seam Fastball
73-74 Changeup
82-84 Slider
65-68 Curveball

Glavine's first pitch, an 82 MPH fastball to Kelly Johnson, was turned around into the bullpen in right field. Because he can't overpower hitters, he's very hittable if he's not locating precisely. However, he settled down after the Johnson homer and was perfect for the next two innings.

As stated already, location is a must, and he's successful because his command is still among the best in the game. While he doesn't necessarily translate that into control (though he didn't walk a batter Sunday, he has walked 12 in 29+ innings so far this season, including five in his previous outing), that's because he's smart enough to realize that he always has to be nibbling. Power pitchers can get away with attacking the zone, while Glavine will probably end up getting whiplash if he does so. He lives on the corners. If he's getting the calls, he's awfully tough. He was getting them Sunday, particularly up and on the outside corner with his changeup.

His changeup is by far his best pitch, and it shows in how often he uses it. He has tremendous movement on it, and it seems to be most effective when he's using it to tail in on lefties and away from righties. It's nearly impossible to wait on, which makes him even more effective in a league that has become so power dominant in recent years.

His fastball is nothing special, though he can spot it well. There's good movement on it, as there is with every pitch he throws. However, he tops off in the 85-86 range, which means that hitters rarely have trouble getting around on it. On the positive side, he's able to make it fairly effective because of the difference in velocity between that and his dominant change.

He didn't use the curve often in this one, but when he did, he almost made it look like an eephus pitch. He dropped one in on Andruw Jones early in the game, lobbing a 65 MPH curve with 11 to 4 break that seemingly had Jones salivating. However, getting the timing down on a lob like that for hitters has to be awfully difficult. He tried it again later on Jones, but didn't have it going quite as slow and hung the pitch a bit. The result, both from throwing Jones something he'd thrown him earlier and from the lesser movement, was a double that was hammered into the gap.

Glavine thrives on the fact that he's smarter than most of the hitters he faces and his location. It's rare that any hitter will see something in the same location or with the same velocity twice in an at bat. He gets into trouble if he throws anything near the heart of the plate. Despite this fact, he was nearly as effective in the hole at 2-0 as he was in any other situation. He constantly fell behind hitters because he doesn't have the heat to get ahead of them, but still looked very strong.

Line: ND, 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 HR/All., 1 Runner Picked Off

John Smoltz

Arsenal
91-93 Four-Seam Fastball
85-89 Slider with late sink
84-86 Splitter

When Smoltz is on, as he was in the first four innings, his slider is what can make him so incredible. It has tremendous late action, both biting and sinking. It bears in on lefties, and was outstanding for him early in the game. Smoltz seemed to be enjoying the warmer weather, as there had been talk early in the year that his slider was slipping off of his fingers because of the cold. The first few innings saw no such instances in this one.

His fastball still has plenty of late life and plenty of movement. Smoltz can still bring the heat with the best of them, and while there's not a huge variance in velocity between his fastball and his slider, it's tough to read coming out of his hands. He's particularly effective when tailing the ball away from lefties, though he seemed to let a call that he didn't get in the sixth get to him.

Smoltz had backed away from throwing his splitter as much in his first few years back from surgery, instead opting with a changeup. I didn't see him throw the change once Sunday, but he did use the splitter with some effectiveness diving on the outer half. He had trouble locating it at times, but the splitter's most effective when it's not thrown for strikes anyway.

You've already seen mention that he was great for the first four innings, allowing just one hit. Something snapped to start the fifth for some reason. He didn't look fatigued, and his pitch count wasn't real high. He just seemed to start having trouble with the Mets' hitters in the fifth before eventually getting himself into trouble the next inning.

Green led the fifth off with a blast to right on a decent slider down and in. He then left a splitter up a bit that Jose Valentin took to the wall, but was bailed out by his defense. Smoltz himself made a phenomenal play to get Glavine for the second out before blowing up a bit again. Reyes got it started with a good piece of hitting on a fastball away, followed closely by a Lo Duca ground rule double on the next pitch, another fastball away. Smoltz came back to strike out Beltran on a tailing fastball, but never looked the same.

Things seemed to snowball on Smoltzie in the sixth, and part of it had to do with his defense. The overshift, which remains my least favorite thing about professional baseball, allowed Carlos Delgado to hit a groundball to the shortstop (err... where the shortstop would be) for a single to start the inning. After coming back to strike out David Wright, who just looked awful Sunday, watching two blatantly hanging sliders go by harmlessly, he was burned by Andruw Jones playing too deep on a lazy pop fly to center that dropped in for Moises Alou. Here's where everything got messy.

Smoltz walked Green on four pitches to load the bases, just missing with ball three, which was nearly identical to the pitch that struck Beltran out in the fifth. He hung about three sliders to Jose Valentin in the next at bat, all of which were turned on just a little too quickly. Though he got away with the hanging sliders, Valentin dumped a single into shallow left center that drove in Delgado to cut the lead to 3-2. While he came back to get Julio Franco on a fly to shallow right and keep the runner from scoring, he again hung a slider to Jose Reyes on the first pitch. Reyes doesn't miss, and absolutely tagged it down the right field line for a bases clearing triple. Paul Lo Duca wouldn't let him off the hook either, fighting his way to an RBI single on a fastball up and in.

Basically, Smoltz showed a lot of signs of fatigue, which seems odd because his pitch count wasn't that high. He started hanging everything, and the Mets did exactly what you're supposed to do with hangers. They crushed them.

Line: ND, 5.2 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 K, 1 HR/All.

Neither pitcher factored in the decision, though Glavine left with a three run lead. Chalk Willie Randolph up for this loss. Ambiorix Burgos looked solid in retiring the first two hitters before getting a little unlucky on a two out double by Scott Thorman. After going to his lefty specialist, Scot Schoeneweis (who is literally living proof that anyone who can throw left-handed will be given a shot by a big league ballclub at some point) to face Kelly Johnson, Randolph was penalized for his faith. Schoeneweis lost Johnson, who was the unquestioned star of this game, but was then left in to face the right-handed hitting Edgar Renteria, who immediately knotted it up with a three-run blast to right center. Schoeneweis then allowed a double to Chipper and intentionally walked Andruw Jones before eventually getting a somewhat hobbled Brian McCann to fly out to center after a ten pitch at bat. Enjoy Schoeneweis Met fans. He's like a train wreck. You're absolutely repulsed by his performance, but you just can't look away.

Aaron Heilman then allowed a three-run shot of his own in the eighth inning, though all of the runs were technically unearned. He wasn't real impressive, hitting Craig Wilson and then falling behind Johnson 2-0 before Johnson deposited a fastball up into the bullpen in right. The Braves won 9-6 behind a pair of homers, a single, and a well worked walk from their new starting second baseman and leadoff man.

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