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September 4, 2007

Under The Knife

Focusing on Focusing

by Will Carroll

I was reading Steven Poole's blog entry on writing process and abandoning Microsoft Word, when I realized that while everything he said was true—I too all but abandoned Word earlier this year—that the process he describes for his writing is about as opposite of mine as it could be. That's just the nature of it. When I wrote my books, my process was a bit different than that when writing UTK, but I was still in the habits of UTK—not distraction-free writing, but distraction-intensive writing. Whether IMs, emails, phone calls, or text messages, if there was a WriteRoom equivalent of my writing room, I couldn't do the column. So while I dumped Word for the good-enough Google Docs, I'm still keeping my ellipse-filled, distraction-intensive style of writing, because as far as I can tell, there's just no other way.

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• Pedro Martinez is amazing. He wasn't great in his first outing, but he figured out how to be effective enough to get his team in position to win. If you look at the way he pitched, it's like nothing he's ever done. He mixed in five distinct pitches at varying speeds and locations that seemed to have the Reds off balance. Part of that might be that they didn't have much video to go on (I'd assume, but you never know these days!) and that Martinez didn't pitch this way in the minors. What he called experimenting with different pitches during rehab really paid off. The recovery between this start and next will be key for him and for the Mets, but given their options and an expanded roster, buying him extra rest wouldn't be a big deal. Keeping him at or around the 80-pitch mark for the next couple outings should go a long way in keeping him fresh. This is a case of brilliant handling from day one by the Mets and their medical staff, on top of a brilliant pitching performance by Martinez.
• The blisters weren't a problem, but the elbow was. Roger Clemens left his Monday start grasping his elbow and complaining of a "grabbing" inside. There's a couple of possible scenarios here, none very good for the Rocket. Over his past couple of seasons in Houston, Clemens would wear down, but the symptoms usually showed up in his leg, not his arm. One reason that his late-season white-hat charge worked so well is that it delayed what many think is an inevitable weardown until later in the season, ideally sometime in late October. It didn't work the last couple of years, and Clemens' quick return to the Bronx may factor in here slightly. It's a lesser workload than he had in 2005 to be sure, but eerily similar to when he began having problems in 2006. Assuming that he is actually aging, we can also assume he'll wear down slightly earlier each year. If he can't go next time his turn is due, Mike Mussina will step back in, something Yankees fans are going to gnash their teeth about regardless. Clemens will have an MRI that will determine the next step, but there's some Nolan Ryan vibes that I'm getting here.
• Speaking of buying rest, the Mets will give Mike Pelfrey another start after a solid outing this weekend in order to buy a little rest for Orlando Hernandez after El Duque had a cortisone shot in his chronically sore right (push) foot. Hernandez's role is still a bit unclear for the playoffs, and given the shaky recent play by the Mets bullpen, his playoff performance from last year has to be in the front offices' minds. Mostly, this is just two happy coincidences—Pelfrey's solid outing needing a reward and Hernandez's need for a bit of extra rest—rather than anything more planned or sinister.

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