How hot is Mike MacDougal? E-mail
Written by William Yoder   
Saturday, 15 August 2009 07:19

Mike MacDougal took the mound last night to slam the door on what turned out to be the Washington Nationals third shutout of the season.

macWhen MacDougal is on, he will come to the mound and electrify you. He throws straight gas, the cheese, the dead heat. He has one pitch and he utilizes it well. His fastball races to the plate at speeds from 94-98 MPH with movement.

That movement is important. For every Inch a fastball moves baseball experts say the batter perceives and extra five miles per hour to the pitch because of the adjustment time necessary.

Why do you think Mariano Rivera has been so unhittable throughout his career ladies and gentleman?

Yet, clearly, anyone who looks at a Mike MacDougal baseball card can see his career has not gone the way of a Mariano Rivera…or even a B.J Ryan for that matter. This is because while MacDougal has incredible stuff he is marred by incredible inconsistency. His one pitch is great, when its on.

What’s so fascinating about MacDougal however is that unlike most streaky pitchers, it isn’t a matter of the closer being on one night and off the next. For MacDougal when he is on he is one of the more dominant bullpen pitchers in baseball, when he’s not, he’s a borderline AAA reliever.

Right now he is one what I at first glance thought must have been the best streak of his career. In the month of August he has an MLB leading six saves, and has looked unhittable. But after looking back into his career, this isn’t even close to his best streak.

 

  • 2009: August 2nd-present, 6 IP, 5K/4BB, 6 Saves, 0 blown saves.
  • 2005: June 29th-July 22, 11 IP, 9K/4BB, 7 Saves, 0 blown saves.
  • 2003: May 31st-April 20, 9 IP, 8K/6BB,  7 Saves, 0 blown saves.
  • 2003: June 18th-July 13, 11 IP, 8K/5BB, 10 Saves, 0 blown saves.

 

As you can see one thing remains constant, his walk rate. It seems MacDougal doesn’t get into that much trouble unless his fastball straightens out, or the batter gets a good read on it. It’s like the old adage says, if it comes in hard it leaves hard.

These streaks are the reason MacDougal has stuck around so long as a potential closer in the majors. They’ve made him the kind of guy every team will take a last chance on, as the Nationals did this year. They are also however, the reason he has never been able to keep a closer job.

Comments (0)Add Comment

Write comment

busy
< Prev   Next >
 

Follow The Nats Blog

fbtwitter_64rss_64snapshot_2009-08-21_14-01-53

If you like this you may like

baseballdebatetag

Great Baseball Reading

Hardball Times
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Digest Daily
Wezen-Ball
Seam Heads
Sweet Spot (By Rob Neyer)
Fan Graphs
Beyond the Box Score
The Daily Something
Baseball Mustings
Sabernomics

Search The Nats Blog

About Bloguin

Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.

Advertisers

The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.

Bloggers Wanted

The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.

The Bloguin Login

The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!