We have a friend who loves nothing more in life then to see the World Series end on a swinging strikeout. For whatever reason, our friend just says it feels more momentous then, say, a ground ball to third or a fly ball to center field.
Needless to say, our new goal in life is to introduce our friend to Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty.
From a piece published Wednesday night by Les Carpenter of Yahoo Sports.
"Strikeouts are bull[bleep]," [McCatty] says. "If you try to strike out every hitter you're going to burn up pitches ... Look, just do the math. If you're taking 15-20 pitches to get through every inning that will multiply fast." He would rather his pitchers let the hitters hit the ball. This is an organizational emphasis of the Nationals. Instead of two strikeouts in an inning, how about just one along with a pop-up to second base? It's just easier, he says.
For the record, your major league leader in strikeouts per 9 innings through the All-Star break is a certain Stephen Strasburg (11.6). In third place is a certain Gio Gonzalez (10.4). So while we appreciate McCatty's outspokeness, we also hope he knows which side his bread is buttered on.