Former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton blew his first save opportunity of the spring last night.
At first this article was going to be all about how Broxton just doesn’t have it (which I don’t think he does) but, I’ll let him slide because Ivan DeJesus Jr. and Dee Gordon let him down last night, so I’ll also bash on the coaching.
Firstly, DeJesus should’ve gotten down farther on that ball, he was thinking throw before he got the ball that’s clear, it’s a classic rookie mistake. I also believe the ball hitting off Broxton’s glove messed him up a little so I can’t completely fault him, mental mistakes happen to even the best of vets as evidenced by Gabe Kapler, a very good outfielder, going so hard for a foul ball that would’ve clearly allowed the runner from third to score.
Secondly, Gordon on a ball that went to short-stop should’ve never been going towards the bag, he’s the short-stop and the batter was right handed, that should’ve been DeJesus, now whether or not Dee saw Ivan wasn’t going to cover or he took it of his own accord I don’t know but that’s something the coaches should ingrain in their young infielders.
Thirdly, why didn’t Hector Gimenez, the catcher at the time, ever call a fastball inside? Here’s a big dude that throws the ball 96-98 MPH on average and you’re making him throw his fastballs on the outside corner? It may be Broxton I don’t know but I saw Gimenez call a lot of balls to the outside of the plate to hitters. I first thought it was possible Broxton throws to that side of the plate better until I saw a slider and two fastballs called to the right side of the plate against a left-hander. Clearly Broxton or Gimenez believe that a bunch of scrubs can hit his inside fastball, but I’d like to have seem them try it once. When you have a rookie 0-2, you don’t give him a waist high fastball on the outside of the plate, you give him a chest high fastball on the inside.
Lastly, Broxton lost his cool. Yes he should’ve been out the inning on two separate ground balls but he also should’ve been able to settle down and blow some of those guys away as well. He had Mike Trout 0-2 with 1 out, pre All Star Broxton strikes him out, post All Star Broxton either walks him or allow him to get his bat on the ball. After that he just went wild, went away from the fastball and started throwing sliders outside of the strike zone and when he did throw the fastball it only went above 94 once and that was an overthrown ball nearly in the dirt.
If you watch on the close up you see Broxton sweating after only 20 or so pitches, he got nervous in an exhibition game, what more can you expect from the guy in the NLCS! So, I will apologize to some friends of mine who I called idiots for saying Broxton didn’t have it back in 2008 and 2009 against the Phillies, I felt that he’d done well up to then through the playoffs and that the Phillies just got to them but now I see that Broxton really can’t handle pressure and thus shouldn’t be allowed to close ball games anymore.
Does he have the stuff? Certainly but he just doesn’t have that moxy, that “I’m going to get you out no matter what,” attitude, he seems more afraid that the batter will hit him than the batter is of striking out and that didn’t used to be the case. So hopefully Donnie Baseball notices this and doesn’t make us watch Broxton struggle in the closer role to start the season, I just don’t think my heart can take it.
