June 12th, 2013 at 7:43 am 
by Robb Anderson Everyone is focusing on Brandon League’s dismal performance in Monday night’s painful 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks and how Dodger manager Mattingly handled the closer role, which is important, but the lack of effort and solid basic baseball was brutal in the bottom of the 9th.
No one will argue that struggling reliever Brandon League has lost his edge as a closer, but there was a lot more to Monday night’s painful loss than just his poor pitching. (Photo credit – Gary A. Vasquez)
With bases loaded, no outs, and D-backs closer Heath Bell on the ropes, Nick Punto swings at the first pitch, Mark Ellis strikes out swinging, and Adrian Gonzalez barely runs to first base on a deflected ground ball. End of game.
As a little league coach, I have three golden rules of guidance; I try explain and correct mental errors in the moment, I never punish a child for a physical error, and a lack of effort I punish swiftly. All three rules were exemplified in that inning.
Mental Error– With little kids you have to call “time” and calmly pull them aside to correct an obvious mental error so that they understand what went wrong without feeling punished. I have been singing the praises of Nick Punto this year as the glue that has held together the team by filling holes and playing good baseball. Normally a very patient hitter at the plate, he swung at the first pitch popping up. Uggh! That is just not fundamentally sound baseball. I am guessing Mattingly didn’t give him the take sign but what is the rush? Take a strike. The pressure is on Bell with the bases loaded and no outs. Try and find a pitch to drive to the outfield. He may even give you a walk. Swinging on the first pitch is something you would expect from a nervous rookie, but not from someone with Punto’s experience. All you need is a sacrifice fly and the game is tied.
Physical Error – I never pull a kid from a game for making a physical error in the field or at bat. Ellis, a good contact hitter, had a great night and frustratingly makes no contact in his at bat. It was a tough strike out but in the end it is a physical error. Sometimes you don’t hit the ball. With a kid, you pat him on the back and say better luck next time.
Lack of Effort – With little leaguers, lack of effort is dealt with swiftly. With me, if you want a first class ticket to the bench, don’t run to first base. What made me more angry last night than League’s struggles was Adrian’s Gonzalez lack of effort to get to first base. I know his is not the fleetest of foot but you saw the ball bounce off Bell and hope lived for the slightest moment. Then you look over and see Gonzalez’ low level of intensity in running to first and hope dies. He just didn’t run hard. I can imagine it is hard to keep up the intensity over the course of a season, but come on. Bottom of the 9th and the bases loaded. If you can’t run then, when will you?
I get that Adrian Gonzalez is a slow runner, but there is a huge difference between lack of speed and lack of effort. (Photo credit – Keith Allison)
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Get out of my head Robb! I thought the exact same thing on all three accounts.
Robb – you sound like my Little league coach – Gus Vickers. His first rule before the other three was sportsmanship. That was not in play in the instances you cite but was last night.
I have noticed before that I thought Adrian was not running full out. Granted that is not very fast at the best of times but I always thought if a guy was running full out his head was down and his arms pumping.
You are right. Sportsmanship above all. That rule probably wasn’t used last night with the chin music going on!
No one comments on AGon’s base running. Maybe I am a being a bit hyper-critical but he just doesn’t seem to put out much effort on the base path other than moving station to station. He almost never advances from 1st to 3rd on a single to right. He just doesnt’ seem to be running hard.
I on the other hand am as slow as hell on the base paths but as they say, I am “pulling the plow” as I chug down the path,snorting and straining with the yoke! Haha!
A good write up. I think most of us have gotten use to the Dodgers not scoring much with RISP and were feeling lost before the gane ended to even think that Gonzalez wasn’t running fullout.
Well put Robb, back to basics, something this team needs to remember !!
Well, interesting take. Maybe all that is true when coaching 12 year olds.
I coached as high as JC, and my rule was always – punish the first mistake you see.
I never liked hitting from behind in the count. If you don’t go up there ready to hit a “get ahead” fastball down the tube, they you are giving advantage to the pitcher. As a Major Leaguer, I would say that with the bases loaded, if you aren’t ready to step in and punish a tubed fastball, then what are you doing there? Not to say Punto didn’t swing at a ball outside the strike zone…. cuz I don’t know if he did and you don’t reference that.
Different approaches I reckon.
I am not saying it isn’t good to punish a mistake but sometimes the situation merits patience and an understanding of the “zen” of the situation. With the bases loaded and no outs all of the pressure is on Bell. He has to make good pitches and multiple ones. Put the ball in his court and work him a bit. Punto is normally such a patient hitter but he swung at a first pitch that as I recall was high, maybe in the upper part of the strike zone or a ball. But even if it was a strike he would most likely get another good opportunity especially for a contact hitter like Punto. Mistakes come as easy to a pitcher under pressure on the first pitch as with 0-2.
Little League technique as applied to Dodger 5-4 loss as written by Morelos LLB’s Robb Anderson http://t.co/0JphQWQDUr @Think_BlueLA
Good post, Robb, and I agree with your philosophy. However I differ with your opinion on the “lack of effort” given by Adrian Gonzalez. Couldn’t be further from the truth…
Gonzalez simply has a “lack of speed.” And, as Harold noted, Adrian’s arms were flailing, his head was down, and he was at full tilt… even if that means you and I are faster than he is. As they say, you can’t teach speed, and that play at first wasn’t even a close play. And trust me; I wanted Adrian to be safe as much as anyone.
It was a tough loss and we should have won that game were it not for Brandon League; we shouldn’t have even needed a bottom of the ninth.
I know many will not like my criticism of Gonzalez. Really in all other aspects he appears to give 110% and was very critical of himself recently with some flubs he made in the field.
As far as his base running is concerned, it has just been a bit irritating for me especially with the RISP problems the team has in general when he goes somewhat casually from station to station. On that particular instance, I wanted to make sure that I was not being too critical and watched the replay quite a few times. Even for him, he didn’t run very hard. He was very slow out of the box, appeared to take a few quicker steps when he saw the ball squirt out and then slowed down again as he reached the bag. We all know he is slow of foot – he is no Dee Gordon — but it just doesn’t appear sometimes that he makes much effort to get to the bag.