Pedro Grifol and the Three P's

I’ll start at the start because that’s where it all went bad last night in Kansas City. Royals’ starter Brad Keller, he of the 2-3 record and 4.67 ERA, walked the first two batters he faced, Tim Anderson and Andrew Benintendi. Andrew Vaughn then hit into a double play and Luis Robert Jr. struck out. No double steal, single steal or hit and run. Just a grounder to third and a punchout. Robert struck out all four plate appearances, by the way. That gives him forty-two in 138 at-bats, for a k-rate of 30.4 percent. Wait, there’s more. Lance “Keuchel” Lynn gave up four runs on six hits in the bottom of the first, plus another three over the course of five innings. Lynn falls to 1-5 on the season with a 7.51 ERA, worst of any qualifying starter in the AL. Wait, there’s more, specifically manager Pedro Grifol telling reporters Lynn “had a good game plan going in.” Grifol noted Sox hitters had a plan, too, to be more selective. The eleven strikeouts suggest otherwise. You have to love postgame commentator Ozzie Guillen. The word “filter” carries no meaning with him. After hearing Grifol’s comments, Guillen urged Grifol to throw out the plan because it’s not working. Better yet, he said he gets mad when Grifol “thinks we are stupid,” the “we” in this case being Ozzie and his fellow analysts. I feel his pain. Listen to Grifol, and he talks about the Three P’s—plans, practice and preparation, all of which have gotten the Sox to a 13-25 record. Guillen and Scott Podsednik wondered how much worse things will have to get until Grifol says his players’ performance is unacceptable. My guess is Grifol is incapable of offering such criticism. It’s one of the reasons he was hired in the first place.