Is Mike Piazza Done?

Piazza's bat speed is not slow, and if you think that then you aren't watching closely enough.

His bat speed is still fast enough to drive a ball 450+ feet, so that isn't the issue. The issue is clearly his pitch recognition. Watch for it next time he is up.

Piazza is not a "guess hitter", he is a reactionary hitter. He sees the pitch and then reacts to it. He has said so himself many times. His ability to recognize pitches so late combined with his batspeed has always been the reason he's going to the Hall of Fame.

What has changed lately? Well, right now he doesn't seem able to pick up the breaking pitch anymore. This happens to him every year (including his best years) when he slumps, but these slumps are growing more prolific and more frequent.

The illusion of slow bat speed is there for the less educated viewer. Piazza thinks fastball and then gets fooled. As all players do when fooled on an off-speed pitch, he attempts to slow the bat down to hit the ball. This is frequently called "waving" at a pitch, and it's not a sign of slow bat speed, but a sign of poor timing or poor pitch recognition.

The real question is this:

Has Piazza's ability to recognize a pitch completely dwindled to a point where he can no longer be productive, or is this merely a slump? 5 Years ago no one would have been concerned if Mike Piazza started off a season hitting .130 after 8 games ... but now that he's up in years (much like the situation with Bernie Williams), every little slump is magnified and proclaimed "the end".

On a side note, the Yankees moved Bernie Williams to the #9 spot in the order last night as a result of his slow start. The result? He was 3-for-4 with a homerun. One or two solid nights for Piazza would erase all of this discussion and bring his average right up to normal levels. It's early folks.

Rick Peterson is the Savior/Devil

Why does everyone have to be hot or cold with stuff like this?

Rick Peterson isn't going to drastically change people in a few weeks, and the difference he makes is going to be quite small. There's also the chance that for every 2 guys he helps he may hamper another.

If Victor Zambrano cannot be fixed, it doesn't mean Rick Peterson is a failure, and if Kaz Ishii throws a gem, IT DOESN'T MEAN RICK PETERSON IS THE REASON WHY EITHER.

Let us not forget that Kaz Ishii has the 4th best winning percentage among all active major league pitchers before the all-star break. Let us not forget that he has thrown a significant number of games in the past similar to the one he threw last night, using the same tactics and pitches. Was last night's victory Ishii's, or Petersons? I'm going with Ishii on this one. Let's see Ishii's game blossom with the addition of a new Peterson pitch or his second half numbers drastically improve before we call Peteron the Savior.

Hitting coaches and pitching coaches are very overrated in baseball, but they can make a small difference. How they matter has to be weighed on an individual basis with each player they work with and how that impacts the team, not so much as a collective body of work or an overall regime. Think of hitting and pitching coaches as psychiatrists more so than teachers, since that is essentially what they are.

Some guys don't want to listen to psychiastrists. Other guys do, but it doesn't seem to help them anyway. Other guys pick on the bones of instructions and implement certain elements into their life. It is very much the same with pitching and hitting coaches.

Let's not get carried away with Rick Peterson one way or the other. Use you own minds, don't let the desperate media hounds drive your opinions. These are Major League ballplayers here, not children, and Rick Peterson is a human with an opinion or two, not a diety.