From the new book, Baseball Confidential, there is a chapter about Eddie Guardado asking his catcher for the next pitch suggestion. After the suggestion the conversation continued.......Guardado even asked Steinbach at that time, “Is that the best idea you have? Right down the middle? We are talking about Edgar Martinez here.” Steinbach sheepishly laughed and asked the pitcher what else he wanted to do, realizing options were limited. Steinbach suggested, “Let’s take a chance!”
Steinbach retreated back to his catching position, got into the proverbial catcher’s crouch knowing it was a full count on the powerhouse batter. Pitcher Guardado threw the best, down the middle, splitting the plate in half pitch that he had ever thrown, fearing it was about to get smacked out of the park for a home run. That didn’t happen. Edgar Martinez swung right through the pitch for strike three. The inning was over. Guardado said many, many “Holy ____” after that pitch and was amazed that Martinez swung right through the pitch.
Guardado later asked catcher Steinbach if he noticed something in the batters approach or swing at that moment? Steinbach said no. His rationale for the suggestion was that batters like Martinez and pitchers pitching to him are always looking for and at pitches that are in and out, breaking to one side or another, never right down the middle. When a pitch came right down the middle in the perfect spot, in a split second, Martinez got excited, and at the same time probably couldn’t believe that he was getting the perfect pitch to hit and he swung through it. He didn’t see the left-side or right-side breaking ball that he was expecting. Steinbach’s suggested strategy worked. One never knows what’s going to happen with a pitch. Sometimes batters guess right and sometimes they don’t. That’s the same with the average fan. They try to guess the next pitch type and sometimes are right and other times they are wrong. That’s baseball and that’s why Guardado got away with the classic pitch he threw.
The Guardado/Steinbach exchange is one type of conversation in the game: strategic but very much in the moment.