Where Is Our Pitching?
It has not been a good week for our pitching staff. It seems like everyone we put in there, whether starting or relieving is giving up runs, the exceptions being Mike Remlinger (ironically) and David Wells. Because of it, we lost 2 out of 3 to the absolute worst team in Major League baseball and have split the first 2 games against an average team. In the process we have managed to lose 3 games to the Yankees and are now only a game and half ahead of them. Things do not look good right now.
I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as it seems. It looks to me like it’s mostly been a case of a little bit of bad timing and bad luck. It all begins with the starters. In every game this week we needed relievers to go at least 3 innings. That’s going to cause some problems for any bullpen. All we really need is our starters to go a little longer in games to give the pen a rest so they will be more effective. And that’s we’re the bad timing and bad luck comes in.
It started with David Wells on Tuesday. Still suffering from the tail end of a viral infection that had been plaguing him for a couple of weeks, he got the win and pitched effectively enough (0 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks), but was only able to manage 5 innings.
On Wednesday Clement pitched effectively for 7 innings, but because the offense struggled a little bit, it went into the eleventh forcing the bullpen and even Arroyo to work overtime.
On Thursday we had Schilling, who we knew was on a pitch count and was not going to be able to give us a lot of innings. We were hoping that because it was the Royals, he would be able to get some outs while working himself back into starting shape. Unfortunately it didn’t quite happen for us.
Friday we sent Wakefield out there who is normally good for 6 or 7 quality innings but he was still hurting from the line drive he took off the shin during his last start. To make matters worse, he was nailed on the same leg by another batted ball early in the game. Despite this, he still managed to go six, but he was clearly hurting and therefore not as effective as he might have been. This is yet another reason why you have to love Wakefield. He knew his team needed him; he was hurting, he went out there anyway, got hurt some more, and still stuck it out for 6 innings. He’s completely selfless and willing to sacrifice himself for the team as always.
This brings us to yesterday where Arroyo’s fastball was lacking its normal velocity, possibly the result of having to throw on Wednesday because the pen was already taxed. Because of this, he was ineffective and only able to go 5 1/3 innings and we were forced to use the pen yet again.
So, here’s the good new. We start the cycle over again today with Wells. He should be completely over this virus by now and ready to give us some good innings. Clement goes next and he seems fine, our problem with his last start was the extra innings. Schilling is still getting stretched out, but if we can get the pen some rest over the next couple of days, they should be okay to pick him up on Wednesday. Hopefully Wakefield will feel good enough to give us the innings we need on Thursday and Arroyo should be well rested to get back into the groove on Friday.
Also on Thursday rosters expand and we’ll have some reinforcements on the way, including a healthy Keith Foulke. And if Wakefield is not able to go on Thursday, we'll have plenty of pitchers to choose from. From there it’s just a matter of putting it all back together and hoping that happens before the Yankees have a chance to overtake us.
Being the ever optimist that I am when it comes to this team, I think we’ll be fine and it will all work out.
I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as it seems. It looks to me like it’s mostly been a case of a little bit of bad timing and bad luck. It all begins with the starters. In every game this week we needed relievers to go at least 3 innings. That’s going to cause some problems for any bullpen. All we really need is our starters to go a little longer in games to give the pen a rest so they will be more effective. And that’s we’re the bad timing and bad luck comes in.
It started with David Wells on Tuesday. Still suffering from the tail end of a viral infection that had been plaguing him for a couple of weeks, he got the win and pitched effectively enough (0 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks), but was only able to manage 5 innings.
On Wednesday Clement pitched effectively for 7 innings, but because the offense struggled a little bit, it went into the eleventh forcing the bullpen and even Arroyo to work overtime.
On Thursday we had Schilling, who we knew was on a pitch count and was not going to be able to give us a lot of innings. We were hoping that because it was the Royals, he would be able to get some outs while working himself back into starting shape. Unfortunately it didn’t quite happen for us.
Friday we sent Wakefield out there who is normally good for 6 or 7 quality innings but he was still hurting from the line drive he took off the shin during his last start. To make matters worse, he was nailed on the same leg by another batted ball early in the game. Despite this, he still managed to go six, but he was clearly hurting and therefore not as effective as he might have been. This is yet another reason why you have to love Wakefield. He knew his team needed him; he was hurting, he went out there anyway, got hurt some more, and still stuck it out for 6 innings. He’s completely selfless and willing to sacrifice himself for the team as always.
This brings us to yesterday where Arroyo’s fastball was lacking its normal velocity, possibly the result of having to throw on Wednesday because the pen was already taxed. Because of this, he was ineffective and only able to go 5 1/3 innings and we were forced to use the pen yet again.
So, here’s the good new. We start the cycle over again today with Wells. He should be completely over this virus by now and ready to give us some good innings. Clement goes next and he seems fine, our problem with his last start was the extra innings. Schilling is still getting stretched out, but if we can get the pen some rest over the next couple of days, they should be okay to pick him up on Wednesday. Hopefully Wakefield will feel good enough to give us the innings we need on Thursday and Arroyo should be well rested to get back into the groove on Friday.
Also on Thursday rosters expand and we’ll have some reinforcements on the way, including a healthy Keith Foulke. And if Wakefield is not able to go on Thursday, we'll have plenty of pitchers to choose from. From there it’s just a matter of putting it all back together and hoping that happens before the Yankees have a chance to overtake us.
Being the ever optimist that I am when it comes to this team, I think we’ll be fine and it will all work out.
posted by Bob at 8/28/2005 01:15:00 PM
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