Comments on: A Rubber Match in Seattle

By: dan the man

dan the man — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:18:30 +0000

To touch on the Pie/Salazar rumors, I agree with Andrew that it makes no sense to replace an outfielder (Pie) with an infielder (Izturis), thus giving you no one that can really play CF. But I seriously doubt that Andy has overlooked that, if Pie was to in fact be traded. Andy has said that he likes Pie in his current role and there’s nothing wrong with have 4 young outfielders, so I think he’s more inclined to deal Salazar, who is Ty Wigginton minus a touch of defense and a ton of track record. We also have to see what comes back in a trade before we question whether or not the roster is being mismanaged.

By: dan the man

dan the man — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:14:07 +0000

I’ll give you that Burres had an idea how to pitch, but I still say Hernandez even without the K’s, can still be a solid starter. We have to look at what he’s using to strike guys out in the minors with. The fastball, I’d guess. Well, unless you have crazy movement and deception, you’re not going to strike out major leaguers with a fastball. My concern is less about strikeouts and more about pitch count.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:00:42 +0000

Also worth noting, without comment: when he got sent back to the minors, Hernandez put up those big strikeout numbers immediately. In 3 starts, he pitched 14 innings and struck out 19 batters.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:56:08 +0000

@dan the man – I thought Brian Burres knew how to pitch very well. I mean, he had to have since he had basically nothing above (or perhaps even closely resembling) a major league average pitch. Yeah, he walked guys, and he wasn’t any good anyway…but that was because his stuff blows.

Which is funny…because in the minors he struck out a LOT of guys: 8.0 per nine for his career. Those numbers obviously didn’t translate to the bigs, but I’m sure that once he gets settled in and finds his rhythm with Toronto those strikeouts will come.

Sorry, Greg…sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. The jury remains out, but skeptical, for David Hernandez.

By: dan the man

dan the man — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:47:52 +0000

Sweet win. Agreed, Neal, luck is part of the game, but we didn’t score 5 runs on good luck alone.

On, David Hernandez, it seems like in the minors, he was just blowing dudes away with his stuff. If he wants strikeouts in the bigs, he’s going to have to get it by keeping guys off balance, spotting his fastball better, and using all his pitches. You can’t expect to come up here with a 95mph fastball and throw it by everyone. It ain’t gonna happen. That said, he’s showing that a)he doesn’t walk very many people, b)he doesn’t get rattled, and c)he learns from his mistakes (notice the breaking ball that he struck out Lopez on the second time around). That’s more than can be said for Olson, Liz, D-Cab, Burres, etc, etc that we’ve seen for the last few years.

Even with Berken’s struggles, it seems our three rookies at least all understand HOW to pitch and how to pitch without, as Dave Johnson said in the post game last night, immediately walking 5 guys after giving up a home run. It’s fucking refreshing, if you ask me.