Pitching Carousel To Hell
The pitching maneuvers have begun.
The abused Joe Horgan takes his 21.00 ERA to New Orleans so he can try to learn how to get right-handed batters out. In his place comes Jo(h)n Rauch.
Despite the bloated stats, Horgan got the job he was supposed to do done: get lefties out. It's just that Frank, for whatever reason, decided he should be a middle reliever and able to get righties out too. He might be able to get Crappy righties out, but against Florida, Frank let him face Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Paul LoDuca -- not quite murderers row, but a core of a team strong enough to win the pennant. Righties ripped him a new cavity -- .667 .667 .958
But, he held his own against lefties: .231 .375 .308. The OBP allowed is high, but that's mostly from pitching around Jim Thome. They didn't hit for average and they didn't hit for power. That's about all you can ask from a left-handed specialist.
Hopefully Horgan'll get a chance later in the year. He's been effective before, and should be again -- if he can get out of Frank's doghouse.
Rauch comes up to fill a spot on the staff he probably should have had coming out of spring training. Apparently, they're bumping Tomo Ohka from his next start, but, with the offday this week, they can probably skip that slot altogether. I'd prefer that Rauch get a chance to start. I don't think he can quite do what John Patterson's doing, but he can certainly best Esteban Loaiza. (And besides, I don't think Patterson can keep doing what Patterson's been doing!)
Frank still thinks that Ohka's hurt and Ohka's being coy about it, so who knows. He'll be seeing mopup duty if needed, hopefully.
Where do we stand? My early season grades
Obviously the bullpen's been carrying this team. The starters are simply going to have to do better to reduce the pen's workload. Because, if they keep having to pitch 4.2 innings a game, they're not going to make it to the All-Star break without more injuries.
The abused Joe Horgan takes his 21.00 ERA to New Orleans so he can try to learn how to get right-handed batters out. In his place comes Jo(h)n Rauch.
Despite the bloated stats, Horgan got the job he was supposed to do done: get lefties out. It's just that Frank, for whatever reason, decided he should be a middle reliever and able to get righties out too. He might be able to get Crappy righties out, but against Florida, Frank let him face Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Paul LoDuca -- not quite murderers row, but a core of a team strong enough to win the pennant. Righties ripped him a new cavity -- .667 .667 .958
But, he held his own against lefties: .231 .375 .308. The OBP allowed is high, but that's mostly from pitching around Jim Thome. They didn't hit for average and they didn't hit for power. That's about all you can ask from a left-handed specialist.
Hopefully Horgan'll get a chance later in the year. He's been effective before, and should be again -- if he can get out of Frank's doghouse.
Rauch comes up to fill a spot on the staff he probably should have had coming out of spring training. Apparently, they're bumping Tomo Ohka from his next start, but, with the offday this week, they can probably skip that slot altogether. I'd prefer that Rauch get a chance to start. I don't think he can quite do what John Patterson's doing, but he can certainly best Esteban Loaiza. (And besides, I don't think Patterson can keep doing what Patterson's been doing!)
Frank still thinks that Ohka's hurt and Ohka's being coy about it, so who knows. He'll be seeing mopup duty if needed, hopefully.
Where do we stand? My early season grades
Livan C+ Chad Cordero B-
Esteban B Luis Ayala A+
Patterson A+ TJ Tucker A+
Day C+ Joey Eischen B
Ohka (?) F Majewski/Carrasco incomplete!
Obviously the bullpen's been carrying this team. The starters are simply going to have to do better to reduce the pen's workload. Because, if they keep having to pitch 4.2 innings a game, they're not going to make it to the All-Star break without more injuries.
posted by Chris Needham at
12:16 PM
2 Comments:
Not that this really matters to the Nationals, but you have to feel for Tim Foli. In less than a month he has had his pitching staff juggled three separate times. I know that is what the AAA roster is for but that is alot of upheaval.
By
Brian, at 4/25/2005 1:04 PM
I feel bad for Keith Bodie, the Harrisburg manager. AA is usually where the prospects are, and is much more developmental.
He's got Melvin Nieves patrolling the outfield. Yeah, THAT Melvin Nieves.
By
Chris Needham, at 4/25/2005 1:11 PM
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