The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Bully for Robert Fick for coming through with a big 2-RBI double in last night's loss to the Padres. Ryan Church had led off with a single, before Brian Schneider sliced a double down the left-field line that rolled deep into the corner. Church read the ball poorly, got a poor jump, and was unable to score when the 3B coach held him (rightly) with just one out. It was a poor base-running play on a ball that was in front of Church the whole way, but he was saved by Fick's rip down the right-field line.

But boooo to Fick for his boneheaded baserunning play. Kory Casto doubled deep off the CF wall, and Fick only made it to third base. He held up on the play, looking for the tag play, expecting Cameron to catch the ball.

With one out, that's the wrong decision.

If Cameron had made the catch, Fick would've been on third with two outs. There's not much advantage to being on third with two outs as there is on being on second. (Yeah, Wild Pitches and all that, but they're the exception). If there were nobody out, Fick's play was the right one, because he'd be on third with one out, and there are a bazillion ways that the runner on third can score with less than two outs -- not that the Nats succeed in any of them anyway.

Instead, he should've played it halfway. Had he, he would've scored easily. Instead, he was able to advance only 90 feet on a play the batter ran 180 on.

We've rapidly gotta be approaching the end of the Matt Chico experiment. I'm not so much worried about what it's doing to him, but to the team's pen. Last night was his shortest outing yet, and it makes 4 of his 6 appearances under 5 IP. The starters have been better of late, which has lifted some of the burden on the pen, but you can't consistently have a guy pitch this little every five days.

What's been his undoing is the walks. Oh, man, the walks. Four more last night, gives him 20 on the season (to go with just 17 K). If he made 33 starts, he'd have walked 110 batters while averaging under 5 innings an outing. Yeesh. If you pro-rate it, he's at 6.6 BB per 9 IP, an ungodly rate.

If you think he's been as bad as his numbers, say, you're right. His FIP ERA (fielding independent pitching), which looks at the things the pitcher has most control over (walks, strikeouts, homers) is 6.64 versus the 6.59 he's put up.

He just doesn't have much control. Only 55% of his pitches are strikes (league ave is 62%), and he throws a first-pitch strike just 46% of the time. And 10% of his plate appearances have resulted in 3-0 counts.

Add it up, and we've got someone who's not ready for prime time.

He doesn't appear to be making progress, and he's hurting the team's chances for winning, and stretching the pen. It's probably time to send him down, and see what someone else -- be it Simontacchi or Hanrahan (who's nursing a bit of a groin problem) -- can do.

He was a solid pitcher at AA, and he didn't really have control problems. Maybe it's best to give him some time at Columbus to get back to what made him successful.