Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Rock Solid Recrap: Nibbling Leads To Crumbling

Padres 13, Rockies 3

I'll attempt to not overreact to one really horrfying loss.

I think I'm going to fail miserably at this.

Jeff Francis

If Jeff Francis is going to come out nibbling, while also completely wearing down 80-90 pitches in to his outings, then he should be considered for removal from the rotation when Jorge De La Rosa returns.

That will never happen, of course, but it could be a consideration.

His command needs to improve. His confidence isn't where it needs to be. His arm strength should be progressing by now. It's just not happening. He's not going to be anything more than a 5-6 inning pitcher unless he sees significantly improvement in each of those categories.

Honestly, I'd much rather live through the growing pains of Jhoulys Chacin and the inconsistencies of Aaron Cook than sit through anything like today again. Seriously, did you not want to jump through your TV, computer screen, IPhone or radio today and scream at Jeff Francis?

THROW STRIKES.

Make them earn it. Quit pitching like you're afraid of challenging the likes of Jerry Hairston and Chris Denorfia. He set an awful tone for himself in that first inning -- and then he got drilled in the arm by a comebacker. That surely didn't help him find his comfort zone.

It's weird, but aside from that particular hit, Francis was not hit hard in the game. He just constantly put himself in trouble with the walks, a HBP, several three ball counts. Then he naturally wore down, starting leaving pitches up, and the the Padres pecked away at him with bloops and well placed bleeders.

Franklin Morales

Of course the lightning rod Franklin Morales came out there and poured gasoline on the fire. He was his usual erractic self, while also getting hit hard. We already know what we're getting with Franklin, though. It's asinine to continue using him in a relief role when the trend shows he can't retire the first couple batters he faces. I don't even need to see a stat to understand that one.

Manny Corpas

Has a dead arm I'm sure.

The Offense

Clayton Richard's career high coming in was 8 strikeouts.  Today he set a new mark with 10 strikeouts.

Just fire Don Baylor already and give this team a fresh voice. Whatever he's saying, if he's even saying anything, isn't resonating.

Overall

It was just another one of those Rockies mail it in type of games we too often see when a W could really cement something positive.  Oh well. It is what it is with this team. They're still hanging tough in the standings, but something is going to break one way or the other very soon.

We're turning the page to July. This is where the contenders start stepping up and the pretenders start stepping aside.

3 comments:

Blake said...

I am getting so tired of pitchers setting new career high strike outs against us. It would be one thing if it was a battle thing like having a count 2-2 or 3-2, but it's like our batters are always down 0-2 in the count every time I look. It's even worse because it's always from the same places in the order: top 2, bottom 2(not the 9 spot) and clean-up hitters.

Jerry said...

Tough to not overreact to a game like today. Francis will probably be fine though. He's getting to the 7th inning half the time. He won't be as wild as he was today very often, so that should continue.

The strikeout thing is unacceptable. Someone in the front office has to realize this.

Mark Townsend said...

This thing is he wasn't really "wild" today, he was just nibbling too much. He wasn't missing by a whole lot. It didn't help that Marvin Hudson's strike zone was a little smaller than you'd like. I guess maybe Jeff's success will depend on the umpire.

Regardless, he can't afford to waste too many pitches early in the game because he'll be hitting his wall quicker like he did today. If the scouting report starts going around that he's nibbling, you're going to see teams become more patient. It could get tricky.