To me its really simple. For whatever reason, I personally think hes afraid, he refuses to pitch inside to some hitters and lineups. The last two starts against the cubs seem to confirm this. He pitched both starts away, away, away, even while changing speeds and got killed. He needs to pitch inside to be successful, period. Its thats simple. Hey Javy...MAN UP and pitch inside.

I'm startin' to get a lilttle scared. We're not winning jack without Javy performing up to expectations. Hopefully it's just a bad month.

I'm startin' to get a lilttle scared. We're not winning jack without Javy performing up to expectations. Hopefully it's just a bad month.

 

I hear ya. I'm hoping it's just a bump in the road as well.

To me its really simple. For whatever reason, I personally think hes afraid, he refuses to pitch inside to some hitters and lineups. The last two starts against the cubs seem to confirm this. He pitched both starts away, away, away, even while changing speeds and got killed. He needs to pitch inside to be successful, period. Its thats simple. Hey Javy...MAN UP and pitch inside.

 

Actually you are digging too deep on this. For Javy its simple. If he throws strikes, he is effective. If you watched yesterdays game. Right after Ozzie's mound visit, he pitched for a short period of time very well. The minute he gets behind in the count, thats when he gets hurt. When people get to elminate pitches on him, and look dead red then he is not good. All he needs to do is throw more strikes and this gets fixed.

 

 

I'm startin' to get a lilttle scared. We're not winning jack without Javy performing up to expectations. Hopefully it's just a bad month.

I disagree. A lot of teams would kill for 4/5 good starters.

I'm startin' to get a lilttle scared. We're not winning jack without Javy performing up to expectations. Hopefully it's just a bad month.

 

Vazquez is 31 and has a career 4.29 ERA. His ERA in 2008 is 4.49. What were your expectations? Maybe they've been unrealistic because he's pretty much in-line with his career norms.

He was maddening to watch yesterday, but we did win, so all is good.

He was maddening to watch yesterday, but we did win, so all is good.

 

Pitching bad and getting away with it is not a recipe for success.

I know I say this a lot but pitchers don't "win" games, Javy did not win the game for us yesterday even if he gets a W. His start gave us only a fair chance at winning, not a good one.

Vazquez is 31 and has a career 4.29 ERA. His ERA in 2008 is 4.49. What were your expectations? Maybe they've been unrealistic because he's pretty much in-line with his career norms.

 

Exactly and hes never won more than 15 games in a season, so hes no ace. Hopefully he will get a lil more consistant. All he has to do is throw strikes its not about being afraid, its about not being mentally tough, piling up a few poor starts isnt helping his confidence and thats all he needs. Hopefully one good start can snap him out of this.

One of Javy's problems is that he seems to want to strike everyone out.

 

And once he gets behind on guys, he overcompensates to do it.

 

When he gets ahead of guys, he's lethal.

Edited June 29, 200817 yr by scenario

Exactly and hes never won more than 15 games in a season, so hes no ace. Hopefully he will get a lil more consistant. All he has to do is throw strikes its not about being afraid, its about not being mentally tough, piling up a few poor starts isnt helping his confidence and thats all he needs. Hopefully one good start can snap him out of this.

 

Hes got a nasty two seamer that he can run in to righties and tie them up. The problem us unless he uses it on the first pitch he doesn't use it. If he is pitching away on pitches 1 or 2, he never ever comes in with a hard moving inside fastball. Like I said it looks like hes afraid that if hes not perfect with it, at least in those situations, he is afraid it will get crushed. So he just doesn't bother throwing it. Same thing with this curveball, sometimes he seems afraid to throw it for fear of hanging a cookie. His stuff is so good its frustrating to see him afraid to throw some of his arsenal at times.

Exactly and hes never won more than 15 games in a season, so hes no ace.

 

Look at the crap team he pitched for.

 

The fact that he has never won > 15 games means absolutely nothing.

 

Look at the crap team he pitched for.

 

The fact that he has never won > 15 games means absolutely nothing.

Curt Schilling won a whopping 9 games once when he had a 3.19 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Then he had a similar season 2 years later, but only won 15 games even though he struck out 300 and had 268.7 IP. He played for the Phillies when they were terrible.

 

So, yeah, bottom line is that wins by a pitcher really don't mean anything, at all, especially as a measurement of something for a short period of time.

Edited June 29, 200817 yr by lostfan

Im not worried about his win total. I could care less. Im worried about him giving up 9 hits in in 4+ innings like he did yesterday.