Pitching, Chipper, Uggla & the Bench
By Fred Owens
PITCHING
Our pitching remains top notch even with the Beachy injury. Jair Jurrjens threw 5 2/3 innings of perfect baseball and the bullpen did it’s job to preserve the win. He looks in Cy Young form and has been in control every outing since his return.
Tim Hudson was back to being the Hudson we expect against the Phillies and if not for a hanging slider would have been the winner still he pitched well and deep into the game in spite of the “hip going pop” when started towards first in the fourth.
With Hudson throwing well – except for that hiccup against the Nats – and Lowe looking like he’s at the top of his game and Hanson finding some consistency and run support, whoever lands in the fifth starters slot (probably Teheran at least this week because Minor pitched yesterday) should make the rotation as solid as any in the league, even the vaunted Phillies Fab Four.
The back end of the bullpen is the best in the NL without a doubt. Craig Kimbrel will blow a save now and then but no one really wants to face him or Jonny Venters and Kimbrel will get better as the season goes on. The middle seems to be the only question as Cristhian Martinez has solidified the long man’s role – and maybe a pinch hitting job.
Scott Linebrink has to go – either down to Gwinett or away completely, I don’t care as long as he goes. Scott Proctor’s Sunday arrival doesn’t fill me with optimism as anyone who read my post we we resigned him will know. If he can do what he did at Gwinnett I’ll apologize but frankly I’ll believe it when I see it more than once. George Sherrill will be fine as long as we have left handed hitting opposing pitchers for him to face but should not be trusted against anyone who might put a quality at bat up against him. That leaves young Cory Gearrin and Eric O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty has been superb; enough said. Gearrin has done his job well enough to be allowed to stay. He’s consistent and gives batters a different look; not quite Moylan but enough different to cause them problems.
The small meniscus tear in Chipper’s right knee is a cause for concern. I think he should get it fixed now and miss the two weeks early rather than try to play through it with pain injections.If the surgery works and he comes back for the rest of the season now we can make up for any hiccups while he was gone. If he tries to play through it then blows it out completely in August we’re back where we were last year; short a big bat with nothing available. Whatever the case we need another bat and we need it now. Not just to fill in when Chipper is out but to provide cover for Heyward whose injury will recur all year and to make sure Uggla gets pitches to hit and continues yesterday’s awakening.
I believe a lot of Uggla’s problems stem from the way the lineup is constructed. With Freddie Freeman hitting behind him pitchers have no incentive to try to get him out thus he gets breaking balls and off speed junk in critical counts. Uggla’s a fastball hitter, ask Doc Halladay. With Eric Hinske behind Uggla yesterday things changed. Uggla manhandling that broken bat single was followed by Hinske doing the same and Uggla eventually scoring. Then Uggla walked and Hinske singled him to third once more. The next time Doc decided he wasn’t going to give Hinske that chance by walking Uggla. Instead of throwing off speed or junk he went after him with hard stuff and it ended up just in front of the left field seats. The moral of this story is, make it dangerous to pitch around him and he will get more fastballs.
Freeman is not yet dangerous enough, so we need restructure the lineup so that Uggla gets his swings. With Chipper injured or day-t-day or whatever they are calling it our bench looks even thinner than it did a few days ago. We will either see Mather playing left or Conrad playing third until Jason returns anyway. While Conrad made a sparkling play yesterday I am not in favor of him starting a lot of games there. With Prado at third, Mather in left and Hinske in right our outfield is not as defensively secure as it should be. And of course we are left with Diory Hernandez and Brooks Conrad on the bench. Once again not much versatility defensively there. When Jason returns it’s better but we’re still thin. Failure to address these holes now spells big trouble later. I have a couple of ideas of course, I’ll share those tomorrow.