Decline of White Sox's starters is broad-based

看板WhiteSox作者Raikknen (Kimi)時間18年前 (2006/08/12 10:22)推噓2(2推 0噓 1→)

留言3則, 2人參與討論串1/1

This year's Chicago White Sox model is a good team; however, unlike last year's squad, they're not showing many symptoms of greatness. The offense is as potent as ever (they lead the majors in home runs and rank second in slugging percentage and total bases), and the defense is still effective (according to Baseball Prospectus, the White Sox have the AL's fourth-best team defense). Yet the pitching has been but a shadow of its 2005 self, and, most critically, it's the rotation that's failed. Why that is depends on whom you ask — some say it's the heavy workload the starters endured last season, some say it's merely a lack of execution, some say it's the loss of Aaron Rowand in center field, and some say it's just one of those things. To get a better grasp of just what's gone wrong with Chicago's once-reliable stable of arms, we'll turn to the numbers and to the scouts. Let's take a look at how this year's White Sox rotation compares to last year's in certain key indicators: White Sox's starting pitchers Season ERA K9 BB9 HR9 H9 2005 3.75 5.78 2.38 1.04 8.76 2006 4.80 5.41 2.20 1.28 9.79 As you can see, it's a broad-based decline. This year, Chicago starters have displayed similar control, but they've gotten demonstrably worse in every other regard. In fact, considering the average starters' ERA in the AL this season is 4.74, it's clear that the rotation, in less than a year, has turned from strength to liability. On a specific level, three incumbent starters — Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland — have all seen their groundball-fly ball ratios decline sharply. That means more balls in the air, and that has a couple of consequences. First, this is an outfield defense that no longer has Gold Glover Aaron Rowand patrolling center, and his absence in tandem with the extra dose of fly balls may have a good deal to do with that increased hit rate. Second, giving up fly balls is never a good idea at U.S. Cellular, which is one of the best home run parks in the game. More fly balls, more bombs, as you can see from the numbers above. This is to say nothing of all the innings they're getting from Javier Vazquez, who is squarely a f ly-ball hurler. (問一下去過主場的大大，白襪主場為什麼打高很危險?難道跟庫而濕主場一樣嗎?) Chicago's starters also rank only 11th in the AL in strikeout rate. If you're going to allow the opposition to put the ball in play so often, you'd best keep the ball on the ground. As demonstrated, the White Sox aren't doing that. The results, as mentioned, are lots of hits to the outfield and lots of home runs. Two AL advance scouts we spoke to back up this notion. Here's some of what they said about the White Sox's starters: "Buehrle's keeping the ball up. His stuff looks pretty much the same, but he's working higher in the zone. That's not good for a pitcher like him. When he keeps the ball down, he's successful. When he doesn't, he gets rocked. I don't see any irregularities with his delivery, but there may be something I'm not picking up. I like it that he works quickly on the mound, but he may be working too quickly this season. He may be over-throwing." "When I see Freddy (Garcia) out there, he's no longer good at spotting his fastball on the inner half. Especially against right-handed hitters. All he's throwing them are fastballs and sliders, and they're just killing his fastball when he comes inside. He's not setting hitters up like he used to. He's not pitching smart this season." "With Garland, it's a movement problem. His pitches just aren't moving like they were last year. He's not fooling the opposite side one bit with his breaking stuff. He looks like he did back in 2004 and before then. He needs to use his changeup more often." "Vazquez needs to stay away with the ball. When he comes inside with his fastball, it's trouble. To me, it looks like he pitches every hitter the same. I don't see him adjust to the hitter." On a broad level, it's a matter of keeping the ball on the ground. Specifically - to hear the scouts tell it - Sox starters aren't mixing pitches up well (catcher A.J. Pierzysnki certainly shares some of the blame for this), and they're struggling in terms of location. More intense pre-game skull sessions with that day's starter might help, but otherwise we must resort to easier-said-than-done panaceas like "make better pitches." ("Gee, thanks," would be the proper rejoinder.) Incremental improvements are possible, but it's not likely the entire rotation is going to reverse course over the final six weeks of the season. Perhaps the offense will be enough to ferry this team to the postseason once again. However, if they do fail, the rotation will bear much of the blame. 看來ozzie不想想辦法的話光靠打擊真的是不夠的 ================================================== 要出門個兩三天呦~拜託一定要橫掃老虎啊~拜託~ source:http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5862568 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.143.230.206 ※ 編輯: Raikknen 來自: 220.143.230.206 (08/12 10:45)