Starting tomorrow, I will be running an AP Physics institute at Manhattan (NY) College. I’ve experienced a good bit of culture shock already, having arrived just this afternoon from a foreign country (Virginia). More on that possibly later this week, but the relevant baseball issue is that, for the first time, I’m immersed amongst a gaggle of real live Yankees fans.
This week I probably will not be able to post a full Friday column. Rather, I will – when I have the chance – put up shorter pieces. Last Thursday night I worked the Padres-Pirates game for STATS. The pitching matchup scared me to death. The Pads put up converted reliever Clay Hensley, who had a halfway decent 2006 before injuries derailed him in 2007. He was making his first start of the year.
It wasn’t Mr. Hensley who gave me forebodings. No, Yoslan Herrera, the Pirates starter, looked like the perfect fit for the black hole that is the mound at PNC Park. Pirates starters overall had put up a 6-point ERA this year; Mr. Herrera boasted a 19.50 in two starts. In his first outing he walked four in four innings, leading to 6 runs on 11 hits. His control improved in his next start, when he walked no one. Possibly, that’s because he wasn’t in the game long enough, as he left the mound in shame after 1.2 innings, 8 hits, and 7 runs.
Yoslan Herrera is 27, and the starts I’ve described were his first two ever at the major league level. My first thought was, why throw this poor soul to the wolves again? Send him back to the minors, put him in the bullpen, whatever, but if a guy this old looks this bad in two starts, he’s not likely to improve dramatically.
One issue I’d overlooked was pointed out by the San Diego broadcast booth – though Mr. Herrera’s ERA was near 20, he hadn’t been doing THAT much worse than the rest of the Pirates staff. What did a moribund team have to lose by letting him eat a couple of innings? Point taken. Might as well give him one more chance, ‘cause there’s no one else to take his place, and the team ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Perhaps the more important issue I was not aware of before the game was exactly WHY Mr. Herrera had made his debut this year at age 27. He is a Cuban defector. And, he left Mr. Castro the hard way, not by walking out on the Cuban national team, but by sneaking across the straight to Florida on a boat before seeking asylum in the Dominican.[1] Most 27 year olds who haven’t made it in the majors yet are unlikely to do so, ever, because they’ve spent 5-8 years toiling unsuccessfully in the minors. Mr. Herrera had only spent two years on the farm.
Perhaps, then, I should not have been so surprised at the kick-butt outing Mr. Herrera turned in. Working quickly, he simply dominated the Padres. He spotted his fastball, and followed it up with a NASTY twelve-to-six curveball that no one could touch. He controlled that curve, too – he could start it in the zone, getting a swing-and-miss on a ball near the dirt; all the same, he could freeze a batter with it for a called strike three. Now, he wasn’t perfect, as he couldn’t hit the catcher’s glove with his changeup for any amount of money. He needed the mostly solid defense behind him. His overall outing was solid, not spectacular… 6 innings, 6 hits, a walk and 4 strikeouts.
The Pirates pulled Herrera after six innings, even though he had thrown only 96 pitches and was throwing well. Normally, I prefer to see pitchers work deeper into games. In this case, though, I completely agreed with the decision to put the game in the hands of the Pirates questionable bullpen. Why? Because Mr. Herrera needed the confidence boost of the solid outing. The Pirates had roughed up Hensley to the tune of 5-0 by the bottom of the 6th, and had loaded the bases to boot, when a pinch hitter officially replaced Mr. Herrera. The 6-run lead that the Pirates subsequently bequeathed to their Cuban rookie was likely to stand up, even with the likes of Denny Bautista and Sean Burdett toeing the rubber for the third period. Chances were, Mr. Herrera could sit in the dugout and earn his first major league victory, having proven to himself and his team that he is capable of pitching effectively at the highest level.
Now it merely remains for Mr. Herrera to mimic this outing the next time he pitches.
This week I probably will not be able to post a full Friday column. Rather, I will – when I have the chance – put up shorter pieces. Last Thursday night I worked the Padres-Pirates game for STATS. The pitching matchup scared me to death. The Pads put up converted reliever Clay Hensley, who had a halfway decent 2006 before injuries derailed him in 2007. He was making his first start of the year.
It wasn’t Mr. Hensley who gave me forebodings. No, Yoslan Herrera, the Pirates starter, looked like the perfect fit for the black hole that is the mound at PNC Park. Pirates starters overall had put up a 6-point ERA this year; Mr. Herrera boasted a 19.50 in two starts. In his first outing he walked four in four innings, leading to 6 runs on 11 hits. His control improved in his next start, when he walked no one. Possibly, that’s because he wasn’t in the game long enough, as he left the mound in shame after 1.2 innings, 8 hits, and 7 runs.
Yoslan Herrera is 27, and the starts I’ve described were his first two ever at the major league level. My first thought was, why throw this poor soul to the wolves again? Send him back to the minors, put him in the bullpen, whatever, but if a guy this old looks this bad in two starts, he’s not likely to improve dramatically.
One issue I’d overlooked was pointed out by the San Diego broadcast booth – though Mr. Herrera’s ERA was near 20, he hadn’t been doing THAT much worse than the rest of the Pirates staff. What did a moribund team have to lose by letting him eat a couple of innings? Point taken. Might as well give him one more chance, ‘cause there’s no one else to take his place, and the team ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Perhaps the more important issue I was not aware of before the game was exactly WHY Mr. Herrera had made his debut this year at age 27. He is a Cuban defector. And, he left Mr. Castro the hard way, not by walking out on the Cuban national team, but by sneaking across the straight to Florida on a boat before seeking asylum in the Dominican.[1] Most 27 year olds who haven’t made it in the majors yet are unlikely to do so, ever, because they’ve spent 5-8 years toiling unsuccessfully in the minors. Mr. Herrera had only spent two years on the farm.
Perhaps, then, I should not have been so surprised at the kick-butt outing Mr. Herrera turned in. Working quickly, he simply dominated the Padres. He spotted his fastball, and followed it up with a NASTY twelve-to-six curveball that no one could touch. He controlled that curve, too – he could start it in the zone, getting a swing-and-miss on a ball near the dirt; all the same, he could freeze a batter with it for a called strike three. Now, he wasn’t perfect, as he couldn’t hit the catcher’s glove with his changeup for any amount of money. He needed the mostly solid defense behind him. His overall outing was solid, not spectacular… 6 innings, 6 hits, a walk and 4 strikeouts.
The Pirates pulled Herrera after six innings, even though he had thrown only 96 pitches and was throwing well. Normally, I prefer to see pitchers work deeper into games. In this case, though, I completely agreed with the decision to put the game in the hands of the Pirates questionable bullpen. Why? Because Mr. Herrera needed the confidence boost of the solid outing. The Pirates had roughed up Hensley to the tune of 5-0 by the bottom of the 6th, and had loaded the bases to boot, when a pinch hitter officially replaced Mr. Herrera. The 6-run lead that the Pirates subsequently bequeathed to their Cuban rookie was likely to stand up, even with the likes of Denny Bautista and Sean Burdett toeing the rubber for the third period. Chances were, Mr. Herrera could sit in the dugout and earn his first major league victory, having proven to himself and his team that he is capable of pitching effectively at the highest level.
Now it merely remains for Mr. Herrera to mimic this outing the next time he pitches.
[1] He didn’t officially seek asylum here in the USA, I assume because then he’d have to enter the major league draft. As I understand things, foreign players are true free agents who can negotiate and sign with any team at any time; domestic players may only be free agents if they go undrafted. Thus, it makes good economic sense for a good baseball player to be un-American.
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