Decline of White Sox's starters is broad-based
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
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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
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