Where he belongs.
It does not take a genius to look at Chris Schwinden has pitched since replacing Mike Pelfrey to realize that he is guilty of two things:
- A lack of effectiveness
- Lack of movement on his pitches
Now, whether the latter is what is leading to the former is still up for discussion, but it doesn’t look good so far. Schwinden has particularly struggled to strike batters out, recording just one strikeout this season in his two starts. A closer look reveals that he has struggled to retire left-handed batters, allowing them to record a .400/.476/.737 line (he has faced 22 lefties).
The reason he has struggled to get left-handed batters out is because he simply can’t throw a breaking pitch, whether it is because he doesn’t have an effective one, or he simply hasn’t had the confidence in it his last two starts. A look at Pitch F/X shows that this problem is compounded because his second pitch after the fastball is a cutter, which behaves almost identically to his fastball, and a change-up that has been only eight mph less than the fastball.
credit BrooksBaseball.net
This may also be why he has struggled to retired left-handers, as he does not have a pitch in his arsenal that they can’t recognize easily and make solid contact with. Maybe that cutter was good enough to get by against Triple-A hitters, but that just won’t cut it against professional hitters.
Obviously small-sample-size and the whole thing, but what do you guys think? Should SchLOSEden (amiright?) throw more than 12.6% curveballs? Or is there another solution? Or should Sandy be looking for an alternative?
By the way, if I go quiet for a little while on the site, it is because I am working on a larger researched post which will be consuming much of my blogging time, but when it is done should be quite informative. I will still do recaps and try to write things of this sort about once or twice per week.
Also scroll down to see some links to audio feeds for tonight’s minor league games, didn’t mean to step on that post’s toes.
7 comments
Stickguy
5/3/2012-6:02pm at 6:02 pm (UTC -4)
you aren’t surviving in the majors without a legit breaking pitch unless you have one heck of a wicked FB and a change or something to go with it. Since he has none of them, don’t expect results to improve!
I say, 2 is enough. if he was showing good stuff but not quite handling it, fine. But his stuff stinks, and that ain’t changing.
so, go to plan C, D or X. Hefner? What the hell, give it a shot. Go out of the box more (Hchugh? Gorski?) Bueller? Bueller?
ConnorUAF
5/3/2012-8:53pm at 8:53 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, unless you have like a FB at 98 and a Changeup at 80, you can’t really be successful. A pitcher needs that difference in pitch speeds. It’s very important.
SpencerRealDirtyMets
5/3/2012-9:25pm at 9:25 pm (UTC -4)
Only Johan can get away with that.
trs86
5/3/2012-9:22pm at 9:22 pm (UTC -4)
Nice work!
srt
5/3/2012-9:43pm at 9:43 pm (UTC -4)
What I question is the coaches down in AAA must know the problem with his breaking pitch and the fact that it wasn’t going to cut it at the ML level. Doesn’t sound like he had that working down there and he came up here and just didn’t use it or he couldn’t use it effectively. So the fact that they probably knew this and brought him up anyway tells us just how thin that SP depth really is right now. Certainly doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy about their plan going in – or lack thereof. Crossing your fingers hoping none of the starting 5 would get hurt – especially since one of them is Johan – is not a good plan. Or hoping none would go down if/when Young was ready.
Stickguy
5/3/2012-10:22pm at 10:22 pm (UTC -4)
I don’t think they thought they had enough depth, or that they wouldn’t be caught short.
more like they didn’t have any real options (that they could make work) to fix the problem in the off season, so they deferred the solution until the problem reared it’s ugly head (meaning now).
hence the need to troll for a live arm.
SpencerRealDirtyMets
5/3/2012-10:46pm at 10:46 pm (UTC -4)
I’m guessing they just hope him or Hefner can hold down the fort til Young comes back.