Open Thread, May 21, Bravos vs. Darrel Chaneys
The good news: tonight’s Reds starter, Mike Leake, is having a bad season. The bad news: Mike Minor is having a worse season, and Leake pitched well in his last start.
Maybe the worst player on one of the best (’75 Reds) and worst (’78 Braves) NL teams of the past 40 years.
Minor, uh, did not. In fact, the young Bravos lefty has been Kyle Daviesian in 2012. He’s made eight starts. Two were good. One was passable. Five have been repugnant. In his last four games, he’s been poleaxed for 27 earned runs in 20-2/3 innings, for an ERA of 11.75. The WHIP in that stretch is above 2. Yikes.
I didn’t see his most recent start against Miami, but in the game at St. Louis he started well. It looked to my untrained eye like he was so determined to get ahead that he left a few fastballs down the middle and up. Many of them were hit over the fence.
So maybe Minor’s due to iron things out starting tonight. He’s certainly capable, one has to think. His confidence is probably rattled. Cincy might not be the ideal place for a struggling young lefty to find himself, what with the Little League dimensions and a solid Reds team. The “Great American Ballpark,” whatever that means, is my least favorite of the new yards. It just looks like a carnival ride. And a fly ball to right center that wouldn’t reach the warning track at Turner Field is a home run at this riverside grotesquerie.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 10-8 game tonight. So watch both Mikes dominate.
Maybe Minor can get some tips from JV on tricking the Reds to hit the ball off their baserunners.
Four home runs. It looks like Minor’s next start will be in Gwinnett County.
Mike fuckin’ Leake.
JJ got shelled again tonight.
Four home runs, and that isn’t even Minor’s worst outing. It ranks in the top 4, actually.
Paging Roy Oswalt. Braves won’t do it, of course. Notice how the money they claim to have to spend never gets spent.
On the bright side, he did give up only 5 hits in 6 innings of work. Also, in the 5th and 6th innings, I thought he bounced back and was solid after giving up the back-to-back-to-backs. I still have confidence that Minor will turn it around; we’ve seen what he’s capable of. JJ on the other hand…
Dagnabbit, in order to induce the opposing batters to hit the ball off opposing baserunners, you need to hit a few batters first. Minor obviously got confused and thought he was supposed to get the Reds’ hitters to hit the ball off the hands of fans in the bleachers.
Giving up four runs in that bandbox is not horrible. I’m with you, Caz. Maybe the last couple of crisp innings are something to build on for his next start.
Teheran dominating today.