Astros 4, Pirates 1
by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 15, 2009 10:31 PM EDT
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PrintThe first several innings of this one were downright ugly. Ross Ohlendorf is supposed to be a fireballer. When he threw his fastball in the low 90s in his successful first start, I assumed he was taking a little off it in an effort to throw more strikes. Today he was in the high 80s, which makes me think either he's taking that strategy to the extreme or he just doesn't have the velocity he used to, for some reason. As a result, he threw tons of pitches and left the game after five innings and four runs. The offense, for its part, made Mike Hampton look like Cy Young.
Those first several innings were easily bad enough to cost the Pirates the game, but some interesting things happened after that. Ryan Doumit narrowly missed turning the game into a one-run contest with a deep drive with two on in the sixth that almost cleared the left-field fence. Adam LaRoche added two hits, including a meaningless homer in the ninth, to bring his totals so far this year to .267/.290/.600, which looks a lot more like a typical LaRoche July line than a typical April line. And Jesse Chavez and Craig Hansen somehow managed to keep runs off the board for 3 2/3 innings. Mostly, though, Ohlendorf's start was troubling. If he can't throw hard, he'll probably struggle.
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I’m still in shock at the performance of the bullpen.
I made most of my life decisions at a Foghat concert... I stand by them.
by Chester J Lampwick on Apr 15, 2009 10:36 PM EDT reply actions
I find I just can’t stand watching Ohlendorf pitch. He reminds me too much of Kris Benson. He gets two strikes on the hitter consistently, but doesn’t seem able to put the hitter away. He just resorts to nibbling around the strike zone and nobody ever falls for it. Then when he puts a pitch over the plate he gets hammered. He’s too predictable and too hittable, and I’m not at all impressed with his stuff. All that crap last year about his mid-90s fastball must have been propaganda, because he’s never shown anything close to that in the majors.
And I think the bullpen performance says more about Ohlendorf than it does about the bullpen. The Astros have a mediocre lineup and are struggling now. Chavez and Hansen could get them out, but Ohlendorf couldn’t.
He just resorts to nibbling around the strike zone and nobody ever falls for it.
Yeah. I felt like saying, “Earth to Ross: Lance Berkman won’t swing at your breaking crap down and in no matter how many times you throw it.”
by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 15, 2009 10:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Nibbling
I think hittability is a larger issue. He’s been hittable since he turned pro. I don’t get it. He should be better.
Another thing is that his velocity declines noticeably as a game goes along, which doesn’t address the fact he was hit early tonight, but points to a possible health issue when combined with the overall velocity “dip.” Not sure it can be called velocity “loss” at this point since there’s the sinker issue and he may be trying not to throw so hard.
Might just be more signs that he doesn’t really have the stuff to start, but I’m not advocating that decision be made right now, or even soon.
"not at all impressed"
Heh, sounds familiar (my fanpost of his start in Rochester last year said the same).
I don’t think the velocity was propaganda, as PitchFX did have him sitting in the mid-90s last year. It’s so hittable though. Looking at PitchFX it looks like there’s good movement.
I have no idea. One theory is that he’s tipping his breaking pitches, which he doesn’t throw a high percentage of strikes with, so he’s a one-pitch pitcher.
Don't look too much into it
Look, it is disturbing to see Ohlendorf sitting at 90 mph with his fastball. Where in the world are those fireballs that has the front office drooling last year? All we heard about was how he threw 95-98 mph. Having said all of that, this Astros’ lineup is potent. The Astros won’t do anything this year because they have no pitching (well, Hampton shut us down), but Tejada, Berkman, Lee, and Pence rivals any other team in baseball as the best 2-5 hitters in baseball. This offense was bound to break out sometime because they have been awful to start the season. Tejada, Berkman, and Lee are as good as they come, and Pence continues to get better and better. Ohlendorf suffered the brunt of the Astros’ offense tonight. More disturing, in my opinion, was Hampton’s dominance of our offense. Mike Hampton! Get it together, offense! Oh, one more thing, Delwyn Young may become your new everyday 3B if LaRoche doesn’t start hitting. You can’t afford to get zero offensive production from a corner infield spot. I’m not proclaiming the move yet, but LaRoche better get some hits tomorrow or the Andy LaRoche experiment may be over just like that. Shake it off and try again tomorrow, Pirates.
Delwyn Young, everyday 3B?
Spoken like a man who’s never seen Delwyn Young in the infield.
I remember a scouting report I read about his glove a few years back, when he was still a 2B. The scout said that he was honestly concerned that Young would, in a very real and literal sense, get killed on a takeout slide at second because he had absolutely no idea where his feet were at any given time.
Tejada, Berkman, Lee, and Pence rivals any other team in baseball as the best 2-5 hitters in baseball.
I don’t think they’re anywhere close to that good. Berkman and Lee are terrific, but Tejada’s OPS+ last year was 92 and Pence’s 105. Berkman and Lee are pretty much their whole offense.
It will be so harsh for them if either Lee or Berkman go down for any extended period which I think is a distinct possibility.
I made most of my life decisions at a Foghat concert... I stand by them.
by Chester J Lampwick on Apr 15, 2009 11:40 PM EDT up reply actions
lumberco
“Delwyn Young may become your new everyday 3B if LaRoche doesn’t start hitting.”
Don’t make it a guarantee because you’ll end up being wrong like you were about Adam LaRoche’s night at the plate.
If things go well with Young, the team will try to improve his versatility as the season goes along with some infield play, but this will be secondary to his pinch hitting and some OF play.
Ohlendorf's disappearing velocity.
I’m surprised that so many other people seem to be surprised by this. Ohlendorf was regularly getting clocked in the mid-90s when he was being used as a one-inning reliever. Guys gain velocity when used in short relief, since they can just cut loose without worrying about stamina, and they lose velocity when moved to the rotation. Look at the angst this spring about how Joba Chamberlain isn’t hitting 98 anymore, or Moskos’s vanishing fastball in the rotation, or Gagne’s big velo spike when he first went to the pen.
It’s usually more like 2-3 MPH, but 5 isn’t anything out of the ordinary for a real grip-it-and-rip-it guy.
Uhh, about Gagne
It was the Juice, dude. Not that he was relieving instead of starting.
Gagne was so stupid, he signed the Fed Ex receipts for his HGH, and had it delivered to the Dodgers clubhouse.
It was better velocity through science.
by WstCstBucco on Apr 16, 2009 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions
HGH has never been proven...
…to have positive effects on athletic performance. Link.
And in any event, Gagne’s HGH purchases (as detailed in the Mitchell Report) were made in 2004. He moved to the pen (and became a flamethrowing closer) in 2002.
Directly?
No, I suppose HGH would have no effect on “athletic performance”. But being anabolic and contributing to the body’s fuel processing, it is performance enhancing.
But how much?
I mean, “common sense” about drugs is wrong, sometimes. Just ask all those 19th century athletes who drank performance-enhancing tonics of radium water.
Sorry Vlad, Kirk Radowski didn't remember when he started selling HGH to Gagne
According to the Mitchell Report (page 217), Kirk Radowski stated that originally he sold HGH to Paul LoDuca, Gagne’s teammate, on Gagne’s behalf (he had a conference call with both of them to set this up). He didn’t recall when that started, but Gagne and LoDuca were teammates beginning in 1999. 2004 is when LoDuca was traded to the Marlins, so that Radowski had to Fed Ex shipments directly to Gagne.
And we don’t know what else Gagne was taking — I’d assume if he was abusing HGH, he wouldn’t hesitate to use steroids. A Red Sox scout emailed Theo Epstein before they acquired Gagne that he believed Gagne was on steroids. The Dodgers thought so too.
Gagne is the poster child for “he sucked, he took drugs and was the best ever, he stopped and sucked again” It was the drugs.
As of the end of 2006, Gagne had recorded saves in 161 of 168 chances — an all time record of 96.6% successful conversions.
From then on, he saved 26 games out of 37 chances – a 70% save percentage. Last year he was paid $10M by the Brewers to save 10 games and blow 7 saves.
If Gagne only took HGH, then his career proves it’s performance enhancing. But like the Dodgers and that Red Sox scout, I’m confident Gagne took every illegal substance he could get his hands on, including steroids.
Radomski doesn't have to remember:
That’s what the documentary evidence in the Mitchell Report is for. They have the mailing label from Gagne’s HGH shipment, as well as the cancelled checks he and LoDuca used to pay for Gagne’s HGH. All of which are from 2004. Read it for yourself. There’s even a copy of the label in there and everything.
Everything else in your post is hand-waving and wishcasting. Sure, it’s possible to assume that Gagne was using whatever you want him to have used whenever you want him to have used it… but if you do, all you have is a set of assumptions. Sure, Radomski says that he never sold steroids to Gagne or discussed them with Gagne, and Radomski has admitted to selling steroids to other players and thus would have no reason to lie about selling them to Gagne, and the Red Sox’s speculation about Gagne’s drug use included the belief that he had been using whatever he had been using since he was in the low minors. It’s possible that Gagne happened to start using drugs at exactly the time you think he did, and they had a dramatic effect on him that they didn’t have on the other players who started using them in similar ways at the same time.
It’s just not very likely.
But you got to look at all the testimony
I actually cited to the page of the Mitchell report — that means I did read it.
Radomski states he made at least 6 sales to Lo Duca (page 208). The fact that years later he could only produce 3 canceled checks does not undercut this evidence.
He also testified that he had a conference call with both Lo Duca and Gagne in which Lo Duca and Gagne agreed that Radomski was to send HGH to Lo Duca and Lo Duca would give it to Gagne. Gagne asked Radomski on that call about how to inject the HGH — he wanted to avoid air bubbles (page 217). Radomski testified Lo Duca thereafter made orders [plural] on behalf of Gagne (page 217). Radomski did not remember when this call or these orders occurred. He only started directly sending HGH to Gagnei in 2004, after Lo Duca was traded, so this conversation and these sales must have been before 2004.
This ain’t a court of law though. Gagne illegally received prescription drugs — that’s totally proven. I think it’s wishing to believe that the only illegal drugs he ever took were the two times his supplier happened to hang on to the Fed Ex receipts. Gagne believed the illegal drugs were performance enhancing. The two teams he played for (Dodgers and Red Sox) believed he was using performance enhancing drugs.
He went from a guy that was about to be cut, to the far and away the best player in the history of baseball at his position, to a guy who was cut, and the only differences were that he took illegal drugs during the middle period. And there are plenty of players (Lo Duca is one) that had the pretty much the same history, though perhaps not quite as high (Barry Bonds?) or quite as low (Bret Boone?).
The way that I understood the passage in question...
…is that Radomski sold six kits to Lo Duca. Two of those kits were purchased at Gagne’s behest for Gagne’s use, and the rest were made for Lo Duca’s own personal use. Each check covered two HGH kits, so all of the ones Radomski sold to Lo Duca are covered.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Gagne used other substances at some point in his career, or purchased HGH from other suppliers at different times as well. I just don’t see any reason to believe, in the abence of direct evidence of any sort, that he started using immediately before the 2002 season.
PEDs aren’t magic bullets that can make a AAAA player into a superstar. One of the most useful points of the Mitchell report, in my opinion, was the revelation of the numerous non-stars who used PEDs and apparently derived only slight benefits from them. Unfortunately, the point that Mike Bell didn’t suddenly hit 30 HR in 2003, or that Bart Miadich didn’t start winning Cy Young awards, has been lost in the media’s focus on the few stars who were caught.
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