The Official Pitching Thread

[sportsfan882]

There is no way around it.  Our pitching so far in Spring Training has been very, very poor.  Today, Michalak, Lewis, Bowie, and Schroder gave up earned runs.  Schroder had a 2 run lead in the 9th and of course he gave up 3 runs and lost the game.  Other than Patterson, Hill,  Cordero, Rauch, and Wagner we have a bunch of no name minor leaguers.  We'd be better off with just picking random fans from the crowd to pitch for the team instead of those guys.  I'm sick of hearing that it's still early in the Spring because that does not matter.  These guys are bad now and will still be bad at the end of March. 

[UMDNats]

At least Hill has been a nice surprise. I hope he stays healthy, he's awesome.

[shoeshineboy]

There is no way around it.  Our pitching so far in Spring Training has been very, very poor.  Today, Michalak, Lewis, Bowie, and Schroder gave up earned runs.  Schroder had a 2 run lead in the 9th and of course he gave up 3 runs and lost the game.  Other than Patterson, Hill,  Cordero, Rauch, and Wagner we have a bunch of no name minor leaguers.  We'd be better off with just picking random fans from the crowd to pitch for the team instead of those guys.  I'm sick of hearing that it's still early in the Spring because that does not matter.  These guys are bad now and will still be bad at the end of March. 

With this number of pitchers you are going to see plenty of bad performances. Certainly last year's ST was no better, and I remember many games being far worse. The guys today, particularly Lewis were mostly bad. In other games we have seen some guys throw well. However, in your post, you mentioned guys that "all gave up earned runs." If you are expecting pitchers not to give up earned runs, you will be waiting a long time.

[Dave B]

We basically need ot have 11 or 12 out of 38 pan out.  So 26 or 27 of those guys arent going to be very good.  We have patterson and the 6 or 7 bullpen guys, which will be ok, so it is really finding 4 out of 30 which can be serviceable.  Like shoeshine says, a lot of them are going to be bad.

I'm not really concered with anybody right now except for Redding, Williams, Simontacchi, Speigner, Chico, Hill, Traber and maybe Perez. These are the guys we are probably counting on to make the rotation

[JMW IV]

redding shouldn't make it past tomorrow, based on ST performance.

[Senators2005]

redding shouldn't make it past tomorrow, based on ST performance.

I'm still betting that Redding will be one of the starters regardless.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

amen

At least Hill has been a nice surprise. I hope he stays healthy, he's awesome.

[Flare]

Hill and Simontacchi have both done well in my eyes. Don't forget about Bergmann, either, because I believe he has yet to give up a run. Since Redding and Williams were both touted as rotation frontrunners, I'm holding out hope that at least one of them will find a groove and start performing. Don't forget we have O'Connor coming back before long. Things are not that bad.

[Nat of the Living Dead]

Chico and Simontacchi both did well when I saw them pitch and I would like totake them into the season.

YOU DO have to remember this is Spring Training.  They aren't out there to win games per say but rather work on mechanics, getting things down, and working on specific pitches.  I agree our pitching is a weakness (starting AND bullpen) give or take a few guys who are stable but I'm not going to throw in the towel based on ST play.

[Ericas Nats]

questions? how long does the team put up with these pitchers? i mean, i know we are rebuilding, but shouldnt we get at least one pitcher just to help us along until our yound guys mature?

[Kenz aFan]

redding shouldn't make it past tomorrow, based on ST performance.

Since Acta and Redding, like Acta and Church, have a history together, and since Acta has already handed Church the LF job whether he's earned it or not, I guess that means Redding has a better shot than most at earning a spot in the starting rotation...

[shoeshineboy]

There is no doubt that Redding's past history with Acta, not to mention his solid performance last year in AAA will allow him to stay in the mix. (Having a better recent history than some of the others should help.) The main mitigating issue this Spring though has been the fact that Randy has been reworking his mechanics, which has taken some adjustment. When a guy's delivery is being messed with, I assume they are more willing to give him a longer leash. Nevertheless, he needs to show them he has settled in on his next outing or the leash will turn to a choke chain pretty quickly.

[sportsfan882]

Bump... Our pitching has been much better over the last week or so.  Levale Speigner should be a lock to make the team.  He pitched 3 more scoreless innings tonight and has yet to give up a run this Spring.

[ZIM4MVP]

Id love to see us finish 3rd or 4th with this scrappy group, Id really love to see us pick up a big name pitcher along the road, starters might be able to pull it off, but how is the pen gonna be?

[sportsfan882]

Hanrahan should be booted away to AAA soon.  He is not a ML pitcher and never will be.  Right now I'm liking Patterson, Hill, Chico, Williams, and Simontacchi (if he's not ready then let Speigner start the season in the rotation).

[Nat of the Living Dead]

Hanrahan should be booted away to AAA soon.  He is not a ML pitcher and never will be.  Right now I'm liking Patterson, Hill, Chico, Williams, and Simontacchi (if he's not ready then let Speigner start the season in the rotation).

I agree on Hanrahan and the rotation. Hanrahan needs to lose some weight too.

[shoeshineboy]

Hanrahan was actually sharper today than Patterson. He pitched pretty well, and after a visit from Randy, he just threw strikes over the plate, and Timo Perez pulled it to RF. He hurt himself with the leadoff walk in the first inning he pitched, and he certainly wasn't stellar. But he had pretty decent control overall. I think after some time in AAA, he will be a good guy to have in reserves. He has some tools worth keeping around.

This is the second time I have seen Patterson pitch this week, and he is still knocking the rust off. He really struggled today. The stat line is deceiving. After the first two innings, he had a lot of trouble finding the strike zone and was lucky that Fick made a good catch with bases loaded.

Patterson is still working through some mechanical issues. When he has it going, his stuff looks awesome. But he needs to be able to find the zone for more than a couple of innings.

[Kenz aFan]

The fact that Patterson has only one start left before breaking camp and that he's only at 4 innings makes me very nervous and also wondering if the Nats FO was (or is) hiding something.

[shoeshineboy]

He appears healthy, so I don't think that is the concern. I just think he is still really working the kinks out because he just hasn't been given the competetive game time some of the others have had. But, I would have felt a lot more comfortable seeing him go 5 strong today instead of struggling to the end like he did. I think he will find his motion. But he is still searching a bit. So don't expect mid-season form on opening day. (Hope for it though. )