David Wells: The epitome of the wily veteran, Wells relies on excellent control and a variety of breaking balls to keep hitters off balance. Wells gave the Padres 6 2/3 strong innings despite another night of questionable umpiring. Matt Vasgersian mentioned that Wells threw 90+ pitches and only 4 of those were swung at and missed. All 4 of those were strike three for each of his four strikeouts. It really is impressive what Wells can do at his age with that body.
Doug Brocail: Brocail came on in the 7th to clean up for Wells in a 1st and 3rd, two out situation. After a walk he induced a fly ball to Giles in foul territory to get out of the inning. Brocail always seems a little shaky to me, like he’s just on the verge of grooving a fastball or hanging a slider. He’s been effective so far though.
I was a little surprised to see Brocail over Meredith in that situation. It looks like Bud Black is going to be more democratic in his bullpen usage than Bruce Bochy was.
Scott Linebrink: Nice 1-2-3 8th for Linebrink, something he had trouble with last year. The announcers have mentioned he lost 10 lbs over the off season and it shows, he’s visibly more fit.
Trevor Hoffman: Came on in the 9th to a tie score. It’s been said that he’s less effective in non-save situations but he was fine. Russ Branyan started a nice 5-4-3 DP from his knees to end the inning.
Padres win on a walk-off double from Adrian Gonzalez, El Hombre!
Impressions after one time through the rotation: It’s been as good as advertised so far. Each of the starters have pitched well, and in exactly the same way we could have expected. Peavy the power pitcher, Young with his freakishly overpowering 89 mph fastball, Hensley with his sinker, Maddux and Wells with veteran guile and control. This is going to be a fun year for fans who like to watch good pitching in action.
As for the Rockies, it looks like they’ve embraced the change up. It seems like every pitcher on the staff is throwing the change this year and they’ve been effective with it. It makes sense, the thin Denver air reduces the effectiveness of breaking balls so changing speeds becomes more important.
1 response so far ↓
1 Didi // Apr 10, 2007 at 3:33 pm
The change-ups from the Rockies’ staff have been very impressive. And they dare to throw them in any counts, it seemed. Aaron Cook and Jason Hirsh have been impressive so far. I don’t know if change-ups are any more effective or not in thin air.
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