Quote:
Originally Posted by frazod
Pitching still scares the crap out of me. I feared that the loss of Duncan would be the biggest blow we suffered, and that really seems to be the case. He was like Dr. Frankenstein, assembling dead pieces into an effective pitching monster. Now we've just got rotting parts.  |
But Duncan always had something of a hands-off approach with the bullpen, if you'll recall. And the SP isn't really hurting us at all right now.
Ultimately Liliquist did fantastic work with Motte, Salas, and Lynn last year when he got the call in Duncan's absence and was tasked with restoring order in the 'pen. I don't believe he's been at all responsible for the struggles of the BP thus far.
Ultimately he's simply working with some guys that are broken down from last year (Salas and McClellan), lousy in general (Romero) or mostly mediocre stop-gaps like Marte.
Boggs and his 2.08 ERA has looked better than he's ever looked before and Motte's looking solid; just getting unlucky (seriously, how the hell did the Soriano and Pence bombs get out of the park?). And for as much as Scrabble
seems to get hit - is everyone aware that his WHIP is below 1.00? He's actually pitching well on balance; once again there have just been some poorly timed key hits that stick in our memory.
To tell you the truth, after seeing how well Lynne and Lohse have pitched this year, as well as the relative bounceback from Westbrook, I'm not convinced we've missed Duncan at all. Liliquist has done a very nice job with the guys that have had some raw materials to work with. You can't really fault him for not turning Victor Marte into a stud anymore than you could blame Duncan for not getting anything out of Batista. You can't blame Liliquist for McClellan anymore than you can Duncan for Franklin. But on the flipside, he's gotten more out of Lynne, Boggs and Motte than Duncan ever managed. He's a much better developer of power arms than Duncan was, IMO.