Anybody else mildly concerned about Gallardo's BB totals?

[DougJones43]

He now leads the NL with 90 BB. His walk rate this year is way above what it was in 2007/2008, and it seems to prevent him from going deep into games as often as he could be. He's still managed to get pretty good results, but it could be a lot better if he tightens up his command a little.

 

I'm hoping it's a mixture of rust (earlier in the year), and now fatigue -- all due to his lack of innings pitched in 2008.

[derflotr]

I'm pretty concerned, probably more than most. I'd feel better if he had great BB rates in the minors, but that's not the case. I'll stay patient because it's his first full major league season and there's been pressure on him, but it's certainly bothersome.

[Buckylovesbeer]

I agree, walks and pitch count are a problem. If he cleans up the walks he gives up less runs. I hope somebody can help him out with that soon, because the Crew is going to need him to be great over the next few years

[dadofandrew]

He's never going to be a true ace throwing as many 5 and 6 inning starts as he has. He and Parra both are deathly afraid of strike one, followed by strike two.

[logan82]

I have been concerned since the middle of June when there was talk about how well Castro was doing as pitching coach.

 

Edit: Just to be clear the walks don't concern me because I think he will be bad going forward. I think they are more because he didn't pitch last year and may not have been ready to pitch as much as he has this year. The only concern is that they are at a rate much higher than in the past.

[BrewCrewForever]

I am concerned. But only a little. I keep telling myself it's his first full season.

[NYChez]

My only concern was Yo getting through the season healthy. If he does that, he'll be fine.

[crewcrazy]

Yo hasn't looked sharp for almost a month and a half now, and the 10 days off between starts didn't appear to do him much good. At this point, they should probably shut him down for the rest of the season, and let the likes of Butler, Narveson, et al pick up the remaining starts. For the most part, Yo's done a pretty good job considering how little he was able to pitch last year, and thankfully he declined the WBC invite in the spring.

[Invader3K]

Isn't Gallardo still in the top five or so in the NL in pitches thrown this season? No real reason to overtax him further at this point. See what guys like Butler can do with some spot starts.

[davego]

I agree that Yo going on ice for the reminder of the year might be a good idea. Does he need to develop the change more to help his fastball and curve?

[crewcrazy]

Isn't Gallardo still in the top five or so in the NL in pitches thrown this season? No real reason to overtax him further at this point. See what guys like Butler can do with some spot starts.

Gallardo getting the extra rest kind of bumped him down those rankings. He's currently tied for 20th in the majors and tied for 8th in the NL. Link

 

Edit: Appears that list is through the 14th, so it doesn't include his latest start. Once everyone gets through their turn in the rotation, though, I don't imagine the list changing much.

[TheCrew07]

Lame Yuku just ate another post so I need to be quick.

 

I'm not concerned as much as I am irritated, as walks are my pet peeve when it comes to pitchers. Yo's never been very economical with his pitches, so I've been concerned since AA about how deep he'd pitch into games, but since Macha took over as manager my concern has turned into worry. At least with Yost I knew he was coming out around 100 pitches, Macha seems to care more about the number of IP and his bullpen than the workload of his only quality starting pitcher. It was obvious Yo didn't have it last night, I was pretty upset when he back out for the 6th inning.

 

Since June Yo has gotten progressively worse each month. I've been concerned about his workload from the start and I'm not surprised by the trending in his current season given the lack of IP last season. I just hope he stays healthy this year and next as sometimes abuse injuries/lack of performance manifest themselves the following the year.

[filthyfrog]

I don't have any numbers to back it up, but my impression when he first got called up was that Yo threw too many strikes. He seemed to give up a lot of 0-2 hits because he kept pounding the strike zone even when he should have been trying to make batters chase. After the long layoff last year, he seemed like a different pitcher when he came back and that's carried over into this year. He's trying to strike everyone out. But I agree with others that if he can just stay healthy, he'll be fine.

[brewmann04]

The high # of walks is a concern because it does not allow him to go deep into games,Right now he a solid #2 pitchers who needs to work on a few things. That said i think Yo should be shut down and give his start to Butler.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I think he'll be great over time, but he does need to get deeper into games to be a true ace. I would chalk it up to fatigue at this point, he was fine earlier in the year. I would shut him down and work on it in 2009. There is just no reason to have him out there right now, especially with a manager who won't pull him before 110 pitches.

[nate82]

He's never going to be a true ace throwing as many 5 and 6 inning starts as he has. He and Parra both are deathly afraid of strike one, followed by strike two.

Manny Parra has a F-Strike% of 57.3% and Gallardo has a F-strike% of 52.3%. Looper and Burns have the best percentage of first pitch strikes at 68.1%(Burns) and 60.8%(Looper).

 

To compare Gallardo and Parra to other young pitchers this is what you have: Lincecum at 56.6%, Jorge de La Rosa at 55.8%, Kershaw at 55.5%, Lester at 55.5%, Garza at 56.5%, and Felix Hernandez at 57.8%.

 

They are not deathly afraid of strike one if they were deathly afraid of strike one then Looper and Burns are both better than Parra and Gallardo right? Because they throw a lot of first pitch strikes.

 

F-Strike% (first pitch strike percentage): The percentage of plate appearances (for batters) or batters faced (for pitchers) that the first pitch was a strike. This includes anytime that the count after the first pitch was 0-1, or anytime the ball was put into play on the first pitch of a plate appearance.

[BrewCrewForever]

I think pitching this much for the first time in his career has something to do with his struggles as of late Probably a little tired, never threw this much. Also he just has to get better at putting hitters away with that curveball before going into such deep counts. Once he does that his pitch counts will go down and will go deeper into games like he was early in the year.

[trwi7]

He pitched 180+ innings in 2007 and never had that problem and I don't think it's from only pitching 30 innings last year since he had problems with walks starting in May.

 

April - 2.34 BB/9

May - 4.45 BB/9

June - 5.51 BB/9

July - 4.82 BB/9

August - 4.98 BB/9

September - 6.35 BB/9