Jake Arrieta going to be fifth starter surmises Roch (No Orioles Confirmation)

[El Gordo]

Matusz roughed up just a bit today.

Bunch a duck farts and one monster HR by McCutchen. No shame in that.

[weams]

33 pitches through two. 22 strikes.

[weams]

Bunch a duck farts and one monster HR by McCutchen. No shame in that.

Why I said just a bit

[UpstateNYfan]

Bunch a duck farts and one monster HR by McCutchen. No shame in that.

And it wasn't Jake pitching so it wasn't serious and shouldn't count in future decisions.

[El Gordo]

Two more runs. Still getting hit around a bit. And he commits the cardinal sin on a ball in the hole that Ishikawa makes a great stop on. He never moves off the mound, runner safe at 1st. Nice DP Casilla to Flaherty to Travis. I question whether BRob would have turned it.

That should displease Buck a lot more than giving up two smashes to McCutchen, a bunch of bloops, and a wind blown foul pop fly 2B.

[oriole]

That should displease Buck a lot more than giving up two smashes to McCutchen, a bunch of bloops, and a wind blown foul pop fly 2B.

Yep, thats enough for Buck to make his decision if the race is still tight.

[UpstateNYfan]

Wow, you've got quite the thing for Jake! Kinda getting creepy now.

BTW, Matusz looks terrible today. No breaking pitch. Poor command despite the amount of strikes thrown. Fastball 87-91 with more towards the lower end. Even I can say that this outing puts Jake clearly in the lead on ST performance. Heck, watching this performance, I'd put Johnson and Jurrjens ahead of Matusz. Very disappointing. First extended look at Matusz since last September and just doesn't look like the same guy. Still can't understand why he just doesn't go from the stretch like he did last September. Doesn't seem to be following through (bending at the waist) like he did last Septebmer either.

To be honest I tend to over react to players that to varying degrees get blown away here. This dates back to Ramon Hernandez, Melvin Mora, Gregg, Gonzalez (the relief pitcher), Reynolds, etc. Players that even when they had good games were still criticized for past performances. Likewise, I dislike players that were given sainthood, were untouchable and given excuses for when their play was less than satisfactory over an extended period.

I like BM, JA and McFarland (really small sample size) and wish them all the very best. But I will stupidly stick up and react for those players I feel aren't being viewed objectively.

[Moose Milligan]

Wow. You that sure Jake will fail as the 5?

Not 100% sure, but we've got options.

Hank said that #5 starters are given a lot of leniency, I'm not so sure if that's the case. I think they're easily expendable, you can always get a AAAA guy on the cheap....as I've stated before, the only thing that keeps Johnson from nabbing that #5 spot is draft status. Guys like Arrieta and Matusz get a ton of chances, but I think Jake is running low on them.

[mdbdotcom]

Not 100% sure, but we've got options.

Hank said that #5 starters are given a lot of leniency, I'm not so sure if that's the case. I think they're easily expendable, you can always get a AAAA guy on the cheap....as I've stated before, the only thing that keeps Johnson from nabbing that #5 spot is draft status. Guys like Arrieta and Matusz get a ton of chances, but I think Jake is running low on them.

Whoever is the #5, it may be only a 12-start audition until Wada joins the team.

[Il BuonO]

Not 100% sure, but we've got options.

Hank said that #5 starters are given a lot of leniency, I'm not so sure if that's the case. I think they're easily expendable, you can always get a AAAA guy on the cheap....as I've stated before, the only thing that keeps Johnson from nabbing that #5 spot is draft status. Guys like Arrieta and Matusz get a ton of chances, but I think Jake is running low on them.

You've said this before, but he's really done nothing in the minors to prove himself at each level. So, beside an extremely SSS last year when he won 4 games what else can you point to? His walk rates are higher than Jake's and his SO/BB ratio isn't as good.

It's a nice story but he isn't the pitcher that either Matusz or Arrieta are.

[scOtt]

You've said this before, but he's really done nothing in the minors to prove himself at each level. So, beside an extremely SSS last year when he won 4 games what else can you point to? His walk rates are higher than Jake's and his SO/BB ratio isn't as good.

It's a nice story but he isn't the pitcher that either Matusz or Arrieta are.

This. And contrary to popular belief I LIKE Steve. Good piece to have. A reliable spot starter/long man. But he's no comparison to Jake or Brian.

[Il BuonO]

This. And contrary to popular belief I LIKE Steve. Good piece to have. A reliable spot starter/long man. But he's no comparison to Jake or Brian.

Me too. And let me be clear. I wish Jake knew how to pitch like Johnson does because then we would really have something.

[Il BuonO]

I don't think that is accurate. In 2008 Johsnon did so well in low A then he earned a promotion to High where he struggled.

He returned to High A in 2009 and earned a promotion to AA where he also pitched well

In 2010 he had a very disappointing year when he repeated AA.

In 2011 he pitched very well in AA, forced a promotion to AAA where he struggled.

In 2012 he returned to AAA and significantly outperformed Arrieta, Britton, and Matusz.

It's all here in black and white. How anyone can say he hasn't proven himself at each level is beyond me.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=489002

This has nothing to do with who will be the better pitcher going forward, so please don't try and twist my post around to something it's not.

So, I should not have said nothing. I won't twist it but did you really look at the numbers? Other than last year at AAA what year specifically were you talking about? Because I count three, maybe four in his minor league career where he put up good numbers. If that's proving yourself at every level, then, yeah you got me.

[Il BuonO]

It's a nice story but he isn't the pitcher that either Matusz or Arrieta are.

This has nothing to do with who will be the better pitcher going forward, so please don't try and twist my post around to something it's not.

Ironic how you left out the point I was actually making in my post about Johnson not being the pitcher that either Matusz or Arrieta are and went to something you could disprove and then asked for me not to twist your post. In essence you twisted mine.

[Il BuonO]

2008- 13 starts at low A - 9-2 2.34 ERA (got promoted or would have had a big season in low A

2009- 16 starts at High A- 8-4 3.82 ERA (in the toughest pitchers league in the lower minors earning a promotion to AA)

2009- 9 starts in AA with an ERA well under 3.00

2010- Bad season at AA

2011- 10 starts at AA with a 2.16 ERA earning a promotion

2012- 14 starts at AAA with a 2.86 ERA

In review, since 2008, when he was 20 years old, Steve Johnson has earned a promotion at each level he has started out by pitching well, EVERY YEAR, except 2010. That's 4 out of 5 years but go ahead and try to tell us how he struggled in rookie ball at age 17 back in 2005 and he hasn't proven himself at every level. Wouldn't just be easier to say you were wrong sometimes?[/QUOTE]

Look up above. I did. If you weren't so busy trolling it wouldn't be an issue.