What is wrong with Gallardo?

[utvolzac]

Why is this a surprise to anyone. There were warning signs all over Gallardo. He has been in a decline for the past 4 seasons. Which is why many people on here didn't want him regardless of the lost draft pick.

[O's84]

No McFarland can't help us. If he can't get out lefties in high leverage situations, he has no use on this team. They already have Wilson and Bundy as long relievers. McFarland has no upside, he has no stuff and he has no business being on a 40 man roster of a contending team.

Once Matusz comes they should get rid of him. And Matusz will be here soon enough.

[Nevermore]

Why is this a surprise to anyone. There were warning signs all over Gallardo. He has been in a decline for the past 4 seasons. Which is why many people on here didn't want him regardless of the lost draft pick.

Like many 30-ish Year Old pitchers, Gallardo is losing velocity. What he needs to do is develop pitches that make up for his loss in velocity. Turn from a power pitcher into more of a finesse pitcher. This is what Ubaldo has been trying to do, with some good results.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Gallardo in the first inning was literally throwing 84 mph fastballs. He eventually got back up to the 88-89 mph range but there was still alot of sloppy 85-87 mph fastballs mixed in.

To say "give Gallardo more time" and "it's still early" is to ignore what should be staring you right in the face. Yes, Buck shouldn't have put him back out in the 7th. But he was incredibly fortunate to even get through 6. Balls were getting torched off him all night. It looked like the last start that Gonzo had in spring training where his "results" were good but it was clear to anybody with two functioning eyeballs that he wasn't a major league pitcher at that diminished velocity. Jim Palmer, the only Oriole broadcaster that knows a single thing about pitching, was all over Gallardo tonight.

You want to know the worst sign that Gallardo is toast? It's not just that he isn't getting strikeouts. He hasn't done that in a while and was still fairly effective. It's that he's supposed to be a ground ball pitcher and he is far from it at this point. His groundball rate is 34.5% this year. That's the range of the most extreme fly ball pitchers in the league. He's been over 49% every year for the last three years. That's not the pitcher out there taking the mound for the Orioles.

There's only 3 things that could happen with Gallardo:

1) His velocity miraculously returns and it allows him to return to the level of effectiveness he had last year. That sort of thing almost never happens unless the reduced velocity is due to some curable injury.

2) He manages to pitch effectively at his reduced velocity. Given he's not doing that now, I won't hold my breath.

3) His luck runs out and those hard hit balls stop finding gloves. It's only a matter of time before he's phantom-DL'd or banished to the bullpen. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

[O's84]

Why is this a surprise to anyone. There were warning signs all over Gallardo. He has been in a decline for the past 4 seasons. Which is why many people on here didn't want him regardless of the lost draft pick.

I think most people expected his fastball to be around 89-90MPH, not 85-87MPH. Hopefully this is just due ot his late signing and he can get it back up to 90 ish. I think most people thought he'd be a #4.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Like many 30-ish Year Old pitchers, Gallardo is losing velocity. What he needs to do is develop pitches that make up for his loss in velocity. Turn from a power pitcher into more of a finesse pitcher. This is what Ubaldo has been trying to do, with some good results.

This is true. The problem is that Gallardo's lost an abnormal, alarming amount of velocity, and he doesn't have a quality offspeed pitch like Ubaldo's splitter to rely on. His curve and change-up are more of show-me pitches. He's already trying to compensate by throwing a ton of sliders and that's not really getting it done.

[El Gordo]

I think most people expected his fastball to be around 89-90MPH' date=' not 85-87MPH. Hopefully this is just due ot his late signing and he can get it back up to 90 ish. I think most people thought he'd be a #4.[/quote']

He hit 89-90 a number of times tonight. I found that encouraging. Buck should have left well enough alone. If he brings McF in the beginning of the inning, things might have been different. Just how fried was our pen that he had to do that?

[O's84]

For the record I wanted Latos who's' pitching well early and only cost 1 year at 3 Million and no draft pick.

[eddie83]

Gallardo did pitch better as the game went on. He is what he is at this point. Buck pushed him too far. His velocity was better as the game moved on.

[crawjo]

I'd be looking to deal Mancini for a starting pitcher right now.

[LookitsPuck]

He hit 89-90 a number of times tonight. I found that encouraging. Buck should have left well enough alone. If he brings McF in the beginning of the inning, things might have been different. Just how fried was our pen that he had to do that?

A couple times. The overwhelming majority were mid 80s.

[glenn__davis]

He hit 89-90 a number of times tonight. I found that encouraging. Buck should have left well enough alone. If he brings McF in the beginning of the inning, things might have been different. Just how fried was our pen that he had to do that?

The pen really should not be fried. They've had to pitch a lot of innings, but Buck's done a good job with stretching guys out and no one pitchers has been relied on too heavily to date.

If the pen is fried already this team is in big, big trouble.

[LookitsPuck]

For the record I wanted Latos who's' pitching well early and only cost 1 year at 3 Million and no draft pick.

Same. Gallardo was and is an awful signing. And they had a chance to Balfour out of the deal but still rolled with him. I'm not convinced anyone was bidding for his services. What the heck did Duquette see?

[Rene88]

For the record I wanted Latos who's' pitching well early and only cost 1 year at 3 Million and no draft pick.

He has looked sharp.

How's Fister? I'll look that up, curious.

[utvolzac]

Gallardo hasn't been a power pitcher since 2012. His K/9 totals have been plummeting since then. Which is scary cause those were his prime years 27-30.

He's managed to stay somewhat effective cause of his groundball rate, but the way he's been trending it was only a matter of time before the wheels fell off.

I am just glad he's only signed for 2 yrs instead of 3.