Can Gallardo return to form?

[wildcard]

For 7 seasons Yovani Gallardo had an ERA of 4.18 or less.   He pitched at least 184 innings in each of those season.  His ERA was under 4.00 in all but one of those seasons.  As late as 2015 he went  13-11, 3.42 ERA in 184.1 IP in a hitter's ball park in Texas.  Then last year he had shoulder tendiritis.    The O's detected something when they signed him.  His velocity was down.   His ERA ballooned to 5.42.

His problems last year were less about pitching at  Camden Yards where his ERA was 4.47 then it was pitching away where it was 6.22.

So does an  off season of rest and rehab help Gallardo return to form.  Is there a chance that at 31, which is not old, he returns to the kind of pitcher that takes the ball every 5th or 6th day, pitches 32 starts and gives the O's an under 4.00 ERA?    

 

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, wildcard said:

For 7 seasons Yovani Gallardo had an ERA of 4.18 or less.   He pitched at least 184 innings in each of those season.  His ERA was under 4.00 in all but one of those seasons.  As late as 2015 he went  13-11, 3.42 ERA in 184.1 IP in a hitter's ball park in Texas.  Then last year he had shoulder tendiritis.    The O's detected something when they signed him.  His velocity was down.   His ERA ballooned to 5.42.

His problems last year were less about pitching at  Camden Yards where his ERA was 4.47 then it was pitching away where it was 6.22.

So does an  off season of rest and rehab help Gallardo return to form.  Is there a chance that at 31, which is not old, he returns to the kind of pitcher that takes the ball every 5th or 6th day, pitches 32 starts and gives the O's an under 4.00 ERA?    

 

Check out his first/second half splits in 2015.  The problem started then.

 

I don't see rest and rehab doing much good.

[Aristotelian]

Only Yovani and his doctors know the answer. 

[bobmc]

21 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Only Yovani and his doctors know the answer. 

Well Can and RZ have their opinions, so there is that!  And I doubt that Yo and medics "know" either.....but we can dream!  ;-)

[Can_of_corn]

13 minutes ago, bobmc said:

Well Can and RZ have their opinions, so there is that!  And I doubt that Yo and medics "know" either.....but we can dream!  ;-)

I don't think it is my opinion that the decline started in 2015.  I think it is pretty evident given his performance and usage.

[sportsfan8703]

It's looking like Gallardo is what he is, a guy that you can match up in certain spots and he can give you 75 pitchers.  After that the wheels fall off.  

Are we really going into the season with Ubaldo, Miley and Gallardo all on the team?  The competitive balance lottery is coming up and we've been pretty lucky with winning picks with that.  If were to win a comp A 1st rd pick, I could see DD trying to attach that to Gallardo they way that he did with Webb and Matusz to get them traded away.  That would be a said scenario and COC would die a little, but I don't know how else we get rid of this guy.  The fact that Gallardo pitching for one year with us could cost us two first rd picks is depressing.  

Keeping him also means we lose Worley too.  It just keeps getting worse.  Hopefully there is a rebuilding NL team that will value the first rd pick and look at potentially flipping him at the deadline.  It's going to take something like:

Brewers/Reds/Padres/Marlins/Braves get:   Gallardo, O's 1st rd Comp pick A(have to win it first), +3ish million in cash

Or we could try a bad contract swap like we tried to do with Melvin Upton.  Just going to toss some names out there from the NL,

Matt Kemp OF ATL 3/64.5

Nick Markakis OF ATL 2/22

Matt Garza SP MIL 1/12.5

G. Parra OF COL 2/19.5

Y. Puis OF LAD 2/17.5(doubt his value is at contract dump level)

A. Ethier OF LAD 1/20

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Check out his first/second half splits in 2015.  The problem started then.

 

I don't see rest and rehab doing much good.

I agree the problems started in 2015.    During Gallardo's DL stint last year, the O's gave him some shoulder-strengthening exercises to do that he apparently hadn't been given to do before.    I think there's reason to hope that a full winter of doing those exercises and resting up may put him in better position going into 2017 than he was going into 2016.     So, I'm guardedly optimistic that he will pitch better next year, but only time will tell.

[Can_of_corn]

16 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I agree the problems started in 2015.    During Gallardo's DL stint last year, the O's gave him some shoulder-strengthening exercises to do that he apparently hadn't been given to do before.    I think there's reason to hope that a full winter of doing those exercises and resting up may put him in better position going into 2017 than he was going into 2016.     So, I'm guardedly optimistic that he will pitch better next year, but only time will tell.

I don't think that is at all likely.  Teams have been stressing strengthening the shoulder for some time, to the extent that a school of thought exists that stronger shoulders are leading to an increase in elbow injuries. 

 

[Moondoggie]

I'm slightly optimistic about Gallardo for 2017. He was pretty good in three of his last four starts (all Orioles wins) in September. He was excellent in his last start at Yankee Stadium, giving up just one run on two hits in six innings. And his velocity ticked back up after he came off the DL. His fastball was sitting more in the 88-90 range than 84-85. That leads me to suspect that his troubles that began the second half of 2015 were due to his shoulder problem (which would explain why he dropped off a cliff after such a fine first half that year). He's probably never going to be the pitcher he once was, but as a 4th or 5th starter he can be pretty good.

[Diehard_O's_Fan]

The Orioles need to trade Gallardo for anything that they can get. Wade Miley is a better pitcher than Gallardo. I would dump Gallardo for Miley.

[Frobby]

3 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't think that is at all likely.  Teams have been stressing strengthening the shoulder for some time, to the extent that a school of thought exists that stronger shoulders are leading to an increase in elbow injuries. 

 

I'm just basing my statement on some things Gallardo said last season, such as here:  http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2016/05/gallardo-cleared-to-play-catch-this-weekend.html

[Can_of_corn]

47 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I'm just basing my statement on some things Gallardo said last season, such as here:  http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2016/05/gallardo-cleared-to-play-catch-this-weekend.html

I know what was said.  I just don't believe it.

I think that Milwaukee and Texas know what they are about and some form of shoulder strengthening was and is part of their pitching program.

I think that after showing symptoms during the 2015 season the Rangers certainly put him on some sort of program.

Now maybe the Orioles' program differs in some manner and that is what he was talking about. 

 

 

 

[crawjo]

It's possible he will have limited usefulness, but we're probably looking at an ERA around 5.00. There's only one year left, it's not the end of the world. If he ends up spending most of the year on the DL it wouldn't surprise me. Miley and Jimenez are better options.