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5/17/2006

WHERE'S THE MAZZONE MAGIC?

Maybe Leo Mazzone forgot all his notes in Atlanta. Because the Orioles pitchers are horrendous. No team in baseball has allowed more runs than the O's. In fact, they have allowed 20 more runs than the D-Rays, who are 2nd on that list. Nothing quite as bad as leading the bigs in runs allowed.

The other day I saw the boxscore where O's pitchers walked 12 Royals--and actually still won the game. They threw 202 pitches and only 103 were for strikes. What's going on there?

Mazzone's arrival has not set off a boost in the production of their starting pitchers. Rodrigo Lopez is 1-6, 7.86. Cabrera and Chen have been brutal. Benson and Bedard have been decent. But where is the Mazzone Magic? Who has he had made better?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do agree to an extent. The reason I agree at all is because Rodrigo and Bruce are worst than last year, in fact, now that I think about it, so is Cabrera. Maybe Mazzone is trying to get these guys to do so many different things that it is actually hurting their game more than helping. Mazzone was with Atlanta for quite a long time, so maybe he is trying to teach the O's pitchers things that Atlanta teaches their pitchers in the minors, just putting finishing touches on them basically where as the O's pitchers probably are getting all this feedback as new. I am just speculating, but, in defense of Mazzone, this is his first year and it is not going to be a miracle work here, in that he is going to come in here and produce 3 15+ game winners and send us to the pennant. It takes a number of years of influence in the organization to bring about any change, and I think, eventually he will, but right now, the talent he works with is not great with Rodrigo and Bruce, I don't think either one of them are any good, and never will be. Yeah Rodrigo is usually consistent, but even when he was consistently "good" he had an ERA of 4.50 or better which is like 5th starter good to any contender, and Bruce shoudn't even be a starter because I believe that because he was practically "new" in his starting role, he caught many teams off-guard with his style of pitching, thus he was successful, I knew it was just a matter of time before the scouts came up with a game plan to hammer him. The O's need more talent to make Mazzone look good, because, in Atlanta, he had all the talent anyone could need.

Anonymous said...

Good stuff Pops. He did have the talent but he also seemingly had the knack to revive some pitchers careers or get career years out of them.
Ex.: Kerry Lightenberg, The year Hammond had a 1-something ERA, getting Hampton serviceable again, Remlinger, Bielecki, Clontz and on and on.

Like you said though it could take a while to see results from his labor. I just thought they would have seen something positive this year and it's been the reverse.