Brad Bergese is a sinker-ball pitcher who was scouted very highly when he was coming through the minors. When he came up to the majors last season, he seemed to have some instant success. Towards the end of July he was hit by a comebacker to the mound against the Kansas City Royals; that ended his 2009 season, but thus far in 2010 he's never been the same. However I've noticed one specific aspect of his game this year which is of interest: he's throwing more fastballs. I had the chance to speak with Bergesen very briefly before a game in Washington in May, and I told him that I could tell he had worked on his fastball over the winter. He agknowledged the fact that he had, and mentioned how astute it was for someone to noticed that. (Flattery will get you nowhere Bergy!)
So is that part of Bergesen's problem? His bread and butter was previously his sinker, and now he seems to have abandoned that to a certain degree. When Bergesen came up last season, I heard Dave Johnson on 105.7 "the fan" say that if you can't throw a major league fastball, you're never going to make it in MLB; I couldn't agree more. However, Bergesen's sinker was pretty solid, so I'm not exactly sure why he's abandoned that sinker and is throwing so many fastballs. Furthermore, I would also say that all of the Oriole young hurlers are a little too accurate. What?! There's little to no late movement on any of their pitches. In last night's game against Toronto, Bergesen was in the middle of the plate very frequently, and most of those balls went a long way. And he's far from the only offender in that department, as Brian Matusz seems to have laid off the late movement as well. Throwing a straight fastball is fine, however if you don't mix in some late movement in there at some point you're going to get hammered. Ultimately, all of these pitchers are still young, so luckily there's room for improvement.
In Bergesen's defense, the Oriole offense didn't really start performing until after he had exited the ballgame. One very positive sign was that Matt Wieters hit two home runs, and AL Offensive Player of the Week Luke Scott continued his hot streak with a homer as well. One thing that sticks in my mind offensively was Felix Pie's at-bat in the fourth inning. With one gone and two runners in scoring position, Pie had a full count. It seemed very obvious to me that Toronto pitcher Brandon Morrow was going to throw a pitch out of the zone. (When I saw catcher Jose Molina throw down th number two this was confirmed.) The rational is that with one out if they put a runner on first they could set up a potential double play. Sure enough, Morrow threw a sweeping 12-6 curve ball that ended up inside and in the dirt, but Pie swung and missed. (Jake Fox later struck out to end the inning.) Hitting isn't a pitch-by-pitch affair, you have to look ahead in the at-bat and think about what might be coming next. At that point, Toronto was up 1-0, so had the Orioles been able to score even one run, we would have had a different ballgame.
Ultimately I still think that the Orioles are a very predictable team. The outfielders were perfectly positioned even to catch Nick Markakis' opposite field liner to left. If you don't have versatility in your hitting, you're going to make outs. Perhaps the Orioles can surprise everyone (including Millwood) by producing for Kevin Millwood's start tonight. The O's are 0-10 against Toronto this year; hardly an a-list effort, but everyday's a new day, right?
Written by:
