On Thursday I wrote about how Brian Matusz and Steven Strasbourg were being handled differently by their respective teams. Now before people come at me with a steel pole, the survey definitely says that Strasbourg is being touted much higher than Matusz at this point in time. However the fact remains that they're both young pitchers for their respective teams, and are expected to anchor their respective rotations moving into the future. On Thursday I spoke of how I had the perception that Strasbourg was lifted at the first sign of trouble after he allowed a few runs. Matusz on the other hand got shelled last Sunday afternoon to the tune of seven runs.
As I said in Thursday's column, I feel that it sends the wrong message to take a starter out simply because he allowed a few runs, especially a young starter. There's also a school of thought which says you should take a starter out before he can allow himself to lose the game, and assuming the guy's pitched a good game I do agree with that. However I don't think that it teaches a young starter very much if you tell him that you're going to remove him a the first sign of trouble. Pitchers will always cause themselves some problems; it's the nature of the position. They have to learn how to get out of those problems, and by removing Strasbourg, Jim Riggleman isn't allowing him to learn how to do that.
After last Sunday's start, Matusz said that he was yanking his arm too much when he would throw. Presumably he reviewed the film with Rick Kranitz, and they worked on that mechanic of the game over the course of the week. Last night Matusz had a horrible first inning...just terrible. Not only was he yanking his arm again, but he walked the first two batters of the game; although he ended up yielding only one run. When he came back out in the second inning, he seemed to settled down a bit, and he was actually fairly sharp for the rest of his start (five innings), although he allowed a two-run homer. Ultimately, he was able to recognize that he was going into the same negative pattern as he did in his previous start. He identified the problem, and remedied it on the skip during the game. That is to Matusz's credit, as well as to that of Rick Kranitz.
Of course we need to keep in mind that Stephen Strasbourg's probably too good to even get into a problem as such in the first place, right?! I suppose my point is that Matusz played off of his learning experience from the prior start, and that helped him immensely in the game. People are still going to point to the fact that Matusz lost last night, and Strasbourg won on Wednesday. So ultimately it's a moot issue, right? I suppose my point would be that I would expect for fans to look past the noses on their faces to a certain point. At the end of the day it's all about wins and losses. However I suppose what I'm saying is that Matusz has the tools to deal with his own mistakes. In my opinion, that's the mark of a great pitcher almost moreso than a 98 MPH fastball.
This afternoon the Orioles will attempt to salvage a draw in this series with the Twins, as well as a draw in the season series. My paisan Jake Arrieta will take the mound. On the injury front, Matt Wieters is exected to be activated before the game from the DL, although Craig Tatum might be headed there in his place. Tatum got hit by an errant foul ball on his throwing hand. It just gets better and better for the Orioles doesn't it? After the game the O's head north of the border to Toronto (eh?) for three, and then onto Kansas City next weekend for four. BBQ anyone?!
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