Ever since the Orioles turned to the youth movement on the pitching staff, Brian Matusz has been my favorite of the young pithers. Don't ask me why or how he became my favorite, he just did. (Admittedly Jake Arrieta is certainly in the running now as well since he's a fellow paisan.) However Matusz has been hit hard of late. He had a gem of a performance on the fourth of July in Boston, and followed that up with a dud in Texas last week. Matusz went on to get shelled this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays in giving up six runs and seven hits over 1.2 innings before being lifted. Yunel Escobar provided a coup de grace of sorts in the second inning with his first homer of the season, a grand slam. Upon being lifted, Mausz told Juan Samuel that he felt that he was pulling the ball too much; he looked fairly uncomfortable on the mound throughout the bried outing.
So the question now becomes whether or not Matusz should be sent to the minors to get untracked. For a pitcher that's spent time in the majors such as Matusz, that question is best answered by a follow-up: does he have anything else to prove? Matusz has the necessary repetoire to pitch at the major league level. So wouldn't sending him to the minors ruin his moxie? After the game with the Blue Jays (that the Orioles went on to lose 10-1), Juan Samuel was asked if there was any chance that Matusz would get sent down. He said that it wasn't being considered at this point. One criticism I could make of Dave Trembley was that I felt that he had a bit of a quick hook in terms of sending guys to the minors to "work on their mechanics." Brad Bergesen and Chris Tillman each have ridden the "Norfolk-Baltimore shuttle" a couple of times, and I disagreed with each of those moves.
The Orioles owe these young pitchers to help them along in their careers, and to help them to be the best pitchers that they can be moving forward. As much as I hate to say it, getting shelled is part of that process. In the span of time between now and Friday (Matusz's next start), I'm sure that Matusz will review film and go over mechanics with pitching coach Rick Kranitz. That's how a major league pitcher rights himself, not at triple-A. Matusz, along with Chris Tillman and Brad Bergesen, are major league pitchers, and I believe the Orioles did those latter two no justice by sending them down. Fans, analysts, and coaches alike need to be patient with the fact that when you have a young staff you're going to endure games like this. Matusz made his major league debut last summer, so we're still very early in the process of his maturation. Having said that, is there a point when a team has to make a move on a pitcher? Absolutely, however if a guy isn't working out to your liking, you're better just releasing him rather than sending him to the minors. I would hope that at this point Matusz (along with Tillman and Bergesen) won't be sent down for the rest of the season, making it the major leagues or bust.
Unfortunately for Brian Matusz, he was also facing a team that has the Orioles' number. With the three-game sweep, the Blue Jays improved their record over the Orioles to 9-0 in 2010. Oriole bats apparently didn't get the memo that the all-star break was done. While they did put up a decent amount of hits, they were unable to drive runs in. Nick Markakis had three hits in the game, however they came with the bases empty. I'm not a ballplayer or a coach, so I'm not really sure how any of this can be corrected short of saying that guys need to shorten up their swings, and stop swinging at pitches out of the zone. As Jim Palmer has said on MASN a few times, if you swing at balls, they're going to throw you balls. So the message there is not to take the bat off of your shoulders unless a pitcher proves that he can throw it over the plate. And what game or series would be complete without an injury; Corey Patterson will probably miss a few days with a heel injury which came running out a play at first. Eh...tomorrow is the first day of the rest of the season, right?!
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