I feel badly for Brad Bergesen, and quite frankly I know what he's going through. No, I've never pitched in a major league game, but I do know what it's like to not be able to get out of your own way. Bergy had a strange outing last night against the Yankees to say the least. The O's lost to NY 15-3, however only six of those runs were charged to Bergesen. Only six?! Yet there were also a few positives to take away from this outing against the Bronx Bombers; after giving up three quick runs in the first, Bergy pitched four shutout innings. Those innings were of course sandwhiched between a three-run first and a three-run sixth inning, however in those middle innings he looked pretty solid.
Bergesen's a guy that seems to have one bad inning that normally does him in. Granted he had two three-run innings in this case, however for the most part he has a bad first or second and then settles down. However can the Orioles afford that kind of inconsistency? This game was over as soon as the crowd settled back into the grandstand after the national anthem. However personally I believe that what won it for the Yankees wasn't so much their power as it was their scouting. Bergesen's a sinkerball/slider pitcher, however of late he's been working hard on his fastball. The Yankees appeared to know that, along with the fact that his fastball doesn't have much pop or late movement, and that it places up in the strike zone. New York is normally a very patient team at the plate; last night they came out hacking from the beginning which is uncharacteristic. Again, that's where scouting comes in; they knew they were going against a pitcher that was struggling to command his fastball, and that they could hit that fastball onto Charles Street when it was thrown.
I like Brad Bergesen, and I see him as a guy that's perhaps fallen through the cracks a bit so to speak. He was pitching very well in the summer of '09 when he got hit by a comebacker in late July, ending his season. (My opinion is that he hasn't been the same since then.) He then had a setback during that offseason when he injured his arm throwing during the taping of a MASN commercial, and it didn't help that he got hit by another comebacker this year during spring training. Bergesen's fastball seems to top out in the high 80's, although he might hit 90 or 91 MPH once or twice during a game. However his bread and butter will always be his breaking pitches, which were well placed in the zone when he used them last night. Again, he had four shutout innings; during those, he was freezing Yankee hitters and having them swing through many pitches. Their goal was to come out hacking at weak fastballs, but that backfired for awhile when they were getting sliders and curveballs that were breaking down at the last minute.
So what's my point in all this? Personally I feel that Bergesen would be better suited for the bullpen at this point. He has the classic look of an innings-eater, or even a guy that could groomed into a ground ball specialist who could come in to finish an inning or induce a double play when need be. If he could get some command and added velocity on his fastball he could probably be a great back-of-the-rotation guy, however that hasn't been the case to this point. Unfortunately the O's have more starting rotation slots than viable starting pitchers at the moment due to injuries, so who knows who'll remain and for how long. Incidentally, the times that Bergesen has come in from the bullpen he's looked pretty good in relief. I don't know if it's fair to judge any pitcher by a start against the Yankees, however the fact is that if you can't throw a major league fastball you can't make it in "the show."
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