Game 74: Patience with youth
ByWhen tonight’s Reds starter Edinson Volquez made his Major League debut, he was 21 years old and a phenom out of the Texas Rangers’ system. He struggled mightily that year, going 0-4 with an ERA of 14.21.
Over the next two years, he would improve but not by much. In 2006 and 2007, he was 3-7 with a 5.90 ERA. While his strike out totals improved in 2007 to a shade under one K per inning, the Rangers opted to trade the youngster for Josh Hamilton last winter. It’s been a win-win trade for both teams.
On the season, Volquez has been one of the top NL pitchers. He’s 9-2 with a 1.64 ERA. In 88 innings, he’s given up 29 fewer hits per innings pitched, but he’s walked a batter an inning every two innings. His 105 strike outs are rather impressive.
Volquez is a study in patience with youth. He made his debut just a few weeks after his 22nd birthday, and now he has matured into a pitcher everyone thought he would be. Keep that mind when next you disparage Phil Hughes for a bad start this year.
On the mound for the Yankees is Father Time himself, going for his 11th win. Mike Mussina will have to pitch a tight game to give the Yankees an opening they’ll need against Volquez. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Giambi 1B
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Mussina P
116 Comments»
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Right on about Volquez and Hughes. Phil can still be an ace in the future even if he doesn’t pitch like one at age 21.
i know we have to preach patience with Hughes, but i worry about comparing his development to other young pitchers like what we’ve seen with Volquez.
here we go… the immortal Edinson takes the mound at the Bronx Cathedral.
Volquez was my fantasy steal of the year
i had him, and then dropped him for cueto when he became available on the waiver wire… my bad.
Yeah Cueto got all the press out of spring training, and wasn’t available during the draft in most leagues, so there was the waiver rush
i shouldve trusted myself!
eh, those are the breaks.
Well the Reds are better at throwing out runners than the Padres
Yeah, apparently Bako isn’t Michael Barrett. Joe must’ve thought we were still in the Padres series.
well, actually it didnt look like it… but the ump unfortunately had something to say about that.
Yeah the tag might have not been right on, but ball beat him
Interesting that Bruce is the leadoff hitter for the Reds
especially considering now he’s in a 2 for like 21 slump.
what channel is the game on?
my9
I forget are we a AAA team or like the Cincinnati Reds where we don’t compete every year.
We don’t have time to let Hughes,Joba and Kennedy all work out their stuff.Maybe two but Hughes ain’t gonna go 60-80 innings this year.What do we do next year with him.
Let him stay in AAA until late next year and get a pitcher who can give us 200 innings.You ain’t getting 200 innings out of any of these kids.
Also Mussina ain’t winning 20 wins which he never did in he’s career and he all of a sudden gonna do it at age 39.And Pettitte and Wang has been in the DL each of the last 3 years at some point.
I might sound negative but I rather be negative then live in fantasy land like those people who bought those stupid “SAve The Big Three” shirts.
moose winning twenty games is more about the team behind him on the field then Moose himself.
if he won 10 games before this offense even got going, youd have to guess even if you assume he’ll regress a bit with his own stuff that the offense will pick him up now on some of those starts.
not saying he’ll do it, but i dont think 15 or 16 wins minimum is out of the question.
I think the argument to be made is that premiums for top notch starting pitching are much greater than they used to be, so the yankees can’t just buy it as easily or trade a few token prospect. On top of that those very prospects could be the top flight starters they end of trading for later.
There aren’t many WS winning teams of late that were purely based on hired guns
The only fantasy land anyone’s living in is you where teams should never develop young pitchers because fans out of touch with baseball reality demand 162-0 seasons every year.
Maybe it’s just me, but after this last Padres series and after two stolen base attempts in two innings tonight, could this be Girardi really turning the aggressiveness up for the Yanks? It may just be because they are on this streak, but I personally like it a lot.
i hope so… honestly, thats the type of attitude and game plan i was expecting from Girardi. keep the pressure on.
I like it too. Maybe he’s settling in.
We all know from his days behind the plate that he’s really a brilliant field manager and we all know he’s wonky and likes to review film after film. I don’t think he’s lost that. He just might have been overwhelmed with the idea of being in NY, the injuries etc etc. Maybe he and the team are settling down.
Let us not forget it was Joe Girardi who played for the 96-97 smallball Yankees. It’s a game I love, and it may be something he may look to implement more and more with the yankees.
yeah, i think he’s finally got his full starting lineup in place, and firing on all (or most) cylinders.
Good pitching by volquez.
Get him home yo
Great play by Votto.
oooh just saw the Reds doing the Terrorist Fist Pump. Keep your eye on them.
i thought it was a Terrorist Fist JAB.
in any case, i’m glad the telecom companies can now bug the bullpen phone without Dusty Baker knowing.
Exactly.. They’re the “Reds,” they did the Terrorist Fist thing.
Calling homeland security…
Cano is just. Ugh.
quiet in here again…
Molina back to back?
on the starts that is
I’m alright with it as it saves Posada and his arm
i actually think he calls a better game. but posada’s bat obviously makes up for that
Damon loves the broken bat hit
right now, so do i.
So maybe Mussina won’t be burning the bullpen in its weakened state.
(30 pitches in 3 innings)
however, lets not count our chickens before they hatch.
yeah we people were posting the same on Rasner the other day, then bam 30+ inning
I love the running/agressiveness… but maybe they shouldn’t keep trying to run on the reds
Gotta swing if it’s close with the runner going
Damnit Cano
Hava Molina
I was responding to this when they did the pitchout and changed it. Forgot I was in a reply but yeah, Robbie is going to get smacked by someone . Soon.
that was disgusting.
but Molina picks him up. great throw.
WOW, DAMN Molina picking up Cano
Cano didn’t hustle than does that dunb shit god damn he irks me
I didn’t think that play was lack of hustle, just a bad throw
agreed. he got to the ball in plenty of time.
I was talking about the grounball votto made that play on my bad
he was slow out of the box
BC SUCKS…in all seriousness I hope he’s okay
ugh, Mussina isn’t the pitcher to commit errors behind, it usually doesn’t go well
That may have been the most athletic thing I’ve ever seen Molina do
I know. I was thinking who is this guy and what did you do with our backup catcher.
Moose with an intentional walk? Can we remember this when we play the Red Sox.
Its like walking the guy in front of Manny apparently
How about we don’t remember this when we play the Red Sox? Walk a guy leading off to face a guy who’s already 2 for 2. Brilliant.
Yeah I meant remember to walk Manny. I thought Moose just didn’t ever want to walk anyone. I didn’t mean do it THIS way because this way was stupid.
interesting IBB
well, that didnt work out well.
Well that didn’t work out so well.
Well that sucks
Here we go.
as an FYI the Stanford game was rained out today so Bleich will pitch tomorrow
You know what sucks? These are earned runs.
Theres no way that should have been a 2B
Molina should have kept moving towards the runner to block the plate, and even then its close
Should have, but he was too far down the line and the runner was already sliding. It’s slowed down on the replay but he really didn’t have enough time.
Jose was about to get tossed.
But this is why you need to make plays behind mussina
So is this a return to the “someone made an error so I can’t get the third out” Mike Mussina?
I don’t think he ever really left
Where did our Jason go?
he finally realized he was jason giambi?
Why are the umpires high fiving the players during a game?
He didn’t Griffey high fived him when he was making a signal
Got it. I’m doing 12 things at once here.
well relax, its friday night.
ha! nah, that was Griffey being stupid after he decided not to hustle to 2B.
This completely sucks.
At least Moose is keeping his pitch count down. No need to go every member of the overworked Veras/Farnsworth/Rivera trio tonight.
I hear Derek’s got an edge…
are you suuuuuuure you’re not a shortstop?
Yeah they spent the money on the Jeter appearance instead of the ad agency
Yanks probably need to get Volquez out of there and get to the pen
3 HRs in one game? i know a guy who actually scored 4 TD’s in one high school football game…
So do I, multiple times, lots of HS ride their all-state backs
ha, think you missed my reference…
No idea what the reference is…
sorry, i watched way too much Married with Children growing up for my own good.
“Really one of those deep thinkers…get’s into having a conversation”
Gotta love it
Nice play by Jeter
Al bundy?
oh yeah, Polk High, Class of 1966.
nice throw by Giambi, almost got him.
I dunno what was worse Cabrera on the bases or Giambis throw
I never really considered “injury prone” ususally thats the guys that are always injured for something every year, he was rock solid except for a few years in Cinci where he had injuries that caused him to miss essentially the whole season
I left the Griffey out of that, oops
LMAO at Michael Kay.
Tough Break… no pun intended.
especially when no one probably thought he was trying to be funny. Though after Milton Bradley wanted to attack that KC announcer, every announcer is probably trying to be real clear
Alright something going
all pray to the power of the ‘stache.
Need something from Cano
boo-ya
tough a-bat by melky.
Dusty baker, relax- you team still sucks
YOUR team-whoops
Posada pinch hit?
now they’re going to have to hit Cordero
gotta get the next 2 then
How much longer do we have to wait for Gardner to compete with Melky for ABs?