Aardsma

[sweetpeteman]

I was wondering about him, is his walk problem something that has been noted before in the minors, or is it something that really just sprang up when he came up to the majors? I did some looking and found that he has a career minor league totals of 4.28 w/9, 8.14 k/9, 1.37 whip, which, while not good, is still not nearly as bad as the 13.50 w/9, 7.50 k/9, 2.67 whip. My thoughts are, and I have noticed this before, but have never tried to really compile stats on this, is that the Cubs management has a tendancy to be overly cautious in their approach to having a new, young pitcher out on the mound. They like the pitcher to try to nibble on the corners and not give up hits, to attempt to slowly gain confidence and not try to attack too much for fear of the big hit.

 

I have seen this noticed in other places as well. I believe that some people have noted that this seems to have happened to Williams and now may be happening to Z, that the Cubs management has seen him struggling, and instead of having him attack the batters and throw strikes, they are having him be more cautious and throw more to the edge of the strike zone.

 

 

Any thoughts?

[Derwood]

seems ironic if the coaches are "overly cautious" with the guy when he has already been put into some tight situations with little to no room for error.

 

I won't argue that Rothschild is a worthless pitching coach, however.

[biittner77]

I remember during one of the ST telecasts the announcers talking about how Aardsma had sacrificed some speed off his fastball for better control. Perhaps he's been overthrowing since the call up.

 

At least if he gets sent down he at least pitched poorly enough that he can't blame his fate on the organization or his teamates that really let him down (Zambrano & Rusch)

[jjgman21]

I really think the original poster hit the nail on the head. the system is full of 'stuff' pitchers, seemingly all of whom try to nibble once they get to the bigs. throw the ball over the middle of the plate with the nasty natural movement most of them have (not Aardsma really, but the point remains the same).

[sweetpeteman]

watching Guzman today, I definitely noticed him trying to nibble around the edges, and that got him in a lot of trouble. I think that if he was allowed to attack the zone, he would do much better. He has only given up 4 hits, his walks and when he gets into trouble causes the most issues. He had a tendancy to get flustered and really overthrow maybe when he gets into trouble. He also went deep into a lot of counts, with many pitches just missing the zone.