No worries about Yovani Gallardo
Jason Grey
Yovani Gallardo was a top-20 pick among starting pitchers in most mixed leagues, but the Milwaukee Brewers' ace has scuffled his past couple of outings after throwing a two-hit shutout in his second start of the season. As I often say, when a player puts together a good or bad three-week stretch in the middle of July, it kind of gets lost in the season stats. But it's magnified when he puts up those same numbers in the first three weeks of the season, and perhaps it's given too much significance.
Gallardo really hasn't had that monster year yet that his raw ability suggests he's capable of. That's not meant to disparage his two 200-strikeout seasons in any way, it's just that we get the feeling there's a little more untapped potential in him. That said, he certainly pitched well enough to post better numbers in the non-strikeout categories last season, but some poor luck and below-average team defense did him no favors. The 25-year-old right-hander was able to lower his walk rate from 4.6 to 3.7 batters per nine innings while still managing to keep his whiff rate above a batter per inning. While we'd still like to see that walk rate a little lower, which also might address his propensity to run up his pitch counts, at least there was some progression.
"Obviously I want to go a lot deeper into games," Gallardo told me this spring. "I'm continuing to work on it, but sometimes you just have those days where you're battling just to try to get through [the game]."
After putting together a great spring training, there has been nothing wrong with YoGa's velocity. He's still firing his fastball in the usual ranges, and he's still blending the same three-pitch mix, which includes two plus secondary offerings, an 11-to-5 curveball and a slider with late tilt. The biggest concern about Gallardo's numbers so far this season: his strikeout rate, which is currently at just 4.6 K's per nine innings after four starts.
While Gallardo's velocity is fine, and the movement on his stuff is there, his location is lacking right now. He was done in by two three-run homers in Sunday's start, both on pitches that missed their spots badly.
When he's on, Gallardo's fastball has good life down in the zone, which helps keep the ball in the park and limit the damage from his walks. I could nitpick the pitch mix and say I'd like to see a few more curveballs, a few less sliders and maybe a little more use of his seldom-thrown changeup -- a pitch that has shown some potential in the past when he gets good velocity separation -- but as I said, that would be nitpicking. The stuff is there.
Gallardo doesn't get as many swings-and-misses on his fastball as you might suspect, given his strikeout rate, but it's still his key pitch. It sets up the breaking balls, and I hearken back to a 2010 quote from Gregg Zaun, his regular catcher last season, that strikes me as being pretty apt in this situation.
"His fastball command can be here and there," Zaun said. "He's close to eliminating those bad games where he doesn't have that fastball working like he needs to. That's the difference. The great ones always seem to have it, or work around it when they don't."
While I understand the potential concerns regarding his early strikeout rate, and I do see Gallardo having some issues with over-throwing, I'm not going to get overly concerned with what I view to be little more than inconsistent command after four starts. Simply put, there's no reason to panic. Barring any new information about some injury or discomfort, there's nothing to be worried about here.
Jason Grey
Yovani Gallardo was a top-20 pick among starting pitchers in most mixed leagues, but the Milwaukee Brewers' ace has scuffled his past couple of outings after throwing a two-hit shutout in his second start of the season. As I often say, when a player puts together a good or bad three-week stretch in the middle of July, it kind of gets lost in the season stats. But it's magnified when he puts up those same numbers in the first three weeks of the season, and perhaps it's given too much significance.
Gallardo really hasn't had that monster year yet that his raw ability suggests he's capable of. That's not meant to disparage his two 200-strikeout seasons in any way, it's just that we get the feeling there's a little more untapped potential in him. That said, he certainly pitched well enough to post better numbers in the non-strikeout categories last season, but some poor luck and below-average team defense did him no favors. The 25-year-old right-hander was able to lower his walk rate from 4.6 to 3.7 batters per nine innings while still managing to keep his whiff rate above a batter per inning. While we'd still like to see that walk rate a little lower, which also might address his propensity to run up his pitch counts, at least there was some progression.
"Obviously I want to go a lot deeper into games," Gallardo told me this spring. "I'm continuing to work on it, but sometimes you just have those days where you're battling just to try to get through [the game]."
After putting together a great spring training, there has been nothing wrong with YoGa's velocity. He's still firing his fastball in the usual ranges, and he's still blending the same three-pitch mix, which includes two plus secondary offerings, an 11-to-5 curveball and a slider with late tilt. The biggest concern about Gallardo's numbers so far this season: his strikeout rate, which is currently at just 4.6 K's per nine innings after four starts.
While Gallardo's velocity is fine, and the movement on his stuff is there, his location is lacking right now. He was done in by two three-run homers in Sunday's start, both on pitches that missed their spots badly.
When he's on, Gallardo's fastball has good life down in the zone, which helps keep the ball in the park and limit the damage from his walks. I could nitpick the pitch mix and say I'd like to see a few more curveballs, a few less sliders and maybe a little more use of his seldom-thrown changeup -- a pitch that has shown some potential in the past when he gets good velocity separation -- but as I said, that would be nitpicking. The stuff is there.
Gallardo doesn't get as many swings-and-misses on his fastball as you might suspect, given his strikeout rate, but it's still his key pitch. It sets up the breaking balls, and I hearken back to a 2010 quote from Gregg Zaun, his regular catcher last season, that strikes me as being pretty apt in this situation.
"His fastball command can be here and there," Zaun said. "He's close to eliminating those bad games where he doesn't have that fastball working like he needs to. That's the difference. The great ones always seem to have it, or work around it when they don't."
While I understand the potential concerns regarding his early strikeout rate, and I do see Gallardo having some issues with over-throwing, I'm not going to get overly concerned with what I view to be little more than inconsistent command after four starts. Simply put, there's no reason to panic. Barring any new information about some injury or discomfort, there's nothing to be worried about here.
