CC pitchers

[juliogotay]

I was at the CC game tonite. Left after 7 innings but Manzella had two more hits including a double that was hit sharpley in the gap between left and center. Towles homered to left in a six run 3rd inning. Flores had no hits in his first five AB's but he had a BB and stole 2B.

Paulino started and pitched three. Looked like nothing but fastball's 92-96 and struggled control wise. I'm not sure what he's got besides that FB. Not really a SO pitcher.

[Duman]

 The projection for Paulino is in the pen where he can come in blow smoke and be done.

[juliogotay]

His control will keep him from being a closing type of reliever if he doesn't turn a corner in that area. Ronnie Martinez was much more impressive last night with five great innings of one-hit relief. I know he is up/down alot but he seems to have a good feel for pitching, changing speeds, etc.

If the idea for Paulino is to be pitch relief, he should pitch relief and not start every fifth day. I'm thinking the Astros are considering him for starting at this point.

[Duman]

His control will keep him from being a closing type of reliever if he doesn't turn a corner in that area. Ronnie Martinez was much more impressive last night with five great innings of one-hit relief. I know he is up/down alot but he seems to have a good feel for pitching, changing speeds, etc.

RE: Martinez struggles and night last night:

Martinez, who picked up his first victory since June 9 at San Antonio, was 0-4 in his past four starts with a 9.89 earned-run average.

"He was throwing strikes and pitching to contact," Clark said of Thursday's outing. "That's what we've been trying to get this kid to do all year. When you pitch to contact and make guys put the ball in play, your chances are a lot better that way instead of looking at ball three and ball four. That's not how you're going to win ballgames."

http://www.caller.com/news/2007/jul/13/hooks-stroll-to-victory/

[Jacksonian]

His control will keep him from being a closing type of reliever if he doesn't turn a corner in that area. Ronnie Martinez was much more impressive last night with five great innings of one-hit relief. I know he is up/down alot but he seems to have a good feel for pitching, changing speeds, etc.

If the idea for Paulino is to be pitch relief, he should pitch relief and not start every fifth day. I'm thinking the Astros are considering him for starting at this point.

No.  The Astros are definitely looking at him as a late inning reliever long-term.  He'll get more innings in as a starter in the minors though.  (Lidge was starting until he got to AAA.) IMO, you caught him on a bad day.  He's been much better than what you saw.

Martinez has been pegged as a #5/long reliever if he makes it to the majors.

[juliogotay]

Clearly Paulino can dial it up to 96 or so as he did on occasion last night. I suspect that he takes a little off for better command. Maybe the thinking is to get him more innings until he masters the command and then put him in a closing role.

BTW, Towles homer and Manzella's double were off of major league pitcher Vicente Padilla getting a rehab start. Padilla pretty well sailed through the first two innings before CC scored six in the third off of Padilla and his replacement.

[Duder]

Didn't Qualls also start the bulk of his minor league career?

[VirtualBob]

NOTE:  Hijacked thread now has nothing to do with Manzella.  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Duly chastised for impatience, i'll move my original post to the new thread myself.  Jacksonian pointed out that Lidge was a starter until he got to AAA ...

True, but the change was due to injury risk, not a pre-determined strategy.  Lidge was unhittable as a starter for 5 games as a starter when he first showed up in Round Rock, then went on the DL for about the 43rd time in his career.  They switched him to relief to take the pressure off his arm, which seems (for the most part) to have worked.

[Duman]

Didn't Qualls also start the bulk of his minor league career?

Yep he did.

He started all games the first three years and then 14 of 32 his last year in the minors.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/Q/Chad-Qualls.shtml

[Jacksonian]

Yep he did.

He started all games the first three years and then 14 of 32 his last year in the minors.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/Q/Chad-Qualls.shtml

It's pretty typical.  More recently Mark McLemore was a starter until recently even though he was pegged as a mlb bullpen lefty prior to AA.

[Froback]

I would actually say it is quite rare that a pitcher pitch the majority of his minor league career out of the bullpen and make the ML roster.

So honestly, if you have ML hopes for a pitcher, you best be in the starting rotation as you develop/move up.

[Jacksonian]

I would actually say it is quite rare that a pitcher pitch the majority of his minor league career out of the bullpen and make the ML roster.

So honestly, if you have ML hopes for a pitcher, you best be in the starting rotation as you develop/move up.

The emerging exception to that appears to be minor league closers.  Estrada and Gervacio top that list.  They may not be major league closers, but they appear to have major league bullpen futures.

[jbm]

IMO, you caught him on a bad day.  He's been much better than what you saw.

I only briefly saw him pitch a couple of weeks ago.  He threw a downward breaker that was real nice.  The only thing he did wrong was a few too many belt high fastballs.  Even AAers can turn on a 95 belt high fastball.

On the topic of CC pitchers.  I've seen Barthmaier twice now.  He looked disinterested and bad to boot.  The first time, Clark had to give him a major ass chewing out on the mound to get him motivated.  It was disappointing.

[juliogotay]

His stats are certainly disappointing.