Was Gonzalez really the best closer option out of ST?

[83eh01]

This is torture!

[Guest BallTMore]

It's sad.

 

He doesn't throw hard, and he keeps leaving the ball up in the middle of the plate.

[REEDPIXOFF]

It's sad.

 

He doesn't throw hard, and he keeps leaving the ball up in the middle of the plate.

 

 

When has he thrown the ball across the plate?

[cravnravn]

When has he thrown the ball across the plate?

 

Last night, then the ball was gracefully placed into the gap for a double.

 

This guy is horrible, you could see this coming after 3 games.

[dc.]

The signing didn't bother me. In fact, I applauded the signing. And I can't deny that.

 

But what I didn't really like was that in the first week of camp, Trembley announced Gonzalez was closing - no competition, nothing.

 

Now, I don't know that anyone pitched well enough this Spring to take the job from Gonzalez - who also pitched like shit all spring. But I do know that Gonzalez looked awful this spring and many reported was not only missing the plate (a standard problem for him) but that his velocity was down 5-10MPH.

 

How the hell can a guy lose 5-10MPH and have NO ONE concerned? That's unbelievable to me.

 

4/4 in 1 run games.

[ForceEight]

Because he said that he'd been working on the changeup all spring; he wasn't concerned with the velocity and thought it would be there for the season.

[dc.]

Except that, as Schmuck points out today, scouts from across the league were in O's camp and consistently convinced he had to be pitching hurt.

 

Millwood looked like crap - and there were good, believable reasons to write that off as standard.

 

Gonzalez was a question mark to everyone.

[83eh01]

The signing didn't bother me. In fact, I applauded the signing. And I can't deny that.

 

But what I didn't really like was that in the first week of camp, Trembley announced Gonzalez was closing - no competition, nothing.

 

Now, I don't know that anyone pitched well enough this Spring to take the job from Gonzalez - who also pitched like shit all spring. But I do know that Gonzalez looked awful this spring and many reported was not only missing the plate (a standard problem for him) but that his velocity was down 5-10MPH.

 

How the hell can a guy lose 5-10MPH and have NO ONE concerned? That's unbelievable to me.

 

4/4 in 1 run games.

 

They said he was in the mid 80s in ST, but then up to 95 in these few appearances

[dc.]

The OPACY gun was clocking him around 92-93 yesterday... but it's also notoriously 'fast' (adds up to 5mph).