What has always been a strength for the Anaheim Angels just isn't any more and I'm talking about their starting rotation. Case in point, Scott Kazmir is 2-3 with a 6.83 ERA and Joe Saunders is 1-5 with a 6.19 ERA...
The primary cause for concern with Joe Saunders is that the guy typically starts off pretty hot; He's always been a fast starter and this year's start has obviously been a cause for alarm. Consider his start the previous 5 seasons and you'll start to feel a little concerned yourself: Taken from Bleacher Report - Joe Saunders:
2006: 4-1, 3.06 ERA, 35.1 IP, 18 BB, 23 K, 2 HR
2007: 4-0, 2.89 ERA, 37.1 IP, 13 BB, 19 K, 2 HR
2008: 5-0, 2.08 ERA, 43.1 IP, 10 BB, 20 K, 3 HR
2009: 4-1, 3.29 ERA, 38.1 IP, 10 BB, 16 K, 3 HR
2010: 1-5, 7.04 ERA, 30.2 IP, 14 BB, 13 K, 7 HR
Just by looking at the stats you can see that part of the problem is that he's given up twice as many home runs and that's been part of the problem for Joe Saunders this year. Saunders is getting behind the count often... he's practically behind in every at bat and when you don't have an over-powering fast ball and when you're not locating your pitches well, like he isn't, well you end up with a bloated ERA like Joe Saunders has.
As much cause for concern that there may be with Joe Saunders I still have confidence that this guy can break out of his slump. He's definitely had a slow start and he's going to have overcome that but he's still basicaly a finesse pitcher that's having trouble locating right now. I think Saunders has to focus on getting ahead of hitters and then getting them to swing at his breaking stuff outside of the zone. If he can return to that I think he'll be fine but Scott Kazmir is a completely different story...
Scott Kazmir at one point of his career was a power pitcher with an above average fastball at about 94 mph and a sharp slider. These days Scott Kazmir can barely hit 90 on the speed gun and his slider is not what it used to be...
You heard it here first Scott Kazmir is done.
Unless his velocity miraculously comes back I think Scott Kazmir's best days are behind him. Kazmir met with head coach Mike Scioscia recently and while he got the nod to stay in the starting rotation I don't think he's going to last if he continues to pitch the way he has. Scott Kazmir's MO this season seems to be that gets by the weaker teams and he gets shelled by the more potent teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays... That's not good considering the Angels picked him up last season specifically to pitch against those teams...
Related posts:
- More On Scott Kazmir… Tristan H. Cockcroft of ESPN and his thoughts on Scott Kazmir from: ESPN Scott Kazmir, Los Angeles Angels: Pitch efficiency has always been a problem for Kazmir, but particularly so this season. Per Inside Edge, Kazmir has taken 24 percent of his plate appearances to three-ball counts, up from 21...
- Angels Take A Big Risk By Trading For Dan Haren And He Will Not Help This Season Unable to find a big bat to replace their injured slugger, the Anaheim Angels make a big and necessary trade by trading away Joe Saunders and three prospects to acquire Arizona Diamondbacks ace Dan Haren. The Angels are 7 games behind the Texas Rangers as of today. Now if you...
- Hunter, Saunders lead Angels past White Sox, 3-2 Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer and Joe Saunders pitched 7 2-3 strong innings to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. Full article at: AP Another quality start by Joe Saunders is good news. That's three straight games where...
- Is this The End Of Scott Shields? The Anaheim Angels were depending on a big return from one of their most dominant relief pitchers in the Scott Shields this season but things haven't gone exactly as planned... While Scott Shields has returned to the mound this season there's no mistaking that he's a mere fraction of himself...
- An Interesting Review Of The Angels Rotation Nathaniel Stoltz did an interesting review of the Angels rotation with a slide show over at Bleacher Report. Below are his final ratings: Jered Weaver B+ Ervin Santana B- Joe Saunders C+ Scott Kazmir B Joel Pineiro A- You can view the full post at Bleacher Report - Los Angeles...
- The Anaheim Angels Are Officially In Trouble A few days ago the Texas Rangers signed catcher Bengie Molina, who's a very good hitter in my book, and today we get news that the Texas Rangers have signed ace starting pitcher Cliff Lee away from the Seattle Mariners... It was bad enough that Vladimir Guerrero had to come...
- Los Angeles Angels Off Season Report The Angels off-season began with the club trying to hold onto a couple of star free agents in Chone Figgins and John Lackey and very quickly went awry when Figgins signed with Seattle and Lackey signed with Boston... Not a good way to start the off-season but the Angels are...
- Inconsistent Kazmir takes step back in Angels’ loss ANAHEIM -- The Angels should have learned the choreography by now – two steps forward, one step back. The Scott Kazmir who seemed to turn a corner with his previous two starts (including a stretch of 17 consecutive batters retired in his start... View full post on The Orange County...
- Dan Haren Goes Nine And The Angels Still Lose Dan Haren did everything the Los Angeles Angels could have asked him to do and they still lost... Dan Haren went 9 innings against the Texas Rangers, gave up two runs and lost because the Angels couldn't score any runs. This is the big problem with the Dan Haren acquisition...
- Saunders launches Angels past A’s OAKLAND – The last time Joe Saunders faced Oakland and Dallas Braden, Braden was fresh off a perfect game and Saunders was struggling finding the strike zone. That night in Anaheim, Saunders tossed a complete-game shutout, helping the Angels beat... View full post on The Orange County Register - News...