And hopefully we never see his lumberjack ass again, dee eff ayeFrom the PD:
Gaddis allowed seven runs on eight hits in four innings. In his first two big league starts this season, Gaddis has allowed 15 earned runs on 15 hits in 7 1/3 innings. Seven of those hits have been home runs.
He's not a ML pitcher yet. Gaddis has 3 quality pitches, but if you can only locate one of them you will get bombed when facing a lineup like Chicago's. He's clearly got development left and his future will be determined by the extent of it.I don't know if anyone will read this since it's a couple of hours after the game, but....
1. Hunter Gaddis is not a major league pitcher and he doesn't deserve to be thrown to the wolves like this. I blame Plesac, who injured his pitching hand for the second time in two years because he was unable to control himslef. Not that we would have won if Plesac pitched today, but Gaddis wouldn't have been put in the position of watching five home runs fly out of the park.
2. The Sox's batting order is going to be scary once Tim Anderson and Luis Robert get back. Abreu and Gimenez are killing it.
3. Nice to see Eli Morgan with two strong innings. He's got a good line in his last seven games: 8.1 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 9 K's. He lost it for a while but might be getting it back.
4. Straw with three more hits. I was screaming for him to start pulling the ball and going up the middle. He did it and now the hits are coming. In his last 15 games he's hitting .327. He was miscast as a leadoff hitter because he was taking too many pitches trying to draw walks. He was always down in the count and forced to swing defensively. Now he's attacking the ball and getting base hits up the middle and to left field.
5. Will Benson has looked helpless at the plate but something was different today. He ripped a double into the right field corner off Lance Lynn and hit another ball right on the screws that was pulled foul. He had a bloop single and a fly out to deep right. He looked like a major league hitter for the first time. I would platoon him with Freeman at DH (or in the field for a regular to give him a DH day).
6. Gaddis and McCarty gave up all eight runs. Not a problem; neither of them will pitch again this season, at least not in a game that matters. Shaw and Morgan shut them out for four innings.
That three game series coming up in Chicago is going to be something. Lynn will start one of those games and the Guardian hitters got a good look at him today. Six hits is not bad - he did not totally dominate but he was tough with RISP. McKenzie will face him in six days. That will be a heck of a game.
He's not a ML pitcher yet. Gaddis has 3 quality pitches, but if you can only locate one of them you will get bombed when facing a lineup like Chicago's. He's clearly got development left and his future will be determined by the extent of it.
Not going to win them all so I don't see today as a big deal. The odds were against us anyway so the loss is not surprising.
You can take a couple of good things from this game and their names are Straw and Benson.
You can disagree all you want and your assortation is based on his poor performance today. He has good arm side run on his FB. If you didn't see that then I don't know what to say. His slider has good 2 plane break, but he couldn't locate it correctly. His change up is nasty with good fade, but like his slider he could not locate it where he needed to today. If that continues he will not find success as a ML pitcher. If he harnesses his control he has the ceiling of a MOR SP. Like I said, his success will be determined by how much he improves his command.Disagree on his 3 quality pitches. I saw none and I don't think it was all due to location. Pitchers who can throw 94-95 mph straight fastballs are a dime a dozen these days.
You can disagree all you want and your assortation is based on his poor performance today. He has good arm side run on his FB. If you didn't see that then I don't know what to say. His slider has good 2 plane break, but he couldn't locate it correctly. His change up is nasty with good fade, but like his slider he could not locate it where he needed to today. If that continues he will not find success as a ML pitcher. If he harnesses his control he has the ceiling of a MOR SP. Like I said, his success will be determined by how much he improves his command.
I watched the game and it appeared to me that Hunter could not get his slider and changeup close enough to the strike zone to induce the Chicago hitters to chase. They spit on both of them when not close to the plate and sat on his FB. I haven't looked at the pitch chart, but I'd guess a large portion of those swing and misses came on the FB. I'd also guess that a good amount of the pitches fouled off were sliders and changeups in the strike zone.Gaddis did induce 12 swings and misses so he has some decent stuff. In his last at-bat against Abreu he got Abreu to foul off six straight pitchers. Abreu is one of the best hitters in the game and he swung at six pitches in a row without putting any of them in fair territory.
Sheets's home run came on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, on the 8th swing. Two swings and misses and seven foul balls before he was able to square one up.