September 13, 2007
Arroyo’s New Record
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:08 pm
Among the many changes the Reds have enjoyed with a new manager midway through the season has been allowing Javier Valetín to start some games, particularly those in which Bronson Arroyo takes the mound. Though you might be interested to see how that's worked out for Arroyo so far:
| Date | Catcher | Bronson's result |
|---|---|---|
| 09/12 | Javy | Win |
| 09/07 | Javy | Win |
| 09/02 | Ross | Loss |
| 08/28 | Ross | No decision |
| 08/22 | Javy | Win |
| 08/17 | Javy | Win |
| 08/12 | Ross | Loss |
| 08/07 | Ross | Win |
| 08/01 | Ross | Loss |
Of Arroyo's nine wins on the season, four have come while Javy is catching. Of his fourteen loses, zero have come while Javy's behind the plate. This really isn't too much of a surprise, since run support was a major problem for Bronson early on in the season, and Javy can actually help in that arena.
Run support and blown saves by the bullpen. Arroyo should have 6 more wins.
4/9 – 7 innings of 2 run baseball – Saarloos takes the loss
4/19 – blown save
4/25 – 7 innings of 1 run baseball – Saarloss again takes the loss
6/29 – blown save
7/27 – blown save
8/28 – blown save
8/22 and 8/27 games Ross was on the DL – but since then Pete has played the hot hand (which he should) with Javy… which is what happened last year with Ross vs LaRue. 😉
As Imentioned back in May, you are not going to get the best effort from Arroyo when the he doesn’t believe the rest of the team and especially the manager is uncompetitive. This is a guy used to being in the race and the team being microscoped by the national media. When a team is as bad as the Reds were in late May, this guy’s heart is simply not going to be in it… and why should it be? The best thing for everyone was for the team to lose 20 games in a row so Jerry Moron could be forcibly removed from command. Jesus, Krivsky was crying at the anguish over having to fire the guy… if Arroyo produces a few more quality starts perhaps Moron’s job is saved for the rest of the year. I don’t know if this guy Mackanin is the answer but he is lightyears ahead of Moron, and I imagine we can upgrade a couple of notches further if management has the guts and the wallet to do so (i.e. look at Pineilla in Chicago for God’s sake and LaRussa taking a team of gimpy scrubs to near contention until just recently).
Anyhow I think Arrotyo is a gutsy winner that will give his absolute best and be willing to sacrifice his body by pitching every other day if necessary IF THE REST OF THE TEAM IS COMPETITIVE. I stand by that assessment.
PEACE OUT!
Christ I gotta start proofreading before I hit submit. Why can’t we have an edit feature on this blog?
9/17 – blown save
Should have 7 more wins. 🙁
Even if we only expected the bullpen to convert half of those, he could have 3-4 more wins. And the sad part is that it’s true for every one of the starters. Could Harang be a hands-down Cy Young winner now?
Of course, the bullpen only takes most of the credit for the blown saves. There’s he offense’s inability to get the allowed runs back, and the manager’s role early in the season. Narron’s insistence on continuing to send out the worst pitchers in the pen for so long didn’t help matters anyway.