Flirting With Disaster

By what measure did Isringhausen have a terrible spring? 11 appearances, 10 innings, six hits, one unearned run, eight Ks, four walks.

Wainwright was really outstanding, and I believe he'll be a key part of this bullpen all year. But the rush to bury Isringhausen baffles me.

-M, a "scribe rush(ing) to defend Isringhausen."

yourenotagolfer.mlblogs.com

I didn't check his spring stats; I guess I was thinking of maybe one outing. I am sorry for the error.

The rush to bury Isringhausen, though, is this: He's 0-2 on the season; a record worse than any of the starting five. And he only pitches one inning a game. What's that say? And I've been watching him do the same thing the past couple of years. It's not unthinkable to believe that maybe he can't get by on what he used to; he even admitted as much in the STL Post-Dispatch about a month ago.

He gave up that bomb in Chicago. He gave up that bomb to Carlos Lee. His other appearances, if memory serves, were hardly of the "shut the door" variety.

I also keep waiting to hear the official line on why Isringhausen hasn't been effective. There are two possbilities, right? Broadly, it is Isringhausen's problem and everything I've been saying about him is true.

The other broad possibility is that it isn't Isringhausen's fault. This is what I'm waiting to hear: that the gallant Isringhausen, like Scott Rolen before him, goes out and rather than blaming any injury, performs anyway. The difficult part is, he keeps costing his club ballgames. As the start of the division is showing, these games could become crucial in September. Plus, I've been hearing for an eternity now what fine shape he's in.

A veteran like Isringhausen should know how to prepare himself for a major league season. A lot of other guys with less experience than Isringhausen have been effective out of the gate. But major leaguers are creatures of routine, right? So maybe somebody on the Cardinals medical staff should have given him elbow surgery this winter, regardless of how he felt.

Isringhausen isn't buried; after Danny Graves was run out of Cincinnati and then New York, he seems like he might have resurrected his career in Cleveland.

I think the issue here is that the season is a freaking week and a half old. There are about 22 weeks left to play. I think Izzy has more than enough time to recover from this. Look what happened to the Astros last season. If we get halfway through May and Izzy is not recovered, then I'll listen. But at this point it's nothing more than the natural ebb and flow of baseball.

Further, about the team in general, the strength of the club last year was how the team used what it had to the fullest extent. Everyone said they weren't a playoff caliber club when Rolen got injured. But look what happened. Just because we lost some great players (to every fan's dismay), the Cardinals are not dependent upon any single person (except maybe Pujols) to make it to the playoffs.

PS, I don't know if I'm inclined to listen to someone who says Izzy had a terrible spring based on one start and without checking any facts whatsoever.

I have to say that the reason Izzy is struggling is because HE ISN'T A GOOD PITCHER! The Post-Dispatch ran an article during the spring which explained his pitching philosophy. He now was trying to think. In the past, he just threw as hard as possible, then looked at the radar gun and giggled. I don't care what he did in the spring. I have watched him over the past few seasons. He routinely allows almost half the people he faces to reach base. Because he is limited to one inning, he can often get away with this and still get a 'save.' Big deal. There are many people who could record three outs without surrendering a 1, 2, or 3 run lead. And they could do that for much less than what he is paid. There are closers who are good pitchers. Mariano Rivera comes to mind. And how many pitches does he throw? One. A fastball. Every year Izzy has a new one. You shouldn't need 4 pitches to pitch 60 innings a year. Starting pitchers face a guy 3 or 4 times a game. Izzy may not face a guy three or four times a year. He struggles because he isn't that good. His effectiveness is based on a meaningless statistic that he can rack up because his exposure is so limited. And I am inclined to listen to anyone who says Izzy stinks. Because he does.

That guy tht would like to see Jim Edmonds traded pretty much hit the nail with the hammer, regarding my feelings about Isringhausen. One point from Moneyball that I actually agree with, is that most of these guys are interchangeable parts. The A's dug Keith Foulke up somewhere.

I would like to say that I did notice that the St. Louis fans were booing Jason after another poor outing. This is uncharacteristic for St. Louis fans, but I welcome it. Maybe they were a little bit cranky about paying $8 for a hot dog.

PS--All Jason's "fine spring" tells me is that he might be effective against minor leaguers that are getting a look. Even so, 6 hits and 4 walks over 10 innings in Izzy's spring isn't "lights out" whoever he was throwing to.

PS--PS--I remember back when, if a guy wasn't doing well, they'd send him down to find his stuff. But these days, no club is going to send down a guy who makes $5 million a year. Therein lies a problem: clubs lock risk into a contract when they sign a guy like Isringhausen to large extensions.

Exactly. The Cardinals are nursing Looper along at the major league level. The announcers explain that Looper is just having trouble concentrating because he feels so healthy. What? It's ridiculous. If you are on the roster, you should be able to pitch whenever they need you. They brought Looper in to pitch the 8th. If he can't, he should be working it out in Memphis.

All these people keep saying that you're not really a true fan if you boo a guy. I think that the term "fan" is defined much too subjectively for somebody to determine that you're not a fan if you boo a guy.

This is the problem with St. Louis Cardinals fans. St. Louis fans are known for giving standing ovations for somebody turning a routine double-play. But when a major-leaguer looks at the fanbase, it's like a free ride. Guys want to play in St. Louis because they know they can play like dogs and the fans will still eat it up.

Speaking of bad announcing, the seasons two weeks old and I've already had my fill of that arrogant Joe Buck.

As was said earlier, Izzy simply is not the great pitcher people seem to think he is. He has above-average nerves and pretty much average stuff. And he's getting older.

Small note - Mo is more famous for his Cutter than anything else. His cutter is declining with his age as his velocity decreases, but it's still probably better than his fastball. He also has a 2-seamer, if I'm correct.

-Reid

http://reid.mlblogs.com

Maybe there's a double-standard for fanbases in today's mlb. When Boston fans boo a guy, the Bostonians are just "gritty, old-fashioned, Red-Sox lovin' New Englanders." When Cardinals fans finally decide to boo somebody it's because we're midwestern ignorants who don't know what a quality closer we have in Jason Isringhausen.

I was grouping the cutter, 2 seamer, etc. as types of fastballs. Rivera's cutter is thrown at a fastball velocity. Izzy often runs his up there in the high 80's. When it doesn't bite, it just ends up like a hanging slider. And he is always messing with curves, change-ups, etc. Rivera throws fastballs 99% of the time. He might throw variations on the pitch [cutter, 2 seam], but they are fastballs. And he employs those variations wisely. He clearly knows how to use them. Izzy doesn't seem to show the same level of planning or execution. You shouldn't need 4 pitches to get through an inning of work. Rivera has proven that over the last ten years better than anyone.