Reyes Last Night?

[Hungary Jack]

I'd like to hear from our scouting types who watched the game give a scouting report on Anthony Reyes. How did he look? What was working? What wasn't? Is he improving?

Many thanks.

HJ

[rnhturner]

I'd like to hear from our scouting types who watched the game give a scouting report on Anthony Reyes. How did he look? What was working? What wasn't? Is he improving?

Many thanks.

HJ

I personally think it was a combination of lack of control and a tight K zone that never seemed to be on the side of Reyes. I am not neceassarily blaming the ump, but he sure didn't help much at all. It was almost like Reyes was so frustrated (not visibly, just guessing) that he didn't get a couple of borderline pitches and tried to throw it too hard on the next pitch.

If I am not mistaken he was actually ahead of many of the batters in the first inning, but couldn't get the call, nor were the pitches decieving enough to get the swing and misses and close the door.

As far as the other 4 innings, he seemed to work through a tough night and battled and obviously no more runs were scored.

Nothing worse than being down 3 runs in the first inning when your offesne is struggling and facing a pitcher that we can't hit.

[Leeyat]

Yes, our problem is offense IMO, --- Our pitching have been pretty good after the first three games against Mets!

I didn't watch this game, but I still believe that Reyes is OK, things didn't get worse after the 1st inning. Just my thoughts.

[haltz]

From this mornings VEB entry:

anthony reyes doesn't have one, either, at least during the first inning; thereafter he's a decent enough pitcher. insofar as both starts came after long layoffs (8 days, in this instance), maybe he deserve a little slack, too. the pitching coach cuts some in this morning's p-d: "Maybe the layoff had an effect on him. I'm sure it wasn't good for him. Get him out there a couple times with a normal routine and we'll see how it goes."

for the 2d consecutive start, reyes' changeup betrayed him. i looked at the game and counted 26 iterations of the pitch, 14 of which missed the strike zone. the change particularly killed reyes in the at-bat that keyed the long first inning --- la roche, hitting with 2 on and 1 out. la roche could do nothing with reyes' fastball --- fouled one off, swung through another, and barely stayed alive with a foul tip on a 3d heater. but reyes interspersed those pitches with three changeups, all out of the zone --- none of them particularly close. after the foul tip, which came on a 3-2 fastball, reyes came back with a changeup right down the middle, and la roche whacked it to right field for a hit. the guy came to the plate hitting .088 and couldn't catch up with the heat; keep it simple, stupid. . . . . the bases-loaded walk to bay came on another 3-2 changeup; the subsequent 2-run single by nady came on a 3-1 change. iron bill's just got no command of that pitch right now --- and without it, he suffers.

give up on the guy if you must; his labors are frustrating to watch. but to reiterate a thought i articulated in last night's game thread: the days of building the team via free agency are over. homegrown talent will determine whether or not the cardinals remain contenders over the next 5 to 10 years. the cardinals need reyes to succeed; he's not there yet, but neither is he a proven failure. not after 108 big-league innings. somebody mentioned haren in the game thread last night, wondering how reyes compares to danny before the trade. interesting comparison:

Code: Select all

			      GS 	IP 	   H      W 	 SO 	HR 	W-L 	 ERA  	WHIP
haren 			19 	118.2 	129 	39 	75 	13 	6-10 	4.85 	1.416
reyes 			20 	108.2 	101 	42 	89 	19 	6-11 	4.80 	1.316

reyes still might amount to something.

[jim]

My take on Reyes last night was that of maddening inconsistency. Not inning to inning, or even batter to batter, but pitch to pitch. He made pitches that made me say "Wow", and then he would follow it up by a pitch that was so bad it defies description.

I saw him bust guys on the hands with fastballs, I saw him put that wonderful changeup in exactly the right spot making a major league hitter look foolish. Then I saw pitches intended for the inside part of the plate miss 2 feet outside. Repeatedly.

I thought it was a very disappointing outing. I'll give him credit for battling through, but I'm not so sure that didn't have as much to do with the Pirates as it did with him.

[Phyrkrakr]

It looked to me like he had a very similar outing to what happened in Houston, except he confined the damage to only one inning this time out.

He was making good pitches, but getting deep in the count in the first. He had two strikes on a total of six batters in the first inning, but recorded only one strikeout. I'm not good at picking out pitches watching on TV, but his breaking pitches were fooling no one and if it's the change he uses for outs, he was missing badly with it. The Pirates fouled off 12 pitches in the first inning, which could be a sign of his fastball not being enough for strikeouts, or making enough of an adjustment on his change to at least get wood on it. I'd have to watch a replay to tell for sure.

The good news is after a 47 pitch first inning, he settled down a lot. The second inning was only 13 pitches, despite an 8 pitch at bat from Chris Duffy, the third was also 13 pitches (again, a long at bat from LaRoche, 6 pitches) and the fourth was only 9 pitches. His last inning of work, the fifth, was 14 pitches.

It could be that he just was rusty after the long layoff in the first, or some other symptom, but the way that he overcame that rough first inning gives some hope for the future.

[GatewaySnayke]

You're a rascal, haltz. I was going to post that same thing for the people who are ready to ship Reyes out for the nearest warm body.

A lot of people like to point to Haren being much younger than Reyes when he was going through his first few starts, but I think it's all relative.

[greenback44]

Then I saw pitches intended for the inside part of the plate miss 2 feet outside. Repeatedly.

Watching Molina set the glove one place and the ball ending up two feet away was a common occurence last night.

[Cronos]

Code: Select all

			      GS 	IP 	   H      W 	 SO 	HR 	W-L 	 ERA  	WHIP
haren 			19 	118.2 	129 	39 	75 	13 	6-10 	4.85 	1.416
reyes 			20 	108.2 	101 	42 	89 	19 	6-11 	4.80 	1.316

Considering Haren's current propensity for the longball, that the fact that Reyes allowed more(6 more in 10 fewer innings for that matter) even at this early stage isn't disturbing to anyone?

[greenback44]

It's a hundred innings. The numbers bother me less than the lack of command and the big cuts from opposing batters.