Why I hate Cincinnati

[kenndoza (archived)]

I have now officially "lived" in Cincinnati for 10 days, and during that time, my pitching has gone into the toilet. On my last night as a Chicagoan (May 19th), I briefly held first place before blowing it later that night. Then on the 20th I moved to Cincinnati and the floodgates opened.

My nine-man pitching staff, which had done a decent job of carrying me all season, decided that the best thing they can do is start giving up runs.

And they have.

My nine-some of Matt Wise, Dan Wheeler, Jon Rauch, Brad Penny, Mike Gonzalez, Aaron Heilman, David Bush, Andy Pettite, and Jose Valverde (my new least-favorite player) have managed to throw only 53 innings in the last ten days. In those 53 innings, they've given up 79 hits and 30 walks (2.06 WHIP), and 50 (FIFTY!) earned runs, for an ERA of 8.49. They've had 57 strikeouts, which isn't bad, but I've still managed to lose a point in the K/BB category.

Valverde, in the last ten days, has actually gotten me a few saves. He's also given up 11 hits and 8 earned runs in 2.2 IP.

Just venting. I know you've all been there one time or another.

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

The Picts have a sincere appreciation of your plight. We hope that our own impending move will have the opposite effect given that we've already experienced the crush of poor pitching in the past two weeks.

Though, to be fair, 60% of our starting rotation has made a visit to the DL or missed starts in the past month. I sometimes question the wisdom of hiring Dusty Baker as our pitching coach.

Still, Cinicinnati features one of the few remaining Fritches Big Boy restaurants and if you were me, that would make up for a whole lot of baseball grief. Mmmmm. Patty melt, onion rings, and chocolate shake...

[MGrage]

Last week, I had 5 QS with a an ERA under one (0.98) and a WHIP even lower, 0.93. I gained one point in the standings which I then promptly gave back this week. I'm right back to my rightful position in dead last in the pitching ratios. *sigh* So I feel your pain Kenny. But on the bright side, you're in perfect position to organize a road trip to the Great American Ballpark much like our man of leisure Steve is doing in Milwaukee. Mahalo

Matt

PS. Anybody want to trade for Aaron Sele before he turns back into a pumpkin???

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

mgrage said:

PS. Anybody want to trade for Aaron Sele before he turns back into a pumpkin???

I've got pumpkin pie with a Zach Day crust if you're interested in swapping (since you aced me out of Sele that week). I'll throw in a 17th round pick for topping.

[kenndoza (archived)]

Though I don't hate Cincinnati as much now as I did two years ago, I thought I'd bump this note so that Steve can feel my pain. This is what happens when you trust Valverde. Sometimes he's great (2007!), but he also goes through those patches that make you believe in the death penalty in cases of poor pitching.