Staff Blog
Breaking Down Joe Blanton
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| Joe Blanton, dressed to impress |
| via feline anarchy |
Last night Joe Blanton, in his first start for the Phillies, gave up five runs on eight hits in six innings. He threw 109 pitches, 67 of which were strikes. Those aren’t good numbers and because of them people who talk, write, and care about the Phillies are worried.
Over at the 700 level Matt wrote that
“Through most of Tuesday night’s series opener at Shea, Phils fans were wondering why the team traded anything at all for Joe Blanton. He was unimpressive, to be kind, and Johan Santana outshined him in a big way.”
Tim at Phillies Nation compared him to Brett Myers and Adam Eaton and Blanton himself was unhappy with his effort:
“I was really disappointed with myself about the walks. Especially the pitcher. That’s definitely not what I wanted to do.”
And on one level they’re all right: five runs and eight hits over six innings isn’t going to win a lot of games, and Blanton did get lucky with the Phils’ impressive ninth-inning comeback (not that he wasn’t due for a bit of luck: according to baseball prospectus Blanton was the unluckiest pitcher in the AL before the trade).
But if I’m I’m going to pine for him before the trade and then shower him with compliments after he arrives I’ll take it upon myself to defend him after a game like this.
Truth be told it isn’t impossible; there was some good to be gotten out of the big righthanders’ performance. Blanton hadn’t pitched in two weeks, and still came out attacking. His stuff wasn’t great, but it was fine - there aren’t five men in the world who could have hit that Delgado homer out (Vlad, maybe Ryan, and … ?) - and while he missed with the Castro breaking ball (that was a bad pitch), I personally am a lot happier with him throwing get-me-by sliders to Ramon Castro so that he can bear down against the heart of their lineup.
He gave up two homers with two outs, one of which was after what was obviously a missed strikeout. It could have easily been a 1-run outing.
That said, he needs to make sure he doesn’t miss with that breaking ball to Castro, and he needs to finish innings stronger. At the end of the day, though, he probably isn’t gonna be throwing a lot of true gems. He has a two seamer, a change, a curve and a slider; they’re all serviceable, but none of them are true out-pitches.
He’ll eat up innings for the next two and half years and hand the ball off the bullpen with the chance to win. He reminded me a lot of a souped-up version of Kyle Kendrick - KK with more pitches and an attack attitude, and we’re like 111 - 7 when Kendrick starts.
1-0 under Blanton too, which could be worse.
UPDATE: so my computer screen is purple and fuzzy, which are two characteristics I rarely look for in a computer screen. I’ll find a way to get rounds up, but if I disappear and don’t post as much it isn’t because I’ve stopped loving you.
Blanton also needs a little lesson on National league pitching.
First, can’t be giving up 2-out HRs to eight-hole hitters with the pitcher on deck. Ever. No excuse.
Two, the endless breaking balls to Santana. Go after pitchers in the NL. You can never walk them- which means you can never get behind them. He threw a lot of breaking balls last night to Santana- and I guarnatee that will get him in trouble if kept up.