GaryMrMets
08-04-2004, 05:35 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/9308488.htm
Posted on Tue, Aug. 03, 2004
Phils hoping Rodriguez returns to winning form
By PAUL HAGEN
hagenp@phillynews.com
Once upon a time, he was one of the most dominant relievers in baseball.
The Felix Rodriguez scheduled to join the Phillies in time for tonight's game in San Diego, however, is a riddle inside an enigma all wrapped up in the hopes of a team expecting to contend this year to reverse its nose dive before it's too late.
Think about it. The Giants, a team with serious bullpen issues of its own, got rid of a hard-throwing, 31-year-old reliever without getting a major league-ready pitcher in return.
That's a sobering thought for general manager Ed Wade, who pushed a huge stack of his remaining chips to the center of the table with the pair of deadline deals that added Rodriguez and reliever Todd Jones to his hand.
That has to be a concern for manager Larry Bowa, who could lose his job if his club, which has lost 13 of its last 20 to fall 5 ½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East, doesn't turn itself around. And soon.
From all reports, F-Rod still throws as hard as he did in 2001, when he had a 1.68 earned run average and struck out 91 batters in 80 1/3 innings, while allowing only 53 hits.
He's just not getting hitters out with the same consistency.
As recently as spring training, he was mentioned as a possible Giants closer if Robb Nen wasn't healthy and Matt Herges wasn't up to the job.
Well, Nen remains on the disabled list and isn't expected back any time soon. Herges has fizzled after a strong start. And the Giants still decided to send Rodriguez packing.
Opponents batted .159 against him in April.
Then .227 in May.
Then .298 in June.
Then .324 in July.
Then he was gone. And it didn't come as a complete surprise. There had been early warning signs that the Giants were running out of patience.
After Rodriguez gave up two home runs against the Rockies on July 16, manager Felipe Alou sounded exasperated.
"I've never seen Felix Rodriguez healthier or throwing the ball harder than he is now. So why is he getting hit hard like that? It's a mystery to me," he said.
"Some kind of adjustment, and I don't know where it's coming from, will have to take place. There's no way he should continue to get hit, because everyone fears a pitcher who throws hard. Even the pitcher [Colorado's Shawn Estes] got good swings against him."
Two weeks earlier, Alou had sounded a similar theme.
"I see velocity without life," he noted. "You look up and if the [scoreboard radar] gun is right, you're seeing 98, 97, 96 miles an hour. But I still see lots of bats catching up with it. Usually, bats don't catch up with that velocity."
It will be pitching coach Joe Kerrigan's assignment to try to figure out why Rodriguez has been so ineffective recently...and to fix it. Kerrigan already has studied the stats, looking for clues.
"The first thing I looked at is pitches per inning. It's 19.1, and that catches your eye," Kerrigan said. "It makes you think maybe he's not throwing enough first-pitch strikes. The next thing is his left-right breakdown. Lefthanders are batting .194 against him and righthanders .286. We won't know for sure until we seem him pitch, but he has too good a slider for righthanders to be hitting him like that. So you wonder what that's all about.
"With nobody on, opponents are batting .302 against him. With runners on, it's .198. So we have to figure out what that's all about, too. We'll take a look at where he's standing on the rubber. Is it the pitch sequence? Is it the arm angle? Hopefully, we'll be the team that helps him reach his potential again."
Rodriguez hasn't come close to matching his 2001 success since. He had a 4.17 earned run average in 2002 and 3.10 in 2003 while dealing with injuries, and had a 3.43 ERA this year before he was traded.
There is no consensus on what the problem has been. Some say Rodriguez has become too dependent on his fastball. Others think the trouble is that he hasn't thrown his fastball enough, that he became enamored of adding to his repertoire and needs to return to what made him good in the first place.
"He's got to get back to the things we've talked about that he does real well, which is locating his fastball on the outside corner." pitching coach Dave Righetti told the San Francisco Chronicle 2 weeks ago. "He started messing around with all these other pitches and arm angles. and he got out of touch with what his strength is.
"I know, personally, I never asked him to do those things. He listened to the media, friends, people from the outside who said, 'You have to do this, you have to do that.' It's hard to do that when you're a short reliever. It's tough to do in one inning."
Fine. Except that, in spring training, the Giants were thrilled when Rodriguez showed up and started throwing a two-seam, sinking fastball that he had developed pitching winter ball in his native Dominican Republic.
Righetti seemed in favor of the idea at the time.
"I want to get him to the next level. I want to tap all of his abilities. We'll see. This is a chance for him to take the bull by the horns," the pitching coach said then.
Yet another theory is that Rodriguez needs to back hitters off the plate more often to set up the outside fastball.
It also will be interesting to see what his state of mind is when he arrives. After being informed about the trade, he didn't seem happy, first telling reporters to "get out of my face." He took 4 days to join the team.
Perhaps that reaction is understandable, since he made it clear in the offseason he didn't want to leave San Francisco. When the Giants declined his $5 million option, he accepted $3.05 million to stay. At the time, he explained his decision was based in part on the fact that his wife liked the city, that he had children in school there, and that he felt comfortable in the organization.
Phillies third baseman David Bell is a former Giants teammate and was on the field when Rodriguez gave up a crucial home run to Anaheim's Scott Spiezio in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. He finds it difficult to believe Rodriguez could be struggling so much.
"He has a great arm, and he's very competitive," Bell said. "He was a great setup guy and the sort of pitcher you kind of thought could be the closer. It's hard to imagine."
What the Phillies imagine is that the change of scenery will help Rodriguez rediscover himself. You could even say they're betting on it.
Posted on Tue, Aug. 03, 2004
Phils hoping Rodriguez returns to winning form
By PAUL HAGEN
hagenp@phillynews.com
Once upon a time, he was one of the most dominant relievers in baseball.
The Felix Rodriguez scheduled to join the Phillies in time for tonight's game in San Diego, however, is a riddle inside an enigma all wrapped up in the hopes of a team expecting to contend this year to reverse its nose dive before it's too late.
Think about it. The Giants, a team with serious bullpen issues of its own, got rid of a hard-throwing, 31-year-old reliever without getting a major league-ready pitcher in return.
That's a sobering thought for general manager Ed Wade, who pushed a huge stack of his remaining chips to the center of the table with the pair of deadline deals that added Rodriguez and reliever Todd Jones to his hand.
That has to be a concern for manager Larry Bowa, who could lose his job if his club, which has lost 13 of its last 20 to fall 5 ½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East, doesn't turn itself around. And soon.
From all reports, F-Rod still throws as hard as he did in 2001, when he had a 1.68 earned run average and struck out 91 batters in 80 1/3 innings, while allowing only 53 hits.
He's just not getting hitters out with the same consistency.
As recently as spring training, he was mentioned as a possible Giants closer if Robb Nen wasn't healthy and Matt Herges wasn't up to the job.
Well, Nen remains on the disabled list and isn't expected back any time soon. Herges has fizzled after a strong start. And the Giants still decided to send Rodriguez packing.
Opponents batted .159 against him in April.
Then .227 in May.
Then .298 in June.
Then .324 in July.
Then he was gone. And it didn't come as a complete surprise. There had been early warning signs that the Giants were running out of patience.
After Rodriguez gave up two home runs against the Rockies on July 16, manager Felipe Alou sounded exasperated.
"I've never seen Felix Rodriguez healthier or throwing the ball harder than he is now. So why is he getting hit hard like that? It's a mystery to me," he said.
"Some kind of adjustment, and I don't know where it's coming from, will have to take place. There's no way he should continue to get hit, because everyone fears a pitcher who throws hard. Even the pitcher [Colorado's Shawn Estes] got good swings against him."
Two weeks earlier, Alou had sounded a similar theme.
"I see velocity without life," he noted. "You look up and if the [scoreboard radar] gun is right, you're seeing 98, 97, 96 miles an hour. But I still see lots of bats catching up with it. Usually, bats don't catch up with that velocity."
It will be pitching coach Joe Kerrigan's assignment to try to figure out why Rodriguez has been so ineffective recently...and to fix it. Kerrigan already has studied the stats, looking for clues.
"The first thing I looked at is pitches per inning. It's 19.1, and that catches your eye," Kerrigan said. "It makes you think maybe he's not throwing enough first-pitch strikes. The next thing is his left-right breakdown. Lefthanders are batting .194 against him and righthanders .286. We won't know for sure until we seem him pitch, but he has too good a slider for righthanders to be hitting him like that. So you wonder what that's all about.
"With nobody on, opponents are batting .302 against him. With runners on, it's .198. So we have to figure out what that's all about, too. We'll take a look at where he's standing on the rubber. Is it the pitch sequence? Is it the arm angle? Hopefully, we'll be the team that helps him reach his potential again."
Rodriguez hasn't come close to matching his 2001 success since. He had a 4.17 earned run average in 2002 and 3.10 in 2003 while dealing with injuries, and had a 3.43 ERA this year before he was traded.
There is no consensus on what the problem has been. Some say Rodriguez has become too dependent on his fastball. Others think the trouble is that he hasn't thrown his fastball enough, that he became enamored of adding to his repertoire and needs to return to what made him good in the first place.
"He's got to get back to the things we've talked about that he does real well, which is locating his fastball on the outside corner." pitching coach Dave Righetti told the San Francisco Chronicle 2 weeks ago. "He started messing around with all these other pitches and arm angles. and he got out of touch with what his strength is.
"I know, personally, I never asked him to do those things. He listened to the media, friends, people from the outside who said, 'You have to do this, you have to do that.' It's hard to do that when you're a short reliever. It's tough to do in one inning."
Fine. Except that, in spring training, the Giants were thrilled when Rodriguez showed up and started throwing a two-seam, sinking fastball that he had developed pitching winter ball in his native Dominican Republic.
Righetti seemed in favor of the idea at the time.
"I want to get him to the next level. I want to tap all of his abilities. We'll see. This is a chance for him to take the bull by the horns," the pitching coach said then.
Yet another theory is that Rodriguez needs to back hitters off the plate more often to set up the outside fastball.
It also will be interesting to see what his state of mind is when he arrives. After being informed about the trade, he didn't seem happy, first telling reporters to "get out of my face." He took 4 days to join the team.
Perhaps that reaction is understandable, since he made it clear in the offseason he didn't want to leave San Francisco. When the Giants declined his $5 million option, he accepted $3.05 million to stay. At the time, he explained his decision was based in part on the fact that his wife liked the city, that he had children in school there, and that he felt comfortable in the organization.
Phillies third baseman David Bell is a former Giants teammate and was on the field when Rodriguez gave up a crucial home run to Anaheim's Scott Spiezio in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. He finds it difficult to believe Rodriguez could be struggling so much.
"He has a great arm, and he's very competitive," Bell said. "He was a great setup guy and the sort of pitcher you kind of thought could be the closer. It's hard to imagine."
What the Phillies imagine is that the change of scenery will help Rodriguez rediscover himself. You could even say they're betting on it.