Phillies can afford to be patient with Vince Velasquez - for a while | Mike Sielski
The young starter was all over the place in his first start this season. He'll have time to sort himself out if he can.
The Phillies home opener Friday, a 7-6 loss to the Washington Nationals, lasted 3 hours, 34 minutes. And Vince Velasquez, as much as anyone aside from Washington's relief pitchers, was responsible for transforming the game from a light, happy matinee into the kind of intense, overlong epic that Francis Ford Coppola would sacrifice a Philippine jungle to film.
Velasquez was everything the Phillies hope that he one day can be, and he was everything that might give them pause about his future as a reliable starting pitcher. He struck out 10, becoming the first Phillies pitcher since 1900 to record at least 10 strikeouts in an appearance that was at most four innings. His fastball hovered at 94, 95 mph, reaffirming that, at 24, he has an arm unlike that of any other starter in the Phils' rotation or the organization's high minor leagues. See him blow away four straight batters Friday over the first and second innings, and that magical 16-strikeout shutout he threw last April against the San Diego Padres, with all it promised, becomes fresh in the mind again.
Yet for all that promise, it was still a chore to watch him Friday. He walked three, gave up five hits and four earned runs, and threw 94 pitches in his four innings. His pitches were all over the place. Put Susan Sarandon on his arm, and you had the beginning of a dynamite comedy. The weather didn't help him, either: temperatures in the low 40s, winds reaching 19 mph.
"I was all over the place," Velasquez said. "I had no grip. I had no command of my fastball at all. Yeah, I got 10 strikeouts, but it wasn't enough."
The conditions were a factor, sure, but conditions are not always perfect, and his performance fit the pattern of inconsistency that he established last season, his first as a full-time starter in the majors. He went 8-6 with a 4.12 ERA and an impressive 152 strikeouts in 131 innings. But consider: That shutout of the Padres was his second start last season. In his final start, against the Atlanta Braves, he went seven innings, allowed two earned runs, struck out eight, walked none. Over his 21 starts in between, he went 6-6 with a 4.79 ERA. Batters hit .284 and posted an .821 on-base-plus-slugging percentage against him during that stretch, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was an ugly 2.8/1.
"The key to me is every pitcher, no matter who it is, always has men on base," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "Rarely do you see a guy just fly through a lineup. Even, you look at Roy Halladay - always had men on base. Greg Maddux always had men on base. The pitchers who minimize damage are the good ones."
Halladay threw two no-hitters, including a perfect game. Over the 1994 and 1995 seasons, Maddux's aggregate ERA was a ridiculous 1.60. They didn't always have men on base, but Mackanin's point about a starter having to dance through raindrops was well taken. The problem for Velasquez is that he's often his own storm cloud. Both he and the Phillies had made it clear during spring training: He wanted, needed, to become a more economical pitcher, to get more outs with fewer pitches. It didn't work out that way Friday. Twice, Velasquez walked Nationals centerfielder Adam Eaton, only to have Eaton score later in that inning on a home run, one by Bryce Harper, one by Daniel Murphy.
Harper's home run seemed an example of Velasquez overthinking a particular pitch to a particular hitter. With the count 3-2, Velasquez threw a 94 mph fastball that Harper fouled off. Instead of coming back with his best pitch, Velasquez threw an 87 mph changeup that was supposed to be on the outside corner. It drifted over the inside part of the plate, and Harper yanked it over the right-field fence.
"It's a good point, and we talk about it," Mackanin said. "He knows that he has to do that, but it doesn't come overnight, and I think over the course of the season, it's going to come. With the type of fastball he has, with the velocity and movement he has, I think he can probably lean on that pitch a little bit more than he has. I think sometimes he thinks he's got to do too much, that he can just overpower hitters. There's a time and a place to do that, and there's a time and a place to finesse. He's going to get it."
He's going to have time to get it. That, no one disputes. The Phillies can afford to be patient with him, at least for a while. If, in late May and June, he is still laboring to complete five or six innings, if he's still forcing Mackanin to put strain on the bullpen, then the Phillies might consider a change - turning Velasquez into a late-inning reliever, perhaps. Until then, he'll have every opportunity to solidify his place in the rotation.
"This is game one," he said. "It's just one of those things I've got to work on and then move on. Keep it under the cap and then bounce back. It's a learning experience every day you go."
He would just like to learn how to make each of his days a little shorter. The Phillies would appreciate it, too. So throw some ground balls, kid. They're more democratic. Besides, they're faster.
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