April 18, 2006
Cabrera and Smoltz
Rick Maese writes about Daniel Cabrera's fine outing last night, and a comparison is drawn to a young charge of Leo Mazzone's many years ago:
"The main thing I look for at a time like this is his recovery time," Mazzone said. "If he gets off target, what happens next? His stuff is good. The bottom line is sometimes he tries just too hard. I've seen plenty of guys like that."
Mazzone, 57, knows his way around a pitching mound. He has seen plenty of pitchers come through with powerful fastballs. But the arm is only part of the equation.
"You know what I've been thinking about? What do you think would've happened in '91 if we took John Smoltz out of the rotation?" asks Mazzone, the former longtime Braves coach who joined his friend Perlozzo in Baltimore in the offseason.
Maese also notes the poor start of the Atlanta pitching staff:
When the pitching coach left Atlanta, whispers were batted from coast to coast, many quietly denigrating his accomplishments with the Braves. Right now, Atlanta's staff has the second-worst ERA in the National League. No Braves starter registered a win until last weekend. It seems obvious that Mazzone was valuable to the Braves.
Through Cabrera, we'll learn how valuable he can be to the Orioles.
It's still a little early to call Atlanta's problems a lack of Mazzone, but it's certainly a ckeck mark in Leo's column.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:37 AM
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Hi Dave, Thinking about Mazzone and Atlanta. I do think the current staff's pitching woes can be attributed to Mazzone's leaving. But I think his departure was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. There was such an air of self-coaching that went on with Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz. Coupled with Mazzone's presence and expertise, this created the perfect environment for bringing along pitchers. With Mazzone and Smoltz still there, I don't think there was such a huge vacuum left by Maddux and Glavine's departure. But Mazzone appears to be the final piece in what was something very special. Anyway, just my thoughts . . .
I'm just curious about who was denigrating Mazzone's performance. I don't think I've ever heard a bad thing said about the guy, I mean just last year he made Jorge Sosa into a decent pitcher in the second half. As a Sox fan, given the age and upsides of Cabrera and Bedard, I was a little worried when I heard he'd be their new pitching coach. And I still am, at least a little bit. But yeah, I'd love to hear somebody try to argue that the man isn't one of the best in his field. I just feel like they can't have much evidence to back them up.
Speaking of Mazzone... that Orioles staff is getting quite a drubbing tonight!
