Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 29, 2007
Duke the Next Perez

Dejan Kovacevic wonders what's going on with Zach Duke. The Pirates lefty was lit up yesterday, and now holds a 5.79 ERA.

The Marlins lead Major League Baseball in strikeouts and, as they showed in losing the first two games of this series, see precious few pitches they do not like. Duke got ahead of five of those first seven batters and had a two-strike count to four of them. Of the latter, Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera and Brett Carroll got hits.

"I didn't give them a chance to chase anything," Duke said. "Especially when you're facing a young team and they swing like they do, I didn't expand the zone at all."

But even that, somehow, seems insufficient in explaining not only this outing but all 17 that have contributed to Duke's 3-7 record, 5.79 ERA, his 141 hits that are the most in Major League Baseball and that outrageous .364 opponents' batting average.

Duke is right about not expanding the strike zone. He's picked up just 33 strikeouts in 93 1/3 innings this season, 3.2 per 9 innings. No wonder his opponent's batting average is so high. Given Oliver Perez's similar success and decline with Pittsburgh (and his revival with the Mets), I have to wonder what the problem is with the Pirates coaching staff? Is it just a bad pitching coach? Who is calling the pitches for Duke? I'm interested in hearing Pirates fans take on this.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:44 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I don't think that it is just a case of a bad pitching coach, though it certainly could be part of it. Oliver Perez had begun to struggle even before Jim Colborn was hired last year.

In Duke's case, there was an uproar last year after Colborn "tinkered" with Duke's mechanics, and he spent most of last season sucking. But Duke himself seemed to dismiss that as any explanation (of course, what else is he going to say?).

Strangely, Duke seems to be getting poorer fielding this season than the other Pirates' starters. Looking at stats like FIP and DER seems to indicate that Duke isn't getting much defensive help. Why that might be, I'm not sure, and even if he was getting the help that the other Pirates' starters have gotten, he would still only be an average, at best, pitcher.

Posted by: calig23 at June 29, 2007 10:29 AM
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