March 10, 2009
Silver Lining
Kevin Millwood pitched poorly yesterday, but the Rangers find a silver lining:
Millwood made progress on both the health and endurance fronts, a departure from his previous spring trainings with the Rangers in which muscle tweaks sometimes outnumbered innings pitched. In each of his last two camps, Millwood, the Rangers opening day starter, has pitched less than 10 innings in "A" games. His performance during the season has suffered because of it.
This spring he's piled up eight innings in three starts and with five more outings left, he should approach 30 innings for the spring. By the end of camp, he could have a 100-pitch outing, on par for a regular-season game.
"If we stay on the program we're on, we'll absolutely be ready to go," pitching coach Mike Maddux said. "It wasn't his day, but he went out there and executed and kept extending himself. That's the most important thing."
One thing to keep in mind as you watch the scores and stats is that players aren't always trying to get every batter out. Sometimes, they're just trying to work on a pitch, or in this case simply extend themselves. Watch how Millwood's last two starts go to get a better gauge on how he might perform in the regular season.
Evan Grant and Mike Hindman are making the DFW newspapers irrelevant with their new gig at the D Magazine Rangers blog.