Pitching Staff

I said it when we signed him, i said it after his first start, and i'm saying it now: We should not have signed BK Kim, and if we did sign him, we sure as HELL should not have handed the fifth spot in the starting rotation to him. I hate to be negative, and i'm usually not, but god this guy sucks! He lasted 17 pitches last night. 17! He only retired one batter and gave up four runs!! I can't emphasize this enough! Oh, and just for good measure, he managed to toss in a throwing error in his 1/3 of an inning...

The Dbacks had a fantastic thing going, with a good rotation that was putting up 5-6 innings or more every start, including the rotating fifth spot held by Yusmeiro Petit and Edgar Gonzalez. Dbacks management decided this wasn't good enough, and thought BK Kim would be the answer. Wrong! In his two starts combined, Kim has lasted just 2 2/3 innings. Combined! His ERA in those two games is 23.62! How does he even have a job?!?!

(Sigh...) Ok, i've calmed down now. That was kinda mean, but man he has stunk out the joint since joining the Dbacks. While manager Bob Melvin refused to say whether Kim would stay in the starting rotation after last nights game, i don't see how there is any way he does. He has gotten absolutely shelled in his two starts, to the point where i predict an automatic loss every time he starts. I don't even want him throwing out of the bullpen at this point. Just release him and bring Petit back up. He was pitching much better than Kim is at this point.

One bright spot last night for Arizona was Chris young, who took two pitches deep for his 20th and 21st home runs of the season, including a lead-off homer in the first inning. Young is REALLY starting to look good, and has a chance to be a 30-30 guy this year, which would be quite a statement to the team and the league in general. He already has 19 stolen bases, and with 43 games left, it is possible to get 11 more and hit 9 more home runs.

As for the rest of the pitching staff last night... well, it wasn't good either. Gonzalez gave up four more runs in the 2nd inning, Joe Kennedy gave up six more in the 4th inning while getting just one out (Don't even get me started on him either. With a 20.25 ERA, he might actually be pitching worse than Kim, which i'm not sure is humanly possible), and combined the staff gave up 14 runs on 14 hits. Mercifully, Juan Cruz came in and pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings, followed by Doug Slaten pitching a perfect 7th. And just for fun, with his first appearance on the mound in the Majors, position player Augie Ojeda pitched a perfect eighth inning to end the massacre.

Now, to be truthful: I didn't see the game. Since it was on early, i recorded it and meant to watch it when i got home. However, i accidentally heard the score on my way home, and decided i could do without watching the bloodbath. I saw some of the 'highlights' (or lowlights...) on ESPN, including the complete and utter debacle that was Joe Kennedy 'pitching'. I put quotation marks around it because anyone i know wouldn't actually consider what he was doing on the mound pitching by any stretch of the imagination (Uh oh, i'm started. I told you not to get me started on him). In 1/3 of an inning, he somehow managed to hit three batters, walk in a run, and allow another run in on a wild pitch. He got one out, but gave up six runs on only three hits! He threw 37 pitches, and 21 of them were balls! Even Ojeda, who is not a pitcher, went 50-50 on balls and strikes thrown!! Hell, even Kim had a better ratio! In 1/3 of an inning, he faced the same number of batters (9) that Cruz did in his 2 2/3 innings!

(Sigh...) Ok, i've calmed down again. Last night was a complete meltdown, but the good news is that it's only one game. It is two losses in a row, but they're back at it again today to try and right the ship, with Doug Davis on the mound. Davis has been pitching extremely well as of late, and will look to continue that trend today. If the Dbacks have shown nothing else the last month or so, it's their ability to bounce back from bad games/bad losses and forget about them. That's what they will need to do after yesterday's game.