Need for a sixth starter keeps Vasquez in Mariners’ rotation
Published 8:47 pm Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Painful as it was to watch rookie Anthony Vasquez battle his command last night and get torched by the Angels, he’s staying in the Mariners’ starting rotation.
Manager Eric Wedge left that question open-ended after the game last night but today, considering all factors, the Mariners decided that Vasquez will start again Sept. 5 against the Angels in Anaheim.
One huge reason is that the Mariners want to finish the season with a six-man rotation and lessen the workload on the other starters, especially rookie Michael Pineda. So, if not Vasquez then who would be the sixth guy?
The only starters in the minors on the 40-man roster are Mauricio Robles, who’s on the disabled list at Class AAA Tacoma with a left forearm strain, and Yoervis Medina, who has pitched only three games at Class AA Jackson after going 1-13 this season at Class A High Desert.
Therefore it’s still Vasquez by the same process of elimination that brought him to the Mariners in the first place when they called him up to pitch the second game of a doubleheader last week in Cleveland.
Pitching coach Carl Willis had a long talk with Vasquez after last night’s game, when he allowed seven earned runs in four innings, to gauge his mindset. Here’s what Willis told me this afternoon about the decision to stick with Vasquez:
“A lot has happened to this kid in a hurry. I don’t think that we have seen him go out and pitch a game like he has pitched in the minor leagues. That’s not to say we’re talking about the results he’s gotten or to say we know what kind of results he’s going to get when he pitches that game. But with where we are and what we’re trying to do with the remainder of our rotation, we feel like (a six-man rotation) is the best way of accommodating that right now.
“He’s going to have to stay mentally strong, and we’ll see what happens. I talked with him last night. I think he’s probably more disappointed in himself. He hasn’t commanded the baseball like he can. That’s one of his strengths. But because of that, his attitude is, ‘I don’t know what I can do here right now because I haven’t been able to go out and pitch my game and do what I can to see how it’s going to work so I can make adjustments.’
“I think he’s handling it very well for anybody, but when you consider the youth and inexperience, it’s probably even more impressive how he’s handling it.”
