Happy Carlos Martinez Day!
Memphis @ Colorado Springs, 8:05pm: Adam Ottavino
Springfield @ Tulsa, 7:05pm: Michael Blazek
Palm Beach @ Fort Myers, 5:05pm: Carlos Martinez
Palm Beach @ Fort Myers, TBD: Tyler Lyons
Quad Cities @ Beloit, 7:00pm: Ryan Copeland
Batavia @ Williamsport, 7:05pm: Todd McInnis
Johnson City vs. Bluefield, 7:00pm: Jose Pasen
Entries (RSS)
We should be getting to where it’s the last chance for Adam Ottavino to show he still belongs. I don’t envy him trying to do it at Springs. Wasn’t that the park that hosted a game a few years ago with a final score of 38-21? And yes, I do mean a baseball game, not a football game …
I wish they would try Otto in the bullpen to see if he can crank it up for 1-2 innings and throw strikes before giving up on the guy. He’s chances of making it as a starter are nero zero in a Cards uni.
Agree. You’d like to think the organization would already be considering this, given the recent history of pitchers like Hawksworth and Boggs.
I hadn’t heard this anywhere, and apologize if it was previously mentioned on here, but apparently Casey Mulligan decided to call it quits instead of have TJ surgery?
http://www.the-signal.com/section/213/article/49087/
wow. nice catch. too bad to hear that.
Feel bad for him…i know where he is at. I turned down a college scholorship instead of having shoulder surgery. 16 years later I still get a feeling of regret.
Uh, oh. C-Mart’s line for the day:
2.1 7 5 4 3 1
Including a grand slam allowed. Might he be hitting the innings wall?
Tyler Lyons throws 7 inning no-no walking only 1.
Phenomenal isn’t it. Good for Tyler.
I agree this may be the case.
You gotta wonder if C-Mart wasn’t brought up a bit hurriedly. His stuff is obviously good but where is his head?
I wouldn’t worry too much about where his head is. The problem isn’t his head, it’s his arm. He’s in the middle of his first full professional season, pushing through what is probably the highest number of innings he’s ever thrown, and is likely dealing with some fatigue. Remember, this is a kid who didn’t pitch at all officially through his visa process, threw less than 60 innings late last year, and is right now hitting about 70 innings between low and high A ball. We don’t know how much exactly he threw in extended spring training those first couple months, but considering the amount of time he spent there he probably tossed another 20-30 I would guess.
So he’s hitting somewhere between 90-100 innings for the first time in his life, and probably hitting the wall a little bit. His last few outings we’ve seen he starts strong, then seems to tire as he approaches the middle innings, whereas he had no similar issues early in the season. All that says to me this is a player exceeding his previous workload and feeling the effects. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to him struggle for awhile until he can work through it.
One final note: I can’t help but notice that Shelby Miller last year, in his first full professional season, threw 104 innings. I’m sure we all recall the Cardinals shutting him down for a period of time in the middle of the season, ostensibly to work on his secondary pitches, but also for the somewhat unspoken reason of limiting his innings total. It may be coincidence, but the fact Miller was managed to throw just over 100 innings and Martinez seems to be hitting the wall as he nears a similar total seems to me to be a bit more than coincidental. Personally, I wonder if the organisation considered putting Carlos on the shelf for a period of time the way they did with Shelby.
At any rate, I don’t think this speaks to much of anything wrong with Martinez, other than the fact he’s going through what countless other minor league pitchers have over the years as they learn to adjust to throwing a full season’s workload as they move up the ladder.
You may well be right. But, if the arm is still flinging high 90′s heat, then it could be mental fatigue more than physical. You gotta remember that this kid had never been to the states until six or seven months ago. There have been more than a few changes in his life over this time. There could be an awful lot of stimuli out there that he never knew existed back home.
I was thinking exactly the same thing you just mentioned. It may be time to take a “Shelby Miller” break. Shut him down and work on secondary stuff….have some fun… and not focus on game situations. It sure seemed to help Shelby.