Tuesday night, Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter earned his first victory of the season.
Ubaldo Jimenez Among Wednesday Starters Still Looking For First Win
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I find this interesting for two reasons, and useful for one ...
Interesting Reason No. 1: Carpenter’s really good, and won 33 games in 2009 and ‘10. He hasn’t pitched quite as well in 2011, but the fact that it took him seven starts to get his first victory is a great object lesson in the capricious nature of victories.
Interesting Reason No. 2: Even though it took Carpenter until May 10 to gain his first victory, the Cardinals are now 21-15 and sport the best run differential (+46) in the National League. What will they do when Carpenter really gets going?
Useful Reason: I needed a jumping-off point for an essay about pitchers still looking for their first wins this season, and Carpenter does quite nicely!
Wednesday afternoon, Tim Stauffer is making his eighth start of the season. The good news is that he's lost just once. The bad news is that he's won just nonce.
Over these last two seasons, covering 124 innings, Stauffer has given up only four home runs while posting a 2.10 ERA. This season he's given up just one homer, with a 2.61 ERA. But he just hasn't been able to win, because even when the Padres have scored runs, they've generally come after Stauffer's left the game. He might not be a great pitcher, but after years of shuttling between San Diego and Portland, the 29-year-old has established himself as a solid major-league starter. And one of these weeks, he will win.
Ubaldo Jimenez will win, too.
Remember just one year ago? Last May 11, Jimenez’s record stood at 6-1 ... but of course he was just getting started, would eventually run his record to 15-1 in early July ... before somehow finishing the season at just 19-8.
So Ubaldo Jimenez already knows how elusive wins can become.
This season, Jimenez pitched poorly on Opening Day, went on the DL with a (theoretically) minor thumb injury, and has made four starts since returning to action. In his first start off the DL, he got hit hard. In his second, he gave up just one hit but three runs, and was stuck with a no-decision. In his third, he lasted only four innings and took the loss. And in his fourth, he gave up two hits, five walks, and just one run in six innings, but again didn’t figure in the decision.
In those four starts, Jimenez walked 15 hitters in 20 innings. While he's never exactly been a control artist, Jimenez isn't going to deserve to win many games until he regains some measure of control over the strike zone. Wednesday, he'll be going against a Mets attack that leads the National League in walks.*
* Actually, Jimenez won’t be doing any such thing Wednesday, because Wednesday’s Mets-Rockies game was postponed because of inconvenient precipitation and rescheduled for Thursday. You suck, weather.
Vin Mazzaro ... Well, what can you say about Vin Mazzaro that hasn't already been said?
Well, you can say that his name is spelled the opposite of bizarre ... except that’s not really useful unless you can remember how to spell bizarre. And who can, really?
You can say that Mazzaro might still be an Oakland Athletic, except the Athletics had six or seven starting pitchers who were more athletic than Mazzaro.
You can say that Mazzaro was considered the Royals' sixth-best starting pitcher until Bruce Chen hit the Disabled List.
And you can say that Mazzaro’s got a 4.72 career ERA in the majors, but is only 24 and has pitched decently enough in the minors to earn another shot or two.
Anyway, Mazzaro makes his 2011 debut tonight in Yankee Stadium. Good luck, kid.
Jake Peavy's debuting tonight, too, against the Angels in the American League's only late game (so you know what I'll be watching). Peavy might not be the best of the pitchers still looking for Victory #1, but he's almost certainly the richest of them, considering his $16 million salary this season (not to mention $17 million next season). Among the many things that have gone wrong for the White Sox this season, chief among them might be their highest-paid player not playing at all until the 11th of May. And if the Sox are going to achieve relevance in the American League Central this summer, it probably won't be without a winning Jacob Edward Peavy.
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