Curt Schilling will have his issues this season. Let’s just get that out of the way while we can. He won’t be a Roy Oswalt, a Johan Santana or a Roy Halladay-type ace, he won’t be a dynamic inning eater who totals up the strikeouts like no tomorrow, and he won’t be consistently providing strong outing after outing. He’s a weak #1 or a strong #2 at age 39, a guy who will hopefully provide 17 wins and a 3.60 ERA. The issues Schilling encountered yesterday didn’t concern me as much for the reason that he has to be The Man this season to carry the rotation, but the fashion in which he labored was most concerning. And at the same time, the least concerning.
I’ll explain. Curt Schilling is a pitcher that prides himself on intelligence and control. He rarely walks hitters, he rarely makes mistakes locating his fastball and splitter, and will never be out-smarted by the opposing hitter. Yesterday, the young Kansas City Royals figured out Curt Schilling, and Curt Schilling couldn’t figure out how to be himself. The wily veteran didn’t lose control of the game because of a bigger waistline or his blog hand getting tired, he lost the game because he couldn’t execute the Curt Schilling gameplan of winning games. Location, control and smarts.
His location was worse than I’ve seen since the horrific campaign in 2005 when Schilling was obviously not 100% healthy and not on track to be a strong starter. The fastball was topping out in the low 90s and was having serious difficulty finding the plate early in the count. Instead, the fastballs stayed up and hitters like Mark Grudzielanek (.185 career vs. Schill before Monday) took advantage, roping doubles all around the diamond. His off-speed pitches were a disaster themselves; the changeup was nowhere close to the zone and at some times it looked like the experimental curveball was more of a lob. I’ve never seen Curt that lost on the hill.
Granted, Schilling has always struggled at Kauffman. Last year he was beat around in a crucial game for 10 extra-base hits in a 5-4 falter. Still, what kind of excuse is that to see Schilling labor so much on the mound in the first start of the year. Was he rusty? Was he thinking too much? Was it just simply an off-day?
Schilling comments from his blog: Two words sum it up best, no command. Can’t remember a game where I couldn’t make adjustments but today was certainly one of those. Not so much the secondary pitches but no fastball command is not something that happens much, if at all, over an entire game (even if the ëgame’ for me only lasts 4 innings).
I had more than ample chances to make this a game, and never did. Inconsistent command and horrific execution cost us the game – I never let us get into the game after the first. Every inning they pushed and I didn’t push back.
Am I panicking about this performance? Not really, no. Realize Schilling was working out the kinks opening day, he’s nearing a point in his career where we really can’t rely on quality outings every single time out for Schill, and also… it’s the first game of the season. Until Curt goes out and coughs up bad performances in the next four outings, call me and I’ll say he might be officially in the free agents waters after 2007. Most of all, I really believe it was an off-day.
Curt Schilling is too smart of a pitcher to beat himself.
Tonight, Josh Beckett looks to paint a new picture in 2007, and a dominating performance over KC to begin the year would do just the trick. It’ll be interesting to see if he mixes in more frequent breaking pitches and keeps the fastball down in the zone to avoid home runs. These Royals hitters are feeling pretty good right now. I say we shut the Kauffman crowd up and pound the baseball like a $147 million dollar team should.
Schilling will work it out. Beckett gets his chance to make Opening Day history.
