First this from the NYT: "Another note of caution is Girardi’s handling of young pitchers. Three rookies from his Florida rotation — Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Aníbal Sánchez — sustained major arm injuries last season. Cashman was not specific, but he said he was “very comfortable with the knowledge of what went on in Florida.”
And now this from Herald: Mark Wiley comes back as pitching coach. "Wiley, 58, is hoping he can restore some of the glory to Willis, who has been in decline the past two seasons.''There are a lot of different things that can happen to lead to [a slump],'' Wiley said. ``There is a certain strength that Dontrelle has to have to perform at his best, and I think at some times, there were certain parts of the strike zone that he didn't command as well as he did in that year where he won all those games.''
Did Girardi ruin some young arms? Why is Dontrelle now so bad? Did he ruin himself last year by pitching in that spring World Classic? He hasn't been the same since... There are mysteries to pitching I don't understand...
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Josh Johnson came up lame after the rain delayed game (that we went to) in September of 2006. Girardi put him back in after that rain delay, and he hasn't been the same since. The other two pitchers are tougher to blame on Girardi.
On D-Train, I remember in early '06 that there were several games when Girardi obviously kept Dontrelle in too long. At the time I attributed it to Girardi not knowing Dontrelle (he hadn't seen much of him in spring training, because of the WBC), and to the lack of Marlins relief pitching. Dontrelle, who finished 4th in the NL in complete games that year, was worn out well before the season was over, due to a combination of the WBC and Girardi's handling.
(Having a pitching coach who came from the Cubs, a team famous for ruining young arms, couldn't have helped.)
Girardi also was way to fond of 1 run strategies, as I recall.
Give the guy credit, though--he came out of his Marlins experience smelling like a rose...
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