Willis pitches…. Rogers, Farnsworth, Pink Floyd reunion all done.
Dontrelle WIllis pitches and puts up very Nate Robertson-esque numbers last night. 5 innings, 3 runs, 5 walks, 4 K’s.. 89 pitches. Not terrible, if your name is Chris Lambert. Yes its a small step, hopefulle one in the right direction, and not in the direction of a $29million train wreck.
Reading through the game thread on blessyouboys yesterday, its obvious that different fans have different opinions of what was to be expected of Willis. Some think it was great (notably, great that he didn’t completely self destruct and lived through the night without having his belt and shoe laces removed from his room), some thought it was awful (he is, afterall, a way-overpaid professional pitcher). I’m somewhere in between. However, if this is really a mechanical issue after all… its SEPTEMBER. Seems like sometime last February or March one of the coaches might have said “hey, see that guy we just signed to a giant contract after regressing last year… ever wonder why he isn’t throwing any strikes?” What’s the chance a coach stepped in and said (ala Martin Landau in Entourage), “Hey, what if i told you that i could take Dontrelle Willis and his $29million contract and, in September, give you a pitcher that would ONLY walk a player an inning! Would that be something you’d be interested in?” Wouldn’t this coach be looked at funny / fired / stoned to death?
So this is where we are. Two weeks left in the season; Carlos Guillen can’t even smell the field. Gary Sheffield is getting paid about $850k / home run. Kenny Rogers has been shut down, Kyle Farnsworth is awful.. and…
Richard Wright is dead. No more Pink Floyd reunions. I blame Kyle Farnsworth. Why Kyle… WHY?