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Nomo Needs Relief - Long Relief
2004-06-13 22:55
For as long as it was possible without my negligence of my daughter becoming criminal, I charted the pitches of Hideo Nomo against the Red Sox on Sunday. Doing so allowed me to make some careful observations. 1) Nomo's fastball peaked at 89 miles per hour, and was usually 82-87 mph. Will Carroll clarified for me in an e-mail that the splitter is supposed to spin like a fastball, "just slower, so that's the tough part to pick up. The arm action and spin should look fastball, then it comes out slowly and dies as it crosses the plate." The Red Sox were almost never fooled by Nomo's splitter, leading me to wonder if Nomo's motion for the splitter is what it needs to be. Certainly, the velocity difference was there - about 7-10 mph. But all night, they knew not to swing, or were able to locate it down low with their bats - as Pokey Reese did when he golfed a 78-mph splitter for a two-run double in the fourth inning, an inning that Nomo did not complete. If the splitter isn't working for Nomo, he's left to rely on his fastball, which is now merely average. And if Nomo has needed to throw it higher in the zone this season to generate speed, as he did Sunday night, that might explain his dramatic increase in home runs allowed this year - 12 in roughly 50 innings, even without allowing one against Boston. Nomo induced two ground-ball outs in the game - both of them double plays by good Boston hitters. Outside of those, Nomo got only six other outs Sunday. It's not that he's never fooling anyone, but he isn't fooling them enough. And he can't blow the ball past most hitters. It has been that way all year. What I wrote last week is still true this week. Nomo has not put a zero on the scoreboard after the fifth inning all season. His longest streak of consecutive shutout innings this season is three, last occuring May 2. It is time for Nomo to work out his problems in the bullpen. Until he can show that he can retire batters consistently, with authority, rather than by chance, he is doing no one any good. Hideo Nomo vs. Boston First Inning 86 FB B vs. Mark Bellhorn 76 SP B vs. David Ortiz 77 SP B vs. Manny Ramirez check swing - first time a spltter wasn't taken all the way 76 CB B vs. Nomar Garciaparra Second Inning 81 ?? S vs. Kevin Millar 77 SP B vs. Gabe Kapler 82 ?? B vs. Pokey Reese Third Inning ?? ?? B vs. Bellhorn 76 SP B vs. Ortiz 88 FB B vs. Ramirez Fourth Inning ?? ?? S vs. Varitek Nomo faced three more batters, leaving the game after Reese's double. * * * Shawn Green still isn't hitting home runs, but he does his batting average up to .250. Small favors. Adrian Beltre has fallen below .300, to .295. Paul Lo Duca has struck out in five of his past seven games.
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