Blackburn frustrated, even after another quality start
Posted on May 7th, 2008 – 9:42 AMBy Joe Christensen
CHICAGO — White Sox righthander Gavin Floyd stole the show Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field. But there was another pitcher who worked six innings. And he wasn’t happy with himself at all.
Twins righthander Nick Blackburn allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks. By definition, that’s a quality start — six or more innings pitched, three or fewer earned runs allowed. He now has four quality starts in seven tries and is 2-2 with a 3.65 ERA.
But if you think this rookie is pleased with that and just happy to be here, guess again.
“I’m tired of going out there and feeling like I am,” Blackburn said. “I haven’t felt comfortable in a while. It’s frustrating, I’m ready for stuff to start feeling right — you know, throwing pitches that I feel comfortable with, something I can trust. Tonight, it felt like I wasn’t trusting any of my stuff.
“It’s off and on. One outing, I’ll feel good up there. The next one — I’m just inconsistent right now. I’m getting away with a lot of mistakes. I know I can pitch a lot better than I am.”
Blackburn, 26, appeared to be injured when Nick Swisher spiked the back of his left foot at first base in the fourth inning. Blackburn said his shoe came off and he rolled his ankle slightly but was otherwise fine.
Now, it’s back to the video leading up to a bullpen session, likely on Thursday, with Blackburn’s next start scheduled for Sunday against Boston. Pitching coach Rick Anderson has been working with Blackburn on lengthening his stride back to where it was last year, when the righthander was dominating at Class AAA.
“We worked on some stuff last week,” Blackburn said. “Pretty sure it’s going to help me in the long run. I’m ready for it to be now.”
Update (9:40 a.m.): It’s raining buckets here. Supposed to let up by late afternoon. RHP Livan Hernandez never has faced the White Sox. And the Twins will get their first look of 2008 at LHP Mark Buehrle.
Also, the Twins officially made the roster move we told you about last night: Scott Baker to the 15-day DL with a right groin strain, Kevin Slowey activated from the DL to start Thursday, and Glen Perkins named probable starter for Saturday against Boston. No roster move yet for Perkins. Twins wanted him to throw another bullpen session with Rochester.
Update (12:25 p.m.): The rain has stopped. Still cloudy, but the skies are lightening. I think they’ll play ball tonight, despite the grim forecasts of Star Tribune baseball editor/weatherman Dennis Brackin.
Update (3:15 p.m.): I saw patches of blue sky on the way to U.S. Cellular Field. Batting cage is on the field. Twins might even get to take BP today. Heading to the clubhouse soon for the lineups.
16 Responses to "Blackburn frustrated, even after another quality start"
I’m really starting to like Blackburn more and more. It’s sounds like he’s very honest about his performance and he realizes there’s always room for improvement and thats a good sign. He has been without a doubt the biggest suprise this year IMO.
I like this… First of all, all rookies go through inconsistencies and levels of comfort. All pitchers go through times when things aren’t feeling right. I think it’s great that he’s acknowledging it and sounds like a guy that really wants to work through it, rather than just accept the fact that he has been ‘pretty good’ for the first six weeks of his big league career.
So did they option Korecky back to Rochester to make room for Perkins, or will they wait until Saturday to do that?
Blackburn should have grabbed a bat last night to try and help his own cause!
It’s always hard luck to be the opposing pitcher when you’ve got a guy throwing a potential no-no.
Because no matter what you do, it’s going to be tough to top that.
Blackburn hardly pitched “great” but it was an adequate start if we had some offense.
Giving up three runs in six innings is not a quality start. That’s a 4.50 ERA.
The term “Quality Start” was specifically defined as three earned runs or less in six innings or more.
bc: be careful you have a reputation of always being negative.
i’ll echo what’s been said blackburn has looked good overall considering how little time he has in the majors he should be ok. some of our other guys have taken over 50 starts to look as good as he has. a bright spot so far for sure.
Could be worse-the Cubs pitching gave up 4 HRs in 1 inning today (including 3 in a row).
Then Paul Bako and Jerry Hairston Jr, who had 2 of those 3 back to back to back, hit back to back homers AGAIN.
Joe, the worst thing you can do is get Brackin wound up about weather. What was your answer when he asked about a rainout story? Goodness, just lie to him the next time. Tell him it’s sunny…
It’s good to see Blacksurn is realistic about how he’s performing and how he’s capable of performing.
Now hopefully slowey and perkins can have similar attitudes and success!
I thought Blackburn looked a little tired early on. Don’t know what kind of shape he’s exactly in, but he doesn’t look underfed.
Paul, yes, a Quality Start is defined as 6 innings with 3 or fewer runs scored. An ERA of 4.5 is the result there. But it’s an actionable and much more predictive stat than the stupid-yet-venerated W/L stat for starters (which by itself is utterly meaningless). If a starter gives the team a quality start, that means he’s given his team a chance to win. If any teams’ offense can’t score 4 or more runs in any given game then they’ve significantly decreased the chance to win, but the pitcher has done his part and done it at an acceptable level. Hence the stat itself.
Bonser this year is a perfect example (and Silva and Santana last year). Boof’s had 4 quality starts, 3 bad ones (2 were horrific). His W/L record is lousy (2-4), but that record’s not at all predictive of his actual pitching, nor does it tell of an accurate picture of his performance thus far. It’s not a pitchers “fault” if the offense is lifeless.
To demonstrate, if we discount Boof’s last start where the offense truly came through for the team, in his first 6 starts the offense only produced 10 runs for him TOTAL (1, 1, 2, 3, 0, 3). Was it Boof’s fault that “he” had lost those 4 quality starts he gave us? Absolutely not. The offense lost those games for him. He pitched well enough to give us a chance to win, and you simply can’t ask for more than that from any starter.
That’s what the Quality Start statistic is all about, and why many fans favor it over the “mlb accepted” stats for starting pitchers. (There are other better pitching stats out there that mlb doesn’t recognize, too, but that’s worthy of an entire book - see any of Bill James’ books on the subject). Judging any starter by his W/L record is unfair to that starter and inaccurate except by coincidence.
Dean,
Just 1 correction, Boof has 5 quality starts.
SweetOne, correct - sorry about that. Thanks! 
