I first saw Scott Baker pitch in 2004 during Arizona Instructional League play.

I was there to work on a Jason Bartlett feature - when he was the Twins’ shortstop of the future. The Twins had also sent J.D. Durbin, Kevin West, Jason Kubel, Jesse Crain and Rob Bowen to the AFL that year. Kubel blew out a knee in a collision with Ryan Raburn two weeks before I arrived.

Baker began that year at Class A Fort Myers and finished at Rochester (yes, the Twins do move prospects quickly when warranted).

While sitting with the former Twins brain trust of GM Terry Ryan and assistants Bill Smith and Wayne Krivsky, I watched Baker take the mound and show all the talent the Twins were raving about at the time. He could sink and cut his fastball and wasn’t afraid to use other pitches or throw inside.

But I was charting pitches, too. And I looked at my notebook and counted something like 22 foul balls off him early in the fifth inning. “Is that a concern?” I turned and asked Ryan. Ryan said Baker just needed to learn how to finish hitters off.

Baker entered this season with a career record of 28-24 and an ERA of 4.23. He did enough for the Twins to sign him to a four-year deal worth $15.5 million.

But, in his last start on Tuesday against Chicago, Baker’s pitch count soared because he couldn’t finish batters off.

The White Sox had 36 foul balls off of Baker in six innings. That’s A LOT.  Mark Buehrle had 20 off him in the same period.

“Why can’t he adjust?” I thought to myself.

And that’s not the only time. He threw 104 pitches in five innings against the Angels on July 23 -granted, his outing was extended because of poor plays in the field.

But he threw 86 pitches in three innings on July 7 against the Yankees.

And there was the June 30 game in Kansas City - which he won - during which he threw 111 pitches in five innings. Six Royals batters battled him for 58 pitches, including a 15-pitch encounter with Wille Bloomquist.

After the Chicago game, I pointed out to Baker how many foul balls he gave up.

“I believe it,” he said. “I don’t necessarily know what to do with it right now. You can look at it two ways. You can either throw a little more of a hittable pitch and maybe they will put the ball in play. Or a little more of a non-hittable and make them swing and miss.

“You try to consistent make good pitches, pitchers pitches. Especially when you are ahead in the count.”

I think if he got the ball down just a little bit more, he would see a significant improvement.

Baker was supposed to lead the rotation, and the adjustments he needs to make aren’t as serious as Francisco Liriano’s. I’m surprised that Nick Blackburn has gone haywire lately. And that Glen Perkins seems to be in such a mess. Rookie Anthony Swarzak is young and talented and learning.

But, of all these pitchers, Baker might the most disappointing because he should be past this finishing-hitters-off thing. It’s still a little too early to write off. He’s about to turn 28, is about to make his 97th career start and has thrown 573 career innings. But you do wonder when will he put it all together, pitch deeper into games and take off.

Let’s see how he does tonight against a demolished Cleveland roster. If he can improve his control just a tad, he’ll get more balls put in play and maybe a few more strikeouts. The last thing the Twins need is another Foul Ball Baker outing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.