Edinson Volquez Opening Strong In PETCO
Every year it seems there’s a new reclamation project looking to get his career restarted in PETCO Park. This year, it’s Edinson Volquez. The former Reds hurler is looking to recapture the magic of his 2008 season, in which he struck out 206 batters in 196 innings and recorded a 3.21 ERA and a 3.60 FIP.
Nobody expects quite that much out of Volquez in 2012 as a member of the Padres, but his first two starts in San Diego have gone quite well. The 28-year-old rightyhas racked up 15 strikeouts in just 12 innings. His trademark wildness is still there — he’s already walked seven batters — but he’s done enough to limit the damage, allowing five total runs (four earned) in the two starts. In the final six innings of last night’s start he shut out the Diamondbacks while allowing just two hits — a three-hit first inning brought about the only runs Arizona would muster until extras.
Volquez has been extremely solid outside of two problem innings in particular: the aforementioned two-run first from last night’s start and a three-walk fourth inning on Opening Day against the Dodgers. The latter will probably just be part of Volquez’s character as a pitcher: his current 5.25 BB/9 is right in line with the last three seasons. But the former was largely a result of Volquez failing to cover first on a grounder off the bat of Miguel Montero.
Of course, it’s only 12 innings of baseball, but Volquez looks like he has a good home in San Diego. Things may not be so easy once he is forced to venture away from Tony Gwynn Drive, especially if Aaron Harang’s experiences in his transition season from Cincinnati to San Diego is any indication. His former teammate Aaron Harang posted an ERA over a run higher away from San Diego in his stint with the Padres last season, and Volquez may have similar problems — it’s easier to get away with walks when the park is as forgiving as it is at PETCO.
On the other hand, Volquez’s stuff is unquestionably better than what Harang had to offer last season. Volquez’s fastball has been blazing at an average 94.5 MPH clip this season, just under five ticks faster than Harang’s as a Padre. Volquez is drawing whiffs on 10.6% of his pitches (as he has in years past, even when he wasn’t effective otherwise) against just 8.4% for Harang. When Volquez is able to keep the ball in the yard — he had a 0.64 HR/9 in his breakout 2008 season — he’s able to make his wild but electric stuff work, and that could shield him from the road issues Harang suffered from last season.
The question isn’t if Volquez will be able to lasso in his control and avoid the walks — we’re already pretty sure that he can’t. The question will be if he can continue to work around them as well as he has in his first two outings. With his stuff and with PETCO Park behind him for half of his outings, there’s a good chance we could see Volquez return to effectiveness in 2012.
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Yet another team that gets teased by Volquez. first Texas, then a great single season for the reds and now SD. Will saw that SD got him on the cheap since his stock was pretty low..
My thoughts on his two bad innings:
First inning of last night’s start: He did fail to cover first on Montero’s grounder but there is a bit of a reason for that. Montero’s bat exploded and three (I think) pieces went flying between the pitcher’s mound and first. I don’t know if Volquez was startled, thought he was going to get hit by a piece of bat, or just impressed by how broken the bat was but he just froze until it was too late to make it to first in time. Goldschmidt then hit the ball into the left-center gap. I don’t think it made a difference but Maybin was shifted somewhat to right-center (If I’m remembering correctly).
Fourth inning of opening day: Volquez just looked like he completely fell apart in this inning. I don’t know if it’s related but he seemed to be frustrated with the strike zone. It looked like he wasn’t repeating his motion well at all and was falling off the mound more than usual. In addition to the walks he also had a wild pitch in the inning. To make it worse he had cruised through the first three innings with 5 Ks, 3 ground outs and only one hit.
I think watching him is going to be incredibly frustrating this year.
I agree with the review of his opening day start. He was given two or three very harsh calls on strikes (two of which would have been the third strike) and you could see he became visibly flustered by it. Hopefully he will be productive, but if he isn’t it doesn’t matter because the trade was all about Alonso/ Grandal/ Boxberger. Volquez was just a nice bonus.
That seemed to be his trademark as he deteriorated as a Red though. He tries to strike out every batter and seems perfectly willing to walk runs in to do it. At least he shouldn’t give up so many homers in Petco.
Interesting note: Harang’s xFIP was actually 0.28 lower on the road last year. Go figure.
I’m not sure it’s possible to be a competent major league starter if you walk over 5 per 9.
He has 15 strikeouts in 12 innings. Its my understanding that you want at least 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio if you have any hope of success in the majors.
Good point. HOFer Nolan Ryan was a walk machine in his early years, but got by because of his strikeouts and batters’ inability to hit his pitches. One year, Ryan had over 200 walks, but had nearly 370 Ks. The next year at age 28, he walked nine with 11Ks in 8 IP and got a no-decision, and later walked nine with 16 Ks in 9IP and got the win.
Volquez doesn’t have Ryan’s heat, but has incredible movement, and it should be noted that this is his age 29 year – as long as he’s been pitching, he’s still relatively young. I’m not saying Volquez will be another Ryan, who never had a lost 3 years from TJ surgery, but he’s not an aging veteran like Harang.