In the magical 2012 season, the Oakland Athletics shocked the baseball world by winning the AL West in game 162, and then stole people’s hearts as they pushed the Detroit Tigers to 5 games in the ALDS. The A’s did all this behind a young starting rotation where rookies Tom Milone and Jarrod Parker led the team in starts with 31 and 29 respectively. When rookies Travis Blackley, A.J. Griffin and Daniel Straily are added to the mix, there were 97 starts by rookie pitchers. That is a lot to hang on pitchers that are so young.
Which is why it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that two of the four who have returned to the A’s starting rotation are struggling. Maybe it is a sophomore slump, or maybe it is just young pitchers not quite recovering from pitching the most innings they have ever pitched in their careers. No matter what you call it, Parker and Straily are not living up to the lofty expectations they set last season.
Straily has only made three starts this year after starting the season as the sixth man in a five-man rotation. His first start was the fifth game of the season, filling in for Bartolo Colon who was finishing out a suspension, and in that start he was masterful. He gave up only two runs while striking out 11 batters over 6.2 innings. But, that was the Astros, the team that could very well strike out more this season than any team in history, and could lose 100 games. In his next two MLB starts, against the Angels and Yankees, he pitched 10 innings, struck out 10 and gave up 9 earned runs. That is not a good line and it is an ERA of 9.00.
There is not one thing about Straily that pops out and screams “Hey, I’m doing this wrong,” when he pitches, so it’s hard to nail down what the problem is. One glaring difference is the number of innings he pitched last year. With innings pitched being such a big subject lately, the fact that Straily pitched 30.2 innings more last season than his career-high in innings during his time in the minors could be a cause for concern. It’s hard to know if he truly is having trouble because of the toll last season took on him, or if maybe he just had two bad outings and will get it straightened out. Only time will tell.
Parker is the one that really is surprising and is starting to worry fans, and for good reason. He just does not look like he did last season. After seven starts this year, Parker has a 7.34 ERA, has only gotten through six innings twice, has given up eight home runs, and, what is truly head scratching is the fact that he has only struck out more than five batters once this season.
There has been speculation that maybe Parker is tipping his pitches. Others have speculated that maybe he has something wrong with his mechanics. Watching his starts, though, Parker just doesn’t seem to have that put-away pitch that he had last season. He gets guys down in the count, and then he can’t seem to throw that change up and get the swing and miss like he did last season. No matter what is wrong with Parker, something needs to be done to remedy his issues. Word is now that he may be headed to the DL, and former first round draft pick Sonny Grey may be called up to take his spot. Maybe 15 days on the DL and a couple of rehab starts are just what he needs to get his confidence back.
Even with half of the rotation struggling (veteran Brett Anderson included) the A’s are still in a good position after five weeks on the season. If Anderson, Parker, and Straily can return to form, this team could really take off, but for now these two youngsters need to get over any possible sophomore slump.