Kirk has faced a lot of LHP. That's not going to help his K rate.

LOL victims number 1 and 2. Hence why I wrote the above disclaimer after I submitted.

But as far as Kirk falling off hard: no, its going to happen if he doesn't start making more contact. And he's not walking nearly at the rate he did in the minors to sustain that low-BA effectiveness most pegged him for. He has the 5th or 6th highest K rate in the league right now and only Brent Morel has a lower BB rate who is in his K rate vicinity.

Well yeah, of course. All pitchers come with the risk of breaking down. But that shouldn't be an excuse not to add better depth. I thought Schwinden would be okay as a 6th starter type, but maybe not, and then after him, the options really become underwhelming.

SAVE THAT BALL FOR MR. SCHWINDEN!

First K of the year.

So after Schwinden's only decent inning, TC pinch hits for him in order to burn the pen AGAIN??????????????

TC has had a BRUTAL series here. Just brutal.

That's hilarious, in a really dark, sad kind of way.

Doesnt make much sense.

He really took Schwinden out? I know we have the off day but we've been running through the pen hard this year and it would have been nice to give some of these guys 2 days off.

Yeah thats certainly part of it, with a 38% K rate vs. LHP. But if he's going to be that K susceptible to LHP, I think he needs to do better than the 25% K rate against RHP.

Bottom line is this: Chris Carlin and Bobby Ojeda were breaking down issues Kirk is having with fastballs. Toby Hyde was telling us Kirk can't hit high fastballs before the season. If these guys are recognizing this stuff, its going to get around the league and he's going to stop getting soft stuff he can crush. The anti-Ike approach, if you will. And then its up to Kirk to make the adjustment.

The problem is, is that he's already getting exploited a bit and just relying on almost 43% of his balls in play to fall in to keep his .300 avg going right now. We all like Kirk, and I really like Kirk, but we all also know this is not even close to sustainable. He has a profile that supports a high BABIP, but not that high. the xBABIP calculator spits out a .360 mark for him (which would still be in top top top echelon in the league, but I guess give him credit for hitting balls hard and low so far), so apply that to his season so far and he's at (keeping his iso's constant, and assuming he loses only singles, which is a optimistic assumption):

.258/.329/.401

Not as pretty. And again, presumably thats before the full book is out.

Not prognosticating anything controversial I don't think here: Kirk needs to make more contact, or the feel-good story is going to get less feel-good. I'm not like rooting for this to happen or anything, but I think we all know from experience you don't cheat this kind of stuff for very long; it all eventually comes back to get you.

It would be really wonderful if the offense stepped up and actually produced something. The output this series has been pathetic. We've been doing enough ragging on Schwinden.

At least its home-grown.

TC is going for a "Who gets hurt first" contest in the bullpen, I think, to ease the Carrasco decision.