In SI's baseball edition

[boondockdrunk]

In SI's newest edition it says that Webb has looker "terrible" this spring. I didnt think he looked bad, but I didnt think that he looked as good as he was last year. What do you guys think?

 

[CardNots]

Houston, we have a problem...

 

[AZCB34]

Houston, we have a problem...

I don't think the Astros care.

As strange as this sounds, I think as Webb goes, so goes the Dbacks season. I expect Johnson to pick up where he left off (I hope Brenly manages his innings well early on) although I am not expecting 22 wins or whatever he had. If Webb falters, then some very valuable wins the Dbacks would have been counting on will be down the drain and I cannot see the remaining 3 starting spots picking up the slack.

 

[Skkorpion]

Webb worries me too. I agree as he goes, so may the team.

I didn't think he was as good last year as we like to think but maybe he'll be better if we score more runs for him, huh?

Dessens is the killer. If I was his manager, I would force myself to never pitch him past the 5th inning. Elmer implodes after that, IMO, and always will. And Brenly will always wait too late to yank him.

 

[schillingfan]

Webb's issue will be control. He has to be able to throw his sinker for some strikes, as well as the one that dives way out of the strike zone. If not, they will never swing. He gets the strike outs and the weak grounders by having them thing it is a strike and then it sinks out of the zone.

 

[BC867]

I see a domino effect.

If the D'backs game continues to be . . . try to pull every pitch, including outside pitches . . . NL umps are going to widen the strike zone on us.

If our hitters don't respect the strike zone, neither will the umps when we are at bat. 'Interesting that Bob Brenly blamed our Game 1 loss on not getting pitches down the middle.

And if we don't get the close calls while at bat, you can expect that we won't while in the field. It will affect our Pitchers, too.

It's like anything else in life. "Politics" always comes into play. You have to earn the respect of the people calling the shots.

On the other hand, if we were a team that hits the ball where it's pitched, manufactures runs, and takes the initiative to make things happen, it would carry over to all aspects of our game, including the success of our Pitchers.