Game 11 vs Reds at Sarasota - Loss

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No sooner than Tom Gorzelanny pitched to three batters did I find my email box starting to fill up with everyone concerned about Gorzy's pitching. He's getting hammered.. he looks bad.. and one fan sent me a text message from the game on his Blackberry swearing he looked injured.

I thought Gorzy pitched a great game, myself.

I know - you're looking at the box score and wondering if I have gone mad. After all, he allowed four runs in the first inning on three hits and went through the entire lineup one time.

No, I haven't lost it.

Gorzelanny's performance today was a far cry from Sean Burnett's on Friday where he had no command. You have to remember that Gorzy was shut down last year and reported to camp this year with elbow discomfort. Young pitchers are horrified by the possibility of injury and his first outing showed his concern when he walked five batters and got only four outs before hitting the showers.

He never found his arm slot.

I'm guessing today Jim Colborn told him to take the mound and pound fastballs to make sure he could find and keep his release point. Colborn didn't care if Gorzy got torched.. he just wanted to see the zone attacked.

And attack is what Gorzelanny did.

Throwing 41 strikes out of the 60 pitches he tossed over the heart of the plate, most of the balls in play were hammered off him but the end result was he was able to repeat his delivery, which is Act 1 for a pitcher in the spring. And since Gorzy is a little behind the other starters anyway, it's no big deal in my book. My concern will come if I hear that he has a lot of elbow pain on Monday or Tuesday, or can't make his next start.

Plus, he got stronger as the game went on. And let's be honest here.. Gorzy was the victim of a five out first inning.

Freel hit a liner to Aguila to lead off the game and he misplayed it instead of getting a sure out. E9. Then Gonzalez doubled off the wall and Freel went to 3rd. Encarnacion then hit a hard grounder to Jack Wilson deep in the hole and Wilson fired a one-hopper to Jose Hernandez that pulled him off the bag, spoiling what should have been out number two. Dunn then hit a fly ball to McCutchen in center for what should have been out number three.

One hit, no runs, inning over -- in a perfect world of course.

Conine then hit a grounder up the middle that Wilson couldn't get while diving for, Phillips hit a sac fly (even allowing four outs at this point, still only one run would have scored), Hamilton scorched a liner to right scoring a run, Ross hit another liner to left scoring another, and then Milton K'd.

So while Gorzelanny's line says I got whacked, and indeed balls in play were whacked, he wasn't hit so hard balls in play couldn't have been converted to outs better behind him, especially throwing what seemed to be only a fastball and change in the first inning.

I'm often asked this question and I think it's worth mentioning here -- why pitchers don't seem to be able to throw good off speed pitches early in the spring. It's a great question and Gorzy's work today is a textbook answer.

Pitcher's have to find the zone in the spring first. Typically that comes with bullpen sessions and a few innings in live action, unless you come to camp saying your elbow is hurting and your spring development schedule is backed up some like Gorzy's has been.

Traditionally, pitching coaches don't want to see pitchers throwing a lot of junk pitches until they are cleared.. in other words, until the show their arm is fit. Every pitcher develops differently but typically they all start off attempting to find their release point throwing 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs and mixing in some basic change ups.

Once they stretch their arms out a bit and feel like they have found their arm slot, they will start working more with curves or split finger type of pitches. Once the curve starts to bite hard then they know they can start throwing cutters or sliders with effect. But throwing sliders too early can toast an elbow real fast.

So when you see a power pitcher like Gorzelanny or Oliver Perez getting hammered their first week or two of spring training, it's not generally because they are pitching bad, it's because they aren't mixing in their plus pitches yet, which is the slider for those two.

Zach Duke is more a command pitcher who relies on location first, and late movement second to generate a ground ball. Even Zach isn't throwing his 2-seam well yet, as evidenced by his last outing. But in early spring, any pitcher who can locate is generally going to do well against batters who have less than 30 at bats under their belt. It's just the way it is.

So next time you see "X" pitcher doing poorly early in spring training, consider where he is at in his development, how many innings he has stretched out his arm, whether or not he is starting to groove better command, and what his plus pitches are and if he's had time to start throwing them.

Gorzy is going to be fine if his elbow holds up. That we'll have to watch out for. But I didn't hear anything from today's broadcast that indicated he had a lingering elbow problem beyond normal spring training aches and pains. And his 60 pitches were all around the plate.

Bautista, Bay, and Morgan had a good day offensively. Tip your hat to Ryan Doumit - he's proving his value as a utility player being able to come off the bench and be productive. Let's see if that continues as the spring wears on and he starts to see more off speed pitches.

Dave Littlefield tipped his hat to a couple of things in his interview on the radio Sunday --

-- that Cutch will not break camp and head North, thank God;

-- that the long man in the pen will be a right hander, which we've heard all winter;

-- that perhaps more than one player might be headed to AAA than most fans are thinking (my words from what I heard him say, not his). I suppose that meant that Nate McLouth could be on the bubble and Littlefield wants him to get some steady at bats to get him turned around.

Just a guess from what I heard.

Littlefield doesn't have all the answers yet because the biggest part about spring training is waiting to see who is healthy the day you break camp.

Ok, so we lost another game. You know there are outs that are considered productive outs? Well, today's game was a productive loss -- same theory.