Ubaldo The Great; Jimenez improves to 9-1
Wednesday night at Coors Field, Ubaldo Jimenez wrote the latest chapter of a story that looks as if it is going to have a very happy ending.
Heading into the game, Jimenez sported a record of 8-1 with an ERA of 0.99, the best in all of baseball. By the end of a 7-3 victory over the Diamondbacks, the lanky right-hander had notched another win and lowered his ERA to 0.88.
Jimenez pitched eight scoreless innings, giving up six hits. He walked just one hitter and struck out three. He was helped out by several great defensive plays, one in particular in the first inning as centerfielder Carlos Gonzalez made a running catch on a ball into the left-center gap hit by Conor Jackson.
The reason Jimenez was impressive Wednesday was for a different reason than his previous nine starts. From the get-go, it was clear that he did not have his best stuff. Kelly Johnson ripped the third pitch of the game to the right field wall for a double. He would have scored if not for Gonzalez’s amazing catch.
The reason the start was so impressive for Jimenez is because without his best stuff, he was still able to carve his way through the Diamondback hitters. His fastball, normally in the 98-99 range was sitting around 96 MPH, still impressive, but it lacked the typical tailing action that makes it that much harder to hit. His offspeed pitches were not quite as crisp and several pitches were left a little too high for comfort.
However, without his best stuff, Jimenez still managed to keep a good-hitting Diamondbacks’ team from crossing home plate in eight innings. It was a huge sign of maturity from Jimenez, who, in his first three seasons in the big leagues struggled with giving up one big inning. On Wednesday he showed how far along he has come. Without his best pitches to rely on, Jimenez showed that he can still get outs, and be dominant in doing so.
His success goes back to the fact that he is a power pitcher who pitches like a guy who does not throw that hard. Instead of seeking strikeouts, Jimenez pitches to contact, allowing the fielders behind him to absorb outs. A hard-thrower would have struggled in Jimenez’s shoes on Wednesday because a flat fastball with a little less velocity is generally something that causes Major League hitters to salivate over.
Instead, Jimenez is still able to keep the ball low in the strike zone, which keeps him from getting hurt by the long ball.
Through 71-1/3 innings pitched in 2010, Jimenez has given up just seven runs. He has also given up just 42 hits. In his one loss on the season Jimenez gave up just two hits, one of which never left the infield. His dominance has been incredible.
If Jimenez wants to look around to see who is near him in the National League Cy Young race, he is not going to find anyone nearby. Three weeks ago it was a three horse race between Jimenez, Colorado native Roy Halladay and San Francisco’s two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. However, as Jimenez has gotten stronger, those two have faded. On Wednesday Lincecum did not get out of the 5th inning against the Nationals, giving up six earned runs. Halladay has dropped to 6-3 and his ERA has climbed to 2.22, normally phenomenal, but compared to Jimenez it looks like Pike’s Peak.
No Cy Young has ever been won in May, and no one has ever been declared the starter of the All-Star game in the second month of the season, but Jimenez is putting together a season that is going to be hard to ignore when it comes time to start shelling out praise.
If the flamethrower can stay healthy, the Rockies could put themselves in a very good position by the time summer turns into fall.
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My earlier comment on “Why nobody wants to pitch in Denver,” remembering the dominant story written by a million sports writers like your buddy over at the Denver Post, who writes for baseball dummies, when the Rockies were young and batters were hitting over the wall which was not back far enough for the altitude, etc, etc. etc. . . What is the common knowledge now? What are us baseball dummies to think? Here is a pitcher that pitches so good they don’t hit the ball at all. Don’t need to worry about it going over the wall and ruining the pitching stat. Where was that aspect of analysis in the early years of the Rockies. We even went out and got some pretty good names, and they got hit over the wall. Well, maybe Jimenez is just showing what pitching is all about. He is starting to get the attention of some national writers. Maybe us baseball dummies will now have to learn a new common knowledge denominator.
Gene,
Thanks for the comment. There is no doubt that the way baseball is played at Coors Field has changed. One of the reasons is because in 2004 the team installed a humidor where they store game balls. While the altitude was a driving force behind balls being launched out of the yard, the biggest problem was the dry weather in Colorado. When baseballs sit around in the dryness, they get hard, which makes them extremely tough to grip. When a pitcher can’t get the proper grip, they are not going to throw their pitches with as much life, resulting in harder hit balls. Since the humidor, baseballs are now the same density that they would be in a more humid climate, making the field play more fair.
While the humidor must be credited for some of the success, I think that the Rockies organization also needs to be given credit where credit is due. They realized that winning games 12-10 was not a recipe for long-term success. They knew that they needed quality pitching to win games. So, knowing where they play, they started to focus on young pitchers who are good at throwing strikes low in the strike zone, which generally causes ground balls (It doesn’t matter what altitude you play at, if you can’t hit the ball in the air it can’t leave the park). While Ubaldo Jimenez throws 100 MPH, he doesn’t pitch like the typical power pitcher, trying to strike everyone out. He allows the opposition to hit the ball and lets his fielders take care of it from there. He does get his fair share of strikeouts, but the difference is, he is not relying on trying to blow it by guys.
Regardless of what has been done to level the playing field for pitchers at Coors, Jimenez deserves a special dose of national attention due to the fact that the field still favors hitters quite a bit. At 9-1 Jimenez is definitely the front runner for the Cy Young award, but there is still quite a bit of baseball to be played.
David,
I should have thought of that baseball humidity factor. But again, my brother was the baseball smarty in the family. As a kid, he pitched the baseball against the barn wall target probably a hundred times a day. On the recent death of Ernie Harwell, may he rest in peace, my brother wrote how much he meant to him in Michigan, listening to the Tigers on the radio. In the 1960′s my brother had shoeboxes of little cards full of handwritten numbers he made up to play a fantasy game of statistics. Jimenez will give me a chance to brag to him.
Gene,
Ernie Harwell’s death was definitely a sad day for baseball. I have never heard anything bad about the man, in fact, all of the stories about him suggest that he had a huge impact on the community. Guys with his voice do not come around often. He had one of the best in the business. I’m sure for many people he is the voice that they associate with baseball.
Ubaldo Jimenez is going to give many Rockies fans an opportunity to brag to people that they know. 18 years of baseball in Colorado and the Rockies finally have a legitimate ace.
Thanks for the comments!
One more thing from a baseball dummy; reading about Kelly Johnson ripping the ball – that was also the name of possibly the greatest aircraft designer of all time. Kelly Johnson designed the pioneering titanium spy planes that helped us win the Cold War.