Daniel Cabrera deserves to lose his spot in the starting rotation.
There’s just one problem — the Orioles currently have two open spots in the five-man rotation. And Cabrera’s isn’t one of them.
The Orioles’ 6-foot-9, 270-pound right-hander was lit up in 4.1 innings Tuesday — putting up a slow-pitch softball line of nine hits and six runs on 91 pitches. Two of those pitches left the Yard.
The Orioles bullpen was left to clean up four-plus innings after the starter’s mess, as Boston clinched the series with a 7-2 win before 48,515 fans — the largest crowd and the fifth sellout of the season — at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Dave Trembley was asked if Cabrera’s spot in the rotation was in question. He answered the question the best he could.
“I don’t know who else we’re going to bring in,” Trembley said. “Goodness sakes that’d be really reaching for straws there.”
Scott McGregor is the pitching coach at short-season Single-A Aberdeen. He might be good for 4.1 innings. Jim Palmer is up in the broadcast booth on a nightly basis. He’s good for at least five.
Cabrera’s fastballs now top-out at 94 miles per hour — they used to bottom-out there.
“I don’t think velocity is everything,” Trembley said. “I think its location and movement. His location was up.”
And at least when he was wild, Cabrera gave the Orioles innings. But he’s failed to go six innings in his last two starts, and in eight of his 27 starts this season.
If the pitch is up and it’s not screaming in around 98, it’s screaming out over the outfield fence.
It’s that simple for Cabrera — don’t locate it at 91 and it’s in orbit somewhere. Don’t locate it at 98, and you may have hit the mascot, but at least the hitter is on his toes.
Cabrera used to instill some sense of fear in hitters with that unpredictable wildness. Now he’s wild inside the strikezone with an average fastball.
And hitters know it.
Cabrera suggests the velocity isn’t an issue if he can command his pitches. Unfortunately for the Orioles, he can’t.
“It’s not about velocity, it’s about making a good pitch,” Cabrera said. “If you make a good pitch, you can be good. If not, it’s going to happen like it happened tonight.”
Trembley called Cabrera a “ground-ball pitcher” after the loss, and noted that he only threw two ground ball outs. A second look shows five ground ball outs.
Either way, it’s not good.
He used to be referred to as a flame-thrower.
But now his flame is starting to flicker.
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