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I thought Thompson pitched pretty poorly last night. He missed his spots routinely, and hangers out to be pounded. It was only the incompetence of the Pirate offense that allowed him to escape unharmed.

Anyone else have that impression?

i know he left at least 1 curveball right over the heart of the plate. That ball should have been hit 2 miles but he got away with it....

I think he's pitched poorly since the end of 2005. He just doesn't have consistent command of his best pitch and he doesn't have the velocity to overcome that.

he was missing the target pretty badly but they missed all of them and ended up being strikes. molina would set up outside and the pitch would go inside or right over the middle...I thought he was just ignoring yadi

I noticed that too. On one lefthanded batter, Bennett wanted it inside and Thompson pitched it ALMOST off the plate OUTSIDE. And how do you hit a batter trying to sacrifice, trying to GIVE you an out? The HBP ALMOST went BEHIND the guy! It was almost like Thompson had no idea where his pitches were going to end up.

jim wrote:I thought Thompson pitched pretty poorly last night. He missed his spots routinely, and hangers out to be pounded. It was only the incompetence of the Pirate offense that allowed him to escape unharmed.

Anyone else have that impression?

I do too. The kid's gotta get it worked out because he's a huge part of their potential success this year. If he continues to poop the bed, Walt's going to have to spend resources on bullpen help instead of the offense, where it's really needed.

The Cards should promote Dove and use him in the middle innings. If he succeeds, they should put him in high-leverage situations to see if he can eventually handle the set-up role. The team needs a power arm in the pen.

I'm not sold on Dove at all. A power arm with no life is just as bad as a finesse arm with no command.

jagtrader wrote:The Cards should promote Dove and use him in the middle innings. If he succeeds, they should put him in high-leverage situations to see if he can eventually handle the set-up role. The team needs a power arm in the pen.

I know there is alot of Dove love out there, but I only saw him pitch once and wasn't ready to join the crowd. He is a power arm, but based on my 1 inning of observation, his minor league track record, and Baseball America's scouting report, I have some reservations.

I imagine the first guy on the rung at Memphis if bullpen help is needed would be Falkenborg. They've had him up before and he looked okay, albeit in short exposure. I think they've got some other guys they'd rather go with(he, Kelvin Jiminez, etc) before dipping down to the younger still developing players like Perez, Sillman, Dove.

Hopefully Brad can take the success he had in those tough situations last night, raise his confidence, and catapult himself into having a good year(a la Tavarez 2004). I don't think it'll happen that way, but youneverknow.