9-News: 37.078 – Heat Building Under Walker

[RonCo]

Will Heads Roll After 2037 Pitching Disaster?



Following a legend can be hard work, and following a legend while your team crashes and burns can be hard on a career. YS9 pitching coach Dan Walker is learning this first hand. When Robert LaLoosh left the team last year in favor of a bench coaching job in Edmonton, he left a trail of excellence behind in the form of well-balanced pitching staffs that tended to be atop the league in multiple ways. While the club’s offense has hit on all cylinders this year, a scan of the Nine’s placement in the pitching registers isn’t quite so kind.

Bottom line is that fans and officers close to the team are unhappy with Walker’s performance to the extent that some are suggesting that the club should fire his backside as quick as possible and find another candidate—either from within or external. “A bedknob would be better,” said one official under cloak of anonymity. Given that the coaches’ contract is only $82K, the club may well find it palatable to have him move along.

The Nine’s rotation has posted a 5.49 ERA, 12th in the FL. The bullpen hasn’t been much stronger at 4.48, 10th in the league. The Nine are the worst team in the league at issuing free passes, in the bottom half of homers allowed. The only silver lining is that they are third in strikeouts.

There are extenuating circumstances, of course. The team defense is porous, and the fact of the matter is that any staff that you remove Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh and (essentially) Jose Chavez from will be a shadow of itself. The injury to key starter Tim Oliver early in the year didn’t help, and the follow-on breakage of Hiroyasu Osaragi kind of sealed the deal.

But facts are also facts. Young arm Carlos Valle has clearly taken a step backward, and teammate Ernesto Ramos has had a bit od a rocky entrance into the league. The bullpen has a set of solid enough arms, but Walker still hasn’t been able to settle them into roles where they can really succeed. Young closer Curt Phillips was flakey at times under LaLoosh, but essentially shredded himself at times this year, performing so poorly that he’s shuttled back and forth to Indy in attempts to get him settled. Arguably, the only two pitchers who have had the kinds of years you’d like to see from them are lefties Momcilo Djuretic (3-0, 6 saves, 2.78, and who was the Nine’s lone All-Star, despite being hurt for the game), and rookie Adergazoz Ouakili (5-2, 1 save, 2.52). At one point the Nine’s over-blownian GM Ron Collins called Djuretic “the best reliever in the league.” Of course, he retracted that later when it came time to consider negotiating new contracts.

Maanger Bret Richards came to his coach’s defense. “I think the negative nellies are just being unfair to Dan.” He’s a good coach.” And to be fair, Walker’s performances in the minors were solid. His staff’s performed well in Santa Cruz despite pitching in a park that’s considerably kinder to bats than arms, and then helped craft a solid 3.78 staff ERA in AAA Indianapolis last season—a performance some said was the backbone to LaLoosh being allowed to leave. Given the youth of the staff, it was considered a positive that Walker had already coached so many of the pitchers at the big league level this year.

Alas, it’s not worked out.

Heading into the last month of the season, it’s clear that certain post mortems will be done, and right now there’s money being placed in office pools and gambling halls around the country that says Dan Walker’s career in Yellow Springs might be coming to an end.