Zach Duke

[Don Wassall]

. . . is a rookie pitcher for the Pirates who dominated in the minors andis off to a great start in the bigs. He outdueled Greg Maddux today and now is 2-0 after three starts with a 1.23 ERA and a streak of 17 straight scoreless innings. He has acool name for a baseball player, it would be great if he is the real deal.

 

[Bear-Arms]

They said on the radio they never seen Derek Lee so frustrated at the plate all year. Anyway, I think the Pirates could use a real deal. Hopefully, they have one in Zach Duke. I looked up his stats and in his first 3 games he is averaging 7 strikeouts per game. I'll be keeping an eye out for him.

 

[Don Wassall]

I think the Pirates could use a real deal. Hopefully, they have one in Zach Duke.

You're not kidding about that. The Pirates are in the midst of their 13th straight losing season. The Kevin McClatchey ownership group trades (gives away) all the team's good young players every couple of years, then claims it is starting another "rebuilding" plan. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a Pittsburgh native, was quoted the other day as saying he'd be interested in buying the team if McClatchey puts it up for sale, in order to keep it in Pittsburgh. Cuban would be a huge improvement over McClatchey; in a worse-case scenario he would only be just as bad. Oakland and Minnesota have shown that teams can win with smaller payrolls, but it takes an organization with solid baseball men to get the job done.

 

[Don Wassall]

Well, Zach is now 6-0 with a 1.87 ERA for another lousy Pirates team. However, the Pirates may "shut him down" after tonight's start, meaning not pitch him again this season. The reason given is that he has already pitched 165 innings this year between the minors and majors.


165 innings? It wasn't all that long ago that top pitchers logged over 300 innings per season. Are the arms of today's pitchers really that delicate?

 

[Bear-Arms]

I believe the Cubs did something similar with Mark Prior.

 

[Van_Slyke_CF]

Wow, there's an old thread for Zach Duke.

Zach struggled with injuries and inconsistency from 2006-2008, but has looked great so far in 2009 with a 2-0 record after a 4-hit CG shutout today.

 

[LabMan]

Duke looked very sharp again yesterday,his confidence is coming back,he was the victim of mechanical changes when a new pitching coach took over a few years back,Chris Duffy was involved in many changes also with the same staff,he is over in Milwaukee,spot starting in left and center field,and his confidence is improving also.