Mercifully, the Robbie Erlin experiment has come to a close, at least as far as him being a starting pitcher is concerned. Tommy Milone may have bought himself some time. However, it seems part of my desired plan for the rotation going forward is coming to fruition.
Kyle Wright will start for the Braves tomorrow
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) September 7, 2020
It’s about time Kyle Wright got another shot. I summed up my feelings last week after Erlin was rocked for five runs in four innings vs Boston.
Kyle Wright has a career eight starts and hasn’t even cracked 41 innings. His walks are alarming. In 2020, he hasn’t issued less than three in an outing, but I’m not ready to give up on a guy who hasn’t even made it through 1/4 of the innings a starter would typically see in a 162-game season.
I’m optimistic we’ll see Wright next week. He’s shown flashes of dominance in some starts, but he seems to always succumb to the “big inning.” He was cruising along against Tampa Bay until he was rocked for five runs in the 3rd inning after getting into trouble with walks. He didn’t allow any Mets to score in his next start but only made it 3.1 innings after issuing four walks and giving up five hits. He also struck out five men in that same start.
The pitch count is troublesome, but it all comes down to walks. He has nasty stuff; he just needs to trust it and throw strikes. I would rather see Wright go six innings and give up three runs than go four innings with no runs and four walks. Ian Anderson has been so successful early on because he commands his fastball and throws strikes aggressively — even in 3-0 and 3-1 counts.
Wright can still be special, he just needs to stay in the zone. He’ll face off against the Marlins, and has a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on one of the weaker lineups in the NL.
I think Wright’s problem is between his ears just like Folty’s.