Venters battling some inconsistency with sinker
There’s an old adage in baseball that a sinkerball sinks more when a pitcher is a little tired. That’s why Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez joked Tuesday afternoon that maybe he should start running Venters back out there four and five days a week so he can be “Everyday Jonny” again.
Venters has struggled some lately with the action on his sinking fastball, and it cost him two runs and a loss Monday night against the Reds. He has allowed runs in two of his past three outings, including his first home run of the season on Friday night in St. Louis – albeit to the hot-hitting Carlos Beltran.
Jokes aside, though, Gonzalez said it was something he and pitching coach Roger McDowell discussed after Monday’s game. Venters has had to make an adjustment not pitching as often as he did last year. He’s actually thrown some bullpen sessions this season to stay sharp, something he never did a year ago unless he needed to work on something specifically.
Venters had thrown in 22 games through May 14 last year, with an 0.81 ERA. Through May 14 this year, he’s thrown in 15 games, and has a 3.29 ERA. Venters took 10 days off in spring training to rest soreness near his right shoulder, and he took a few days earlier this month with a sore shoulder. But Venters said after Monday’s game, the problem isn’t physical, it’s location.
“My arm feels great,” Venters said. “…I’ve just got to do a better job of going out there and attacking guys. I’m making a lot of non-competitive pitches, pitches that guys aren’t even thinking about offering at. And I’m making even worse pitches over the plate and they’re hitting the ball hard. I’ve got to do a better job of keeping the ball down and throwing some strikes early in the count.”
Gonzalez said he’s not overly concerned.
“Jonny’s a (heck) of a pitcher, and he’s fine,” Gonzalez said. “It’s just one of those things.”
David O’Brien contributed information to this report.
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15 comments Add your comment
X's and O's
May 15th, 2012
6:34 pm
“Venters battling some inconsistency with sinker”
Wow! Really? I knew there was a reason I was getting that Dan Kolb feeling every time he came into the game!
pig balls
May 15th, 2012
6:34 pm
honestly, with the amount his ball moves with his pitches, I think its Jonny having difficulty controlling all the breaking stuff…almost want to work with him to take a little off to improve consistency of command?
hes not throwing poorly, just very tough to control a pitch that breaks as much as his…
Dedoh
May 15th, 2012
6:35 pm
He will rebound and have a strong year!
bruce
May 15th, 2012
6:46 pm
very cool problem to have to figure out…. more running? is it body tiredness or arm tiredness that is needed for the sink to sink?
ventersinconsistent
May 15th, 2012
6:49 pm
@ X’s and O’s
You’re not alone in getting the uneasy feeling everytime Venters goes in to pitch.
Curt
May 15th, 2012
7:04 pm
Venter’s Fastball is down by almost 5 mph. He is now not able to put a fastball by hitters as easliy so he has to rely more on the sinker and other offspeed.
JNick
May 15th, 2012
7:14 pm
Speaking of sinkers, D-Lowe threw a complete game shutout today…funny how he puts up awesome numbers in a contract year….
95RelivingEveryDay
May 15th, 2012
7:16 pm
The biggest mistake in Youth League tournaments is when the coach saves his best pitcher’s limited innings for a game that is never played because the team loses before it ever gets to the key game for which the pitcher’s innings are reserved. I know we collapsed in September last year, but that can’t allow us to play April through August with holding our lead through September in mind. If we get to September ten games out and Venters is fresh, what does it benefit us? Do we count on another team to collapse. Let’s pitch good pitchers (Venters) more and win, rather than saving their arms by pitching worse pitchers (Durbin) to lose. Venters pitches better when he pitches often. Pitch him.
JNick
May 15th, 2012
7:26 pm
True – but Venters has already had 3 separate instances this year where he developed a sore shoulder and had to take a week off…
JNick
May 15th, 2012
7:31 pm
http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/30509/jonny-venters
Surprisingly, this year he’s done best on 3-5 days rest. (Scroll all the way to the bottom)
DaveinNEPA
May 15th, 2012
9:02 pm
Venters may have shoulder issues and he may not. He certainly got worked the last two seasons.
Shoulder issues not withstanding, we as fans have to temper our expectations on Venters too. The guy has been so stellar, so lights out the last two seasons that we can’t expect him not to suffer some bumps in the road somewhere along the line.
Angel
May 15th, 2012
10:00 pm
I keep getting kicked off the in-game blog. I thinking it is those stupid videos that keep my Droid from allowing to.stay on that blog. Either that or the this site has some serious bandwidth issues. I don’t have problems.with any other sites that I visit.
The other item I wanted to bring up was votto blocking bourn’s attempt to go to second. Shouldn’t that be illegal? Reminds me of the’91 WS when kruk picked gant up off and then got him out. Can first base men do anything.they want and it’s ok?
JB1989
May 15th, 2012
10:01 pm
Haha The Dan Kolb feeling
Don Nottebart
May 15th, 2012
10:46 pm
It looked like the ump caught the interference on Bourn. I saw the ump raise his hand and award Bourn 2nd which he got anyway.
Gman
May 16th, 2012
4:29 am
Angel,
It was Hrbek not Kruk. Wrong player, wrong year, wrong series……same result