“I felt a little too good today,” he said. “I was just missing a little bit. I wasn’t putting it exactly where I wanted.”
Mike Leake (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
On the spring, Leake has surrendered 15 runs in 15.1 innings. That’s uglier than the play of the Georgetown Hoyas during March Madness. I know spring stats mean almost less than nothing…but are you concerned yet?
I’m a big Mike Leake fan. I think he’s going to be a very solid middle-of-the-rotation starter for many years. He throws strikes, he keeps the ball in the park, his pitches have all kinds of movement generally. Heck, the guy can even hit! What’s not to love?
From the beginning of the spring, I think we’ve all kinda assumed that Travis Wood was going to win the fifth spot in the rotation over Leake, but none of us would have had a problem with Leake in the rotation again. Now, of course, with Johnny Cueto’s arm falling off and Bronson Arroyo on his deathbed with the Black Plague, Leake is shooting up the depth charts faster than Taylor Swift on the “Music My Daughter Likes” chart.
Unfortunately, Leake chose this moment to start stinking.
Leake claims he isn’t overly concerned:
“I feel really good going in,” he said. “In college, in preseason scrimmages, I always did bad. I’m pretty optimistic about this year. Last year, I did pretty good in spring training. The results didn’t end up where I wanted them last year.”
The current state of the pitching rotation is giving me a strange feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. It isn’t time to panic yet, but there is ample evidence that we should be concerned about how the Reds are going to pitch coming out of the gate.
If we get any more bad news about the rotation, I’m going to stab myself in the eye. You’ve been forewarned.