The Phenom Much More Efficient In Outing 5

I have made a few references over the last couple weeks about what I think the appropriate role is for the Rays young star David Price on the 09 Rays.  He has had a variety of control issues that have led to some very short outings.

Yesterday, in his 5th start of the season, he was much better as far as efficiency is concerned.

Although he gave up 5 runs and 10 hits, the underlying piece of good news was his pitch count and his walk count.  He threw 99 pitches, and walked 0 guys in 7 full innings.  If it wasn’t for a bad pitched that he left up in the zone to a red hot Troy Tulowitzki, this would have been his 2nd best outing of the season.  71 strikes out of 99 pitches (71% strikes) is a great percentage, especially considering the guy has the stuff to strike people out, as evidenced by his 5k’s last night.

More outings like this from Price (I know he gave up 5 runs) I’m sure will make Joe Maddon happy, and might go a long way to changing my mind as to what I feel Price’s appropriate role is on this team.

Oh yeah, we left 12 guys on base.  Seems like that is a nightly average and the main contributor (other than our weak bullpen) to our 35-32 record.