Ollie's Smoking

[djack909]

He's been a great WW pick-up for me. May have to sit him against the Bosox. A while back I watched the Sox hit Mussina and Mussina was throwing good stuff. The Sox are one team that can hit good pitching. Ex-batting champ Mueller is batting 8th. Never let your children pitch agianst the Red Sox.

[bronxxbomber]

come on, any sign of life is reason to rejoice! ollie has been so bad and now he's pitching a lot better. i don't even care if it was rays, but i do know he's pitching lights out.

[GotowarMissAgnes]

Some teams/players do not play as well on the road. No matter what statistics you have, it's a fact of baseball.

Could very well be true. But it's not something you can judge on 30 games against a non-random selection of teams.

[bd3521]

When your 4-29 on the road like Tampa I think the problem is obvious

[Mercer Boy]

Sorry, I'm still seeing this as a good outing against a poor team. I love it for the Pirates, but the trend continues (Cinci, Atlanta are his only other "good" starts).

I'm going to bench him when he pitches against the Sox this week for sure. No way I'm going to take the chance at getting shelled by a top hitting team at home.

If he does well against them, maybe I'll change my mind, but not yet. He's still a matchup start only.

[Half Massed]

he's really turned it around recently. he's gotten a bunch of wins in a row here pitching better each time. maybe this is the one where he finally finds what he had last season. i'm being optimistic since i'm a fan of his and i have him on multiple leagues, but at the very least its a step in the right direction.

[pangbones]

The guy has improved in every game since his "time off". Give the guy a break. I don't care who you're pitching against, when you put up numbers llike he did tonight you got it going on. He will have a huge 2nd half of the season!!

[rjforlife]

and for any of you that actually WATCHED the game instead of analyizing numbers you would know he PITCHED extremely well. mixing in sliders, throwing good heat (93-95), and throwing strikes to get ahead. it doesnt matter who he faced as long as he did those things well thats all that matters.


he will smoke the sox by the way.....between mannys struggles, ortiz and damon being lefties (ollies slider abused the TB lefties), and ollies resurgence of late, im predicting another very solid performance, hopefully silencing ollie critics for a while at least.

[nuggets]

Has he finally found his groove or is it just a repeat of the April 25 gem against weak hitting Houston? 6 IP, 10 Ks, no BB versus Tampa Bay so far.

I'm confindent he'll be fine at home (splits significant) for most of the reamaining season.

[sammyfan711]

Only one walk in Saturday's start is a great sign he is putting it all together. I'll start him against anyone with the grove he is in now.

By the way, for the rest of you that have seen him pitch this year, ever check out the praying mantis? Ollie starts his windup with his knees buckled, almost crouching like a catcher, and lets loose towards the plate. Its a really goofy windup for a guy that has struggled this year with his mechanics. The Pirates annoucers named it that because the last time he did it he was way ahead in the count and was ready to finish off his prey. Both times I've seen him do it this year he's missed badly, but its quite an entertaining motion to watch.