Piece of Schmidt

By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer

I’ve been worried about Jason Schmidt ever since I personally saw him toss a one-hitter at AT&T Park against the Red Sox three seasons ago. You see, it took 133 pitches to accomplish. The funny thing is, that wasn’t even the most pitches he’d thrown to complete a one-hitter THAT MONTH. No, that honor occurred a few weeks earlier in a 144-pitch gem. Even crazier, he only walked two and one in those games, respectively.

To call him inefficient would be an understatement, but it’s hard to fault Felipe Alou for not giving Schmidt an earlier hook, since he was tossing one-hitters and all. Maybe that wasn’t the beginning of the end, but Schmidt has dealt with numerous injuries since that 2004 season. A season in which he finished with a miniscule 2.34 ERA.

Jason Schmidt is a hypochondriac. When he refused to take the mound late last season because of a perceived minor back problem, many in San Francisco’s organization accused him of worrying about free agency over the team. The fact the rotation had to be completely reshuffled, and the Giants stumbled to a 1-9 finish made things even easier to place blame squarely on Schmidt.

Schmidt has been moderately effective with a decrease in velocity over the last two years, still flashing that nasty changeup. Still, it was more than a little apparent that something was going on with his shoulder. The strikeout rate, while still solid, has been falling pretty dramatically. I’m not going to kill the Dodgers for giving him $47 million over three years; after all, he could not throw another pitch for the duration, and it still wouldn’t hurt as much as other contracts signed during the offseason. Still, Los Angeles can’t be surprised by the early DL stint. The fact he was topping out at 85 MPH during the last couple of starts suggests this may be more than the 15-day variety.