Another day, another weird outing for RHP Jeurys Familia.
On Saturday against the Nationals, Familia allowed a run on three hits in one inning of work.
Familia has allowed seven hits and four earned runs with only one strikeout in his last two outings, a span of 1 2/3 innings.
He has now allowed 15 hits in only eight innings of work this spring, and has a 6.75 ERA in nine appearances this month.
Thank goodness these games don’t count, I suppose.
He’s throwing strikes and not walking anyone, but the quality of his strikes has been very poor, as everything is up in the zone and flat. Earlier in camp I wasn’t particularly concerned with Familia, but its worrisome his command of the strike zone has not improved. In fact, it looks like it’s getting worse.
“The only concern we have is the sinker’s not there right now,” Terry Collins said, according to David Lennon of Newsday. “The velocity’s good, the sinker’s not working and I think it’s a mechanical thing. We’ve got to go back to what works and not try to get too fancy.”
I agree, Familia’s sinker is problematic right now. He just can’t throw it for strikes. But with respects to his fastball, the velocity seems and looks inconsistent, at best. In some cases, Familia is in the upper 90s with his fastball, in others the upper 80s to low 90s. The radar gun at Tradition Field has reportedly been slow this spring – whether that’s by design or not is unknown.
But, no matter how hard he’s throwing, Familia’s lacking any sort of electricity or consistent movement on his fastball – it’s as straight as an arrow right now and he’s getting mauled as of late. It’s almost as if he’s aiming the ball and throwing, not pitching.
As I’ve said all spring, the most important thing is Familia is apparently healthy. As is the case with Jenrry Mejia, perhaps he’ll turn the necessary corner when the bell rings next Monday.
With so much uncertainty in the bullpen, the Mets are going to have to count on that.
Just Mets 