Wednesday night in Milwaukee marked another outing for Bartolo Colon which could be classified as a, “throw away” game for the 18-year veteran right-hander.
Colon allowed a total of four runs and ten hits in six innings, losing his second consecutive decision and falling to 9-6 with a 4.89 ERA in 92 innings over 15 starts in 2015.
“It’s really bad and frustrating for everybody, including myself,” Colon explained after the game through an interpreter. “All we’ve got to do is continue to work hard, play hard, don’t get ourselves down and try to get out of it because this is a really frustrating moment.”
Colon has now allowed 105 hits which lead the league.
His main problem has been an inability to command either corner with his two-seam fastball. It’s his bread and butter pitch – and really his only pitch – and it’s gotten way too much of the plate in this bad run.
The problem is, Colon’s outing on Wednesday is really an extension of a prolonged period of inconsistency and, in some respects, ineffectiveness.
Since his start against the Marlins on April 29, Colon is 5-6 with a 5.76 ERA in 66 innings, having allowed 42 earned runs on 83 hits and 11 home runs with nine walks and 48 strikeouts.
He’s obviously a strike thrower. He doesn’t walk a lot of guys and works a lot of quick counts which helps keep his pitch counts down. But he doesn’t throw hard anymore, and his main problem for the bulk of the season is the quality of those strikes have generally not been good. He doesn’t throw anything other than a variety of fastballs sprinkled in with a show-me slider every so often, which means if he doesn’t have the necessary command of the edges, the opposition is just digging in and waiting for the two-seamer to bleed over the plate.
Hence the 5.73 ERA over his last 11 starts.
They love Colon, his presence in the clubhouse and his impact on some of the younger guys, which is partly why he has been retained to this point of his contract with the Mets. But there could come a point when the Mets will simply have to make room for and allow some of the younger arms to pitch regularly, especially if the Mets continue to free fall through the standings.
He could be valuable on the open market simply because of his experience and durability. He may not provide much in return other than a roster spot at this point in the season, but that could be more valuable for the team than any talent he might bring back anyway.
But with the way he has pitched for most of this season, this may ultimately prove to be problematic.
Just Mets 