Kudos to Braden Looper

by philbobilbo on May 13, 2007 1:38 AM EDT

Gotta give it to that guy; he's been one of the only bright spots on this club this season. When I looked up at the game, saw the score and him on the mound tonight, I felt comfortable for a win. Sure enough, he prevailed.

His ERA is miniscule, he now has five wins, and has been a pleasant surprise.

If not for him, I think this club would be in a MUCH worse place right now.

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he's the mvp of the team

at least right now.

Future Redbirds

by erik on May 13, 2007 1:43 AM EDT reply actions

looper

has been awesome. i was worried when they said he was going to be in the rotation but he proved me wrong.he is the ace right now.

SWH

by BRINGBACKWILSON on May 13, 2007 5:33 AM EDT reply actions

Too True

I'm glad Duncan saw something in Looper that made him go "Hmm" because Loop has stepped up and done everything you could ask and more. And he acts like a winner too. He needs to sit with Kipper on the plane ride to LA and hope some of his positive mojo rubs off on Wells because Randy Wolfe will be a tough match-up for him.

by cardsgirl95 on May 13, 2007 9:26 AM EDT reply actions

No doubt

I've been monitoring his pitches for the study that LB's put together on the starters and I can tell you that he's a lot better pitcher than I realized. He keeps the ball down religiously; only 2 homers all year. He's got a good fastball that moves and a pretty good splitter when he's able to get it down. But he throws a ton of fastballs and just lets the natural movement carry it down and away from lefties. Lefties are hitting like .203 on him or something like that. The only game he really got pounded was against the Brewers and the thing I noticed in that game was that he wasn't pitching inside at all. Hitters were able to dive out over the plate and, even when he got a pitch on the outside corner, they could hit it hard.

In his last 2 starts, vs. Houston and the Pads, he seems to have done a better job coming in occasionally and keeping the ball down. He's what we hoped to get from Jason Marquis but he never became the ground ball machine that we hoped for. Looper's BB/9 is 2.65 and his OBP against is .292. It doesn't seem to be a fluke. He's averaging almost 2 ground balls for every fly ball and is averaging the fewest pitches per inning of his career.

The only thing is -- only the Brewers have seen him twice this year, and they really pounded him the 2nd time. He's only 51 IP through the season so there's still a long way to go. But, right now, he seems legit!

by chuckb on May 13, 2007 1:59 PM EDT reply actions

2 Looks for the Brewers

Yes, but is anything that happened that series a good judge of this team? They were all reeling from Josh's death and Loop had been in the 'pen with him in '06, so he might not have been able to concentrate fully. I seem to remember some defensive miscues that allowed runners on base, something the pitcher has no control over. Other than that start and running out of gas against the Mets (I was there and it did seem he was running on fumes at the end), he has been outstanding. But Saturday night was the best so far. Only time will tell if he can maintain this pace through the season, but every win he brings is needed right now.

by cardsgirl95 on May 13, 2007 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions

The Milwaukee series

You're right, it was right after Hancock's death. The defensive miscues, however, were largely in the previous game -- Wells' start. Kennedy did make an error right in the middle of the big inning but the rest were solid hits. Maybe it was partly due to the whole Hancock situation. Maybe it was that the Brewers were seeing him for the 2nd time. Or maybe he just had a bad start. He's entitled. FWIW, I think it's the latter, possibly partly caused by Hancock's death. He just didn't throw inside at all that night. They did a great job of hitting, too. They were very patient early and attacked later when they were able to dive out over the plate.