Ubaldo Jimenez, I argue, is the most frustrating starting pitcher in Major League Baseball to have on your team. Notice I didn’t say he’s the worst starter or the most ineffective. Jimenez has a lot of pitches with good movement and at one time, he was undoubtedly an ace. That, however, is not the case anymore. Instead, he’s effectively the Indians’ fifth starter, and he’s failing to keep his team in the game and taxing the bullpen. That was exactly the case in last night’s 7-5 defeat as the Red Sox repeatedly put him up against the ropes in tiny Fenway and eventually sent him to the canvas.

There are certain things that you just can’t do if you want to be an effective starter at the major league level. You can’t fall behind in the count, walk more people than you strike out, give up crooked numbers in more than one inning, and run up your pitch count to 100 before the fifth inning. Ubaldo does all of these things, repeatedly. He did them all last night too (except the pitches – 99 in less than five innings). Falling behind in counts and his walks make the hits he does relinquish lethal. Whereas guys like Derek Lowe can gut themselves through a performance where they aren’t sharp, Jimenez is utterly unable to do such a thing. Minimizing damage is not in his vocabulary.

Ubaldo started off with a strikeout of Sweeney where he stayed ahead in the count, and then he was ahead 0-2 on Pedroia. From there, it was a single to Pedroia, an Ortiz walk, a Gonzalez hit by pitch, and a two-run double to Middlebrooks, followed by a Ross walk. In between that, he did manage to strike out the side with Sweeney, Nava, and Saltalamacchia. It was two runs given up and 30 pitches thrown. If that’s the one bad inning and he settles on from there, that’s fine and the Indians stay in the game. But, there were additional big Red Sox innings to come. [Read more...]