At Saturday's Rockies game, I saw the Sox managed to come back
to win 11-7. Next to the score on the big, manually operated scoreboard in right field, it lists the number of the winning and losing pitchers.
It took me about 15 seconds to figure out who No. 40 was, cycling mentally through the Sox rotation and bullpen until I realized that Charlie Haeger just earned his first major-league win for the Sox. So a hearty “congratulations” is overdue for Chuck there.
I missed Saturday’s game, obviously, so I don’t know what Haeger looked like on that given day while throwing 3 1/3 perfect innings in relief of Mark Buehrle, who gave up seven earned runs and boosted his ERA to 7.12
since the start of July.
However, from what I’ve seen in Haeger’s other outings since he was recalled in early September, he throws differently than when he was a nervous rookie
making his debut in May. Against the Angels, he was rushing his knuckleball to speeds of 77-78 m.p.h., which 1) ended up missing up in the zone, and 2) didn’t provide a big difference from his fastball, which touches 86-87 m.p.h.
Since he’s returned, however, he’s throwing the knuckler in the low 70s, helping it to dive downwards while fluttering. He’s still walking his share of batters, but he’s also striking out plenty as well. Like tingling with Denorex, that means it’s working.
Perhaps I’m too eager to back the Great Knuckling Hope, but I’m starting to re-think Haeger’s chances of breaking into the starting rotation at some point in 2007. They’re not great, but I’d say they’ve improved from none to slim.
There are still problems with Haeger starting games on a regular basis. Take the problems inherent in a rookie pitcher, combine them with the problems inherent in a wild pitcher, and the issues are twofold.
On the other hand, how many knuckleballers are in the majors nowadays? Tim Wakefield is the obvious one. Jared Fernandez has pretty much flamed out, and I can’t think of any others at this point.
Even when the uptight Haeger was struggling through 4 1/3 innings on May 10, hitters still couldn’t draw much of a bead on him. Compare that start against any second-half outing by Mark Buehrle, who doesn’t look much different from 80 percent of lefties these days, and I’m liking Haeger a bit more.
It’s also easy to be encouraged by Haeger when no other Sox prospects have made their mark this month. Most of that is out of their control, with Ryan Sweeney and Josh Fields playing too irregularly to make any sort of mark, and Chris Stewart buried behind Old Man Alomar. But then you have Boone Logan, who keeps refusing the second lefty job gift-wrapped for him by Neal Cotts, and Sean Tracey, who couldn’t hit the broad side of Rosie O'Donnell, and Haeger looks like the golden boy in comparison.
(Somehow we were able to learn more about our rookies in 2005, even though the Sox had a shrinking divisional lead and no health issues outside of Joe Crede’s broken finger. At least Brandon McCarthy told us he was able to survive as a starter.)
All these factors considered, I’m doing my best to temper my enthusiasm. At the very least, there’s comfort in knowing that Haeger isn’t the worst option as an emergency starter. A sixth starter will be important in 2007, with McCarthy entering the rotation for better or for worse and any combination of Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle and Freddy Garcia dealing with nagging injuries or issues of some kind.
Had the Sox dealt a starter before this season,
Tim Redding would’ve been the emergency starter, and he hasn’t been able to retire big-league hitters in three years. Haeger’s a better stopgap option, and while that’s not saying much, at least it’s a positive step towards reloading for 2007.