One Small Step for Westbrook
November 29th, 2009 | by johnhoyos |… One Giant Leap for the Indians
After being shut down twice this past season in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, Jake Westbrook took the first step in giving the Tribe some semblance of hope for 2010. On a 35-pitch limit, the long-time Indian went 1.2 innings, giving up three hits and a run for Ponce in the Puerto Rican league last night. He walked one and did not record a strikeout. In the mind of Ponce manager Eduardo Perez, the walk was debatable. He felt a couple of the balls were called incorrectly.
More importantly, four of the five outs recorded by Westbrook were ground balls. With a contact pitcher like Westbrook, the ground ball outs are even more important than the strikeouts. To know that he allowed a questionable walk and a pair of bloop singles bodes well for future outings. True, this performance is not against a talent level that he would face in the Majors, but rehab has to start somewhere.
He’s scheduled to start again on Sunday, December 6th and will be on a 45 pitch limit.
Clearly this is good news, but if Westbrook is going to get hurt again before the start of the season, you’d almost rather it would be earlier rather than later. This would give the Indians the opportunity to explore the free agent market fully as opposed to reacting to an immediate need in the middle of spring training.
Still, even assuming full health, Westbrook is no number one starter. The Indians really need to secure one either through trade or free agency. Perhaps next time I’ll come back with another suggestion from my ridiculous trade theory bank. Oooo, look, a dead horse! I should go beat it. Excuse me.
