Nolasco Still Struggles

According to scouts, Ricky Nolasco is hitting the numbers on the radar gun that are impressive. Several times he hit the 95 mark on the gun with his fastball, and his curve was maintaining good velocity in the mid 80's. Yet in 4.2 innings last night, he gave up 10 hits and 6 earned runs.

The problem is his location. He has the stuff, but he is not making his pitches. One noticeable trait is his curveball which was breaking pretty hard last night, but it wasn't making it for strikes. It broke too much.

Ironically, Nolasco was a bit more wild in his last appearance, his first win of the season, in Milwaukee. He walked 4 batters in 5 innings pitched. Last night, he only walked 2.

Right now, Nolasco is too inconsistent to really be looked at as a starter. Yet, the Marlins have little answers due to all the injuries to the starting rotation over the last season. Unless the Marlins are going to call up Chris Volstad or some other minor league prospect but they face getting more of the same from Andrew Miller or Burke Badenhop. Perhaps sliding Doug Waechter into the rotation may help.

The Marlins are obviously desperate for some quality starts. Nolasco does not seem ready to give them that.