GOODYEAR, Ariz. — , the Rockies’ reigning strikeout king, woke up feeling lousy Saturday morning, fearing he had caught the bug that has KO’d many of his teammates.
But that didn’t stop Marquez from striking out nine Cleveland Indians in three innings of Cactus League work at Goodyear Ballpark. The right-hander, however, did give up four singles, a walk and a wild pitch, so he wasn’t in top form.
“My body didn’t feel good, but my stuff was still there. I just competed,” said the 23-year-old right-hander, who set a single-season franchise record last year with 230 strikeouts.
Manager Bud Black has seen Marquez in better form, but that didn’t stop him from praising his young pitcher.
“He’s got weapons,” Black said. “I like the poise he’s exhibited that last couple of years. There has been great growth in that area. There is confidence. He’s developing into one of the best pitchers in the National League, for sure, and maybe all of baseball.”
As for Saturday’s outing, Black said: “His secondary stuff was really good, but he wasn’t really sharp and that’s probably a reflection of how he felt. He went out today, got his work in and we got the pitch count up where we wanted it. I was proud of him.”
Marquez’s slider and curveball were particularly effective at getting him out of trouble with men on base, but he insisted that he’s not hunting for K’s.
“I’m not looking for a strikeout. I’m looking for groundballs instead,” he said. “A strikeout just happens from making my pitches.”
60 feet, 6 inches. The independent Atlantic League is partnering with Major League Baseball this summer to experiment with some radical changes to the game. One of the most radical experiments is extending the distance from the pitching rubber to home plate by 24 inches. Since 1893, the distance has been 60 feet, 6 inches.
So what does Black, who pitched for parts of 15 big-league seasons, think of the idea?
“At first glance, you start really messing with the math of the game,” he said. “You start messing with the math and how the game was originally designed. But, taking a hard, progressive look at it, then maybe so.
“It would create a longer window for hitters to see the ball and put the bat to it. Strikeouts would come down, balls in play would go up. There would be a lot to that. So I’ll be interested to see how that plays out. So let’s do it in the test environment of that league.”
Black, however, did discuss some of the pitfalls, including the idea that moving back the rubber could result in higher-scoring, and longer, games.
“This is all creative thinking to put the ball in play and get more runs,” he said. “But if you are trying to do that, it’s kind of contradictory to (speeding up) pace of play.”
Footnotes. Left-hander , back from his bout with a stomach bug, threw 25 pitches against batters on a back field. After missing Friday’s game, he’s now scheduled to start Wednesday. … Right fielder , also felled by illness, was unable to go with the split-squad team to Monterrey, Mexico, this weekend, but he did hit in a simulated game and took batting practice. … Catcher Tony Wolters did make the trip to Monterrey, but he was scratched because of illness.
