Taboo?

Sorry to bring this up, but did anyone see Kershaw's performance last night? Look, I realize he's only 22 and he's had just a little over a year and a half in the bigs, but with all his incredible potential (and I know the whole Koufax story) should he still have so little composure every outing?? The walks? The hit batters? The falling behind and being forced to make fat pitches? And let's take a look at Billingsley. What about all that potential? He's really not too good, considering how high his ceiling was/is supposed to be. At times, both pitchers are just horrible.

I guess what I'm getting at is, we hear so much about what an amazing job pitching coach and ex-big league catcher, Dave Duncan is doing with the Cardinals pitchers. Look at what he's doing for rookie, Jaime Garcia and look what he's done to resurrect the careers of Kyle Lohse, Chris Carpenter and Brad Penny. So, that being said, is Rick Honeycutt, as much as we love the guy, maybe NOT the guy for the job any longer? Of course the staff likes him, but pitchers always speak glowingly of their mentors. It just dosn't appear that the Dodgers are getting the most out of the young arms they bring up through their system once they get to the big club. True, Jim Colburn did little for Edwin Jackson who wound up becoming a disaster until he left for greener pastures. Colburn, I thought, was slightly more effective than Honeycutt and I was sorry to see him go. But, to further drive home my point, look how terrible James McDonald has become. Look how Broxton is still having some command problems and see how awful George Sherrill is now that he's become a Honeycutt disciple. I'm just saying, when looking at Kershaw, Billingsley and McDonald, it just seems like it may be time for a change at pitching coach. Take into account that, since the Dodgers don't seem too interested in or willing to pay for an established, top flight arm who wouldn't really need Honeycutt's tutelage, it appears they're settled on making the youthful Kershaw and the less youthful Billingsley their core arms. Those are the 2 guys they're building their staff around. So, hadn't they better get someone to work with them that may be more adept at recognizing mechanical problems more quickly and efficiently and perhaps squeezing out better results?

Maybe, like Jim Tracy, Rick is just not the right guy for that particular team or those particular personailites, but may do better elsewhere, like he did in Oakland. Anyway, just thinking out loud. Sorry, Rick.