6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Tales Of Two Pitchers

Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Tales Of Two Pitchers

A couple stories I wanted to squeeze in earlier but missed somehow:

In the Long Beach Press-Telegram, a story by Tony Jackson about Jacksonville pitching coach Ken Howell and his approach with former (come on, who is really going to rank him top ten anymore?) top pitching prospect Edwin Jackson. Excerpt:
"The biggest thing I noticed was that his confidence level was low, even though stuff-wise, everything was good," Howell said. "What he needed to understand was that there will be times when this game will humble you, and you have fight back. It's not your job to win every game, because you can't control errors and balls that are misplayed. All you can do is execute pitches.
"I told him he had one day to be mad, but tomorrow, we go to work."
...
[Rumors] of Jackson's fall down the organizational prospect list have been greatly exaggerated. The Dodgers still believe they have a potential major-league star and probably aren't likely to trade him because his recent numbers would keep them from getting anything close to his true value in return.
If you can look past Jackson's early big-league success and remember that he turned 22 less than two weeks ago, the fact is that, developmentally speaking, he is about where he should be.
In the Riverside Press-Enterprise, a story about the Dodgers' non-pursuit of Jeff Weaver, who will probably end his season with a winning record.
"I'm just a lot more comfortable," Weaver said. "Last year when I came here there were a lot of question marks. ... I was asking myself questions. You have some self-doubt, you wonder if you can get back to the way you were and the way you were throwing before. ... Now I really feel like I'm back to a few years back when I was traded to the Yankees and throwing well."