Because of the television dynamic, I haven't seen her throw a pitch this year.
I started watching MLB baseball nearly 60 years ago. And though it's a totally different dynamic, just a thought. There were a lot of pitchers who mostly relied on location and a good breaking ball, who were never very good in the first half of the season. It took innings to get them on track. Best I can think of was Dennis Leonard.
In a 12 year career, he averaged 16 wins and 35 starts a year. He was a 20 game winner three times. He never made an all star team, mostly because he just wasn't a terrific pitcher in the first half of the season ever. But he was often the Royals' stud horse in August and September. The Royals won their division seven times in his career. And all but one of those seasons, he was a huge factor.
But it took him half a season to get there.
Last year, Kelsey was pretty mediocre early in the season. But we didn't really have anybody better, so they put her out there after a little break and somehow, it kicked in. She doesn't have dominant velocity so she has to rely on hitting her spots, changing speeds and pitching smart.
So I'd think one of three things has happened. One possibility is that she threw a lot of innings last season on tv and teams have a pretty good idea of what to expect from her. I think a lot of the time last season, because she didn't have great velocity, teams tended to go up there hacking against her. It seemed to be more effective later in the year, to take pitches earlier in the count. She was shaving the edges of the strike zone a lot and when you swung early, you were maybe hitting her pitch. If you took those pitches, and they were often a little off the plate, then you got a better pitch to hit later in the count. I don't know if that's the issue this year or not. Again, I haven't seen her throw much.
But today, she got four outs and surrendered six runs. The Parker came in and allowed no runs and got 14 outs. That is an obvious performance difference. Same strike zone, you'd expect. I do think it's a factor that most teams figure they don't have to worry about a rise ball, which is such a big pitch for most college softball pitchers. It surely is for Parker. But Kelsey is five or six MPH below Parker in velocity.
The second possibility is that she just threw too many innings last season, and the wear and tear made a difference. I know that today, half of her runs allowed were unearned. When you're relying on a narrow margin of error in the strike zone, giving extra outs is a bigger problem. It's harder for her to overcome. She's also not as athletic generally as our other pitchers of the last six seasons. She doesn't field her position as well as Parker or the two from the NC season.
And I think the third possibility is that she's just one of those pitchers that doesn't hit her stride until she gets the touch going and the inning count goes up. It was certainly the case last season. They had counted on Georgia Casey to be their go to pitcher last season, and that didn't work out. But Stevens bailed them out. She was stellar in the conference season and in the regional and super regional.
I hope it's the latter. She's not going to throw much over the low 60s. She has to pitch to narrow spots. But a pitcher like that usually needs extra work to get in the groove of hitting her spots consistently. But we need her to be good if this team is going to be good. Pendley is a decent third pitcher, but she's not going to be somebody who can be consistently effective against top teams. If the goal is getting to the WCWS and maybe winning it, you're only going to see top teams once you get there. Besides, Pendley is such a key person in the batting order. The mental requirement to pitch to a top lineup is a big deal. It can't help but impact her performance as a middle infielder and batter. She's not like somebody like Ricketts, who blew people away with dominant velocity and stuff. And splendid athleticism.
I am assuming that given her injury, that Casey isn't a possibility. And I don't think the other pitchers have combined for ten innings this year. So if we are going to have a reliable number two, then Kelsey needs to figure it out. So far, that hasn't been happening.
