Much has been made of the incredible weight loss of Brett Myers in the 2009 offseason. He came into spring training clearly having lost a lot of weight.
Talk on Twitter during tonight’s game brought up this quote from AProuja: “i think i liked fat Brett better”
I agree, he hasn’t really been pitching all that well so far early this season. He’s been giving up a lot of long balls, as has the rest of the staff. Through his first 5 games, not including tonight’s game against the Cardinals, he’s 2-3 with a 4.83 ERA and has given up 8 home runs. He gave up 2 more tonight, so that’s 10 through 6 starts to begin the season.
This is still better than his first 6 starts last season though. But not that much better.
Through 6 starts last season, he was 3-3 with a 5.11 ERA and had given up 10 home runs. Myers has always had a problem with the long ball, but has usually been able to get through those jams. This season, he’s been victimized by it.
He just hasn’t really been able to get away from giving up home runs. They had a comfortable lead against the Cards tonight, before Brett gave up 2 solo home runs to make it a one run game. Now the Phillies have come back from that and are winning 8-5 in the top of the 7th as I’m writing this, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Myers needs to get back to the from he had in the second half of last season. The Phillies really need him to solidify the top of the rotation with Cole Hamels. Without these two players at the top of their game, the Phillies are going to be hard pressed to repeat as NL East champs, yet alone WFC.
They’ve been able to come back from a lot of deficits so they’ve been able to mask a lot of bad outings by their pitching staff, but I don’t think they’ll be able to do that for the entire season.
If Myers needs to put some weight back on in order to get back into prime pitching shape, give him some cases of TastyKakes. I’m sure the Flyers will be able to spare some.
I also just plain liked Fat Brett better. He seemed meaner and more confident in his pitches. He just had that air about him when he took the mound and was showing a lot more emotion when he pitched. He needs to get back there.
-KK
