What have you done with Daniel Cabrera?

My expectations for Daniel Cabrera this season was nothing. I expected the same old song and dance from him. 5 innings of work, a few runs, 5 or 6 walks, and some strikeouts. This is the season where I throw the towel in on the hype. I wasn’t supposed to care about his electric arm or the fact he’s been compared numerous times to a young Randy Johnson. No. I wasn’t supposed to be bothered with Daniel Cabrera this season. I was finally at terms with who he was..a medicore pitcher who should be a lot better.

His season opening against Tampa had me at ease when he only went 4. I wasn’t happy with that, but I was at terms with Cabrera being Cabrera. Then something happened. Every start there after got progressively better.

As shown in the chart below, his walk numbers allowed per start have dropped. Against Tampa, he walked 5. Seattle, he walked 4. 3 against TB. 2 walks against the Yanks and last night zip.

 *the chart is messed up due to my effort to condense it,  everything is a number behind on the totals. I can’t get it deleted either*

 

GAME		W		L		ERA		G		GS		CG		S		S				I		H		R		ER		HR		BB		SO		NP-S		GO-AO
APR 02		TB		0		0		13.50		1		1		0		0		0		0		4.0		6		6		6		2		5		2		95-52	7-3
APR 07		SEA		0		0		9.00		1		1		0		0		0		0		6.0		5		4		4		2		4		5		102-58	8-5
APR 12		@TB		0		0		5.94		1		1		0		0		0		0		6.2		5		1		1		0		3		4		107-63	9-7
APR 18		NYY		1		0		5.16		1		1		0		0		0		0		6.0		6		2		2		1		2		3		108-64	8-6
APR 23		@SEA		1		0		4.40		1		1		0		0		0		0		8.0		5		2		2		0		0		5		95-65	10-9
March/April Total:				2	0	4.40	5	5	0	0	0	0	30.2	27	15	15	5	14	19	507-302	42-30

Last night capped it off, 95 pitches and 65 of ‘em for strikes. If you’re a pitcher and you’ve thrown that in 8 innings, you’ve done all you can do. I was impressed by his pace on the mound last night. He had some quick innings and had only one 3-2 count that I saw. 

Maybe this is finally it. Maybe we’ll be let down again. Maybe Rick Kranitz is the right guy to coach Cabrera. I need a few more starts like yesterday to bring me back aboard, too many times before I thought he’d break out and maximize his stuff and too many times he’d go down in flames. He’s looking good and maybe this is a turning point in his career….but I’m going to wait a little while longer before I jump back aboard the Cabrera bandwagon. I’ve still got a few dozen splinters to pick out from my previous years on it.