Thursday, April 16, 2009

Brad Arnsberg: best pitching coach in MLB

Brad Arnsberg is the best pitching coach in all of baseball, yet it's largely unnoticed because in his tenure with the ball club, the Blue Jays have not put a winning product on the field. With their early success in '09, Arnsberg has played a pivotal role. No one figured their bats would be this hot, but by that same token, the rotation was supposed to be doom and gloom all year, yet it has been very stable...

Following last night's 12-2 drubbing of the Twins, Arnsberg must be commended for making Scott Richmond a half decent starter. Make no mistake, Richmond is still not a long term solution, nor should he get too big headed about going 6.1 innings (a career high), but Arnsberg has worked his magic with yet another hurler...

When you consider how well Ricky Romero has started his big league career, particularly after being labeled a "bust" by many pundits, how does Arnsberg not deserve a lot of the credit? After a poor start to the spring, General Manager J.P. Ricciardi was all set to send Romero back to AAA, but Arnsberg insisted on keeping him with the team. believing he could work with him to make him an effective big league pitcher. The early results are something to behold. 1-0, with a 2.57 ERA in 2 starts, which includes his latest outing, a stellar 8 inning performance against the Twins...

David Purcey, like Romero, a former first round pick has had enough solid starts in his brief career to know that he'll be a keeper. It's very exciting when prospects Brett Cecil and Brad Mills are awaiting their chance to become another quality major league pitcher. They'll be able to owe their success to the best in the business, Brad Arnsberg...