Nice little (or "depressing little") article on Geoff Geary's early season struggles by Alyson Footer sheds some light on just what in the world is happening:
During the off-season, Geary had surgery to repair a hip abductor and an abdominal tear (leading me to wonder if Geary tangled with Leatherface), and may not have been completely healed. Some quotes:
His velocity is slowly climbing back to normal levels, and he hasn't felt thwarted by command issues. He senses the problem is timing, and he also acknowledged that the surgery has probably made him a little tentative in the early-going. Whereas last year he couldn't rely on generating power from his leg as much as his arm, this year, post-surgery, he was able to go back to using his legs more. But now he senses he's dragging his arm, which is messing with his timing.
But it's hard to harp on a guy when he says this about himself:
"It's just going to improve. I can't worry about what I've already done, which is make a fool of myself out there."
Dewey Robinson ain't scurred:
"The two things I look for is how their stuff is. The velocity, the sharpness of their breaking ball, the movement on their fastball -- that's No. 1. No. 2 is their command. If those two are in sync, you're usually going to get pretty good results. To start off the season, his stuff wasn't quite as good as it was last year and his command was a little off. But as we've gone into the season, his stuff has gotten better, and his command's getting better."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
