Vance Worley has been one of the biggest surprises this season. Forced into the rotation because of injuries to Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton, Worley has pitched far above any expectations that the organization could have had for him. He’s posted an 8-1 record in 14 starts, and his ERA has been below 2.50 for much of the season. His numbers are comparable to the other aces on the staff.
However, despite the overwhelming early success, there are plenty of people (myself included) who have remained skeptical about the legitimacy of “The Vanimal”. While he’s certainly been impressive, and a very important part of the team this season, its hard to buy in to the idea that his success is for real when he’s only made 14 starts.While I believe he is capable of having a successful career in the major leagues, I’m not so sure that he isn’t anything more than a fourth or fifth starter.
After recently seeing two other alleged up-and-coming young pitchers rise and fall, it’s not hard to be skeptical of Worley. Major Leaguers will eventually make adjustments and expose the flaws in a young pitcher’s game, quickly separating the legitimate pitchers from the pretenders.
Once upon a time, in 2007 a young pitcher by the name of Kyle Kendrick came from out of nowhere, and posted a 10-4 record with a 3.87 ERA in 20 starts. Some thought that Kendrick could become a good third starter. The next season, he posted an ERA of 5.49 in 30 starts, and spent the following season in the minor leagues. He’s turned out to be nothing more than an average fifth starter at best.
Two years later, another young starter J.A. Happ got a chance to join the rotation, and posted a remarkable 12-4 record with a 2.93 ERA. Fans thought the left-hander was a great young pitcher on the rise, and there were many who didn’t want to see him moved as part of the trade to bring Oswalt to town. Today, Happ is back in the minor leagues after posting a miserable 4-14 record with an Adam Eaton-like ERA of 6.26. 
Worley got exposed in his last start. The young right-hander turned in one of his worst outings of the season on August 10th against the Dodgers, lasting just four innings and allowing six runs on seven hits, and also walked three. His ERA shot up from 2.35 to 2.85.
Worley struggled heavily with his command during that game. He got himself into early trouble by surrendering back-to-back walks to Casey Blake and Andre Either. The two free passes opened up the floodgates, and led to a terrible inning for the 23-year old. Desperate to get ahead in the counts and not hand out any more walks, he began to hang to pitches in bad spots. The Dodger hitters took advantage of this, and drove in five runs on four hits (including three extra-base hits, a homerun, triple, and double).
Worley doesn’t possess overwhelming stuff. He doesn’t have great velocity, or great movement on his pitches. His success has come as a result of great command, and the ability to locate his pitches into precise spots, keeping hitters off balance. The Dodgers took a patient approach with the rookie, and chased him from the game before the fifth inning.
How will Worley respond after getting a rare taste of adversity? Will he shake off his poor outing, and get back on track? Will the Diamondbacks be able to follow the blueprint of the Dodgers, and get to the young hurler early and often? The right-hander could take a step towards silencing his critics with a good performance tonight.
“after getting exposed” is a little overreacting don’t you think DAnny..
He was hit hard and obviously didn’ thave a very good outing against a pretty good hitting line-up versus the Dogers.. To say he was exposed makes it sound like the strong starts that he’s had all season were a fluke.. I think you are underestimating his pitching ability… and then comparing him to other Pitchers like Kendrick & Happ is just too easy to do.. Who expectcts any young PItcher to dominante every time out.. Did Doc Halladay,Lee and Hamels dominate every start early on in their Careers… C’mon and give this kid a break and let him do what he’s done all season, and that’s pitch at a pretty high level and to give his team a chance.. Being a Starter in the MLB (and a succesful one is like a Turtle race) you have to pace yourself every start over a long season and most Pitchers will Start about 32-35 games a season (if they are healthy enough) and the Top Pitchers have their “A” maybe 70% of the time and will have some rough outings over a course of a long season (See Cliff Lee,Cole Hamels, CC SAbathia as prime examples)
On a side note, I think Kendrick has turned into a very reliable Pitcher for this staff, He can Start, Pitch long relief, or come in during Situational Batters.. He been very valuable this Season and has matured into a pretty good Pitcher in my opinion..
Any pitcher can get “exposed”–how about Cliff Lee and his 1-2 record and 4.91 ERA in July? How about Roy Halladay on Monday night–aloowing 2 runs in the 9th–did that “expose” him??? All pitchers have bad games and bad seasons–the great Steve Carlton went 27-10 with a 1.93 ERA in 1972 and then had a 13-20 record in 1973–so what did he do the rest of his career–3 more Cy Young awards and at least 3 more 20 win seasons. Not comparing Worley to Carlton, just saying your headline is a bit sensationalistic–I mean, you bring up Happ–but what you don’t say is that Happ suffered from injuries last year before he got dealt to Houston–and then pitching for Houston, he’s gotten rocked–but how about another ex-Phillie pitcher in Houston–Brett Myers–do you think he’s a guy who is a 4-12 pitcher or the one that gave thPhils some solid seasons. Worley was brought up to be a 5th starter–if he wins 10 games as a 5th starter, he did his job–just as Kendrick did his job as a 5th starter in ’07.
Exposed?…Expose what?…When Worley attacks the hitters, throws strikes and keeps the ball down, he wins…Same as any pitcher…Halladay left one up the other night, and they hit it…Did he get exposed?…Stukes same thing last night: he left it over the middle of the plate, up, it got hit out…Pitching isn’t rocket science….You get behind hitters, get cute, you lose.