More trouble for Duke

Zach Duke got roughed up again today, giving up 5 earned runs in 4 innings against the D-Rays. The MLB.com recap describes his outing thusly:

Duke breezed through the first three innings, allowing just two infield singles, before being done in by control problems in the fourth. He hit consecutive batters after one out in the frame, then surrendered a pair of doubles and a (Josh) Paul home run that put the Pirates behind, 6-0.

It sounds like he's still having trouble with the finesse pitches like the two seamer. It isn't a huge problem but it gets bigger the closer we get to the opener, especially as guys like Maholm and Perez continue to struggle in the spring as well.

Aside from the rotation, Dejan has an article about the hopeful anchor of the Pirates bullpen this year, Mike Gonzelez. His stuff is clearly good enough to get the job done, as we've seen the last couple years. The biggest problem he'll encounter is his own love of striking batters out. He had some trouble with the strike zone early in the year last year (before his injury) and it seemed to stem from him trying to strike out everyone that came up to the plate. If he can avoid that mentality, I really doubt we'll have much to worry about from the closer's position. The problem will be getting leads into the 9th inning.