Bickley Blast: Has time finally run out for D-backs' Jordan Montgomery?

and Mara boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader Bley blast Bruce arens used to say the best lessons are learned through great escapes from the games you almost lose and that is the latest game story from our Diamondbacks after a stout comeback yesterday in Miami they have swept another opponent atoning for that dog breath performance in Tampa and onwards they go to the Tinder Box of Boston and yet that comeback yesterday was necessary because Jordan Montgomery was once again highly overpaid and highly underwhelming thereby pushing the Diamondbacks to a conclusion they seem to be dreading where they seem to be dragging their feet and that conclusion is that Montgomery cannot be part of a fiveman rotation going forward these games are simply too important and Ryan Nelson has been a far better alternative despite his youthful inexperience and now to make matters worse fans have completely turned on Montgomery who has joined a club of local baseball parayas players who got sideways with the audience in Arizona and completely lost all trust that list includes Russ Ortiz Shelby Miller Trevor Cahill yasmani Tomas and who can forget Madison bumuter so Montgomery isn't just losing his spot in the rotation he is losing the fan base as well and as we all know it's a long way back from the bottom of an empty well and so that empty well would be The Well of faith that is now disappeared um for Jordan Montgomery performance yesterday he gave him five in the third Innings he got Nick earlyy big home run that was a good one that was your best one of the week so far that was that was that was one you were searching for some serious exit velocity there speaking of exit velocity have you seen Jordan Montgomery pit oh boy oh boy so uh so what did yesterday's perform did it did it close the I know it did so I'm asking you rhetorically more than anything well I I look through Jordan Montgomery's statistical profile because I'm a nerd and baseball is great for nerds especially a page like baseball Savant when you can look up all of these numbers that indicate certain things that a pitcher does well or doesn't do well for example Jordan Montgomery has never thrown the ball that fast it hasn't really matter over the course of his career because things like Chase percentage he has been awesome at he has always forced hitters to chase pitches outside the Zone his numbers there this year are actually really great but a concerning one for me is hard hit percentage he ranks in the 26th percentile of baseball this year which is not good he's usually somewhere average to above average there meaning when he makes mistakes on those offe speed pitches that he primarily uses guys were punishing them less than they are punishing them now this year again I mentioned this this yesterday but the number now after the Stats come in from yesterday's game his Sinker which he uses 31.6% of the time this year hitters are now hitting 380 off of his primary pitch they are slugging 569 off of that Sinker and look they're hitting 257 off the curve they're hitting 310 off the change up they're hitting 318 off the four seamer hitters are having success against all of his stuff I wish that we saw the change up in the curveball were working a little bit more Dan to indicate like okay maybe it's just his primary Sinker for seamer something like Zack Allen where we just look at it like okay if he gets his four seamer on track he'll be fine but with Jordan the stuff that he excels at we're not really seeing that kind of thing for example last year hitters hit 191 off of that curveball it was a fantastic pitch for him this year it just hasn't been the same that's something people really and and I watched him pitch last year in the playoffs this is a dude that went 3 in1 with a 2.90 ER last year's postseason think about that and compare that to what we're watching now and and I and granted um when I get when I back off uh the hypercriticism of this player because again if you saw on Twitter and Twitter is not exactly uh not a ton of redeem redeeming qualities uh on that platform these days but the amount of anger and the amount of cheap shots the amount of the way people are reacting to Jordan montgom now is going to make it very very difficult um for him to kind of get back in good graces so I don't know what the team is going to do I really don't I don't know whether Ryan Nelson has to continue to be dominant to keep his spot but I'll tell you this much if if you send Jordan Montgomery to the bullpen and you kind of if if you kind of have that tough conversation with them and you say look uh this is just not your year man we we we've we've given you every opportunity to prove us wrong this young kid is here this is the way it works he's taking your job we we'd love to help you but we we're in service to the team and the season go have a seat at the end of the bench okay even if that happens you don't know where this thing is going to go he'd be there if Ryan Nelson suddenly broke down or if somebody suddenly got injured but after a while you sit down a starting pitcher now he's not stretched out now he is not capable of giving you more than three or four Innings most and what what's his value in the bullpen anyway I don't you would just be parking him there yeah I mean you know guy does doesn't throw that hard doesn't have that great stuff no a long reliever that but that the Dbacks don't really need that they have so many arms you throw him on the B team of relievers and you're right about that we remember to start the season when he didn't have the full spring training how long it took him to sort of get back in shape so if if we take him out of s are you surprised that they haven't tried the old arm fatigue 10day I miss a couple rotations through try to work on his stuff then get him back they haven't tried that at all during this yeah yeah I don't know maybe maybe that is next I I don't know I do know that at one point in time the organization thought that it was a delivery related thing that they could actually fix him and and having a guy like Bren STM is a great luxury for this team because he brings so much sincerity and so much knowledge and the guys trust him so much and he and he finds solutions for guys um this is a this is a real tough one this is a real tough one to get your arms around and in this part of the schedule Dan I'm really going to emphasize this the Dbacks now have 34 games left in the season in their next 16 that is five series against teams that are all above 500 that is Boston the Mets the Dodgers the Giants and the Rangers look after that it doesn't get much easier yes you get games against Texas and Colorado but you have two Series against Milwaukee who has been one of the best teams in baseball and then you've got the Giants and the Padres again at the end of the year so this is a time where you are facing your best opposition of the Year this is not a part of the schedule where you can afford to throw Jordan Montgomery against Miami or against Colorado again I say that out loud his last two outings were against Miami and Colorado and he didn't impress like we we've seen him against some of the worst teams in the league now we're going to see him against some of the best teams in the league if he stays in but I agree with you I think we're done now I think Tori and Mike Hazen and and their entire front office gave him every single opportunity they possibly could have and again it would be a different situation if Ryan Nelson's Ra was 4.5 or five but it's not he's been their best pitcher now for seven weeks listen and and yes I think Tory lell Mike haisen can say they went to the wall for Jordan Montgomery and and and and I think anything they do now is completely Justified and remember last year last year heading into the playoffs it might have been right around this time of year actually maybe a little later Nick Ahmed Nick Ahmed who had been with the franchise for a bunch of years who was the veteran who was that defensive pres they made the decision to get rid of him for the playoff run and bring you know up somebody younger know Jordan Lawler didn't want them doing anything but they they have made now Ahmed didn't have the contract sitting over their heads for next year like gy might but there is precedent last year for them to make a roster move with a veteran late in the season thanks for watching Bley and marada click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports