I think part of it is Gibbons leaves him in too long as well. His numbers the 3rd and 4th time through the order are worse relative to what an average pitcher loses in effectiveness. Being a smaller guy maybe he fatigues more quickly.
He threw more 4 seams than 2 seams today and only 3 changeups so its naive to say his struggles are strictly pitch selection. Curveball was the best I've seen since 2014 so that gives me optimism. He's also faced some pretty damn good offences of late. With a couple of off days coming up perhaps that helps him. Let him have a few more starts then see where he's at. Still a hell of a lot better than Dickey.
I think there were 7 balls hit over 99MPH so its not like it was just pure BABIP luck. His curveball looked really good at times which was nice to see. Consistency wasn't really there though and FB command inside the K-zone wasn't good.
Your the f***ing stubborn one lol. Constantly complaining about him blah blah...
He's not nearly as good as 2014 but he still has a 3.83 xFIP which is still good.
Justin Smoak is a pretty successful hitter for a guy who literally can't hit breaking balls. I'll be glad when he's replaced. I can't stand how he's talked about defensively by Buck either. He's below average yet they talk like he's a gold glover.