The San Diego Padres have not had the prettiest start to spring training. Although it's not about the wins and losses, the Padres sit at 1-4 before they take on the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.
The Padres haven't played great baseball, and their ace right-handed pitcher, Joe Musgrove, is a huge reflection of that. Musgrove's performance has been uncharacteristic, as he's struggled to find his groove through his first two spring starts.
The 31-year-old spoke to reporters including the San Diego Tribune's Kevin Acee, and was honest about his latest outing on Monday.
“I’m a little disappointed in the effectiveness of my stuff,” Musgrove said. “I made better pitches today than I did last week. Some good pitches that they hit. But overall, just wasn’t super sharp for the secondary stuff. So I feel like I backed myself into a corner having to use weapons that I don’t typically use in certain points in the count. But I’m confident that’s going to come around.”
In two outings thus far, Musgrove is 0-2 with an abysmal 43.20 ERA and 4.20 WHIP. He also has zero strikeouts.
Some of his struggles have to do with the new slider he developed this offseason, as Musgrove pointed out on Monday.
“Everything I knew about that old slider is very different with this new one as far as where I’m starting in the zone to make it appealing, how to locate it to both sides of the plate,” he said. “This is all working right now (to see) if I’m going to work in the zone. So if the stuff is not right by the next start, I’m gonna go to what I know I can get outs with and what I know I can control. … It’s a little bit of trial and error right now.”
The numbers don't reflect the type of pitcher Musgrove is, and he has plenty of time to figure things out before the Padres open their season on March 20 against the Dodgers. Musgrove is expected to start one of the two games in Korea.
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