Why Has Vincent Velasquez Pitched Inconsistent?

Vincent Velasquez has been one of the young pitchers that has been pointed to as the future of the Phillies pitching rotation.  But since his 16 strikeouts performance on April 14th, Velasquez has averaged 9 strikeouts per nine innings pitched over his last eight starts.  But he has averaged only 5.1 innings per start and has given up five or more hits in six of those eight starts.

Meanwhile since Velasquez's 16 strikeouts game his teammate Aaron Nola has averaged 6.2 innings per game and 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings over eight starts.  Also Nola has only given up three or more Earned Runs is two of his last eight starts.

CSN Philly Phillies analyst Ricky Bottalico was a guest on The Sports Bash on Tuesday and spoke to the differences between Nola and Velasquez:

"I go back to 16 strikeout performance, alright that's all fine and dandy you had 16 strikeouts but you have to get over it.  I mean it was a long time ago at this point and the one thing that we haven't seen from Velasquez is a guy that can go deep into games. And I do comparisons, I hear what younger guys say and I heard Aaron Nola....was on with Marshall Harris and Marshall asked him 'What kind of stats do you look at after the game to see what kind of game that you pitched?" He says 'Well I don't look much into stats but I do look and see how far I got deep into the game." That to me is a seasoned type pitcher, that's a guy that wants to be in the ball game, he wants to stay in there as long as he can. I look at Velasquez and the number of pitches he throws early on in the ball games, you know they talk about being the Ace, the number one, number two, number three, the way he pitches he can't be that guy because he won't stay deep into the game. You gotta cut down on the pitch counts."

Hear what Bottalico had to say how Pete Mackanin plans to platoon Ryan Howard and Tommy Joseph along with his thoughts on Adam Morgan's recent rough starts and the rough series versus the Cubs