Is Vince Velasquez A Starting Pitcher Or Closer?

In his second season in Philadelphia, Vince Velasquez has started the year with erratic results.  While tallying 17 Strikeouts in Two Starts is impressive, allowing Nine Runs over Nine Innings and walking Seven batters shows Velasquez still has a ways to go before he puts it all together to be a consistent and effective starting pitcher.  It may be a foregone conclusion that Velasquez future is not as a starting Pitcher but as the team's Closer since he is unable to exceed his 5.3 Innings per start average over the last two seasons.

Bucks County Courier Times Phillies Beat Writer Kevin Cooney joined The Sports Bash on Tuesday and gave his analysis on if Velasquez future is as a starting pitcher or as a Closer:

"At this point his talent is so tempting that (Phillies are) going to keep him in the starting role through the end of the year.  But if he doesn't give them length (of innings), and that's the (issue), you can have 10 Strikeouts through four innings but if you are going to your Bullpen in the Fifth (Inning) and starting to expose the underbelly of the Bullpen, you're inviting trouble.  And that's where Velasquez has to get deeper (into games)....I think that any conversation about this right now is premature.  Now you can have an idea on what they should at the end of the year if this keeps up, I think it's obvious what they should do at that point: (The Closer) should be Velasquez.  But at this point, they're not going to do (any change) until the end of the year."

Checkout what Cooney had to say about the job GM Matt Klentak is doing, expectations for Zach Eflin, when we could see Jorge Alfaro make it up to Philadelphia this season, and more Phillies talk