Brian Wilson’s liberal tendencies

Fear the Beard ... just not so much

The intermittent struggles of San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson are no doubt of little concern to fantasy baseball players. They haven't forgotten that, in 2010, the right-hander saved 48 games in 53 chances and registered a 1.81 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and 93 K's in 74 2/3 innings.

In his first couple of appearances (four hits, five runs, three walks, one strikeout in 1 1/3 frames) after his April 6 activation from the disabled list, the Beard was obviously still working out the kinks. Since, he has posted a 3.0o ERA, a 1.11 WHIP and 11 K's in nine innings.

Evening out the facial hair

It's understandable that he'd be a little off, especially since he didn't get but five frames in exhibition competition. Including the postseason, he pitched a career-high 86 1/3 stanzas last year. The poor results aren't necessarily a result of fatigue, but fatigue could be involved.

Wilson suffered a loss at the hands of the Atlanta Braves on April 24 perhaps because he just didn't have the gas to go back out for a second inning of work, in the 10th. He had erased three Bravos, with no trouble, in ninth. The eccentric reliever just hasn't worked up to that point yet, it appears.

While his struggles have slowly diminished, they haven't gone quietly. In his 11th game, against the Washington Nationals on Saturday, he was unable to locate his fastball. He retired a man, walked on, retired one, walked one and then hit one. Wilson was a bit fortunate to escape the bases-loaded jam by striking out Adam LaRoche on a slider, the only pitched that seemed to be working for him. LaRoche missed a meatball of a hanging breaker just two pitches before. After Wilson missed high with the heat, on 2-2, yet again, LaRoche swung through a quality slide piece.

The 29-year-old threw his fastball 18 times in that appearance; six were strikes, two called. It's not prudent to scrutinize the numbers from just one outing, but that one did allow for the observation that he appeared to be trying to throw too hard. Wilson was falling off to the left just a bit at the tail of his follow-through. Every four-seamer, just about, was way up.

Wilson had apparently been working on his two-seamer and changeup in the spring, but he didn't use either offering in this contest, according to MLB.com's pitch-by-pitch data. In fact, he doesn't appear to have used either yet this year. His four-seam fastball, which often gets in there at 95 to 97, is pretty straight, but it's his bread and butter. Without control of it or something else, hitters might look for a slider a little more often.

Giants beat writer Henry Schulman gave credit to Wilson for having the cojones to throw that 3-2 slider with the bases juiced in a 2-1 game, and it's due. But the hurler threw his second-best pitch because that's he was commanding. It was a great pitch, but did it take the focus away from his fastball form? Wilson's comments afterward suggested that it was about the confidence he had in his slider in the situation, but he didn't seem to have much reason to be confident in his fastball throughout.

This stuff is all minor, I'm sure. It's probably a relatively easy fix. Wilson's control problems used to make me wary because they came with a no-life fastball that, no matter how hard it was, didn't trip up everyone. His secondary stuff and location have certainly improved in the past couple of years, but I wonder if it's just a little too much to ask of him to be nearly as dominant as he was in 2010, or even 2009. Anyway, at least it's early.

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