This is unrelated to the issue of his length in games, but was Doubront always so large? I seem to remember him having a thin build but yesterday he looked, to be blunt, pretty round.

I seem to remember him having a thin build but yesterday he looked, to be blunt, pretty round.

Get him off the chicken and beer, and get him started on a steady diet of crack. Problem solved!

Pretty sure his weight is significantly down from last season.

Pretty sure his weight is significantly down from last season.

Ah. Clearly I had my mental picture of him jumbled with someone else then. Nevermind, carry on.

Bobby V is to blame for that car wreck of a headline.

Ah. Clearly I had my mental picture of him jumbled with someone else then. Nevermind, carry on.

He might still be heavier than he was in 2010 when he first came up; I'm not really sure. But he definitely put on a lot of weight last year and came into camp out of shape. This year he lost a lot of weight and came into camp in much better shape. I'm not sure how his current weight compares to his 2010 weight though, if that makes sense.

He looks to me like a guy who has filled out in recent years. I think he looks more fit than he used to (he's always been a bit frumpy) but he's a bit bigger in general.

He's also throwing harder than ever before, which might make him look a little more imposing.

(I mean, he threw about this hard in relief in the past, but he never had quite this velocity as a starter.)

Control is usually the last skill to develop in pitchers, so it isn't so unusual for a young guy to have trouble getting through more than 5 innings in the early parts of their careers. I suppose it takes a pitcher a while to figure out that it isn't the end of the world when a major league hitter actually makes contact with a pitch.

Doubront is getting a lot more strikeouts than I expected so far. I'm a big believer in him so I found this to be a bit more negative than I feel about him. Last night was really his first bad outing and as 'worst outings' go it was better than Beckett, Lester and Buchholz had.

Doubront's definitely walking too many and pitching behind in the count too much, but I think his main problem right now is a .350 BABIP that should regress to the mean.

Control is usually the last skill to develop in pitchers, so it isn't so unusual for a young guy to have trouble getting through more than 5 innings in the early parts of their careers. I suppose it takes a pitcher a while to figure out that it isn't the end of the world when a major league hitter actually makes contact with a pitch.

Yeah, just look at promising young Baltimore Orioles starters over the past decade or so, before they finally figured it all out.

/Well, I mean, Bedard was like that too, but we always had a bunch of young guys who'd throw 90 pitches through 4. Arrieta, who might be turning the corner, is one of them.

Ah. Clearly I had my mental picture of him jumbled with someone else then.

And that other person is Devern Hansack.

This velocity for Doubront is new. The Sox Prospects scouting report on him shows that much:

Left-handed pitcher, who has filled out well over the last several years. Fastball sits 91-93 mph. Throws both two-seam and four-seam varieties. Four-seamer can top out at 94 mph when working out of bullpen. Two-seamer shows late arm-side run. Average-to-solid-average fastball command. Struggles to consistently hit spots and control heater in stretches.

Throwing 95 while starting is brand new. The control problem for Doubront has been hitting spots, not walking people. So along with this new velocity thing is the walking-people thing. He had trouble locating the fastball when it was going 91-93 and the problem has now been compounded. Thus, I think a lot of the strikeouts are being wild in and around the zone.