The Cubs Chronicle

MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat reports:

“Joe Borowski’s velocity is down this spring but Cubs manager Dusty Baker wasn’t concerned. Borowski threw on the side Sunday after pitching two-thirds of an inning Saturday night.

‘You’d like him at this point to have a little more velocity,’ Baker said. ‘It looks like it’s the same delivery, same everything. The ball isn’t coming out the same right now. You hope it’s Spring Training and training and fatigue and heat and all that stuff.’”

The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan writes that Borowski’s “fastball has been clocked in the upper 80s this spring, or about 4-5 m.p.h. under last year’s velocity.”

Let’s hope this is just a temporary dip. Borowski throws two pitches – a fastball and a slider. He doesn’t have a sinker or changeup that would allow him to be effective (or at least as effective as he has been) without a low 90s fastball. Additionally, he already lives by painting corners. A slowdown in his velocity may lead him to try to paint the corners even more, meaning an increased walk rate.