Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

(OAKLAND May 2) – Jae Seo (0.64 ERA, 14 inn., 7 hits) and Chan Ho Park (0.00 ERA, 10 1/3 inn., 7 hits) were ‘lights out’ pitching for Korea in the WBC. However, they’ve both cooled off, and the change has been like night and day for them since the opening of MLB.

Seo has a 7.64 ERA and Park is at 4.62.

Esteban Loaiza of the A’s had some modest success in the WBC, having a good start against Canada, but got knocked out by Japan and finished the Classic with an ERA of 5.0. And somewhere between the WBC and Opening Day of the regular season he mysteriously lost nearly 10 miles an hour off his fastball, just yesterday going on the DL with an ERA over 8.

Click below for more!Bartolo Colon pitched 14 1/3 very effective innings, with a 0.64 ERA, in the World Baseball Classic. After getting knocked around at the beginning the regular season, however, he went on the DL.

Some of us were immediately reminded of his shoulder problems in the second inning of Game 5 in the ALDS last October, when rookie Ervin Santana rescued the Angels with a tremendous emergency relief performance

But apparently not Oakland Athletics’ manager Ken Macha.

Macha and others around Major League Baseball suspect the World Baseball Classic is at the root of the troubles so many hurlers are having, including these four, as we get into the 2006 season.

It’s certainly true that there seems to have been an extraordinary number of injuries and ultra-high ERAs in the first month of the season. A key to understanding these phenomena is to try to establish whether there is any cause-and-effect link between the WBC and all the pitching woes.

For example, Ken Macha would like to blame the WBC for the loss of the A’s young closer Huston Street for the past few weeks.

Street pitched 2 innings in relief in the WBC. And when he began the regular season he didn’t look quite like the 2005 American League Rookie of the Year.

But Joe Nathan of the Twins, and Scott Shields and Frankie Rodriguez of the Angels, also each threw a few effective innings in the WBC, similar to what Street was asked to do. And they seamlessly continued the same kind of shutdown relief work in the first month of the season, none the worse for wear as far as we could tell.

On the other hand Brad Lidge, another of the premier relievers, and also a member of the US team in the WBC, has been ineffective thus far. But we all remember how poorly he pitched in the post-season in 2005, well before the WBC.

Is there a pattern here? Is the WBC really to blame for his slow start?

Dontrelle Willis had a 12.7 ERA in the World Baseball Classic, giving up 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Then he got off to a strong start in the regular season, with an ERA under 3 over his first three outings. Now his ERA is creeping up, reaching 4.32 after getting knocked out in the seventh inning yesterday.

Is there any discernible, cause-and-effect there? Let me know if you find one.

Tim Hudson, who pitched a complete game one-hitter yesterday, had an ERA over 13 (!) until last week. But he didn’t go the the WBC.

John Garland, a World Series hero in 2005 with a 18-10 record, who stayed home in Tucson during the spring and trained with the White Sox while the US was being eliminated in the semi-final round, has an ERA over 7.

Brad Radke of the Twins, whose ERA as of this week was 8.89, and Jeff Weaver of the Angels, at 7.48, didn’t go to the WBC either.

Did the WBC really cause injuries? To his credit, Huston Street doesn’t think so. Matt Clement and C.C. Sabathia just came off the DL. Guess what? No, they didn’t pitch in the World Baseball Classic. In fact, the only known injury from the WBC was that to the Mexican WBC team lefty, and member of the Washington Nationals’ relief corps, Luis Ayala, who was recovering from arm surgery before joining the Mexican team.

Javier Vazquez, who had a good WBC for Venezuela (2.25 ERA, 8 inn, 6 hits), has gotten off to a great start for his new club, the White Sox. He is 3-1, with a 3.00 ERA. Ditto for Kelvim Escobar of the Angels, who was dominating last Sunday in Oakland and was consistently throwing at 96 MPH in beating the A’s.

I don’t see a pattern here. Sorry, Ken.

It’s funny. Barry Zito, who has been very up-and-down thus far in 2006, but showing promise of a turnaround – such as yesterday’s stellar job against the Angels – gets a whole other story line in regard to his problems, since he didn’t go to the Classic. “He doesn’t do well in April.”

Who knows, maybe he would have had a better start if he went to the WBC!

Frankly, all the blame-the-WBC stuff sounds kind of like sour grapes. MLB got its butt kicked, so now this captivating event has to be framed as a big nuisance in order to deflect criticism of the possible inferiority of MLB and the ineffective preparation and training of its players.

Or maybe it’s just a convenient excuse for GMs and scouts that can’t tell a change-up from a fastball, especially Esteban Loaiza’s.

Or, is the reason that there are so many pitching problems – and runs – the obvious one? Between the bad scouting and juiced players and the juiced ball and the gladiator gear that the hitters walk up to home plate with, home runs and runs are up 8 % over the same point in the season in 2005. (Throw in some really lousy fundamentals and you are going to have some wild scores, and ERAs. Hitting the cut-off man, like they do in Korea and Japan and Cuba, would work miracles alone.)

Before 2006, the most players ever in MLB to enter May with ten home runs was five (5). This season it was ten (10).

Outlaw all the extra boy armor and give the pitchers back the outside of the plate. Then most of the pitching problems, and cheap home runs, will vanish as quickly as they appeared.

And we can look forward to the next WBC, without all the crying.