When Top Bllingsley is Lousy

The other night I got a mental vision of the sweat-drenched face of Chad Billingsley on the mound and wondered whether last year's second half withering of our LA-cap donning enigma of high-K/fat-WHIP SP was due to the fact that he sweats a lot.

I'm certain that those who do not sweat (aka pigs) may not understand, but sweating profusely - not to mention sweating profusely in front of a crowd the size of Dodgers Stadium, on national TV - is rather uncomfortable and may actually be a distraction to the task at hand.

In order to test this new theory, I went against all the SIT-signs (2nd highest ERA @CIN, among others) and gave Chad the Top Billing on the SP list, given the mild weather out in Cincy.

Either my theory is off and/or Billingsley's sweating knows no bounds. In Cincinnati, Billingsley was dealt one of the worst single-inning pinball machine experience of his young career: 3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 4 ER, 1 HR, 2 K.

What's next? Another Verlander Meltdown? Oh, he's already had one at home against Cleveland this year.

Knocking on Verlander aside, the real question is, What to do about Billingsley?

Next up are the Nats in the nation's capital and I'm going to give Chad a chance to redeem himself, based on the fact that he's got great career numbers against the current bats of Nats, including Ryan Zimmerman (.250 OBP in 12 appearances with 1 HR) who's a bit hobbled.