Rookie righty Lambert hangs tough, but major improvement is needed

On Sept. 2 at Dodger Stadium, Rockies rookie right-hander Peter Lambert was beaten like a piñata. Manager Bud Black mercifully relieved him with two outs in the second inning after Lambert had been blasted for six runs on eight hits.

After that game, I asked Black if there would come a point when continuing to pitch Lambert became “counterproductive.” Black answered: “There is that point. Whether that point is approaching, I’m not sure. That’s a tough one to answer. My conversations with Peter about what’s going on are productive. We’ll see.”

The Rockies decided to stick with Lambert until he was scratched from his final scheduled start of the season. He ended up going 3-7 with 7.25 ERA in 19 starts. Given all of the injuries and failures by Rockies starters this season, Colorado had little choice but to keep putting Lambert out on the mound.

After that disastrous start in Los Angeles, I asked Lambert, point blank, if he should keep pitching this season. Without blinking, he said: “The only way to learn is if you keep pitching. I’m learning a lot right now, and that’s best for me.”

He insisted that he had not lost confidence. That’s great, but can the Rockies count on him to improve enough to be a positive force in the rotation next season? I’d say no, but then I remember the talented pitcher I saw in spring training. And I recall that Lambert went 8-2 with a 2.23 ERA in his first 15 starts at Double-A Hartford last season, earning him a promotion to Triple-A at age 21.

Like left-hander Kyle Freeland, Lambert doesn’t possess raw firepower, so he must pitch — meaning he must locate all of his pitches, paint the black and keep hitters guessing — if he’s going to be successful.

“There are some basic pitching-principle things on the mechanics side that we’re going to clean up a little bit,” Black told reporters in San Francisco. “But going through this complete major-league season — he started throwing in January and was really turning the ball loose in February in spring training — and to make it all the way to September in the rotation, shows that he has some durability and stamina.

“There were times he didn’t have his best stuff, but he still went out there and competed hard. And he’s 22 years old. That’s the thing that should stick out to everybody.”

Lambert’s numbers are not encouraging: 1.74 WHIP, .315 batting average against, 5.74 strikeouts per nine innings and 3.63 walks per nine. Still, he believes he can straighten things out over the winter and next spring.

“The biggest thing is consistency in my delivery,” Lambert told MLB.com. “That goes back to, on some pitches, not trying to do too much with it, just trusting it. You see a little extra effort, which causes a little bit of extra rotation, maybe coming off pitches early, pulling my head.”

Lambert insists that he’s not far off from being the kind of pitcher who went 8-2 with a 2.23 ERA in his first 15 starts at Double-A Hartford, earning him a promotion to Triple-A at age 21.

“I’m not making terrible pitches,” Lambert told MLB.com. “They’re near where I want them, but they’re just a little off. That creates bad counts for myself — hitters’ counts. I learned a lot about myself this year and what I need to do going forward.”

In a perfect world, Lambert would have been a late-season call-up, not an emergency fill-in for the faltering Freeland. But the Rockies’ world was a million light years away from perfect this season.

Next season, Lambert, like any Rockies pitcher not named German Marquez or Jon Gray, has a lot to prove.