Monday, August 29, 2005
Thoughts about pitchers
This is a guest poster seeing as how "John Ryder" has been MIA for the past few weeks/months. However, my name is nothing important right now seeing as how I might make a fool of myself and get booed off the stage.
So there are some good relivers out there this year. You know the big bad mean closers but unless you live in San Diego you might have never heard of Rudy Seanez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4414). However, he is having a quitely dominating year or is he? I wanted to get to the bottom of why a 36 year old journeyman with his sort of rate stats this year was never discovered earlier. I mean his K/9 is 13.25 (which is right up there with noted K masters Brad Lidge 13.99 and BJ Ryan 13.72), his bb/k is 4.86 (better than Lidge 4.5 and Ryan 4.42), and his bb/9 is lower than that tandem as well at 2.73 (Lidge 3.11 Ryan 3.10). So why is this guy not being heralded around the league as some kind of wonder or late blossoming superstar? Why did no one try and trade for him at the deadline? In other words this guy has been getting no fan fare. I offer my explanation of the situation. It is not overly exciting, but there is a stat we don't really pay attention to very much. It is G/F ratio, and the reason that Brandon Webb can still be a good pitcher though he walks his fair share of batters. While Seanez's .84 doesn't look much worse to Lidge's 1.02, and Ryan's 1.3. I assure you there is more than meets the eye. Seanez pitches 81 games in one of the more pitcher friendly parks in the league. I wonder if some of those extra flyballs would be off the wall or over the wall in TEnron err Minute Maid and Camden. Not to mention that 3 of the 4 parks in the NL West are considered very pitcher friendly with the best hitters park in the league (Coors Field) being the only exception out west. Oh yeah and I almost forgot that the west is the worst division as a whole in baseball ever and if not they are at least in the argument. Who is the most feared hitter in the west that is playing this year? Jeff Kent? No I am really serious. If you can think of anyone better please let me know. All of these combined have caused all of us to temper our enthusiasm regarding a player with such good stats. However, I bet some wanna be contender throws millions of dollars at him (Yankees anyone?) for no reason when they can all go out and get their own George Sherrils or Tyler Walkers from within their own system.
Tyler WAlker is a perfect segue way into the Giants. Let's focus on the good now rather than the bad. As a devout Giants fan born and raised I am always looking for some hope. Our bullpen is solid. We have a few surprises this year that are playing real well. Tyler Walker filled in the closers role very well for Armando Benitez while he was hurt leaving little doubt that at the end of Benitez's contract we can turn the reigns over to Walker at a cheap price. While Scott Munter might be a little over his head he can at least put up similar stats to Chad Zerbe. Scott Eyre came on stong this year. Though a good middle reliever doesn't necesarily deserved to be traded for a once promising but still young SP (Williams), and a relief pitcher with potential (Aardsma), LaTroy Hawkins can be a good pitcher when he is on. I would be ok with him filling the Felix Rodriguez circa 2001-02 role. If either of Taschner or Accardo could come on strong next year we have the makings of a good bullpen. It might be getting us to the 7th inning which is the problem. At any rate this is my 1st blog and I don't want to overwhelm everyone at once ;p.
Agree or Disagree? Leave a comment
Want me to try and analyze something else? Leave a comment
So there are some good relivers out there this year. You know the big bad mean closers but unless you live in San Diego you might have never heard of Rudy Seanez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4414). However, he is having a quitely dominating year or is he? I wanted to get to the bottom of why a 36 year old journeyman with his sort of rate stats this year was never discovered earlier. I mean his K/9 is 13.25 (which is right up there with noted K masters Brad Lidge 13.99 and BJ Ryan 13.72), his bb/k is 4.86 (better than Lidge 4.5 and Ryan 4.42), and his bb/9 is lower than that tandem as well at 2.73 (Lidge 3.11 Ryan 3.10). So why is this guy not being heralded around the league as some kind of wonder or late blossoming superstar? Why did no one try and trade for him at the deadline? In other words this guy has been getting no fan fare. I offer my explanation of the situation. It is not overly exciting, but there is a stat we don't really pay attention to very much. It is G/F ratio, and the reason that Brandon Webb can still be a good pitcher though he walks his fair share of batters. While Seanez's .84 doesn't look much worse to Lidge's 1.02, and Ryan's 1.3. I assure you there is more than meets the eye. Seanez pitches 81 games in one of the more pitcher friendly parks in the league. I wonder if some of those extra flyballs would be off the wall or over the wall in TEnron err Minute Maid and Camden. Not to mention that 3 of the 4 parks in the NL West are considered very pitcher friendly with the best hitters park in the league (Coors Field) being the only exception out west. Oh yeah and I almost forgot that the west is the worst division as a whole in baseball ever and if not they are at least in the argument. Who is the most feared hitter in the west that is playing this year? Jeff Kent? No I am really serious. If you can think of anyone better please let me know. All of these combined have caused all of us to temper our enthusiasm regarding a player with such good stats. However, I bet some wanna be contender throws millions of dollars at him (Yankees anyone?) for no reason when they can all go out and get their own George Sherrils or Tyler Walkers from within their own system.
Tyler WAlker is a perfect segue way into the Giants. Let's focus on the good now rather than the bad. As a devout Giants fan born and raised I am always looking for some hope. Our bullpen is solid. We have a few surprises this year that are playing real well. Tyler Walker filled in the closers role very well for Armando Benitez while he was hurt leaving little doubt that at the end of Benitez's contract we can turn the reigns over to Walker at a cheap price. While Scott Munter might be a little over his head he can at least put up similar stats to Chad Zerbe. Scott Eyre came on stong this year. Though a good middle reliever doesn't necesarily deserved to be traded for a once promising but still young SP (Williams), and a relief pitcher with potential (Aardsma), LaTroy Hawkins can be a good pitcher when he is on. I would be ok with him filling the Felix Rodriguez circa 2001-02 role. If either of Taschner or Accardo could come on strong next year we have the makings of a good bullpen. It might be getting us to the 7th inning which is the problem. At any rate this is my 1st blog and I don't want to overwhelm everyone at once ;p.
Agree or Disagree? Leave a comment
Want me to try and analyze something else? Leave a comment
