>yeah. recently we've had an offensive explosion. the thing i'm concerned
>about is not really starting pitching but our relievers. i'll look at
>the numbers after this wednesday's game (hint: jeff you can do it first
>if you want. heh) but i want to see how our bullpen matches up against
>last year's.
Given that the stats so far are based on about half of the games
played, and pitchers tend to see less time than position players, you
have to take some of this with a grain of salt.
Last year, we basically had 12 pitchers. Their ERA varied between 3.14
and 4.65. I have to say that is an amazingly narrow range. There were
14 saves over the course of the 62 game season, divided amongst three
different pitchers.
This year, we've played 15 different pitchers, of which five have been
true freshmen. Currently, the two best ERAs are 1.69 and 1.80, but
those are each on just 5 innings pitched. Beyond those two, the ERAs
range from 2.70, all the way up to 20.25. There are six pitchers with
an ERA of 5.00 or greater. Four of those six are true freshmen (and
the 5th true freshmen has an ERA of 4.85). The team has six saves
combined, so far (from 3 different players), which isn't far off the
pace of last year. It would be fair to say that the job of closer is
still up in the air. The most saves any pitcher has this year is
three, by John Goodman (ERA 6.91). Last year, Jeff Watchko and Brian
Burks combined for all but one of the 14 saves. But Jeff graduated,
and Brian became one of our regular starters. Our bullpen has
definitely not done as well this year as last. But perhaps that's more
an indication that we were spoiled by last year's bullpen, which was
clearly quite excellent.
There's one other notable thing to say about the pitching stats. One
of the reasons we were highly touted at the start of the year was the
one-two pitching duo of sophomores Micah Owings and Jason
Neighborgall. Micah has had a good year, but Jason's year has been a
complete disaster. Last year, Jason had an ERA of 3.70 on 41 innings
pitched. He started 7 games. This year, he's started just one, and on
five innings pitched, he sports an ERA of 20.25, easily the team's
worst. It's not hard to see why. He's given up 15 walks in those 5
innings. To say that he's had control problems would be quite an
understatement. He's the only returning GT pitcher who has performed
much more poorly than the year before. I would love to see him return
to last year's form. If he can get back in sync again, that will take
some of the pressure off of the five true freshmen, who have been
thrown into the fire rather early in their careers.
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