Stinkin' Starters

Perusing this morning’s box scores, what shocked me was how bad the starting pitching was in the National League yesterday. Having attended the one game where the starters were quite good (Myers and Cain both pitched well for 7 and 6 innings respectively), the rest of the league rather sucked.

Seventy four pitchers made it into the 8 games yesterday, only one of which went to extra innings (11 innings in Pittsburgh against Washington). That’s an average of 4.625 pitchers per team. Every single team had at least 3 pitchers throw, and every game had at least 7 pitchers appear. Not only wasn’t there a complete game, there wasn’t a single instance of just starter and closer.

The National League starters were, for the most part, horrendous. Sixteen starters went a total of 86-2/3 innings, an average of approximately 5-1/3 innings. No one went more than 7 innings. They gave up 60 earned runs, 104 hits and 30 walks, for an ERA of 6.231 and a WHIP of 1.546.

This was great news for the Pickled Pecklers. I see you scratching your heads over that one. Here’s why: despite the appearance of 74 crummy pitchers yesterday, not a single Pickled Pitcher made it to a box score. Not one of the ten (ok, nine, as Prior just got put on the DL but he’s still active for us). The odds against that have to be phenomenal.

These stats may be why the Yankees were willing to give Sir Sidney a try. It’s nasty out there. It’s why the Mets gave Lima one more chance. Don’t underestimate the potential trade value of Jamey Wright or Brad Hennessey.

The most interesting game from a pitching perspective has to be Cincinnati’s win over Colorado. Josh Fogg pitched a brilliant game for the Rockies, giving up only 1 run 5 hits and 1 walk over 7 innings. He left the game with a 3-1 lead, but Todd Martin and Jose Mesa came in to give up 5 runs in the 8th to blow the game.

What was interesting to me, though, was the Reds’ pitching. Elizardo Ramirez pitched 6 ok innings, to be replaced by Weathers for the seventh, Coffey for the eighth (he got the win) and Guardado for the ninth. Where were Majewski and Bray, the guys they gave up two young hitting starters for? Wasn’t it Weathers, Coffey and Guardado before the trade?

BTW, Lopez and Kearns were 1 for 11 yesterday. Meanwhile Rich Aurilia had a two run pinch hit double. Maybe Aurilia was the key to that deal.

Meanwhile, the Mets continue to fake it with their starters. Let’s get this in perspective: Steve Traschel is their #2 starter. El Duque got chased in the second inning yesterday, having given up 5 runs for a game ERA of 27 and a WHIP of 5.4. He’s their #3. Their roster lists two rookies, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey as their #4 and #5 (who knows who is 4 and who is 5). Yet the Mets got the win yesterday, putting up an 11 spot in the 6th inning to move 18 games over .500 and 12 ahead of second place Atlanta and Phily. You’ve got to figure the Mets are going to make some kind of deal for a starter. After all, they can talk about El Duque’s playoff record all they want, but he sucks.

I like the Padres despite getting absolutely crushed by the Braves this weekend. They’ve got something the Giants do not: young players to get excited about. I really like Kahlil Greene, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Barfield. Get rid of those bums they’ve got playing the hot corner, and you’ve got yourself an infield for the future.

Meanwhile, I saw Doug Brocail’s first appearance after his angioplasties (2) the other night. I wrote up that wild game between the Padres and the Braves, but I carefully excluded mention of him. He looked unhittable, and I decided that a little careful editing was in order in case I wanted to make a bid. Yesterday, he was a little more hittable, giving up 3 hits and 3 runs in an inning and two thirds. Go ahead, someone.

Stephen Drew is up, probably for good. He’s still looking for his first hit (Chad Santos is kicking his ass), but he’s got the tools, just like his brother did. I wonder if he’ll be as brittle as JD.

Sorry Greg, but we’ve got to mention he was part of what is turning out to be that horrible, horrible trade for the Cartel. Here are the post-trade active stats:

Dunn - .242-21-47-3
Biggio - .254-5-25-0
Burrell - .246-12-40-0

Weeks - .288-7-24-13
Howard - .275-25-64-0
Burke - .281-5-19-4

The Cartel lost serious BA and SB, and are about even in HR’s and RBI’s (+1 homer, +5 RBI’s). They lost the best keeper contract out there (Howard), they gave up a player that turned into 4 players (Weeks), Burke is back in the lineup hitting decently, and they gave up Stephen Drew. Only God knows what Kenny 9 might turn him into in a dump deal. It’s amazing the Cartel has stayed in third, but they’re out of trading chips, and 3rd or 4th looks like where they are going to finish.

And a few baseball blognotes:

This just in: Mike Lowell is still leading the major leagues in doubles, tied with Nick Johnson at 33.

Here is something from Kenny 9’s web site you would never hear from Boof. It’s the title of his latest entry: I will never, ever, ever trade Ryan Howard.

Phil Nevin hit his 16th homer of the season yesterday. Somebody out there has to have a catcher on their roster who is at least 14 homers behind Nevin.

Brandon Phillips’ trade value is sinking at the same rate that Ralphie Cifarello’s head sank inside the bowling ball case into the Hudson River. Larry Dot Net may have lost his chance, there.

Wes Helms hit #6 today. I guess that would have been a better $1 idea than Jose Hernandez at corner infield. He’s got more homers than Niekro, more RBI’s than Brady Clark, and his .272 BA is better than Raffy Furcal. No respect.

Matt Kinney pitched the ninth for the Cardinals. Wait a minute, that’s Josh Kinney. Matt Kinney is still a Fresno Grizzly, sporting a 5-5 record and a PCL ERA of 4.61. Probably not the answer for the Giants.

Strange stat: Jose Guillen, .215. Lower than Reggie Abercrombie.

I still don’t get Dan Uggla. He never showed any of this in the minors. He did hit 21 homers and .297 with 15 steals in the minors last year, but that was at AA, which they made him repeat after hitting .258 there in 2004. He also had 33 doubles in 2005 at AA, so I guess there was in fact a hint of real power. Here is the Baseball Prospectus comment:

While on the surface he might look like a hustling, dirtier version of Tony Graffanino, there are a few cautions. He spent three years in Lancaster’s bandbox, and only “broke out” after an extended stay at Double-A. He’ll also be 26 by Opening Day. His history of “eventually getting it” made him one of Florida’s Rule 5 picks. With the Marlins he has a chance to start at second. The bar is low, but considering he’ll move from low minors hitter’s parks in offensive leagues to a major-league pitcher’s park, the results should be predictably Uggla.

I guess BP missed that one. So did we.