| By Ethan If I were to say to you that some random starting pitcher had the following statistics, what would be you first reaction?: ERA-2.85(5th in the league) Strikeouts-135(7th in the league) Whip-1.16(7th in the league) Wins-9(tied for 20th in the league). Now, I don't know about you, but my first thought would be 'Hey, why doesn't that guy have more wins, all of his other numbers are there?!' Well it turns out this isn't some random pitcher...this is Johan Santana, the highest paid pitcher in the league, and the AL Cy Young Award winner two out of the last four seasons. When Santana was traded to the Mets, one thing he surely counted on was more run support than the modest 4.98 runs per game that the team's high priced lineup has given him. But the offense hasn't been what has cheated Johan out of six-that's right, i said six-wins. No, that would be the bullpen. Today marked the sixth time this season that Santana left the game with a lead, but ended up with a no decision because the bullpen could not hold it. Going by that stat, he should have 15 wins. But, if one were to dig further, as this writer did, they would find that there were two occurrences where Santana gave up 2 runs or less and actually lost. So, if you add those on, one can argue that he has pitched well enough to have 17 wins. And then, of course, there was that July 4th game against the Phillies where Johan pitched 8 innings giving up only 2 runs, and left the game with the score tied 2-2, only for the Phillies to win the game in the bottom of the ninth off of the horrible Mets bullpen. So, adding all of this together, one can make a strong case that Santana has pitched well enough to have a record of 18-5 instead of the 9-7 mark he currently holds. Now, every pitcher has had games where they pitch well and don't win. But for Johan, it has happened nine times in four months. So when people look at Johan's record and say that he's slipping, or he's overpaid, or whatever case they may make, because he only has 9 wins, just remember that if this guy had the record he deserved, he'd be almost a lock to become the second pitcher in MLB history to win Cy Young awards in each league. The first was a man by the name of Randy Johnson. |
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Johan Santana-Can This Guy Get a Break?!
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2 comments:
Ethan:
-Mike Francesa made this point and I thought it was very smart. If you get a chance, look at Johan's pitch counts. When brought in, it was expected that Santana would be a workhorse, and would have be able to get 8 innings and 120 pitches or so. He usually tops out at about 105 or so, ad then Gerry Manuel comes to take him out and that is it. Where is the fight in Santana?
--I am not blaming Santana for his L's and ND's, but I am saying he would have a couple more wins if he held the ball and went to close out the game or get to the 9th. I do agree that he has gotten shafted, but that is because the Mets bullpen is atrocious.
-Thought to consider: Who has the better arm? Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoenweis, or Chad Pennington?
I don't know about Heilman's arm compared to Pennington's, but I do know that it was silly to expect Johan to be a workhorse, an anyone who did(me NOT being one of them), needed to do their homework and realize that in 198 carrer starts Johan has exactly SEVEN complete games. I'm no math expert, but even I can tell that's a pretty small percentage. Some pitchers are work horses and some are not...Johan historically is not. Also, Mike Francessa is probably the all time leader in the stat that measures what someone thinks they know about sprts as opposed to what thy actually do.
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