Pitching Perspectives (5/18-5/24)

The Royals again finished the week with a 2-4 record.  They are now 22-22 and 3.0 games behind the Tigers for 1st place in the division.

Rotation Assessment:
Week 1: 3.62 ERA and 1.21 WHIP
Week 2: 1.91 ERA and 1.27 WHIP
Week 3: 4.38 ERA and 1.10 WHIP
Week 4: 6.46 ERA and 1.67 WHIP
Week 5: 2.54 ERA and 1.15 WHIP
Week 6: 6.44 ERA and 1.53 WHIP

Gil Meche bounced back and looked more like himself in his start this week.  I applaud Trey Hillman for keeping his pitch count down as he recovers from his back/stamina problems.  Unfortunately the bullpen proceeded to blow the game and ruin Meche’s quality start.

Zack Greinke wasn’t dominant and had his worst start of the year, but he still battled through 6.0 innings allowing only 2 earned runs.  Greinke’s post-game comments were priceless.  Instead of making excuses, which weren’t necessary anyway, he simply stated that he pitched “stupid” at certain points in the game.

Kyle Davies turned in his 3rd quality start in a row, and this one was even better than the 2 that came before it.  At least for this week, the Royals top 3 starters pitched to expectations.

Luke Hochevar finally resembled a major league starting pitcher in his 3rd start.  Trey probably shouldn’t have sent him out for the 7th but considering their lack of offense and the status of their bullpen, I certainly understand his decision.  Even though it didn’t work out, the circumstances necessitated trying to get another inning out of him.  Since they were shut out for the 2nd game in a row it really didn’t matter.  Thanks to Ron Mahay allowing an inherited runner to score, Hochevar was denied a quality start.  He pitched even better than his stat line suggests and had improved in each of his 3 starts this year.

For what it is worth, the Royals got their only 2 wins of the week with Brian Bannister on the mound.  He was less than impressive in his 1st outing, but very solid in his 2nd.  His overall numbers for the week are nothing to write home about, but he is keeping Ponson out of the rotation.  That is good enough for me.

Baseball is a funny game.  The rotation contributed a quality start in 4 of their 6 outings this week, but the Royals won only 1 of those 4 games.  The starters did what they needed to do for the week but the offense, defense and bullpen all underperformed.

The Bullpen:

Week 1: 2.30 ERA and 0.83 WHIP
Week 2: 5.87 ERA and 1.70 WHIP
Week 3: 3.75 ERA and 1.25 WHIP
Week 4: 2.52 ERA and 1.36 WHIP
Week 5: 1.69 ERA and 1.50 WHIP
Week 6: 2.38 ERA and 1.50 WHIP

Week 7 saw the bullpen hit rock bottom with a dreadful 8.04 ERA and 2.04 WHIP.  Because of their collective ineffectiveness, John Bale’s planned 4 or 5 rehab appearances in Omaha were cut short and he was added to the major league roster on Sunday.  Bale saw immediate action in Sunday’s game after and joined Kyle Farnsworth as the only 2 effective relievers for the week.  Robinson Tejeda was the only other member of the pen to not allow a run, but he was far from effective and has since landed on the DL.  Trey Hillman has continued to use Jamey Wright less and less due to a lack of effectiveness.  Wright is either burnt out already or the law of averages is catching up to him after an incredible start to the season.  Horacio Ramirez continues his death grip on the title of “Royals Worst Pitcher” and is the only thing preventing the continuation of my crusade to be rid of Sidney Ponson.  Hillman’s usage of Ho-Ram is an abomination.  He is the worst pitcher in the bullpen yet he continues to appear in close games that the Royals have a chance to win.  Regardless of circumstances, 4 appearances by your weakest link over 6 games is too many.  Trey quickly adapted his usage of Kyle Farnsworth, but Ho-Ram isn’t really useful in any role so he just needs to stop giving him the ball unless the game is a blowout.  Juan Cruz went another 2 appearances without a strikeout and is clearly not the pitcher of 2008 or early 2009.  The only positive is that the bullpen can’t pitch any worse than what we saw this week. At least I hope they can’t.