Category Archives: Pitching

Limiting Ryan Vogelsong

With Ryan Vogelsong continuing to excel as a starting pitcher for the Giants, questions about his continuation on the starting rotation are beginning to arise.  Most revolve around the return of Barry Zito, but another factor that is often being overlooked is that of workload.

Vogelsong has never been a workhorse, the likes of Roy Halladay or even Matt Cain for that matter.  In fact he spent his last few years pitching in Japan as a reliever.  Just for a reference, he pitched 65.1 innings in ’08, 41.2 innings in ’09, and 95.1 innings in ’10 back in the states with the Triple-A teams of both the Angels and the Phillies.  Even as a full-time starter with the Pirates in ’04, he only managed 133.0 IP, his career high.

Like a Record Baby, Right Round Round Round (Get it? A Rotation Joke!)

In addition to Brandon Belt flashing some leather on defense, Sandoval slugging dingerz like the Panda of old, and reports of Mark DeRosa’s death appearing to be greatly exaggerated, one tidbit of “news” has actually appeared, when Bruce Bochy announced an order for the stellar Giants pitching rotation.

Timmy remains the Ace, followed by Jonny, Matty, Barry and Maddy. Compared to last year’s rotation, Lincecum stayed as the ace, Zito got a major demotion, Cain stayed steady, Sanchez got a good promotion, and Bumgarner took the 5th starter spot from Todd Wellemeyer’s cold, dead fingers. If this is, indeed, the rotation that Bochy plans to take into the regular season, it raises a few questions.

First of all, Matt “The Sheriff” Cain. In 2010, Cain had an amazing year, and by some accounts a better (more consistent, at least) year than Lincecum. Cain has the makings of an Ace, and would be on most other ballclubs, which makes it curious that he would remain in the third role. Present elbow issues aside, he’s Mr. Reliable. He devours innings like some bad 2010 Pablo Sandoval joke – in his 5 full seasons, his 1049.1 IP are the 8th-most in the MLB during that time. In 2010 he lasted fewer than 6 innings only five times; he lasted fewer than 5 innings only twice. He is the picture of stability, working for a 3.00 ERA in August 2010, while the pitching staff as a whole (including Cain) had a 4.55 ERA. He threw over 100 pitches in 21 of his 33 regular-season starts, and he didn’t give up an earned run in the post-season. Plus he has a great head of hair.

So, why isn’t he the #2 pitcher?

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Sabermetrics For Beginners Part III: The Plus Sign

95, 129, and 136, baby.

For our newest installment of SFB, I’d like to introduce you to two of the most deceptively simple and useful statistics, Adjusted On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS+) and Adjusted Earned Run Average (ERA+).

These two stats are used to show a player’s performance, either in hitting or pitching, as compared to the league average in each stat and compensating for that player’s ballpark.

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