Progress Report—Pitchers

Brian Bannister is being called up for today’s start and a place in the rotation, sending Brandon Duckworth to the bullpen and someone down to Triple-A Omaha. Since I don’t know who’s getting sent down, we’re just going to pretend that, for this progress report, Bannister isn’t coming up. We’ll check in with the current 25-man roster, sans the Ban Man.

All stats are coming from: The Hardball Times, Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs. [Mini-glossary: B-Ref’s glossary (ERA+), THT’s explanation of FIP, and my explanation of WPA.]

ROTATION

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Jorge de la Rosa

4 G, 26.7 IP—2-1, 3.04 ERA, 1.163 WHIP, 18 K, 5 BB | 151 ERA+, 3.80 FIP, 0.32 WPA

de la Rosa has been a pleasant surprise this year. A 26-year-old with great K/BB numbers so far, de la Rosa has proven to be one of Dayton Moore’s better pitching pickups this year. de la Rosa is also the only starter with a winning record. His WHIP and FIP would suggest that he might be getting a bit lucky, in terms of his ERA, even after accounting for the strikeout and walk numbers. And I can guarantee that he won’t be finishing the year with a winning record unless he stops playing or gets traded to another team. But, even if he regresses a bit (which would be my best guess), it’s still a solid season for a 26-year-old. Here’s hoping he keeps it up and continues to develop!

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Brandon Duckworth

2 G, 11.3 IP—0-1, 1.59 ERA, 1.588 WHIP, 6 K, 5 BB | 289 ERA+, 3.39 FIP, 0.11 WPA

Hello, small sample size. His tiny ERA is practically identical to his WHIP, which, when over 1.5, usually screams fluke. His FIP suggests a decent ERA (3.39 FIP means an expected ERA of 3.39 by just looking at fielding-independent numbers like Ks and BBs), but a far cry from his current success, but even then, a 6/5 K:BB ratio ain’t looking pretty. Verdict: We haven’t seen nearly enough to decide how well he’s doing this year, but I would say don’t expect numbers like this for very long. Perhaps he can finally be a dependable bullpen arm for Buddy Bell to turn to.

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Zack Greinke

4 G, 18.7 IP—1-2, 4.82 ERA, 1.661 WHIP, 15 K, 5 BB | 95 ERA+, 3.02 FIP, -0.09 WPA

Pretty disappointing, but his solid K/BB numbres and FIP say he’s gotten a tad unlucky. I anticipate improvement. Here’s hoping Greinke does really well this year.

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Gil Meche

5 G, 35.3 IP—1-1, 2.55 ERA, 1.189 WHIP, 24 K, 7 BB | 180 ERA+, 3.83 FIP, 0.37 WPA

Great stuff, both in terms of how he’s doing and in the underlying numbers too. I don’t think he can keep his ERA down to 2.55 all year, but something under 3.50 ERA by the All-Star Break isn’t unrealistic and would be pretty cool for the $55 million investment.

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Odalis Perez

4 G, 16.7 IP—1-2, 8.64 ERA, 2.040 WHIP, 8 K, 6 BB | 53 ERA+, 3.24 FIP, -0.58 WPA

Yuck, yuck, yuck. His FIP looks alright, so maybe it’ll magically turn into a good year for Perez, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

BULLPEN

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Ryan Braun

6 G, 8.7 IP—0-0, 5.19 ERA, 1.269 WHIP, 8 K, 7 BB | 88 ERA+, 3.70 FIP, -0.10 WPA

Some improvement here would be nice.

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Jimmy Gobble

10 G, 6.7 IP—0-1, 2.70 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 5 K, 1 BB | 170 ERA+, 1.62 FIP, -0.12 WPA

A real bright spot in the bullpen, I don’t know why Buddy Bell insists on using him exclusively as a LOOGY. When you have a good reliever, he’s a good reliever. He is certainly better against lefties (2006: .255/.276/.510) than righties (2006: .294/.366/.451), but I think he’s better against righties than the average RHP reliever we’ve got right now. 10 appearances amounting up to 6 and two-thirds innings… Free Jimmy Gobble!

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Neal Musser

2 G, 0.3 IP—0-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.000 WHIP, 0 K, 1 BB | Infinite ERA+, 12.12 FIP, -0.11 WPA

An infinite ERA+? This guy must be amazing.

And, when’s the last time you saw an ERA of 0 and a WHIP of 9, even considering the sample sizes?

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Joel Peralta

9 G, 9.7 IP—0-2, 7.45 ERA, 2.069 WHIP, 9 K, 5 BB | 62 ERA+, 4.88 FIP, -0.85 WPA

Oy, vey. Maybe a trip to Omaha will help him, or something. Need some big improvement out of Peralta here—take a deep breath, and throw some strikes.

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David Riske

8 G, 9.0 IP—0-2, 6.00 ERA, 1.667 WHIP, 6 K, 4 BB | 76 ERA+, 7.46 FIP, -0.91 WPA

Ugggggh. See above.

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Joakim Soria

8 G, 9.3 IP—1-0, 2.89 ERA, 0.964 WHIP, 13 K, 4 BB | 159 ERA+, 1.62 FIP, 0.89 WPA

Hooray for relievers that don’t make this post 100% depressing! Soria, a Rule 5 pickup from San Diego, has been pitching phenomenally. He is—and this is kind of sad—the best arm in the ‘pen so far. And, best of all, his FIP suggests his 2.89 ERA might actually improve!

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Todd Wellemeyer

7 G, 7.7 IP—0-0, 9.39 ERA, 2.217 WHIP, 5 K, 8 BB | 49 ERA+, 7.95 FIP, -0.04 WPA

Oh, boy. I’m getting tired of this. Hopefully, he’s the guy who is getting sent down in order to bring up Brian Bannister (I see no story at KansasCity.com yet). If not… see the Peralta/Riske entries.