I take no joy in saying this, but Blackburn is the worst starting pitcher in baseball. He entered Friday with a 7.33 ERA. In 93.1 innings, he’d allowed 132 hits and struck out only 41. The league is batting .334 against him.
Normally a guy who gives up more than seven runs every nine innings isn’t given more than five or six chances to start, but Blackie was making his 19th start Friday, and his struggles are a continuation from last year.
Obviously the Twins keep sending Blackburn out there because they’re paying him a lot of money (they signed him to a multi-year contract following the 2009 season after he’d allowed a league-high 240 hits while striking out only 98 batters in 206 innings).
But it’s time to end this. Blackburn will never be a useful starting pitcher again. If the Twins don’t want to cut him and eat his contract, then stick him in the back of the bullpen and hope he might be a halfway decent mop-up man.
And don’t ever again give a multi-year contract to one of the most hittable pitchers in the game.
Repoz
Posted: August 18, 2012 at 07:48 AM |
7 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
twins
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Boxkutter Posted: August 18, 2012 at 01:49 PM (#4211391)In seventh place on the list is Dave Tomlin's disastrous 1978 season with the Reds, where he gave up a buttload of runs: 54, in just 62.1 innings. Only 40 were earned, but that's still a bloated 5.78 ERA (62 ERA+)...for a reliever. (EDIT: also 16 inherited runners scored, for a total of 70, or over 10 runs/9 IP. Yikes.) He finished with a -3.2 WAR, which along with Blass in '73 are the two worst pitcher WARs since WW2.
Oh, and Tomlin's won/loss record that year? See for yourself.
He just knew how to win, he was the Jack Morris of relief pitchers.
Blackie is dead last in WAR this year, although only slightly ahead of Ervin "What the #### happened to me?" Santana. Because seriously, what the #### happened to Ervin Santana?
In fact, granting that pitchers are always a bit erratic, it's pretty odd that the five worst pitchers by WAR (total "contribution" of -8.9 WAR) were worth a total of +8.5 WAR last season. They've gone from averaging nearly two wins in value to subtracting that much.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main