The Pitchers
Here we have four charts laying out the stats on the current Bulls pitching staff, with the exception of new guy Matt Torra. Torra has only had one appearance and it didn't seem fair to include him in this compilation.
Bulls pitching is a moving target. Brandon Gomes, who figures prominently in these charts is at the moment with the Bulls parent team, the Tampa Bay Rays. Andy Sonnanstine, a member of the Rays' relief cadre is on his way to the Bulls, but has not pitched with the Bulls and is not on the charts. A few pitchers have seen time as both starters and relievers (Cormier, Buente, Baker). We have no way to judge whether or not they will stay in their current roles.
Three of these metrics are fairly well-known: ERA — Earned Run Average; FIP — Fielding Independent Percentage; and WHIP — Walks, Hits per Inning Pitched. The fourth is one that we've been playing with here at WDBB, Pitching Efficiency. Pitching Efficiency is simply number of pitches divided by outs recorded.
Click on a chart for a larger image.
What do the numbers tell us?
Alex Cobb is the Bulls best starting pitcher. He leads all of the other starting pitchers on the team by any metric you'd like to choose. Somewhat to my surprise, Alex Torres is the runner-up starter in ERA and FIP, although (no surprise) pretty awful in WHIP and PE. Dirk Hayhurst is a good bit further back in ERA and FIP even though he has a better winning percentage and better WHIP and PE numbers.
Among the relievers, Brandon Gomes, Rob Delaney, and Jake McGee are the standouts.
At the other end of the spectrum we have to worry about starter/reliever Brian Baker. Recent appearances have not been promising. The sample sizes for Lance Cormier and Jay Buente are small, and they both would probably like to stay on the books as relievers. They have shown promise in the bullpen, so maybe their numbers will get better.
In the middle are Dane De La Rosa, Mike Ekstrom, and R.J. Swindle.
What happens after the break? Here are my guesses:
Starting rotation: Cobb, Torres, and Hayhurst, with new guys Sonnanstine and Torra filling it out.
Bullpen (Gomes stays with Rays): Delaney, McGee, Baker, Ekstrom, Swindle, Cormier, Buente and De La Rosa.
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Despite the rainout, Rays still need Cobb for 1 start since they sent Sonny down. I'd guess Cormier picks up that one.
ReplyDeleteHope I didn't miss something, but Cobb is still with us, I think. Gomes went up to pitch a few innings, and he may stay. Would not be surprised to see Cobb get called up in the next day or so, but don't think it's happened yet.
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