June Report Card: Pitchers

by Matthew on Jul 4, 2010 10:41 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Report Cards

STARTERS

Click to enlarge. Mariners SP tRA for June 2010. Source StatCorner.com

The Mariners went 14-13 in the month of June despite being outscored by 28 runs. That's not to say they should have been under .500 based on talent. The run totals could have been unlucky just as much as the win totals could have been lucky. The rotation returned to being an asset in June but that was mostly the reliable three of Felix, Lee and to a lesser extent Jason Vargas.

DOUG FISTER: Fister made one start. It was bad. GRADE: Incomplete

LUKE FRENCH: French made one start. It was bad. GRADE: Incomplete

FELIX HERNANDEZ: Welcome back, April 2010 Felix! The balls went down five points, the swinging strikes went up three points, the ground balls went from 43% to 55%,the home runs went down, the innings pitched went up. All told the tRA for the month went from 5.16 to 1.80. Hey Cliff Lee, Felix just one-upped you. GRADE: A+

CLIFF LEE: Anyone would be hard pressed to repeat a month like Cliff Lee's May and not even Cliff Lee was able to accomplish it and no he didn't get even better. He got worse. Barely worse. Actually he was nearly the same pitcher except in June, the home runs went from zero to five. GRADE: A

RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH: A full month back in the rotation showed some marginal improvement, but that this month represents improvement just highlights how poor the prior months were. Hyphen was still bad. More walks than strikeouts and a rotation-high six home runs allowed. GRADE: D-

IAN SNELL: Snell made two starts. They were horrendous. GRADE: Incomplete

JASON VARGAS: A improved month for Vargas in June with a better than average whiff rate and solid control numbers. His overall strikeout to walk rate was very good in June. The only knock against Jason was the lack of ground balls, but to be clear that is what was standing between him and acehood. It's just not realistic to expect that much out of Vargas. If he can be what's he's been in 2010 as a whole, he's a solidly average starting pitcher. GRADE: B-

GRADE: B-

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RELIEVERS

Mariners RP tRA for June 2010. Source StatCorner.com

Hell yeah, Brian Sweeney! Hell yeah, Brandon League! Oh noesssss, everyone else. A Systemic cause for sucking in the bullpen is clearly not throwing strikes and the pitchers with strike percentages below 61%, Ian Snell, David Aardsma, Garrett Olson, Sean White and Shawn Kelley were all awful. Those that managed to locate the zone more frequently were almost universally good. When you are given such short samples to work with, avoiding walks seems the biggest contribution a pitcher can make toward staying above average.

GRADE: D

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