Baseball Been Barry, Barry Good to Me
Another fine start by Barry Zito. Eight of his 12 starts since May 1st have been of the quality variety. Not bad. I don't think I'm ready to say that he's "back," but this certainly is encouraging.
It's a damn shame that in those eight quality starts Zito's only been credited with three wins. Which is the same number of losses he's been credited with. So as it stands, Zito's record is currently 4-8. That LOOKS really bad.
Mark Mulder had a pretty nice game tonight as well. He went 6.1 innings and allowed just one earned run. He also picked up a win, bringing his record to a very respectable 9-5.
Mulder's performance also lowered his ERA to 4.54, which is 1/3 of a run worse than Zito's. And Mulder's in the pitcher-friendly NL...but I don't really want to get into how much easier it is to pitch in the NL than it is in the AL.
(I wrote that last sentence about 10 minutes ago. Apparently I DO want to get into it.)
2005 Player Stats
Batting #9... Avg. Slg%. Runs.. RBI.... TB
AL Hitters.. .252. .376.. 423.. 412.. 1359
NL Hitters.. .195. .274.. 329.. 303.. 1089
And as if the disparity in Runs, RBI and TB didn't look bad enough, don't forget that the NL has two more teams than the AL. The patheticness of the number nine hitters in the NL (pitchers and pinch hitters) not provides one auto-out each time through the line-up, it also allows NL pitchers to pitch around the number eight hitter whenever they so choose.
Even though Mulder's ERA doesn't look that much worse than Zito's, it is. It's A LOT worse.
So why is one ESPN moron proclaiming that Zito's "wheels have fallen off" and another couple of ESPN morons putting Mark Mulder in a group of five "Aces" that pitched tonight?
Because they're dopes. Dopes who can't look past their respective records.
If I had to choose between having Zito or Mulder on my team for the second half, I'd choose Zito. And I wouldn't even have to think twice about it.
It's a damn shame that in those eight quality starts Zito's only been credited with three wins. Which is the same number of losses he's been credited with. So as it stands, Zito's record is currently 4-8. That LOOKS really bad.
Mark Mulder had a pretty nice game tonight as well. He went 6.1 innings and allowed just one earned run. He also picked up a win, bringing his record to a very respectable 9-5.
Mulder's performance also lowered his ERA to 4.54, which is 1/3 of a run worse than Zito's. And Mulder's in the pitcher-friendly NL...but I don't really want to get into how much easier it is to pitch in the NL than it is in the AL.
(I wrote that last sentence about 10 minutes ago. Apparently I DO want to get into it.)
2005 Player Stats
Batting #9... Avg. Slg%. Runs.. RBI.... TB
AL Hitters.. .252. .376.. 423.. 412.. 1359
NL Hitters.. .195. .274.. 329.. 303.. 1089
And as if the disparity in Runs, RBI and TB didn't look bad enough, don't forget that the NL has two more teams than the AL. The patheticness of the number nine hitters in the NL (pitchers and pinch hitters) not provides one auto-out each time through the line-up, it also allows NL pitchers to pitch around the number eight hitter whenever they so choose.
Even though Mulder's ERA doesn't look that much worse than Zito's, it is. It's A LOT worse.
So why is one ESPN moron proclaiming that Zito's "wheels have fallen off" and another couple of ESPN morons putting Mark Mulder in a group of five "Aces" that pitched tonight?
Because they're dopes. Dopes who can't look past their respective records.
If I had to choose between having Zito or Mulder on my team for the second half, I'd choose Zito. And I wouldn't even have to think twice about it.
posted by Roman at 2:33 AM
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