Wednesday, November 28, 2007

BS Pete

From Pete Abe:

"This pitcher was 3-2 with a 5.70 ERA against teams from the AL East last season (not counting the Yankees).

He was 5-7, 4.04 in the second half of the season, allowing 88 hits (16 of them home runs) over 98 innings. The 33 home runs he allowed for the season were nine more than in any other previous season. Scouts have noticed he appears hesitant to throw his slider.

He has one victory in five career playoff starts."

Pete is talking about Johan Santana, maybe just to be provocative, but it's uncannily stupid. Johan Santana's career ERA+ is 141, which is 14th ALL TIME. Last season he put up a 130 and held batters to a .225 BAA, and only an increase to .236 post-All Star break. The cherry picking of those numbers is insanity. During that same period, Santana had a 5-1 K/BB ratio. That tells the story better to me than the load of horseshit that Pete posted.

Also the comment about his playoff wins is just nonsense. The first 3 of his 5 playoff starts occurred in 2002 and 2003, years in which Santana started 32 games and pitched in 72. He was a part time reliever in both seasons, at 23 and 24 years old. The two starts he's made since show these combined numbers:

20 IP
19 hits
5 walks
20 Ks
3 ER

I don't need to get into it any more than that. Stop shitting on Santana to rile readers and generate traffic Pete. He's one of the greatest pitchers in history, and if he pitched in NY he'd be spoken of in the same breath as the All Time greats. Maybe you don't like the trade options, but don't distort the truth in making your case. It's absurd.

2 comments:

Matt said...

Amen, Mike. I may not agree with most of the packages being floated around for Santana, but cherry-picking small sample sizes in order to dump on one of the best pitchers of this generation is just irresponsible.

Only one current pitcher has a completely spotless record in the post-season, and that's Josh Beckett. I guess all other pitchers are total crap, then, right Pete?

Steve Traschel is 1-0 with a 2.10 ERA and 15 K in 25 IP against the Red Sox! Let's go sign him!!!!

ChrisV82 said...

Sanatana and ARod - two postseason choke artists!!! If we have both of those guys on our team we're going to suck!

We should sign below average players who have a lot of grit and heart and dirt on their chins. We need chin dirt, damn it.