Avid Galaxy Gas followers remember reading about the Kinzo Effect in an article earlier this year (edition 2063.18) and some of those are wondering was that effect fact or fiction? Now that a larger sample size has been accrued, the Gas team decided to delve further into the alleged phenomenon.
As some of you readers may recall going into the evening 18-Jun-2063, the Valencia Stars were riding a 1-15 streak with an overall record of 21-51. Since that time the Stars have responded with a record of 41-40. This type of mid-season turnaround is not seen often so let's check what other differences may account for this turn of events.
Starting out with the obvious, Kinzo Iwamoto took the place of Qing-lai Ou-Yang. Up to the date of the trade, Qing-lai was 2-7 with an ERA of 4.15 but the Stars were 2-11 in his 13 starts for Valencia. Once Kinzo jumped into that spot going 4-7 with an ERA of 5.53 in his 16 starts. However, even though Kinzo allowed an earned run more per outing, Valencia has gone 8-8 in the games that Kinzo started. As far as one helping out the bullpen over the other, there is not much difference there either as both pitchers averaged about 5.1 innings per start for Valencia. Maybe that difference is not so obvious from a pitching stats perspective after all.
Another person involved about the same time was starting pitcher Dana Pualani as Cobble Hill sent him to Valencia along with $1.25M for free. He took over the spot in the rotation for Todd Jones. Dana has gone a very respectable 6-4 with Valencia although his ERA is 5.21. Again, even when the starter is not involved in the decision, things bode well for the Stars as they have gone 10-6 in games when Pualani has started. By contrast, Valencia was 4-11 in Jones' 15 starts. At least Jones' ERA of 7.39 with Valencia may explain some of that difference.
Yet another pitching change was picking up Sam MacPherson off of the Waiver Wire from Louisville. MacPherson has gone 6-8 with a 4.96 ERA since arriving to the Stars organization. The Stars have gone 8-8 in the games with MacPherson starting on the hill.
Looking at the pitching changes, are we to expect that the injection of Kinzo, Pualani and MacPherson was the secret ingredient to make a team on pace to win 48 games to a .500 ballclub? Maybe the Kinzo voodoo is for real after all.
There are other factors that come into play for the nay-sayers though. Any time you have 12 rookies on a 27 player roster (13 if you count the September callup of Juan Evans), one would expect that there is a fair amount of improvement on the offensive side to be had over the course of a season. Also about 50 games back, Tim Bartlett and Zeno Kazantziakis have taken back seats in the everyday lineup to the likes of Jorge Garcia and Gabriel Bacaloglu.
Ten more games left in the season for Valencia. Time will tell if the influx of youngsters will finish the post-Kinzo era above or below .500.