Tuber Times 2063.80: June Swoon - Pitching

[cheekimonk]

Tuber Times
23 July 2063
Boise, Idaho
**********************************
Yaxel Bardenwerper

*woof* The Boise Spuds have been terrible this season, tied for the 3rd-worst record in baseball, but June was on another level as the team went 10-18 (though July is projecting to be worse at 6-12 thru 18 games). The last month of spring was so terrible it deserves a deeper look. And so terrible that it deserves a separate look at the pitching and offense. They are some ugly performances across the board. In a sense, the team was snakebit as only two losses were decided by more than 5 runs. In another sense, the Spuds toaded the wet sprocket.

June series breakdown

Opponent	Record
@ Cobble Hill	1-1
vs Cape Fear	1-3
vs Atlantic City	0-4
vs New Orleans	3-1
@ Charlotte	1-3
@ Charm City	1-3
vs Jacksonville	3-1
vs Montreal	0-2

Rotation

Name	W	L	SV	ERA	G	GS	IP	HA	R	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP	OAVG	BABIP	WAR
Josh Clark SP	1	2	0	3.96	4	4	25	21	12	11	5	6	21	1.08	0.223	0.235	0.1
Buddhapalita Kankipati	1	1	0	4.19	6	3	19.1	18	9	9	4	4	11	1.14	0.247	0.241	\-0.1
Mahad Einan	2	3	0	4.54	6	6	35.2	34	19	18	5	12	23	1.29	0.243	0.254	0.3
Thomas Turner	1	3	0	6.10	6	6	38.1	40	26	26	8	7	30	1.23	0.26	0.276	0.2
Felipe Ledesma	0	1	0	6.41	4	4	19.2	24	14	14	3	13	16	1.88	0.296	0.339	\-0.1
Dan Boman	1	3	0	6.75	5	5	29.1	42	22	22	5	12	25	1.84	0.333	0.385	0.1

That's a 5.38 ERA. No starting pitcher had an ERA less than 4.00 and that just barely from Kid Clark. The struggling Niegloslaw Woywitka didn't make a start in the month but it wouldn't make much difference if he did. This kind of changes the "small margin of defeat" observation as clearly a lot of runs were surrendered by the starting staff. It just so happened that the offense was better than it shows, but we'll get to that later. Furball Einan is probably the most surprising and disappointing pitcher from the month. He had less than a 2.0 K/BB and gave up 3.2 runs per outing.

Bullpen[/url]

Name	W	L	SV	ERA	G	GS	IP	HA	R	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP	OAVG	BABIP	WAR
Cornelio Martínez	1	0	0	2.25	9	0	12	12	3	3	0	2	11	1.17	0.261	0.343	0.4
Tariku Jabiri	0	0	0	2.84	7	0	12.2	11	4	4	3	3	8	1.11	0.234	0.222	\-0.2
Yoriyuki Ine	0	0	0	4.30	9	0	14.2	13	8	7	1	7	16	1.36	0.232	0.3	0.2
Alfredo Morán	1	1	0	4.50	6	0	10	7	5	5	1	5	10	1.2	0.206	0.25	0.1
Mario Santos	1	2	5	6.23	10	0	8.2	18	9	6	1	4	8	2.54	0.409	0.472	0.1
Máximo Rivera	0	2	0	7.00	7	0	9	8	8	7	2	5	9	1.44	0.229	0.25	\-0.2
Tim Stops	0	0	0	7.50	5	0	6	7	5	5	4	3	4	1.67	0.292	0.188	\-0.5
Samir Qasim	1	0	0	11.25	9	0	8	19	10	10	2	6	4	3.12	0.452	0.472	\-0.4

Deathblow Martínez and Jabiri tried to boost this group but were overcome by collective suckitude in the rest of the pen (and Martínez was rewarded with a trade to Yellow Springs...in fact, that probably is a reward for him, you're welcome). The most damning numbers are those from Qasim, Stops, and Santos as they make up the backend and a squad can't win with games coming down to the wire with performances like that. This, also, puts the average margin of defeat into context. Morán and Rivera are rookies so they will have their ups and downs. Jabiri is a real nice surprise as he wasn't counted on to be a presence before the season began. But, again, only 2 players with an ERA less than 4.00 and an overall K/BB of 2.0 which doesn't get the job done in relief.

[DugoutDesperado]

Looks like Turner is continuing to fade. Was hoping the change of scenery would have helped.