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360 Degrees, Turn 2: A Look at the 2007 Twins Rotation

Posted by SBG on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 2:00 am

Well, we’ve passed the ten game mark, and so it’s time for another 360 degrees. The purpose of this feature is to chart the progress of our starting staff throughout the year. This trip features games 6-10 on the season. The first three of those games were against the New York Yankees and the last two were against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The first trip around the rotation was fantastic, but this team wasn’t so good. It’s a long season, of course, and pitching to the Yankees is a little different than pitching to the Orioles. Boof and Ponson got roughed up, but Ramon Ortiz salvaged the last game and made everything seem all right.

Let’s go to the numbers.


Starter Opponent IP H R ER BB K HR HBP ERA WHIP FIP QS BF ROE Def_Eff 2B 3B S SF AVE OBP SLG OPS Game Score
Ponson Yankees 5.67 10 8 8 3 2 2 1 12.71 2.29 8.14 0 31 1 0.609 2 0 0 0 0.370 0.419 0.667 1.086 16
Bonser Yankees 4.33 6 7 6 2 1 2 0 12.46 1.85 9.66 0 22 1 0.706 0 0 0 0 0.300 0.364 0.600 0.964 24
Ortiz Yankees 8 3 1 1 1 4 0 0 1.13 0.50 2.45 1 28 0 0.870 0 0 0 1 0.115 0.143 0.115 0.258 75
Silva D:\Rays 6.67 7 0 0 2 4 0 0 0.00 1.35 2.60 1 29 0 0.696 2 0 0 0 0.259 0.310 0.333 0.644 62
Santana D:\Rays 7 6 4 4 1 10 1 0 5.14 1.00 2.49 0 27 0 0.667 1 0 0 0 0.231 0.259 0.385 0.644 58

A little bit about the numbers.
FIP – Field Independent Pitching. This is a calculation that attempts to quantify the pitchers contribution independent of the fielding behind him. It is calculated as follows:

FIP = 3.20 + (BB*3 + HR*13 – 2*K)/IP

The 3.20 provides a scaling factor so that FIP is a number that approximates an ERA.

Game Score. Found at ESPN.COM. Start with 50 points. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (3 points per inning). Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed. Subtract 1 point for each walk.

DefEff – Defensive Efficiency. Is the ratio of balls put into play that are converted into outs. A defensive efficiency of .700 is about average. Last year, the Twins defensive efficiency was exceedingly poor over the first couple of months and then improved drastically. Was it improved pitching (i.e. the improvement of Santana and the insertion of Liriano into the starting rotation)? Or was it the defection of the Cubanistas? Note that the defensive efficiency numbers here represent only the at bats when the starters are in the game.

The Yankees were pretty imposing in games 1 and 2 of the series led by A-Rod, who homered in the first inning of each game. Things weren’t looking good, but Ortiz went out there and shut that great lineup down. Everyone’s whipping boy Carlos Silva responded with another good outing, holding the Rays scoreless for 6 2/3 innings. Johan Santana struggled a little and he wasn’t helped out by a misplay of a ball by Josh Rabe that turned into an inside the park home run. (With out that HR, Santana’s FIP was 0.77, which isn’t much struggling, now isn’t?)

The second winner of the 360 Degree Hot Pitcher Award is Ramon Ortiz for his fine effort against the Bombers.

Collectively, here’s how the starters looked.


Trip IP H R ER BB K HR HBP ERA WHIP FIP QS BF ROE Hits Def_Eff AVE OBP SLG OPS
1 31.0 21 9 9 10 26 2 2 2.61 1.00 3.33 3 124 2 21 0.750 0.188 0.266 0.313 0.579
2 31.7 32 20 19 9 21 5 1 5.40 1.29 4.78 2 137 2 32 0.713 0.254 0.307 0.413 0.719
Total 62.7 53 29 28 19 47 7 3 4.02 1.15 4.06 5 261 4 53 0.730 0.223 0.276 0.366 0.641

Good numbers overall. The rotation is off to a pretty good start.


This entry was posted by SBG on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under 360 Degrees, Minnesota Twins. It is one of 2370 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post. Why?

1 LTE

Rhubarb_Runner
Rhubarb_Runner replied on April 15th, 2007 at 8:54 am

I know real estate is tight with your summary table, but adding the 360 Degree Hot Pitcher from each trip might be interesting. As we've already seen, it won't always be Johan.

 

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