True, baseball is about numbers. Baseball fans are all about the numbers. While watching a Driller's game with a couple of girl friends, I had to laugh when one of the friends exclaimed "Oh you're looking at the numbers on the scoreboard! I was wondering how you knew how much each guy weighed."
"Ten million years from now, when the sun burns out and the Earth is just a frozen iceball hurtling through space, nobody's going to care whether or not I got this guy out." - Tug McGraw.
Tug was correct on that matter. However, we are living here and now. Whether or not he gets the guy out really does matter. It matters for his record as a closer, it matters for the record of the guy he just replaced on the mound, and it matters for the team as a whole. But most importantly, it matters to the fans.
The Texas Rangers have one of the most deadly pitching staffs in baseball so far this season. The top three pitchers are Derek Holland with a 2.54 ERA; Yu Darvish with a 2.73 ERA; Alexi Ogando with a 3.09 ERA.
Derek Holland has won 3 games so far, and struck out 43 batters. Yu Darvish, in only his second season in the major leagues, has won an astonishing six games and has struck out 80 of the batters that he has faced. That is just two of the pitchers on their staff. The bullpen is able to keep the pressure when they take over. Every batter in the American League has a true respect bordering on fear when they face the Rangers.
So what are the catch phrases you need to know? Here are the most important numbers for pitchers. We will tackle the batters in another blog. That is a completely different beast.
ERA - Earned Run Average
How this is calculated is not as important as how the pitcher earns it. Each pitch matters for the ERA. The more strikes he pitches the lower his ERA. If a batter hits the ball and gets out before making it to first, this also lowers the ERA. The more batters that reach base raise this number. Runs are the deadliest of all to the pitchers ERA. Starting pitchers have the longest time on the mound per game. They are at the mercy of the person relieving them if they leave a game in the middle of an inning. He is still responsible for whatever happens to those two men. If they score, the starting pitcher's ERA is hit. "The two most important things in life, good friends and a strong bullpen." - Bob Gibson.
W - Wins
The second most important number for a starting pitcher. The ability for him to become his teams "Ace" depends on a low ERA and the most number of wins on his team.
SO - Strikeouts.
In the modern era of baseball, strikeouts are far more important than they were in the 19th and 20th century baseball. If a pitcher could get someone to hit the ball on one or two pitches and get out, that keeps his pitch count low enabling him to stay in the game longer. The catch 22 is that now strikeouts are factored into, well, everything. So, he is now trying to throw the ball harder and use more pitches, raising the pitch count and taking him out of the game sooner.
SV - Saves (bullpen)
This is pretty self explanitory. A closer that comes in with a lead, gets the guys out that he faces and the team wins the game. The closer that is not able to do this 99% of the time is in major jeopardy of losing his job.
Shannonism - "Everyone’s on a pitch count now, you people down on the farms don’t let major league baseball on your place or they will have the cows on a pitch count."
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