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September 25, 2006

Minor League Review, Part 4: Bakersfield Blaze Pitchers

About the league and park: Click here. Very short version: The California League favors hitters, but the park slightly favors pitchers.

About the pitchers: 20% of the team's runs (1.14 per game!) were unearned. In Eric Hurley's case, 25%. In Daniel Herrera's, 50%. ERA is of limited usefulness but does a reasonable job of describing a pitcher's performance at higher levels. In the lower minors, not so much.

Between Bakersfield and Frisco, Hurley excelled at everything but keeping the ball in the park. He allowed sixteen homers in 138 innings between the Cali and Texas Leagues, about 25% more than the league-average rate. Should Hurley spend much time in Oklahoma City next year, keep in mind that Bricktown Ballpark ferociously supresses home runs. Any improvement by Hurley in that regard must be taken in context.

Yes, Jesse Ingram really did strike out over 40% of the batters he faced. Ingram, Hurley, and Kometani graduated to Frisco during the season. Herrera converted to starter in August and increased his strikeout rate. 2004 third-rounder Michael Schlact can't legally order a beer until December, but that's not his only problem: he struck out only five batters per nine innings during 2005-2006.

Player 
GS 
IP
RA
RA+
ERA
ERA+
WHIP
WHIP+
HRrate
HRrate+
BBrate
BBrate+
SOrate
SOrate+
Daniel
Herrera
14
5
53.3
2.70
198
1.35
336
0.96
153
0.0%
inf.
5.8%
157
29.3%
152
Jesse
Ingram
27
0
59.3
3.03
176
2.43
187
0.94
156
1.3%
155
9.7%
94
41.8%
217
Matt
Farnum
30
0
50.0
3.78
141
3.42
133
1.40
105
1.4%
146
8.9%
102
25.3%
131
Kea
Kometani
10
10
60.0
4.05
132
3.30
138
1.37
107
1.2%
174
5.1%
177
22.0%
114
Douglas
Mathis
26
25
150.7
4.54
118
4.18
109
1.37
107
2.2%
94
7.3%
124
16.9%
88
Eric
Hurley
18
18
100.7
5.36
100
4.11
110
1.23
119
2.9%
71
7.7%
118
25.5%
132
John
Bannister
18
18
96.7
6.42
83
5.87
77
1.68
87
2.0%
102
11.8%
77
24.3%
126
Edwin
Vera
35
11
93.3
6.46
83
5.21
87
1.85
79
1.4%
152
15.1%
60
20.9%
108
Jon
Wilson
31
0
53.7
6.54
82
4.53
100
1.77
83
1.6%
131
9.0%
101
14.5%
75
John
Lujan
38
0
69.0
6.65
80
5.74
79
1.71
86
2.5%
81
13.6%
67
18.3%
95
Michael
Schlact
26
26
138.3
7.29
73
5.99
76
1.73
85
2.4%
87
9.6%
95
12.7%
66
Broc
Coffman
19
18
83.3
9.18
58
7.24
63
1.80
82
2.8%
73
10.2%
89
17.2%
89
TEAM
TOTALS
140
140
1,241.7
5.97
90
4.83
94
1.53
96
2.2%
94
9.7%
93
20.6%
107
Park-Adjusted League Average
-
-
-
5.34
-
4.54
-
1.47
-
2.1%
-
9.1%
-
19.3%
-

About the stats: See the top of this post for explanations and caveats.

Posted by Lucas at September 25, 2006 07:58 PM