Two Really Boring Pitchers
October 14, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Games Worth Watching, Playoffs
Ah, Game 3 of the NLCS. The Rockies return home to Coors Field with a 2-0 lead and the world will be watching. Josh Fogg? Livan Hernandez? Wait, is this baseball or the Chinese water torture?
Sorry, I’ve seen these guys pitch a lot this year and they are excruciating. Both pitchers have the same approach: Let the batter hit the ball and hope that good things happen. It’s earned Fogg and his 60-60 career record the nickname of “Dragon Slayer.” It’s earned Hernandez a World Series ring.
There is winning ugly and then there’s this:
| ERA | WHIP | K/BB | K/9 | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fogg | 4.94 | 1.53 | 1.59 | 5.11 | 854 |
| Hernandez | 4.93 | 1.60 | 1.14 | 3.96 | 870 |
Three pitchers in MLB failed to break the 4 K/9 threshold this year: Hernandez, Minnesota’s Jose Silva, and Colorado’s Aaron Cook. Only Florida’s Scott Olsen had a higher OPS against than both Fogg and Hernandez.
I dunno if I can sit through this one. Maybe there’s a Small Wonder marathon on somewhere…
Can’t the boring label kind of go for this entire series? Colorado has a lot of good young talent and they have been playing so well but this series just seems to have zero draw to it.
Kevin, you raise a good point. If the Red Sox don’t reach the World Series, the networks are going to be hating life.