Improvement

There was a graphic during the pregame show last night that noted how Wainwright and Zambrano are the only pitchers who have improved their ERAs every month since the beginning of the season.  Wainwright secured an improved July with his start last night, so I thought I'd take a look at the rest of his numbers as well.  Then I wondered about our boy Rick Ankiel, and whether he was showing any improvement on the plate discipline so many fear he hasn't mastered well enough to hack it in the majors.  Hit the jump for all the numbers.

First, Wainer (Source):

Month  ERA W L G GS IP    H  R ER HR BB SO  AVG BB/9  WHIP IP/GS
April 6.14 1 2 5 5  29.1 39 21 20  3 16 21 .331 4.91 1.875  5.87
May   5.00 3 2 5 5  27.0 39 16 15  1  7 17 .339 2.33 1.704  5.40
June  3.69 2 3 6 6  39.0 34 17 16  5 14 17 .231 3.23 1.231  6.50
July  3.12 3 1 4 4  26.0 26  9  9  0  8 23 .260 2.77 1.308  6.50

So Adam started out the season turning every batter into Stan Musial, but since May has improved by almost 100 points.  As his BAA improved, so did his BB/9, which explains the steady decline in WHIP and ERA.  Also notable though, is that he's going deeper into games - averaging almost a full inning more in June/July than he did in April/May.

Next up, #66 (Source):

      AB H  2B 3B HR BB IBB HP  K SF GDP  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS BB/SO
April 89 23  4  1  7  3   1  3 18  3   0 .258 .296 .562 .858  0.17
May   72 23  3  1  4  5   2  0 17  1   0 .319 .359 .556 .915  0.29
June  99 26  4  0 10  6   2  1 27  1   4 .263 .308 .606 .914  0.22
July  96 25  4  0  8 10   0  1 20  0   5 .260 .336 .552 .889  0.50

Firstly, I notice that Rick's BA has been remarkably consistent at ~.260 other than May, which can be partially explained by his corresponding jump in BABIP (not shown).  Meanwhile, despite a gradual increase in walks, his OBP has been erratic.  In the end, the original question was about plate discipline, and while .50 isn't a great BB/SO ratio by any means, he is showing some noticable improvement.