Former SPs taking their revenge...

by Jumsy on Jun 11, 2009 12:16 PM EDT

Recently I noticed that the Cardinals were really struggling against former starters and their new teams (Marquis, Looper, and Suppan). I thought I would take a look back and review the performances of those 3 players against the Birds since they have not been extended.

First off, Jason Marquis. In 2007, Marquis went 3-1 against us with a 3.60 ERA while pitching for the Cubs. He threw 25 innings against us that year and allowed 10 earned runs while walking 9 and striking out 10. Nothing spectacular, but still effective. In 2008, Marquis only threw in 1 game (took the loss), and we hit him pretty hard, 5 earned runs, 5 walks, and 4 strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. This year, Marquis is 1-0, 8 ip, 0 earned runs, 4 walks and 6 strikeouts. That brings Marquis' line for the 3 years to 4-2, 38.1 ip, 15 earned runs while sporting a 3.52 ERA.

We will then move to Braden Looper, who has just the 1 start against the Cardinals this season. In that game he picked up the W while throwing 6 innings, giving up 1 run, 2 walks and 0 strikeouts, and a 1.50 ERA. Once again small sample size.

Finally, lets take a look at Jeff Suppan. In 2007, Suppan was 3-0 with 1 complete game. He threw 23.1 innings allowing 4 earned runs, walked 4 and struck out 14. He sported a 1.54 ERA for that year. In 2008, Suppan went 1-0 in 2 games started, throwing 14 innings, giving up 4 earned runs walking 7 and striking out 7. He still carried a 2.57 ERA for that year. So far this year, Suppan has pitched twice against the Cardinals going 1-1, 10.2 innings pitched, 5 earned runs allowed, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He is carrying a 4.22 ERA for the year against the Cards. Over the 3 years away from the Cardinals, Suppan has been 5-1 in 7 games started, throwing 48 innings, allowing 13 earned runs, 14 walks and 25 strikeouts while sporting a spiffy 2.43 ERA.

The compiled totals for these 3 is a record of 10-3, with 92.1 innings pitched, allowing 29 earned runs, handing out 34 walks, striking out 29, and sporting a sickening 2.83 ERA (sickening because our former 4th & 5th starters are being that effective against us).

My biggest question about this is, why don't we have the best scouting reports on these pitchers? They pitched for us for years, we let them go, and they are effective against us (and they are not even lh). Why isn't our lineup prepared to know exactly what they are going to do against us? Why hasn't anyone found a tip to what pitch is coming?

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Comments

this is kind of odd.

and very frustrating, especially given that none of these guys are awesome ace pitchers who are owning everyone they face.

i mean, it is a really small sample size overall, but it is…strange that they have all had good success against their former team.

cardinals are the things with feathers that perch within the soul.

by ilrosso on Jun 12, 2009 12:59 AM EDT reply actions

Looper and Marquis both pitched terribly against us, they just got lucky

A look at their K:BB ratio’s against us should be enough to tell you that. Suppan pitched well, but… small sample size.

St. Louis relievers... defying win expectancy since 2008
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/

by vivaelpujols on Jun 12, 2009 1:08 AM EDT reply actions

I'd say out of all of them though

Suppan seems to have the most success against us

4B - beer baseball bands blog
"OOHHHHH!!!! He knocked out the I in Big Mac Land!!"

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jun 12, 2009 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions

The guy should be happy the Card's made him richer than he was ever supposed to be.

by TheBirds on Jun 13, 2009 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Is K/BB that powerful?

I sure wouldn’t use the word “terribly.”

Evaluating a game, a game is the whole sample.

by ol Pete on Jun 13, 2009 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions

K:BB is by far the most predicitive and controllable skill that a pitcher has

Marquis has a 21:21 K:BB ratio against us. That is terrible. Looper has 0:2 K:BB ratio. That is an abomination.

Yes the game is the whole sample, but the author is point out that our old starters have a lot of success against us. Besides the aformentioned reason of luck, small sample size is another way to expalin it.

St. Louis relievers... defying win expectancy since 2008
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/

by vivaelpujols on Jun 14, 2009 5:27 AM EDT up reply actions

That’s an awfully bold statement on k/bb. I doubt its even applicable in a sample size of one game. One could examine Looper’s performance in several ways including seeing if there were many hard hit balls that were caught. I still maintain that examining a whole game isn’t a small sample, its the entire universe under discussion.

abomination: a thing that causes disgust or hatred

I guess I don’t share your disdain for inducing ground balls or defense.

by ol Pete on Jun 14, 2009 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions

How is that a bold statement?

Good pitchers have good K/BB’s, bad pitchers have bad K/BB’s. Pitchers who succeed despite a bad K/BB are lucky and will regress and pitchers who strike out less players than they walk do not even belong in the major leagues.

Decrease runs scored?
Maybe.

Decrease winning? Never seen that proven.
-SFTU

by hazel on Jun 14, 2009 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions