given another strong outing by mark mulder last night, rockin' redbird posted this question in the comments to this morning's post:
me too, RR, for a simple reason: he's a better pitcher now than he has been at any point in the season. i didn't trust his "comeback" in july, because his basic markers were average at best -- a whip of 1.40, more walks than strikeouts, only three starts that lasted more than 6 innings. but in august/september, mulder has been outstanding in every respect. his era's about the same -- 2.29 in july, 2.40 in aug/sept -- and he's had the same number of starts (6 in july, 6 in aug/sept). but he's truly pitching well now. look:
| july | aug/sep | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.29 | era | 2.40 |
| 1.40 | whip | 1.04 |
| .260 | avg | .226 |
| .341 | obp | .276 |
| .418 | slg | .276 |
| 13-17 | k-bb | 23-11 |
in other words, he's not just surviving by the skin of his teeth anymore; he's pitching with authority. as rockin' red says, mulder's true test will come in the playoffs. but when mulder was going bad back in june, i predicted with confidence that we would not be seeing any "ace"-like performances out of him this year:
i was wrong; for the last month-plus, he has pitched like an ace. and he deserves all the credit in the world for working his way back to this point.
moving on: billy wagner blew his 2d straight save to the astros, and the phillies tumbled 3 games behind houston in the loss column. the astros and marlins have edged ahead of the pack for the moment; but that'll change next week, when the two square off in a four-game series in houston.
john sickels at Minor League Ball thinks aaron herr is an interesting prospect, despite his feeble 15-108 walk-to-strikeout ratio.
cardnilly warns against pre-playoff burnout in a fine post today. his question of the day: is it ethical to blow off a close friend's (or relative's) wedding that happens to fall smack-dab in the middle of the nlcs?
