it is probably unintentional, but how appropriate to have jaime garcia starting this cinco de mayo, 150 years to the day after the mexicans won a great victory against the french. suck it, Napoleon III!
jaime garcia
ERA 2.78
FIP 2.47
xFIP 3.65
K/9 5.57
BB/9 2.23
GB 52.5%
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bud norris
ERA 5.46
FIP 4.34
xFIP 3.87
K/9 8.33
BB/9 2.59
GB 44.9%
here we have two pretty decent pitchers, both regressing towards similar norms, albeit from different directions.
color me modestly concerned about the sudden drop in jaime's K rate this year. he's down a little more than 1.5 strikeouts per 9 off the last two seasons. it's still early, but those kinds of peripherals should be stabilizing about now.
let us hope that neither pitcher begins the grand march of regression towards their norms today.