After having yet again another discussion about Bruce Bochy and the Padres, I decided to do a little research into Bochy's "reputation" to see how fair it is. This discussion is mainly on his two biggest knocks. 1. He platooned too much and never let his starters start. 2. He took starting pitching out to soon. Now the numbers I am about to show you means diddley...probably. But read into it what you will. I compared this Padres team to last years (up to June 30th for both teams). I compared the number of ABs the starters received and the numbers of innings pitched for the starting pitchers. Here is what I found:
2006 Padres - Khalil Greene, Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Cameron, Brian Giles, Dave Roberts, Mike Piazza, Vinny Castilla, Josh Barfield - 1995 total ABs over 80 Games
Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Chan Ho Park, Woody Williams, Clay Hensley - 461 innings pitched over 80 games.
2007 Padres - Khalil Greene, Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Cameron, Brian Giles, Jose Cruz, Josh Bard, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Marcus Giles - 2017 total ABs over 80 games
Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux, David Wells, Justin Germano - 454 innings pitched over 80 games
Now all of you guys can poke holes in this because I did not account for Cameron being hurt last year, or giles this year or woody williams last year or clay hensley this year. Too much time. All I'm saying is the numbers don't look all that different to me.
3 comments:
I could also point out that you have Jose Cruz listed in the starting line-up when he's been platooning with three other guys all season. Kouzmanoff was also out for a stretch of games there.
The big difference, though, is that with Black, guys miss games because they're hurt. With Bochy, he just constantly played percentages and rested guys for days at a time and never let his young guys get consistant at bats, which I felt really hampered their development. Can you say Xavier Nady and even Jason Bay to a degree?
I never really had a problem with the way Bochy handled the pitching staff, but he, too had a lot of room for error with that bullpen. All I know is that Peavy's having a hell of a better year and Young is looking even better as well.
I won't be able to say anything conclusively until we make it to the postseason.
And we beat the Marlins last night. That seems different.
I could be wrong, but I feel the Marlins always give us fits even when we are good and they suck.
Ironic that you mention Jose Cruz platooning, since it is this year he has been a part of a platoon which, by the way, is precisely my point. As for Bay, he started a number of games before he went on the DL and then was traded by Towers, while on the DL. Nady is more hype in my opinion. And don't forget that Greene, Gonzales, Barfield, Peavy, Oliver Perez, Clay Hensley, Brian Lawrence and even Sean Burroughs were rookies who saw lots of time under Bochy.
Post a Comment