Glenn Sparkman, Kansas City Royals
Just because Sparkman was a distant second compared to Senzatela’s sky-high ERA doesn’t mean he’s had a particularly great year. It’s tough to necessarily say he took a step back since his big-league experience in 2018 consisted of just 38.1 innings. However, it’s fair to assume the Royals were hoping his fWAR (-0.6) wouldn’t currently be the worst in baseball when looking at starters with 100-plus innings of work.
The 27-year-old has enjoyed pitching in front of the home crowd at Kauffman Stadium this year — he owns a 4.04 ERA and .312 wOBA against in 71.1 innings. Unfortunately, he’s also tossed 46.1 frames as a visitor, which has resulted in an unsightly 8.94 ERA and .432 wOBA against.
Following a rough start at the end of April, Sparkman put together a solid month of May, consisting of a 2.84 ERA through 19 innings. The problem is that his ERA has gone up each month since, with it being near 8.00 since the start of July. There are a lot of things that go into this, but the following can explain plenty:
— Since May, here’s his monthly WHIP: 1.11, 1.18, 1.67, 1.69, 1.75
— Since May, here’s his monthly strand rate: 84.9%, 79.4%, 65.9%, 57.8%, 100.0%
Allowing more base runners and stranding them less often isn’t a good recipe when it comes to a hurler’s ERA.
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