My boss at Real Job Inc. has been giving me a hard time about Vance Worley and his being named as the Twins opening day starter. Worley has undoubtedly had a terrible spring, but as is noted all the time, though, spring stats are generally meaningless. It’s practice. Teams are fielding talent that isn’t entirely major league ready and major league players are trying stuff out. Hitters are trying new approaches at the plate and pitchers are working on pitches. I read something today on Fangraphs about a pitcher who threw nothing but curveballs in an outing.
What I’m saying is, let’s not take Vance Worley’s spring seriously, all right? Instead, let’s look at his major league statistics. Before he got injured, before the league had seen him his ERA was sub – 3.00 in 134 innings. After he got injured, and his stuff was becoming more familiar to other players, his ERA BALLOONED to um… 4.20. That’s actually a marked step up from what the Twins worked with last year.
Worley’s ground ball rate has gone up steadily (if you can call one year “steady” or a “rate”) and his K/9 rate, even after falling off, is more than 7. His ERA to this point doesn’t appear to be a product of luck. If he is healed, he will be very good. If not, then he is still new to the AL, so he should be pretty decent. If he pitches like he did last year, he will be a welcome source of competence in the Twins rotation.
Now, about the other pitchers….
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