His 5th and 6th innings are worse than last year. Thats about the time guys usually start coming around the 3rd time.

It would be interesting to see these same figures for Jackson

Good points. I liked Sonny tonight. His line wasn’t great, but I had no problem with the way he threw tonight. Strong performance, and we really needed it against Zambrano

The reason I’ve always thought Sonny would be better in the pen didn’t have as much to do with his success the 1st time through the order. It was more because I thought he could become exactly what Howell has become. A guy who misses bats when he knows his role is limited to 3 innings or less. He seems like he would work better if he had that mentality

Interesting points though

have been those types of starts where the pitcher is on the edge of either pitching a decent enough game to give us a chance or completely blowing it, and Maddon comes out to pull him just in time

In other words Maddon along with the RP who inherit his runners have saved Sonny lately. This isn’t really a knock as much as an observation. IMO he has been improving each of his last few starts, and even though he teetered on the edge of exploding he has generally kept things from going REALLY bad.

Like RJ said, it is very important that he gives us innings out of his role and with his abillity to not walk guys.

It has NOTHING to do with luck

The reason Sonny’s BABIP is higher than everyone elses is because he is more hittable than everyone else. Isn’t it obvious when you watch him pitch? He isnt having many “lucky” hits fall in play. They are almost all hit very hard

From today’s post at his blog:

“Wednesday, Banny pitched seven innings, threw only 85 pitches, gave up nine hits, gave up two runs (one on a botched defensive play by Mark Grudzielanek), walked nobody, struck out one. That, I think, is just about the perfect Banny outing, the outing that represents who he is as a man and a pitcher, When I think of Banny pitching, this is exactly how I see him, as a guy who gives up hits, works out of jams, throws strikes, doesn’t get strikeouts but does get batters to get themselves out.

The question here — and this has been the question all year long: Is this sort of outing repeatable? Can a pitcher semi-consistently strike out few batters, walk nobody, give up hits and still limit runs and win games? “

Sonnanstine does strike out more than 1/7, but they seem to be similar pitchers, and I think the questions he raises fit Andy as well as Bannister. The rest of his post is interesting and while there are obvious differences in the two pitchers and their situations, there are also some points of convergence that make the post relevant to discussions here.

but if you read the entire article carefully I think there are other differences as well.

I’m so torn on Sonnanstine.

For the short-term, I’m concerned that he hasn’t gone six innings in any of his last six outings. After all, I’ve been told repeatedly eating innings was supposed to be one of his primary strengths, yet he is currently ahead of only Garza in terms of average innings per start.

On the other hand, with the emergence of the bullpen and Howell in particular, the need to eat innings has been reduced to some extent.

At least on the surface, he doesn’t seem to be nearly as efficient as he once was. For whatever reason, his percent of pitches for strikes has been below his yearly average each of the last four starts. But is this a sign he is at least trying to make adjustments? One of the knocks on him was that he throws too many strikes.

Then again, I don’t think the frequency of strikes is his problem; it is the pitch location within the strike zone that concerns me and until it is corrected/improved, he will continue to have the same problems.

But is there actually a problem at all? His ERA over those six games is 4.35, which is hard to complain about for a back of the rotation guy who has been in the majors for barely over a year. Heck, three years ago his ERA probably makes him our Opening Day starter.

As for the future, what are the chances he sticks in the rotation long-term? Would he be better off in the pen? I put a lot of weight on minor league performance, AA and AAA, and the numbers strongly suggest he has the ability to succeed in the majors in some capacity and I think he’s shown in short spurts that he indeed has major league ability. But ultimately, given he is not eating innings and IMO hasn’t reached his full potential, would he be better served to learn and adjust as a member of the pen, following in the Justin Duchscherer career path?

you forget to mention that Sonny is hit a LOT harder, and his pitches find the sweet spot on the bat far more often. Can anyone find me a stat for sweet spots hit? I guess that actually involves watching the game

I could careless what the LD% are. YOu are blind if you cant tell that Sonny gets hit harder than anyone in our rotation

how many struck balls become hits-and what kinds of hits.

dont know who you are talking to

and good point bob