Andy Sonnanstine pitched 7 innings, allowed 4 hits, no walks, one unearned run, and struck out 7. It was the most unimpressive dominant performance I've seen in a long time. He doesn't throw very hard, and though he doesn't walk anybody, his control is hard to figure. He looks like he's missing his spots, not hitting the catcher's target, but perhaps he knows what he's doing. He to give just enough of an illusion of wildness to keep hitters from sitting on his 88 mph fastball.
over 3 years ago
Sky Kalkman
6 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
Vladdy for Sonny?
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
I consider Sonnanstine to be a solid back of the rotation starter.
Not a star, but for a #4 or 5 better than average. There is no pretense of being sabermetrically orthodox here, but I am looking at his game logs for this season to see if my anticipation was correct that in any 5 starts we could expect him to have one terrible outing, 1 excellent outing and 3 so-so ones. All I am considering is runs allowed (not earned runs), not Ks or BBs or line drive rates or home runs allowed, all of which are more relevant in projecting forward I think. Rather I am looking at results this season based on my early season expectations.
Again, not necessarily defensible, but I am defining a terrible outing as less than 6 innings giving up 4 or more runs, a so-so start as 6 or more innings giving up 3 or 4 runs and an excellent start as at least 7 innings and 2 or fewer runs. I do not account for giving up 5+ runs in more than 6 innings, but that never happened anyway.
By those definitions, here is what he has done over his 29 starts to date:
Terrible starts=7. That includes a 5 inning outing giving up 7 runs, 2 earned on 10 hits, 1 BB & 7 Ks.
So-so starts=8
Excellent starts=8
That leaves 6 starts in a kind of limbo. Each was between 5-6 innings with either 2 runs (twice) or 3 runs (4 times) allowed. In 3 of those 4 times that he allowed 3 runs he pitched 5.1 inning twice and 5.2 innings once. The other 3 outings were exactly 5 innings.
That 5 inning start in which he gave up 7 runs, just 2 earned, has a typical Sonnanstine feel to it in that he started poorly giving up solid line drives in the first 2 innings and then settling down allowing virtually nothing over the last 3 with 4 Ks, 3 infield pop-ups and 2 ground outs. After allowing 2 runs in the first, he gave up a lead-off double in the second, got a K looking, a bunt single and another K swinging before Longoria’s error let in the 3rd run and then all hell broke loose with 2 line drive hits (1B & 2B) and a ground single to get in the other 4 runs. Then a weak grounder for out 3 and no more trouble. He came out after 94 pitches, most in the first 2 innings.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Please read our Community Guidelines.
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
DRB Suggestion Box
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
