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It struck me the other day that the Blue Jays staff doesn't have a lot of experience.

Specifically, I wondered if Ricky Romero, with just two seasons under his belt, might actually be second on the staff in career innings pitched.

He's not.  To tell you the truth, he's... um... well... err... he's sixth.

But wait a second! - He is in what Joe Lieberman would surely call a four-way tie for third place. Observe:

1. Dotel 842
2. Rauch 478
3. Villanueva 439
4. Camp 433
5. Frasor 430
6. Romero 421

Just one man, the ancient reliever Octavio Dotel, has thrown even 500 innings in the major leagues. Is this unusual? Maybe. Boston has seven pitchers with that much experience. The Yankees have five, the Rays have four. Even the Orioles have a pair. Here's the list:

Boston (7) - Wakefield (3083), Lackey (1738), Becket (1562), Lester (805), Reyes (726), Matsuzaka (607), Wheeler (586)

New York (5) - Sabathia (2167), Colon (2102), Garcia (1942), Burnett (1800), Rivera (1161)
Los Angeles (5) - Haren (1505), Santana (1101), Kazmir (1022), Weaver (941), Downs (572)
Minnesota (5) - Pavana (1535), Baker (848), Nathan (693), Blackburn (599), Liriano (572)

Tampa (4) - Shields (1016), Farnsworth (844), Cruz (579), Sonnanstine (512)
Texas (4) - Oliver (1770), Rhodes (1162), Bush (1112), Wilson (518)
Chicago (4) - Buehrle (2310), Jackson (914), Floyd (800), Danks (780)

Detroit (3) - Penny (1724), Verlander (1106), Benoit (661)
Kansas City (3) - Chen (1040), Francis (916), Davies (736)
Seattle (3) - Wright (1771), Hernandez (1195), Bedard (847)

Baltimore (2) - Guthrie (844), Gregg (544)
Cleveland (2) - Carmona (782), Durbin (700)

Toronto (1) - Dotel (842)
Oakland (1) - Fuentes (537)

I don't really have a point here. I just thought it was interesting.
Posted by Magpie on Friday, April 29 2011 @ 07:05 PM EDT.
How Green Was My Pitcher | 8 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
greenfrog - Friday, April 29 2011 @ 08:20 PM EDT (#233962) #
Off-topic, but Bautista is now hitting 377/538/805.

Come on Jose, can't ya pick it up a bit? I'm tired of these corner outfielders who can't even put together an OPS of 1.400.
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Flex - Saturday, April 30 2011 @ 12:13 AM EDT (#233975) #
A great lesson in perspective. I'm not surprised that only one pitcher on this staff has that kind of experience, but to see the contrast with other staffs makes it very clear that Farrell and Walton are working with some very raw clay. Add to that an even greener catcher, and I wish people would relax about whether or not Farrell should have run, or matched up his pitcher better against the splits. He's got far more challenging matters on his plate.
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smcs - Saturday, April 30 2011 @ 02:46 AM EDT (#233976) #
Something that I have also found interesting about this pitching staff: If Jason Frasor's usage pattern stays the close to his career average (52 games a season), he has a shot at becoming the franchise leader in games pitched. Right now, he is 39 appearances behind Duane Ward for number 1 all time. He is also tied for 8th with Miguel Batista for saves in a Jays uniform with 36, just 1 save behind Kevin Gregg. He certainly is odd. I mean, how many relievers are there who have never really been the closer and have stuck with the same team over 4 different managers and 8 seasons? And it's not like there is going to be a spot for him on the Ring of Excellence when he finally decides to leave. I seriously can't remember what his voice sounds like.

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Greg - Saturday, April 30 2011 @ 06:21 AM EDT (#233978) #
Fun fact: in 2006 Dave Bush led the NL in K/BB ratio.
Hey may yet get to 1500 IP, which is a bit of a career achievement in itself.
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ayjackson - Saturday, April 30 2011 @ 09:01 AM EDT (#233982) #
Well there`s experience, and then there`s bad experience.  I actually feel like our bullpen is one of the most (good) experienced ones we`ve had in a while.  I have confidence in everybody out there.  Really don`t know who should be removed in favour of a bench player, when we get healthier.
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hypobole - Saturday, April 30 2011 @ 07:53 PM EDT (#233997) #
Just checked FanGraphs. Our 2.94 bullpen ERA is 9th in MLB, with a WAR of -0.4, 28th in MLB. Huh? How can we be so bad? K/9 : 7.21 (20th in MLB), BB/9: 4.06 (21st), HR/9: 1.12 (24th), FIP: 4.58 (26th). So why are we so good? How about LOB%: 83.5 (2nd in MLB) and BABIP: .206 (1st). So even though our peripherals are not good, we're (as Buck would say) clutch and get the big out when we need it.
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Powder Blues - Sunday, May 01 2011 @ 09:26 AM EDT (#234008) #
WAR for relievers is pretty useless if I remember correctly. It's much more useful to scan the raw stats and draw your own conclusions.

Actually, WAR for position players is also pretty flawed (catching defense anyone??), but I digress,.

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scottt - Sunday, May 01 2011 @ 08:21 PM EDT (#234020) #
The raw stats are still pretty bad.

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