Tom Brennan - LAS VEGAS PITCHING HELL
Some jobs deserve hazard duty pay. Like pitching in Vegas.
Fourteen pitchers through Saturday for Las Vegas this year have had ERAs over 6.00. 100 games, 626 runs allowed, 37-63. Ouch! Just last week, in 3 games out of a stretch of 4 games, the Vegans surrendered 59 runs. For those bad at math, that works out to 19.666 runs per game. Hellish.
Those 14 pitchers have thrown 410 innings (nearly 50 full games' worth) and allowed 380 runs!!!! 8.35 runs every 9 innings! They've gone 15-43. Amazing they'd have even won 15 games. Met Eric Goeddel (6.67 in 30 IP) falls in this subterranean category. His major league ERA is lower.
Next echelon up from the pit: Four guys fall in the 5.00 to 6.00 ERA slot - those have thrown 189 innings, allowing 125 runs, still a high 6 runs per 9. Met Hansel Robles (5.79) falls in this category. His major league ERA is lower and he is 6-1 for the Mets to boot.
Thankfully, 8 guys have gone under 5.00 ERAs, with 277 innings and 121 runs allowed, just under 4 runs per 9, both earned and unearned. 5 guys (Sewald, Pill, Smoker, Bradford, and Montero) who have also pitched for the Mets this year fall in this group.
In this top tier ERA group, Kyle Regnault has pitched well out of the pen for Vegas (20 games, 24 IP, 2-0, 3.33).
I could go on, but it is awful pitching in Vegas. But they only surrendered 7 runs last night - but it was in Memphis, so I suspect it is a lousy place for pitchers out in Vegas - occupied by a lot of lousy pitchers.
Result? Pitching Hell.
Memphis at lower altitude and higher humidity is a pitcher's heaven: 3.61 team ERA and 30 games over .500 at 65-35.
I could only imagine Las Vegas pitchers getting off the plane for this series, looking around in awe and wonder, and saying "Is this what heaven is really like?"
The true story here was how badly the Mets brass treated the ownership of their previous AAA affiliate.
ReplyDeleteThey deserve all the lack of air they are now getting here...
By contrast St Louis is first rate, and hence they have a club that is close by and plays well over half their PCL games at home or against other Midwestern PCL clubs with normal hitting environs.
ReplyDeleteHaving a team in Vegas is idiotic!
Even the hitters...we are all drooling over Smith and Rosario, who are hitting the same there as Plawecki who has failed to hit in NY when called up. JUST...TOO...HARD...TO...EVALUATE...GUYS...THERE.
I've called for years to keep all the chips in Binghamton and put them on the Hudson line when they are ready.
ReplyDeleteMake Vegas a AAAA team until they can solve this.
Ideally the Mets should purchase an IL club. I was hoping they would purchase the Charlotte franchise when it was floundering a few years ago. It's booming today.
ReplyDeleteBuffalo got a brief bump when it affiliated with "neighboring" Toronto, but still hasn't made the IL playoffs since the Cleveland Indian affiliation and the 2017 attendance is below the worst Met year, Maybe it's just Buffalo not the team residing.
I'd love to see out AAA team supplant the Ducks in Islip. In an ideal world, that would make tremendous sense.
ReplyDeleteall good points gentleman...
ReplyDelete