WACHA WACHA WACHA
My first thought on Michael Wacha was...
He ain't no Gerrit Cole.
He cost a lot less, too, something near and dear to the Mets' hearts.
2019 for Wacha wasn't so good. He was, overall, 6-7, 4.76 ERA in 29 games for the Cards in 2019, 24 of which were starts.
But he had a very good, but abridged season in 2018. In fact, he was 8-1, 2.47 in early June of 2018 before his last 2 starts, in which he went 7 2/3 innings and surrendered 12 runs and saw his season end with a left oblique strain..
In 2019, though, the thing that jumped out at me?
His 1.56 WHIP.
The highest team WHIP in 2019? The Rockies at 1.49.
So his WHIP was higher than that of any major league team. That whipped my brain to attention.
MAN WATCHING A LONG HOME RUN SURRENDERED BY MICHAEL WACHA
He also surrendered 26 HRs in 127 IP.
Sure, 2019 was the "Year of the Homer", but allowing a HR every 4.9 innings pitched is not reassuring.
As an aside, in his one game against the Mets last year, Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis teed him up for long balls. So, happily, he helped Pete get to his 53 homer major league rookie record.
If Wacha is the Mets' 5th starter in 2020, he better have a big, bad, baseball bounce back season.
Like he had in 2018 before he went down hurt.
The Mets need quality starters, and tons of quality starts, if they intend to truly contend for the NL East.
3 comments:
This deal made a lot of sense for the Mets... until they gave $10mil this morning to Rick Porcello.
They was only one open slot in the rotation unless there is something that hasn't been announced yet.
I agree - unless they envision moving one of the now-six starter to the pen, and having that guy in reserve to move to a starting role if someone gets hurt.
I think Wacha is a good buy low candidate.......if he stinks, it's only one year, right?
However, if you look at his entire track record, he is talented and I think he might have been pitching
injured last year, knowing his free agency was on deck.
If (lots of them) he can stay reasonably healthy, he is a nice #5 starter.
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