KODAI SENGA
How do you say, “Why not?” in Japanese? Why not try relief?
In a brutal 0-8 season mostly as a starter, Kodai Senga’s last 3 outings have been one inning relief affairs, in which he allowed no runs, on no hits, and fanned 4. He was hitting 99.
Guys sometimes transition to the pen excellently after bad starting roles.
I wrote these points in articles in years past as examples:
Brad Hand basically sucked as a starter.
How does 8-24, 4.86 ERA sound? “Sucks” is as good a word as any.
Even ex-Met Jack Fisher would likely think so.
He was 8-24 as a Met in 1965, but he sported a 3.94 ERA that year.
Hand also fanned a pedestrian 135 in 222 career starter innings.
But Hand as a relief pitcher? Night and day.
32-31, 3.31, 132 saves. His ERA in his 5 prime relief years (2016-2020) was well below 3.00.
In another article, I addressed Andrew Miller.
As a starter, he was a low K guy going 20-27, 5.70. Terrible.
In relief, though, a true beast:
2.95 ERA, 504 innings, 724 Ks. He was super dominant out of the pen in 2013-2017, with a 5 year ERA of about 2.00.
Could Kodai be a great reliever, like those two? Only one way to find out.
Especially after Weaver’s replacement Dedniel Nunez has been getting bashed.
More to fans like DREAD Niel.
Speaking of bashing…
THRASHING BINGHAMTON BECOMES BASHING BINGHAMTON
All season, thru late July, I was bashing Binghamton’s very bad offense.
Then they added Miraculous Mitch Voit and several great trade pieces.
In August’s 11 games, Binghamton erupted:
.320/.392/.555, with 95 runs. Soto numbers.
Now the tables have turned: Binghamton BASHES other teams.
The team, even after those 11 explosive games, is only hitting .223.
That is still worst in the league by 11 points, showing how extremely poorly they hit in the previous 99 games of the season (.211).
All it takes sometimes is superior talent to produce superior results.
P.S.
Great hitters surrounding a recently struggling hitter can lift all boats.
Kevin Parada? 7 for 14, 3 doubles, 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, no Ks, in his last 4 games.
7 comments:
Dedniel 2.1 innings, 9 hits, 7 runs, since his return. He is only a Weaver in traffic.
Unrelated, but Schwarber has 35 HRs WOW. But, whoa, just 69 RBIs and 69 runs. And whoa, 176 Ks in 116 games.
No Dream Weaver as yet? I don't think the Mets are going to count on players returning from injury in the bullpen next year. Certainly not at the beginning of the year. They have 3 in Megill, Garrett and Nunez. I think they are probably confident that they will have Senga, Williams, Lavender and the others remain to be seen. Remember they signed Minter, Weaver and Williams and resigned Raley (?) over last offseason, so I look for the to repeat that kind of effort this offseason and anything they get from the injured 3 before mid season would be a bonus. They could use another lefty. One of the most important features of the bullpen this year was that they threw strikes and challenged hitters. Not much nibbling.
Name damedesu ka
Check those OPSs in the B-Mets infield
Sick stuff - in a great way, Mack. There may have been genius to the Stearns Reset. Dividends flowing big-time in 2028
I do believe they will rebuild the pitching well enough. Meanwhile, in giving up the slimmest of slim chances for the playoffs this year, they’ve got some bona fide MLB hitters of the future. And saved how much money this season on Peralta, Weaver, Raley, Minter and others, along with a roughly matching amount of dollars in luxury tax. Ade much sense.
Had Soto been healthy, and had they been 4 games closer, I would have wanted them to go for it. With Soto and Holmes back, and Lindor revived, it could have been 2015-16 all over again.
But now we have got a REAL future hitting farm system. Unlike the prior fake haul of Whifford, short Gilbert and really short Acuna.
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