Just posted to my blog, wanted to share here.

Jason Berken started off the season pitching exceptionally well in his first two games. Berken excited Orioles’ fans including myself, he got us thinking we had a solid pitcher coming up to the big leagues. Boy, did Orioles fans come to a conclusion to quickly, and Berken did the opposite of pitch well after those first two games.

May was his first month on the Orioles and those were his first two games where he pitched well. In his MLB debut on May 26th against the Toronto Blue Jays he pitched 5 innings, allowing three runs and picked up the win. His next start on May 31st against the Detroit Tigers was a very good performance. He pitched seven innings allowing just one run, but picked up the loss. Hey! Orioles fans, we got a solid pitcher here!

Solid is not even close to describing Berken’s performance for June, and the rest of the season (besides a few decent starts down the road). His June ERA was a bloated 8.51. Berken struggled with so many issues, he did not pitch deep into games, and could not keep the ball down in the zone. I was able to see him pitch on June 18th against the Mets. That was a decent game for him considering he pitched 6.2 innings, but he did allow four runs.

Berken’s pitching in July was bad, but looked good compared to Berken’s month of June. Trying to find some positive from Berken was hard, but good news was Berken only registered three losses in July compared to four in June! Hey, at least he was showing improvement! He lowered his monthly ERA to (5.88) compared to that ugly 8.51 ERA in July.

Berken unbelievably, was able to pick up three wins in August. He did not pitch that badly in those three wins, but his collective month ERA for August was 6.59. Berken also had possibly his worst start of the season pitching just 1.1 innings against the Red Sox giving up six earned runs. His ERA does look better for the month without that ugly start, going down to 4.98.

I do not think I am going to even write about the last month of Berken’s season. He allowed almost double the amount of hits (41) than innings he pitched (23.2) in September. He even got lucky and picked up a win, even though he gave up five runs. He made one October start, giving up four runs in 5 innings.

Overall, Berken’s season was a disaster. He did make a few average starts, but none of them were nice deep starts. He allowed 2 runs or less in nine games this season. But, he only made 3 quality starts. This shows how he did not pitch deep into games and mostly pitched around 5 innings in his starts (his average starts was 4.98 innings). Next season I expect to see Berken coming out of the bullpen.