Brian Matusz tonight: 5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR That's as many runs as he'd allowed in...

Brian Matusz tonight: 5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

That's as many runs as he'd allowed in his previous 9 starts combined. Everyone has a bad night, I suppose, but I'm so used to being happy when I check his line that I'm a bit puzzled. At least he didn't walk anybody?

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almost 3 years ago Stacey 27 comments 0 recs |

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I don't know what happened

But it put me in an unreasonably bad mood when I checked the box score.

by Joltin Joe Orsulak on Jul 16, 2009 11:03 PM EDT reply actions

seems like a lot of bad luck is involved

no walks, 3 Ks, and 1 HR isn’t terrible.

Lots and lots of hits. I somehow doubt they were all line drives.

Bad days happen

by math_geek on Jul 16, 2009 11:16 PM EDT reply actions

I will choose to look at the no walks as a positive.

We’ve seen too many pitchers in the past few years walk themselves into trouble. Like you said, everyone has bad night every once in a while. Its the walks that cause you to completely blow up. 6 runs is never good, but apparently it kept them in the game enough to actually win. The only real difference between Matusz’s line and the losing pitchers is 2 walks, which accounted for 4 extra runs.

by kba26 on Jul 16, 2009 11:19 PM EDT reply actions

The Bowie vs. Akron Game

Was a complete slugfest. Matusz gave up a bunch of runs but was the winner. Pushing is AA record to 5-0. What is interesting is the opposing pitcher was Bobby Livingston. Remember him? He asked for his release from the Orioles and signed with Cleveland. He gave up 10 runs and was the loser.

So let’s give Matusz the benefit of the doubt. The hitters were dialed in tonight on both teams.

"Losing teams find ways to beat themselves" Jim Palmer

by Baysox39 on Jul 17, 2009 2:34 AM EDT reply actions

It's that damned Futures Game

It’s like the minor league version of the WBC. That tears it – no more O’s pitchers in the Futures Game!

…Hmm, don’t know where that came from. No more coffee for me today.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Jul 17, 2009 10:00 AM EDT reply actions

that tears it?

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions

Does it?

"He's a gazelle." -Adam Jones on Nolan Reimold.

by LenaO on Jul 17, 2009 10:45 AM EDT up reply actions

You never heard that figure of speech?

You know, like “that does it!”. Anyway, after I posted the above, I read this comment on Roch’s blog. It’s scary how easy it is to think like his commenters:

Oriolesfan122 said:
Roch, I am worried that the Futures Game is affecting Matusz a little bit. He allowed 6 earned runs and 11 hits in five innings. That’s is not the Brian Matusz I have heard of. Do you think that the Futures Game is taking it’s toll on Matusz? Oh, I am worried about Tillman too. He also got knocked around in the Futures Game. Hopefully, that won’t affect the way he pitches. Tillman and Matusz are very importatnt(Vital) to the O’s, and the fans. Arritea too. It is only with their combined strength with Bergy and D.Hernandaz right behind them that will lead the Orioles back to greatness. Great pitching wins ballgames. I have confidence in these guys and I know they can do it and become stars one day.
-——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Nah, I wouldn’t worry. He only threw one inning in the Futures Game. He was bound to have an off night. – Roch

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Jul 17, 2009 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions

I never did

I sort of thought it was a typo but couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be. I never should have doubted you :-)

Those commenters are whack. My favorite part is “Tillman and Matusz are very importatnt(Vital) to the O’s, and the fans.”

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions

That line sounds like it came out of Joe Morgan's mouth

If the commenter had added something about being consistent, it would be spot on.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Jul 17, 2009 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Sickels over at Minor League Ball

did not have a whole lot of nice things to say about matusz during the futures game live blog. He said his delivery looked awkward and injury prone, less fluid than college.

by b_duardo on Jul 17, 2009 10:44 AM EDT reply actions

You forgot to add that he got the win ;)

And IIRC Akron has a very good team.

So his ERA is now up to 2…I guess that means he’s human after all.

"On my tombstone just write, THE SOREST LOSER THAT EVER LIVED." -- Earl Weaver

by CoachOfEarl on Jul 17, 2009 12:45 PM EDT reply actions

Wins are irrelevent

But yeah, I’m not worried about him or anything. He’s been super human and it would have been unrealistic to expect him to keep it up, but it was like I got hit with a bucket of ice water when I saw the numbers last night. He’s been so automatic this year that I have always been able to rely on him to cheer me up.

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Also, 2 XBH...1 HR 1 2B

So he sort of scattered those with 9 singles.

;) = wink = sarcasm.

"On my tombstone just write, THE SOREST LOSER THAT EVER LIVED." -- Earl Weaver

by CoachOfEarl on Jul 17, 2009 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions

I think Wins are highly overrated, but I dont think I would go as far as to call them irrelevant.

Ultimately, all you need your pitcher to do is give up less runs than the other guy. In a case like this, Matusz was able to hold it together enough to keep the team in the game while the Akron pitcher wasn’t, and therefore earned the win. While there’s a lot of other stats I look at first, at least for starters I think wins are still a somewhat useful statistic.

by kba26 on Jul 17, 2009 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

wins are irrelevant

QUALITY STARTS however are possibly the single most important pitching stat

by twistedlogic on Jul 17, 2009 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Because nothing gets me more excited than a pitcher giving up 3 runs and not making it to the 7th

by kba26 on Jul 17, 2009 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions

That’s not every QS, just the minimum. And you have to make it to the 7th, but not necessarily go out for it. A 20 QS season won’t get you a Cy, but they are independent of run support and timing, unlike Wins. A HQS (7+IP, <2ER) is also useful.

I like WHIP if you have to boil it down to one stat. But really, give me H/9, K/9, BB/9 and GB/FB/LD%.

"On my tombstone just write, THE SOREST LOSER THAT EVER LIVED." -- Earl Weaver

by CoachOfEarl on Jul 17, 2009 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions

i probably should have added

“/snark” to the end of my comment

by twistedlogic on Jul 18, 2009 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions

wins are irrelevent

They are based not on the effectiveness of the pitcher but rather of the offense. Matusz got the win last night because Bowie clobbered Akron. If he pitches a gem and gives up one unearned run but the offense doesn’t score any runs, he gets the loss.

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Matusz got the win last night because Bowie clobbered Akron. If he pitches a gem and gives up one unearned run but the offense doesn’t score any runs, he gets the loss.

I’d say he got the win for pitching better than the opposing pitcher. Obviously there’s plenty of ways to get an undeserved win or loss (particularly for relievers, where i really do ignore them), but that doesn’t make it a totally useless statistic. Just like any other quantitative measurement, it has flaws. Now admittedly its more flawed than a lot of other statistics, but as long as you consider that when looking at win-loss records there’s no reason it cant still be a useful part of a pitchers overall profile.

by kba26 on Jul 17, 2009 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

We'll have to agree to disagree

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions

You mean this can't be on of those threads that goes on about 8 posts too long?

by kba26 on Jul 17, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Nah

You’ll have to get into an argument with O’sFan21 if you want that to happen ;-)

I will lead these Peoples to the promised land, also known as "Slightly Ahead of the Blue Jays." ~WietersRunDry

by Stacey on Jul 17, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

wins are not irrelevant, because they obviously do correlate to whether or not a team wins a game. Pitchers who get a lot of wins are highly likely to be contributors to team success. However wins are an inferior indicator to almost any other indicator you can think of.

What we care about is evaluating a pitcher’s contribution to team success, and more importantly, a pitcher’s future ability to contribute to team success. Any time a team wins, each player who did something contributed somewhat to a team’s success. Even a relief pitcher who gave up 4 runs in a 20-5 win could have given up 21 runs in that inning and have the team lose the game. However, the relief pitcher was certainly low on the list of contributors to team success.

A pitcher’s contribution to team success is poorly measured by wins because it takes into account how well the offense does, which is almost never the pitchers concern. In addition it’s a mistake to say he pitched better than the other pitcher. Do we really know that? If the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 where both starting pitchers go 6 innings and earn all the runs, did the Red Sox pitcher really pitch better? It’s a lot easier to face the A’s lineup than the Red Sox.

by math_geek on Jul 17, 2009 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions