(Or Why Giants Fans Should Show Matt Cain a Little Love)
San Francisco's Matt Cain finally won his first game of the season on Sunday. He pitched a 1-run, 3-hit, complete game gem, as the Giants beat the Diamondbacks 2-1.
He may not be the first pitcher in the rotation or highest paid pitcher on the team, but he is certainly the ace of the staff. Opposing batters are hitting a mere .120 against him, which is the third lowest average in the big leagues, behind Chicago's Rich Hill and Seattle's Felix Hernandez. He is also fifth in baserunners allowed per nine innings (BAPNI), which is really just WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) multiplied by nine.
I realize teams have only played 18 or 19 games and most pitchers only have four or five starts so far, thereby providing a very small sample size, but it's still fun to calculate, sort, and compare the statistics. Consider it sabermetrical spring training. For some real sabermetrics talk, check out Beyond the Box Score. To the table...
| Player | Team | OBA | BAPNI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Buehrle | Chicago White Sox | .150 | 5.92 |
| Rich Hill | Chicago Cubs | .113 | 6.13 |
| Felix Hernandez | Seattle Mariners | .107 | 6.24 |
| Ted Lilly | Chicago Cubs | .165 | 6.92 |
| Matt Cain | San Francisco Giants | .120 | 7.44 |
| Jeremy Bonderman | Detroit Tigers | .202 | 7.71 |
| Ramon Ortiz | Minnesota Twins | .215 | 7.76 |
| Johan Santana | Minnesota Twins | .191 | 8.33 |
| Tim Hudson | Atlanta Braves | .165 | 8.38 |
| Chad Gaudin | Oakland Athletics | .186 | 8.51 |
(A quick key to abbreviations: OBA = Opposing Batting Average, BAPNI = Baserunners Allowed Per Nine Innings)
By the way, Sunday's (a.k.a. Earth Day's) Foxtrot was all about baseball, a game Peter isn't very good at...
2 Comments
Don't worry, they'll come around for Matty... It's just a matter of time with Giants "fans". They're some of the harshest out there!
I'm sure they will, too. I just think there are fans out there who will only judge him based on his W-L record, which would be unfortunate.