June 11, 2007
Stanton's Standing
Red Reporter sees Mike Stanton's ERA as too low for his stats:
He's currently sitting at 4.38 which just shocked the hell out of me because that's pretty average, and average is not a word I'd use to describe Mike Stanton's performance this season.
But then I figured maybe I'm just remembering all the bad outings and mentally glossing over the good ones. That's entirely possible. I kind of believe it's why so many people hate Adam Dunn.
He notes Stanton's high WHIP and the number of appearances in which he allowed two base runners or more. However, Stanton's pitching tripod, strikeouts, walks and home runs are good. He's walking 2.6 batters per nine innings, and allowing home runs at a rate of 0.36 per nine, or about four every 100 innings pitched.
Because to that, his fielding independent pitching ERA a the Hardball Times is 3.36, meaning Stanton's ERA isn't low based on his stats, it's high. Now, batters are hitting a high percentage of line drives vs. Mike, so it's not all the fielder's fault. But given what he does well, and given the small sample size of innings, the hits are more likely just bad luck.
At the end of the 2005 season, for the final game
(vs Yanks) Boston genius GM Epstein gave up two pitchers to the Nats to get Mike Stanton for one solitary game and he wasn't used. He was released in the off-season. I've cited some of Epstein's bad moves before, he is not nearly as smart nor as good as some think that he is.