Tag Archives: Kyle Farnsworth

January 12, 2011

Rays Fill a Hole

The Tampa Bay Rays reached an agreement with Kyle Farnsworth. Color me unimpressed. Farnsworth is a great strikeout pitcher, but walks a lot of batters. On top of that, he allows a high BA for a high K pitcher, .251 for his career. Using the Day by Day Database (1957 on), Farnsworth allows the most hits per nine of any pitcher with a career K per 9 of 9.0 or better:

Pitcher	Kper9	Hper9
Kyle Farnsworth	9.0	8.6
Oliver Perez	9.1	8.2
Randy Myers	9.0	7.7
Mark Clear	9.0	7.5
Rich Harden	9.1	7.4
Tim Lincecum	10.1	7.4
Randy Johnson	10.6	7.3
Octavio Dotel	10.9	7.2
Pedro Martinez	10.0	7.1
Kerry Wood	10.4	7.0
Trevor Hoffman	9.4	7.0
Sandy Koufax	9.5	6.7
Nolan Ryan	9.5	6.6
Billy Wagner	11.9	6.0

Like Oliver Perez, the wildness forces him into the strike zone, where he can get hit.

July 31, 2010

Farnsworth and Ankiel to the Braves

Players A to Z, Kyle Farnsworth

2 Replies

Kyle Farnsworth pitches in relief for the Kansas City Royals. Farnsworth always seems to find a job, as his high strikeout rate (9.1 per nine innings for his career) is very attractive to teams. His 4.0 walks per nine isn’t, however, nor is his home run rate of 28.9. For a player with such a high K rate, his 4.47 ERA seems out of line.

His FIP confirms this, although it’s not off that much, 4.41 for his career. There was a real disconnect in 2009, however, as his FIP with the Royals came in at 3.10, while his ERA finished at 4.58. The Royals were a poor defensive team, and Kyle suffered from that in 2009.

Still, his career BA allowed is .253, which again seems high for someone with that many strikeouts. If you look at the top K per 9 pitchers since 1999 (700 innings minimum), you see two pitchers standing out as different, Farnsworth and Oliver Perez. Both walk too many and give up lots of home runs.

The strikeouts are enticing, but Kyle’s other flaws negate their advantage. Couple him with a poor defense team and it’s a recipe for disaster.