The monthly graphs are a few days late, which I apologize for, but they are still here and as exciting as ever. I hope no dishes were broken in frustration during the wait.
First off, here’s the usual ERA/FIP/xFIP comparisons:
In a nutshell: May not as good as April. If you’ve been watching the games, you probably figured that out by yourself.
The Yankees rotation pretty much matched their peripherals as a whole in May. This is only part of the story, however, and I think it’s worth looking at the pitcher breakdown here.
| April/March | May | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERA | FIP | xFIP | ERA | FIP | xFIP | ||
| AJ Burnett | 2.43 | 3.38 | 4.34 | 4.03 | 3.82 | 4.16 | |
| CC Sabathia | 3.12 | 3.37 | 3.68 | 5.15 | 5.51 | 4.53 | |
| Phil Hughes | 2.00 | 3.67 | 4.61 | 3.03 | 2.72 | 3.16 | |
| Andy Pettitte | 2.12 | 3.08 | 4.02 | 2.87 | 4.42 | 4.15 | |
| Javier Vazquez | 9.00 | 6.36 | 4.95 | 4.91 | 3.97 | 3.28 | |
The things that stand out here:
- Javy Vazquez really improved a lot in May. Which isn’t that shocking because it would be hard for him to repeat the awfulness in April. The end results (ERA) were not pretty but the FIP/xFIP are very encouraging, as has been his recent string of starts.
- C.C. Sabathia put together a very nice April and then had a really awful May. I hope this is just his one month blip for 2010 because it wasn’t very pretty to watch.
- Andy is probably due for some bad starts soon, which will be painful but I think everyone has been waiting for it.
Yep. The bullpen was pretty bad in May, at least in terms of results. They gave up a lot of homeruns. It sucked but it’s already gotten better (except for Chad Gaudin who is struggling hardcore).
Lastly, the obligatory K:BB graph for the starters:
Andy doesn’t strike out a lot of guys (except when facing the Blue Jays I guess), the good news is he also does not walk a lot of guys. The low strikeout numbers are what drag his FIP and xFIP down, of course.
Phil Hughes walked 11 batters in 3 starts (18IP) in April and then 8 in 6 starts (38 2/3 IP) in May. That’s what you might call an improvement. The first month, he was getting somewhat lucky but cutting down that walk rate has helped out his peripheral stats a lot. What he’s doing is still not really sustainable but cutting down on the walks dramatically is a good sign because if he keeps that up, he’ll keep on being awesome.
CC’s K/9 ratio in May was 6.38 which is not what you expect from him. It’s about a strikeout off from what you get from normal, not beastly, CC and just helps to highlight the struggles he had last month.
And that’s all I’ve got for this month. Hope you enjoyed the pretty bars with numbers in them for May!