2006 Mid-season Report: Pitchers

Let's change gears here for the pitchers. The Buccos offense this year has been surprisingly almost average, but the pitching has been pretty bad. It's true that they're incredibly young, but I don't think anyone thought they'd be as bad as they've been. Instead of awards, I'll just try and measure my disappointment with each pitcher.

Actually exceeded expectations
As far as I can tell, only one person on the Buccos staff has done that, and it's Matt Capps. He's had his ups and downs, but he's been very effective for a 22 year old reliever with only one dominant pitch. He's probably got a future as a lights out closer. His middle name is Dicus, which I find pretty funny. Have I mentioned he has 7 times as many strikeouts as walks?

Expected to disappoint, but didn't
Roberto Hernandezand Victor Santos. Expectations were low for Hernandez because he's rather advanced in age, but he's actually been pretty good out of the pen this year (minus the Jim Thome incident). His high WHIP (1.47) kind of scares me for the second half, though. As for Santos, expectations were low because, well, he's Victor Santos. He started terribly but had a run of 5 good appearences (4 starts and the W in the 18 inning game) before going on the DL to bring his numbers right to where his career levels are, record under .500 record (4-7), a 1.51WHIP and 4.83 ERA (careerwise he's 21-40, 1.55, 4.97). At least we know what to expect.

Not disappointing this year, but something feels off
This is our de facto ace this year Ian Snell. Tell me if this rings a bell (or three), he's got a pretty electric fastball and some pretty decent offspeed stuff. When he's on he's untouchable, but if he turns it on 3 of every 5 starts, you're lucky. That's actually very good for Snell, who was a big question mark coming into the year, but that's pretty much how the three most maddening Pirates of recent memory started. Yes, I'm talking about Jason Schmidt, Kris Benson, and Kip Wells. Let's hope he can avoid that dark fate. Mike Gonzalez falls into this category as well. He hasn't blown a save, but he's been very Mike Williams/Jose Mesa like all year in the closer's role and he's had lots of control troubles. This could be a big concern sometime rather soon.

Disappointing
We all expected drop-offs from Zach Duke and Paul Maholm this year. To expect anything otherwise would've been foolish after the untouchable numbers they both put up at the end of last year. Still, to see them both operate at the approximate level of a left-handed Josh Fogg circa 2005 is distressing. Most of Duke's starts go well enough except for one disastrous inning, while most of Maholm's starts are just pretty bad (generally falling behind in the first). They've both shown flashes of their previous brilliance this year, so let's hope that they can find it in the second half.

Very, very disappointing
Salomon Torres and Damaso Marte were supposed to be anchors in what was supposed to be one of the better pens in the league. Instead, they've mostly been the people punching more holes into the deck of the sinking ship. Marte's numbers look OK, but he has a tendency to shit the bed when we need him to not shit the bed the most (in 47 ABs, the other team has an OPS of .855 against him in close and late situations). Torres, meanwhile, has just been abused by Tracy. He's 34 now and it's very likely he's on the downslope of his career, which means things won't get better.

Awful
You don't call a guy John GraBLOW if he's not flat out awful.

So bad and disappointing that he got cut, only no one else wanted him
Ryan Vogelsong was actually pitching very well until the best performance of his career in the 18 inning game against the Astros in late May. After that the wheels fell off and he became "The White Flag." There has been no turning back from there. After we DFA'd him no one wanted him so he's back in Indy now, which is unfortunate for him because I think he could succeed somewhere else. Probably not here, though.

Insanely frustrating, maddening, and most of all, disappointing
You know who I'm talking about here, the one and only Oliver Perez. He's like Kip Wells, Jason Schmidt, and Kris Benson only left-handed and infinitely more talented. He also actually put it together for a year, which was a pretty cruel joke on us, getting our hopes up like this. I have no idea if his problems are mental, physical, or what. I have no idea if the 2004 Ollie will ever be back. I do have a sinking feeling in my gut that every day we don't see the 2004 Ollie, it get's exponentially more likely that we won't see him again.

Kip Wells Frustrating
Since 2004 it's possible that Kip Wells has been battling injuries that have affected his pitching. It's possible that we rushed him back this year, which would account for all his difficulties. It's also possible that he forgot how to pitch in the second half of 2004 and that he'll never be back at his '03 level again. I just don't really know if there's any way to know the answer for sure this point, and that's kind of been the story of Kip Wells' career.

Haven't been around enough to disappoint, but seem kind of promising
Tom Gorzellany and Jonah Bayliss. I'll reserve judgement on these guys until later.