Brian Bullington

I'm sitting around my house watching Rob King and Chris Peters (who still looks like he's 11 even though he's got to mid-30s by now) talk about Brian Bullington. They both think that there's no choice but to bring Bullington up right now. Most of the callers on the show agree with them. Call-in shows drive me insane, but I think it's a good idea to talk about Bullington (not that I'm the first person to do this, Charlie has been pointing it out for a while now, but he's absolutely right and it bears repeating).

Yes, his 5-0 record is impressive, but record is virtually meaningless when trying to figure out how good a pitcher is (remember Roger Clemens in 2005... he probably had one of the best seasons in modern history and only finished 13-8). His ERA is 0.96 and his WHIP is 1.14. Again, both are impressive, but again we've got a small sample size and those numbers don't tell the hole story. In 37 and 2/3 innings, Bullington only has 19 strikeouts and 15 walks. That isn't going to fly in the bigs, plain and simple. Zach Duke's biggest problem has always been not enough strikeouts. This is at least partially because our defense sucks. He pitches the worst when he walks a ton of batters. Bullington isn't striking anyone out and is walking a lot of people, in AAA. He's getting lucky. THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES! THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!