2006 in Review- Tom Gorzelanny

Now that 2006 is over, I'll be looking at one or two Pirates and their 2006 season each day. I'll look at what we expected, what we got, and what that might mean for the future. I may or may not assign a meaningless grade to their performance. Today: Tom Gorzelanny

2005 key stats: 8-5/3.26 ERA/1.23 WHIP/124 Ks/46 BB/129 and 2/3 innings in AA
2006 PECOTA: 6-9/4.96/1.49/87 Ks/58 BB/123 and 2/3 innings
2006 key stats: 6-5/2.35/0.94/84 Ks/27 BB/99 and 2/3 innings in AAA, 2-5/3.79/1.31/40 Ks/31 BB/61 and 2/3 innings in Pittsburgh

Gorzelanny's stock rose through the roof at the beginning of this year with his dominant stint in Indy. He got off to a rough start with the Buccos, but turned things around quickly. Through his first four starts he'd walked 16 and only struck out 12. Over the next seven he struck out 28 and only walked 15, which is a much better ratio his full season numbers of more than 4/3. All in all, he made a pretty decent appearence in the bigs for a guy that spent last year in AA. He's a nice contrast to Duke and Maholm in that he's a much harder thrower and more of a strikeout pitcher. Still, the high amount of walks (even when he cut down his walks in his last 7 starts he didn't have a K/BB ratio of 2:1) is kind of scary for next year beacuse over a full season the bad peripherals will catch up to him (like they did for Duke and Maholm this year). He's also got some injury questions, he missed time at the beginning of '05 in Altoona and missed a month in August and September this year with some elbow discomfort. The injury this year couldn't have been serious as the Pirates brought him back to pitch for three starts in September, but the injury thing is kind of like a black clould hanging over everything he does right now. Still, I've got high hopes for Gorzo, I think it's quite possible that he's got the best stuff of our four young starters and the 4 starts he made this year when he reigned his control in and before he got hurt were impressive.


Stats from the Baseball Musings Day by Day Database, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com (they're the only ones that list current BABIPs for free), and my trusty copy of Baseball Prospectus 2006.