A Little Hate for Starting Pitching

Written by Worm on July 27, 2005

Way back, when there was no Earth, no stars, no Sun, when there were only Rotogods, I wrote a brief article explaining why, I thought, starting pitching tends to be overrated. Here it is, if you want to read it.

This baseball season, I set about trying to prove myself wrong, readjusting my plan in an effort to dominate the pitching categories. Anybody in the same league as me just cracked up laughing at that last sentence. But it’s true. In my article, I said that having one of the elite starters is necessary to win pitching categories, but that these top pitchers are hard to come by. Being in a keeper league, none of these top starters were available to me at the time of the 2005 draft, so I felt compelled to spend a shitload of hitting to acquire some, and hope that I drafted lucky.

So much for that plan. Fuck.

As for drafting lucky, Greg Maddux, Russ Ortiz and Bobby Madritsch didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped. Ortiz wasn’t that much of a surprise, but the other two turned out to be big disappointments. But that’s what you get when you wade into the chaff of starting pitching.

I really want to express my consternation at the wasted money I threw at the likes of Jason Schmidt. Fuck you, Jason. Early in the season, he was off to a slow start, for him. Still, he’s been a top 5 starter for several years now, so I spent several of my top bats to acquire him, only to watch him post an 8.75 ERA and 2.15 WHIP, and then hit the DL. Great, thanks a lot.

Then, when he comes back, he starts pitching like shit. Like, he can’t throw a strike when he wants to, and when he does throw one, the hitter knocks the living piss out of it. Well, I was very concerned, so, to recoup my losses, I managed to trade Schmidt for Carl Pavano and another pitcher who looked to be just getting his ace stuff back on track, Oliver Perez.

Aaargh!!

So, of course Perez proceeds to put up a 5.48 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP, which is better than what Schmidt was doing, but is still in no way helping me, or making me feel like paying a bunch for the most highly regarded pitchers is worth more than stabbing yourself with a fork. And then he promptly goes onto the DL. Yay! And let's not talk about Pavano.

So, guess who in our league owns Matt Clement?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, though, when I heard about what happened last night, it sounded like Clement’s life was in serious danger. I have since heard that he remained conscious the entire time after being hit by the line drive, which is very good news for him and his family. Of course, it remains to be seen what the effects of this will be, and whether he’ll be pitching again any time soon.

Anyway, if there’s any point to this rant at all, it’s that starting pitching is definitely overrated. Don’t spend too much on it, and spend wisely. You’ll want to have a solid stud in your rotation, but if you don’t, don’t eviscerate your hitting to remedy the situation. As a matter of fact, I’ve been able to stay in contention in our league in spite of my poor pitching fortunes. Carrying far and away the worst ERA and WHIP of any team in my league, I currently sit in third place, and just two points out of first. And this is because all those bad starters don’t have their poor performances show up in too many categories. Hitters’ value tends to get distributed into far more categories, so without good hitters, your team will face a much tougher challenge than without those unpredictable “good” pitchers. Can you say, “overrated”?

Fuck starting pitching.

One animal was hurt in the making of this column, a Worm. If you enjoyed this article, you are a twisted motherfucker. Fuck.

-- Written by Worm on July 27, 2005