The Genius Maker #60 (4th inning complete - Pitchers)

Post #59 has a quick note on last nights game.

As we just about close the 4th inning of the year, here is where we are (ALL NUMBERS PRIOR TO WEDNESDAY NIGHT’S GAME)
The entire bullpen outside of the Genius Maker has been pretty weak.

Rivera has a .384 OPS against…WOW! This represents the lowest OPS against for Rivera’s career (I know the year is not over yet). Those are video game numbers. What is even crazier, if we pull out one week/stretch of games (May 16th- May 21st) his numbers are the following: 22 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 4 walks and 20 k’s.

Usually one would expect more inconsistent times as a player ages, but Rivera has limited is stretch to one bad one. While there have been times he has been less dominant, he has done the job and overall been fantastic. Coming up with the tailing fastball against righties has been a big difference as Rivera has simply been dominant against righties with a .305 OPS against. That is really absurd. For perspective, that is allowing 2 doubles, 2 singles, 1 walk and 2 HBP while getting 37 outs! One final way to look at it…it is like pitching 4 complete games allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk in each of them with no triples or homers. He is the GENIUS MAKER!

Mitre has been very good, but Joba and Marte both have high hits and walks per IP (WHIP) and have not been dominant in any way. Surprisngly, Mitre has been very solid posting very good numbers even with 2 starts and has a .582 OPS against.
Other OPS against:
Joba - .687 (.643 against righties)
Marte - .617 (doing well against lefties .484 OPS against)
Robertson - .859 (really was lit up early on)
Park – (.924 OPS against, but has been better against righties at .712). The main issue with Park has been that he has allowed 6 homers in 21 innings. Last year he only allowed 5 in 83 innings.
Gaudin - has an OPS against of .987

Starters:
OPS against:
CC - .682 OPS against and doing well. He has allowed 12 homers in 100 innings, but outside of that has good numbers
Burnett - .821. The most disappointing starter thus far. He is still a little better against lefties, but he is struggling.
Pettitte - .637 OPS against and has exceeded all expectations from me. He really looks as good as ever throwing more pitches to more areas of the plate with the same or better movement as 10 years ago. He also has been incredible against lefties this year with an OPS against of .399 (righty .728). While the year is obviously not over, there has only been one year in his career where Pettitte has had a lower OPS against than this and that was in 2005 where it was .613…but it was in the NL with Houston.
Vazquez – OPS against of .765, but obviously has been two different pitchers. He is better against righties with a .704 OPS against. He started to pitch pretty well in May and in June he has started 4 games going 7 innings each time with less than 3 runs (2.25 ERA). His main issue has been the long ball as well, allowing 13 homers in only 70 innings. I kind of expect an ERA more in between the two streaks the rest of the year.
Hughes - .610 OPS against is the best of all our starters (2nd best overall). The kid has really pitched well and I can only hope the Yankees don’t screw around with him too much and throw off his rythym. They are skipping him this time through the rotation. If they throw in the bullpen and simulate a short game, maybe that is ok, but too much could get him out of a routine and that is concerning. People can say the Yanks know what they are doing, but obviously they didn’t with the crazy out of sync things they did with Joba over the past year. The cutter has been a huge weapon for Hughes.