6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: A Good Man On A Bad Team

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Monday, May 17, 2004

A Good Man On A Bad Team

Today I was reminiscing about Benji Gil, the Rangers' first-round draft pick in 1991. He barely was able to play in the majors: he came up in 1993, skipped 1994, played -- poorly -- in 1995 through 1997, missed 1998 and 1999, and then the Angels signed him. He gave them two very good years (2001: .296/.330/.477, and 2002: .285/.307/.431), and two really bad ones. Last year, the Angels released him. He has subsequently bounced around the Indians minor leagues, and now the Rockies were the last team to kick him out after a wretched spring training.

Which brought me to the team stats page. If you scroll your eyes down, you'll see a fellow named Joe Kennedy, carrying an unexpectedly good 2.85 ERA. Looking at his peripheral stats, he's got respectable-but-not-great numbers:

K/BB	BB/9	K/9	H/9
1.80	3.04	6.85	7.23

What's more, his strikeout rate, never especially good with Tampa Bay, has actually improved over his 2003 spent there. Those kind of numbers -- especially H/9 -- have got to get worse in Colorado, but who'd've believed you could get that from a journeyman pitcher at Coors Field, when the starting rotation's ERA presently stands at 7.67? Baseball Prospectus gives him a 15.0 VORP (subscription required), putting him in the neighborhood of such luminaries as Roy Halliday, Wilson Alvarez, and Ben Sheets. Given the Rocks' proclivities, I have to believe his acquisition was an accident, but however it occurred, at least the Rockies' fans have one guy they can look forward to, not unlike Barry Bonds and the Giants.

// posted by Rob @ 8:39 AM link // 0 comments