bbFIP Update – 6/29/13 Blanton’s Stock Rises as Weaver’s Stock Dives

Everytime these updates come out it feels like the Angels are on some sort of streak. A month ago it was the 8 game winning streak, and this time a 4 game streak with a losing streak somewhere in the middle. The Angels pitching is seemingly improving, if not in terms of Runs Against, than definitely in terms of what the results SHOULD look like.

Big Gainer:

Since I last put up a list on June 16th, no one has risen as much as Joe Blanton. To put his season in perspective: On May 15th his bbFIP was 4.94, May 30th 4.67, June 15th, 4.13 and currently is posting a 3.79 bbFIP. On May 15th Blanton had 11 BB and 22 K’s in 41.1 Innings, since that point though, he has 5 walks and 53 strikeouts in 49.2 innings. This is more of the Joe Blanton that should have been expected. While “Average” Joe has given up the same number of homers in each of those segments, his WHIP (minus HR) has dropped from 1.60 to 1.22 and has allowed Blanton to improve as there have been fewer baserunners on base when the inevitable homers are hit.

Big Faller:

In the last update, Jered Weaver had returned to more or less what we expect from Jered Weaver when it comes to bbFIP. On June 16th he was posting an above average bbFIP (3.79) and seemingly was on his way back to being Jered Weaver (despite the continued diminished velocity). Over the ensuing 19 innings though he’s seen his season bbFIP drop to 4.24, largely due to a dropping K/BB ratio and giving up 15 line drives over only 19 innings. Not only does that hurt his bbFIP, but also his overall success largely due to line drives having the highest % of balls in play going for hits.

Steve’s Season Favorite:

I’m going to start keeping track of my favorite Angels pitcher for the season in this column, and most of you can probably guess that it is Dane De La Rosa. Dane’s 52.5% groundball rate endears him to my heart, and the fact that he has been touching 96-97 MPH as of late doesn’t hurt.