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May 24, 2006

Soccer Dad: Anna Benson's Husband and WHIP

Posted by Soccer Dad.

Attila is a Mets fan. I'm an Orioles fan. So in 1969 his team broke my 9 year old heart.

But right now I get the last laugh. Over the winter the Orioles traded John Maine and Jorge Julio to the Mets for Kris Benson. At the time the folks on the Orioles mailing list derided the move. Kris Benson is no great shakes. It's only an incremental improvement. At this rate by the time has improved enough to be good will be 2050. (And the comments about his wife started too. Can you believe I hadn't ever heard of Anna Benson?)

However he's been the Orioles top starting pitcher this year so far. (Though that's a really low bar to surpass.) How do we know? Let's do what Attila would do and look at WHIP.

Kris Benson this year has a fine 1.23 WHIP so far this year. Though his K/BB ratio is a less than stellar 28/20. You want that ratio to be 2:1 or better.

John Maine's WHIP so far this year at the big league level has been 1.50. Nothing too great. Jorge Julio's is also a rather high 1.45. (Though he has a stellar 33/10 K/BB ratio, so far.) Just looking at whips, I mean WHIP, the O's have come out ahead.

OTOH, Attila's adopted team, the Nationals made a much derided deal this past winter trading Brad Wilkerson and two others to Texas for Alfonso Soriano. Soriano is thriving in DC and the players Texas received in return have not exactly distinguished themselves. No talks of whips or chains in this part of the post. But it looks like Jim Bowden has been vindicated on that count.

Did I say "last laugh?" Well despite getting Kris Benson and Melvin Mora from the Mets the Orioles are poised for another poor, uninsteresting season. So what's left but to play up small moral victories? There won't be many on the field.

Speaking of fantasies and baseball, I'd always wanted to be a baseball player. I never did. But then I read this:

Also, Hillenbrand fits best as a DH, a position the Angels might need to leave open for left fielder Garret Anderson, who is battling plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
I had plantar fasciitis. (So did Jay Buhner.) And I wonder. I can't get paid as much as a baseball player because I don't have the necessary skills. But I did get a baseball player's injury. Shouldn't that qualify for a Major League salary.

BTW, this post has the following words in it: Anna Benson, whips, fantasies. I'd be very interested in knowing what sort of traffic it generates. :-)