It is time to say goodbye to The Hyphen. While I love the Mariners promotional commercial where they have a jersey made for Ryan Rowland-Smith that has just a hyphen on the back where his name should be, it hasn’t translated into pitching. With the game on right now at 5:32 PST, the Mariners are down 4-0 at the end of the first inning. His line after one inning is 4 runs, all earned, 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 wild pitch. No strikeouts. I am not normally a knee jerk guy and will try to remain that way, however, The Hyphen has had ample opportunity to work out his game and return to last year’s form.
Game update: While writing that paragraph, The Hyphen gave up a double and 2 run homer to Alexei Ramirez, the 145 pound raking shortstop of the White Sox, to deep left center field, followed by a HR to Konerko to right. (Ramirez is tiny but actually hits for more power than I thought (21 HR in 2008 and 15 last year)). So it is now 7-0, Sox, with two in the books.
The Hyphen was briefly demoted to the bullpen for Snell back in May when the Mariners were trying to decide which poison would make them less sick, and then had to stick him back in the rotation when Fister went down with a sore arm. He has started 18 games this year, and has amassed a grand total of 4 quality starts. (6 IP/less than 3 Earned Runs) That statistic is goofy to me as I am unsure how a 4.50 ERA consummates a quality start. Sometimes, major league clubs will carry a high ERA starter if they eat innings but that argument doesn’t carry water here either as The Hyphen has only reached the 6th inning in 6, or 1/3 of his starts. So not only is he getting shellacked almost every 5th day, but he is wearing out the bullpen in the process. This has to be having a negative effect on the other already beleaguered starters that give quality starts to the Mariners and the relievers who have to eat up all the innings that The Hyphen leaves on the table. Add to that that the Mariners don’t score runs for any of their pitchers and it is a recipe for an almost guaranteed loss any time he takes the mound.
One of the more disturbing stats about the Hyphen is his trending K/9 innings. Discounting his 2007 rookie season, where he only threw 38 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and K’d 9.78 per nine, the next 3 seasons including this year he has 5.86, 4.86 and 3.66 Ks per nine innings respectively. This is what we call in the financial industry a trend, and a poor one. He wasn’t stellar at missing bats in the first place and this downward trend is, well, not so good.
If I was a betting man, and I am, I would be betting against The Hyphen every time he pitches no matter how poor the odds. Not that I would ever gamble unless in Vegas. It is illegal.
The Hyphen needs a change of scenery. Either trade him, demote him or send him back to the bullpen. At this point, there has to be someone in the minors that can outperform him and learn from the experience in preparation for next year.
Final Game Update: 8-0 after 3 innings. Mariners announcers just mentioned that the bullpen is spent and that The Hyphen is going to have to go deep. Final score prediction: Bears 14 – Seahawks 3.
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