Sputtering Sturtze
Posted by Steve L. on August 8th, 2005 · Comments (3)
From The Times:
In his first 22 games this season, reliever Tanyon Sturtze had a 2.32 earned run average with 2 walks and 18 strikeouts. Then he gave up a pivotal homer to the St. Louis Cardinals’ Scott Seabol on June 12.
Over a 22-game span, Sturtze has a 6.67 E.R.A. with 14 walks and 15 strikeouts. The pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said he hoped to work with Sturtze over the next few days to keep him from flying open with his front shoulder.
“He’s not throwing strikes and giving himself a chance to succeed,” Joe Torre said. “We have to straighten that out. I am concerned.”
Joe is concerned now? Where was that concern when Torre pitched him 13 times over a span of 24 games in June and then 10 times over a span of 19 games in July?
Um, look at his numbers. Sturtze never was that good. He stunk with the Cubs, with the Rangers, with the White Sox, the Devil Rays, and the Blue Jays.
The fact that the Yanks are relying on him to be an integral part of their bullpen says more about their ability to evaluate talent than I can.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have a power arm in the hopes that he can put it together for a bit (Jason Grimsley, Eric Plunk, etc), but don’t be suprised if he remembers who he is, and doesn’t get his act together.
Raf, point well taken and you’re probably right that Sturtze has regressed as expected. But, successful modern bullpens are built this way: finding plus arms or plus stuff that’s suited to relief, exploiting them for as long as they’re performing over their heads, and then dumping them when they fall back to earth and slotting in the next plus arm. Look at Atlanta, St. Louis, even Boston to some extent. Can you even name the arms in the Atlanta bullpen outside of John Smoltz in, say, 2002, 2003, or 2004? Ditto St. Louis. The modern bullpen is a continual work-in-progress that’s akin to slash and burn agriculture. Torre is too hung up on “his guys,” a set-in-stone rotation such as QuanGorMo or TanGorMo. Perhaps he doesn’t have the attention span that Cox and Mazzone have. Perhaps he doesn’t understand that bullpen arms are the most fungible slots on a big league roster. They aren’t built to last. You truck ‘em in and truck ‘em out every season. Not everyone is Rivera.
Those are great points from both of you, Raf and JohnnyC.
Here are some surprising facts about Sturtz that are seemingly overlooked by most people who still consider him one of the best bullpen options:
He has always given up more hits than inning pitched, minus the year he only pitched six innings and only gave up four hits!
In 60 innings this year, he’s allowed 31 runs to score, and of those 29 were his. His lifetime ERA is 5.16, and I’d say that most of that can be contributed to the fact that he used to be a starter, but those years that he pitched over 100innings were better than most of the other eight in which he pitched less than that.
By saying that Sturtz is a good reliever is pretty much a falacy. His numbers are terrible, and while he had a decent stretch for awhile this year, he’s just showing everyone who he really is, and has always been.
However, since the break his numbers are as follows:
12IP – 16H – 8ER – 1HR – 8BB – 6.01ERA
Counting on Sturtz now is a big mistake, at least until he figures out whatever he’s doing wrong.
Not even I think he’s actually as bad as those numbers say, so maybe things will look up for him over the next month.