It's funny. During spring training, we speculated endlessly about the starting rotation.
Marquis?
Lieber?
Marshall?
Dempster?
Who knew the biggest question mark would be... Rich Hill?
I don't know what happened.
Here's his line:
W-L 1-0
ERA 4.12
K 15
Walks 18
WHIP 1.58
It's, obviously, the last two statistics (bolded) that are most troublesome. Mostly because they are so uncharacteristic.
Let's start with walks. In 2006, Hill walked 39 men in 99.1 innings. That's one walk for every 2+ innings. In 2007, Hill walked just 63 men in 195 innings. That's good for one walk every 3 innings. Now, in 2008, Hill has given a free pass to 18 batters in just 19.2 innings. That's almost a walk an inning.
Hill's WHIP (walks + hits/innings pitched) is also troubling, again, mostly because it's so unexpected. Great pitchers usually have a WHIP between 1.00 and 1.10. Really good ones tend to keep theirs below 1.20. Hill, despite being a .500 pitcher in 2006 and 2007, showed flashes of potential with a 1.23 WHIP (2006) and 1.19 WHIP (2007).
While your win-loss record can be deceiving (depending on your run support), your WHIP is a pretty good indicator of the trouble you're getting yourself into. And Hill's WHIP over the past two seasons indicated he had the talent to be a front-line starter.
So what happened? Mechanics? Mental? Eyesight? Whatever it is, I hope he figures it out in Iowa, which, by the way, is where I think he belongs.
If he was getting whacked around by major league hitters, it'd be a different story (because even if he went down and started getting minor leaguers out, he'd still come back and wonder if he could get major leaguers out anymore).
But the strike zone in the minors is the same as in majors. Hopefully, Hill can find it there and bring it back with him to Chicago. And start returning those numbers to where they used to be.
Marquis?
Lieber?
Marshall?
Dempster?
Who knew the biggest question mark would be... Rich Hill?
I don't know what happened.
Here's his line:
W-L 1-0
ERA 4.12
K 15
Walks 18
WHIP 1.58
It's, obviously, the last two statistics (bolded) that are most troublesome. Mostly because they are so uncharacteristic.
Let's start with walks. In 2006, Hill walked 39 men in 99.1 innings. That's one walk for every 2+ innings. In 2007, Hill walked just 63 men in 195 innings. That's good for one walk every 3 innings. Now, in 2008, Hill has given a free pass to 18 batters in just 19.2 innings. That's almost a walk an inning.
Hill's WHIP (walks + hits/innings pitched) is also troubling, again, mostly because it's so unexpected. Great pitchers usually have a WHIP between 1.00 and 1.10. Really good ones tend to keep theirs below 1.20. Hill, despite being a .500 pitcher in 2006 and 2007, showed flashes of potential with a 1.23 WHIP (2006) and 1.19 WHIP (2007).
While your win-loss record can be deceiving (depending on your run support), your WHIP is a pretty good indicator of the trouble you're getting yourself into. And Hill's WHIP over the past two seasons indicated he had the talent to be a front-line starter.
So what happened? Mechanics? Mental? Eyesight? Whatever it is, I hope he figures it out in Iowa, which, by the way, is where I think he belongs.
If he was getting whacked around by major league hitters, it'd be a different story (because even if he went down and started getting minor leaguers out, he'd still come back and wonder if he could get major leaguers out anymore).
But the strike zone in the minors is the same as in majors. Hopefully, Hill can find it there and bring it back with him to Chicago. And start returning those numbers to where they used to be.
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