Why Did I Keep Him Again: A.L. Pitchers

Yesterday, I looked at five A.L. hitters who didn't work out. Today, I'll examine some A.L. pitchers who were frozen in my A.L. and haven't lived up to expectations.

Jamie Walker. Frozen in my A.L. at $10.
It seemed less like a matter of any faith in Walker than a lack of faith in George Sherrill that led to this freeze. And, since I did buy Walker at $4 in my CBS Sportsline expert auction, I could see why someone would have taken a stab at Walker. But $10? Unless there was a Sherrill trade rumor out there I wasn't aware of, Walker didn't seem like a good bet for saves. To add injury to insult, Walker's numbers are horrible this year (5.12 ERA, 1.71 WHIP). He's morphed back into his lefty specialist role, and even if Sherrill does get traded next month, I'd have to guess that Jim Johnson or Chad Bradford will be first in line for saves.

Gil Meche. Frozen at $11.
I can't blame Meche's owner for keeping him; Meche probably would have went for $13-15 in my league if he had been tossed back. But his peripherals last year made that 3.67 ERA look more like a product of luck than skill. His 5.12 ERA this year is the opposite and, sure enough, Meche's 1.37 WHIP and his high K/IP rate show a pitcher who isn't this bad. This is a pitcher who has mostly victimized his owners with a bad April (7.81 ERA/.313 BAA). His .232 BAA in May and .225 BAA in June have actually been quite dominant, and there's a good chance Meche won't be on this list at the end of the year. The problem is that the damage has already been done, and I'm guessing that Meche owners in many leagues are buried in ERA/WHIP and not contending.

Jarrod Washburn. Frozen at $6.
Unlike Meche, Washburn has simply been incredibly hittable all year long, with BAAs over .300 in every month this year. He and his owners paid for it in May with a 9.30 ERA. Washburn is an object lesson as to why you're better off throwing back these back end of the staff guys and hoping you do better in the crapshoot. Cliff Lee ($3), Mike Mussina ($3), Vicente Padilla ($1), Jose Contreras ($1), and Jesse Litsch ($1) all went for less. Obviously, none of these pitchers was a lock headed into the season, but the point is that you could have rolled the dice for $3-5 cheaper and spent your extra money somewhere else.

Phil Hughes. Frozen at $10.
I've tried to avoid including injured players on these lists, but since it's unclear to me how long Hughes was pitching hurt or if he was even pitching hurt at all, I'll include him here. I had a bad feeling about Hughes coming into the season. He is an example of a pitcher where I didn't trust the numbers as much as what I saw last year. He had good stuff, but I didn't think he had the ace potential that many of the touts (or the New York press corps who thought the Twins should simply hand Santana over to the Yanks for Hughes) thought he had. Fangraphs had his fastball sitting in the low 90s last year, but sometimes Hughes seemed to look more like an 87-89 MPH pitcher. He didn't trust his change enough, and the result was a two pitch pitcher who wasn't throwing a dominant enough fastball to get by on that. He had enough raw ability to do OK in 2007, but I didn't expect him to be an Instant Ace barring some refinement. He wasn't a bad freeze at $10, but I didn't think he was the slam dunk his backers thought he was coming into this year.

Dustin McGowan. Frozen at $10.
At $10, McGowan's not an utter disappointment. But here's an example of a freeze where his owners surely were hoping for a $20+ season, an ace in the making, and a future dump chip in June or July. As of right now, it looks more like McGowan looks like a solid #2 or #3 starter but no ace. His command was worse in April; McGowan seems to have picked that up now. He could still turn around, and the peripherals indicate he might, but here is an example of where an owner probably lost a dump chip to peddle his fellow owners.