2010 N.L. Pitcher Busts (Non Top-10)

I'll finish this series about the not-quite-so big busts by looking tonight at the National League pitchers.

2010 11th-20th Biggest Losses, N.L. Pitchers (as of 9/19)

#	Player	$	Sal	+/-			'09
11	Oliver Perez	-$8	$3	-10			-$6
12	Paul Maholm	-$6	$4	-10			$5
13	Aaron Harang	$0	$9	-9			$8
14	Ricky Nolasco	$13	$22	-9			$14
15	John Maine	-$4	$5	-9			$6
16	Zach Duke	-$7	$2	-9			$11
17	Jason Marquis	-$7	$1	-8			$12
18	Joe Blanton	$1	$10	-8			$15
19	Kenshin Kawakami	-$2	$5	-8			$9
20	Doug Davis	-$6	$1	-7			$7
	Average	-$3	$6	-9			$8

With the exception of Nolasco (who got paid this because of his spectacular 2009 FIP), the more expensive busts are on the Top 10 list.

The Top 10 busts (I'll pull the curtain back on these guys later) cost $17 per pitcher and earned a lousy $2 each. The pitchers on this chart only cost $6, but they couldn't even pull off positive earnings.

If you only grabbed one of the pitchers on this list, chances are you survived it. I seriously doubt that any Perez owners carried him to the bitter end, and the same is probably true even of a lesser disappointment like Kawakami. If you had a reserve list (like I do in CBS and Tout), you probably were streaming some of these guys before you jettisoned them entirely.

Unfortunately, I had way too many of these guys in Tout Wars, and that was my downfall. Maholm, Maine, Kawakami and Davis all graced my roster at one point in the season, and the concept of throwing good money after bad definitely applies here. You can always hope that a cheap pitcher is going to catch lightning in a bottle, but more often than not they stink and you're left holding the bag.

Taking a $15 loss per pitcher stinks, but I'd rather have the positive earnings than the ($6) per pitcher on this list. At least with the $2 pitcher I'm getting something back, and maybe I can scramble back in to the hunt with a good free agent pick up or two. It's harder to dig out of that hole with a ($6) pitcher, even if I spent less on that pitcher. The stats dig me a bigger hole, lesser salary or no.