Buried under an avalanche of bad pitching

[captgus]

At what point does it become too late to dig oneself out of huge holes in WHiP and ERA? Granted we're only 1/6 of the way through the season but my concern is that I'm digging myself a hole that is going to be damn near impossible to dig out of without trading away all of my offense for two big arms. I'm tempted to insert a couple of set up men into the lineup for a few weeks but really at this point, can 4-6 innings a week from the likes of Zumaya and Medlen even help when my pitching staff has already logged 170 innings?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Todd Zola]

It depends on who has caused the hole. Can you share your pitching staff?

[50 Desert Eagles]

Yea would help to know some names...however just thinking about this....I might lean toward cheaper good Sp's that will have numbers, but no wins....IE....Oswalt. You might be able to get him for cheaper then a bigger name based on the fact he wont help in wins....but he still should have an good era and awesome whip.

[captgus]

Javier Vazquez
Ted Lily
Kevin Slowey
Tim Hudson
Ian Kennedy
Luke Hochevar
Ryan Madson
Andrew Bailey
Carlos Marmol

Jason Hammel
Justin Masterson
Kris Medlen
Joel Zumaya

and I just picked up off of waivers this week Brett Cecil and Marc Rzepczynski.

Now granted it's not the greatest staff in the world but once keepers were taken out of the mix, the pickings were slim and I decided to load up on offense. Actually I would have loaded up on offense anyway but....

[Todd Zola]

While it really depends on the number of teams, if your league is anything less than 16 teams, this is considered a "weak" staff, which is fine, I often build staffs in the same mold, obviously attempting to build a dominating offense.

That said, it would look a lot stronger if Vazquez was doing anything close to normal. I have him in a couple of leagues so I share your pain.

You have the necessary "surprise" in Kennedy.

You have Hochever who has potential to be similar but has thus far struggled.

Lilly, Slowey and Hudson are typical components in this style.

Part and parcel to this style is your offense doing what it is supposed to do, so you can in fact deal from a point of strength. If your hitting is ailing, well, that is the risk you take going this route. Again, I can relate big time as that is what is happening to me, the juggernaut offense I built missed the memo

Again, depending on the size of the league will dictate the utility of using middle relievers. If it is fewer than say 14 teams, you really only want starters or closers or you will be creamed in wins and Ks. And your staff is already a low-K staff.

Really hard to say what to do.

You reference this being a keeper league, which means someone is going to hit on all cylinders and you cannot afford to dump any categories.

How many teams in the league?

[captgus]

Thanks for the feedback Todd. It's a 12 team league and I suppose the writing is on the wall. While I'm really hesitant to sit someone like Vazquez, I think this week's match up dictates it. I'll cobble my staff together for the next few weeks with duct tape and super glue and then look to make a trade with someone with some pitching depth.

Perhaps I'll look back at some older articles.....I seem to recall one discussing the "point of no return" with regards to burying yourself in the ratio categories, i.e. WHiP, ERA, AVG and the like.

[Todd Zola]

Thanks for the feedback Todd. It's a 12 team league and I suppose the writing is on the wall. While I'm really hesitant to sit someone like Vazquez, I think this week's match up dictates it. I'll cobble my staff together for the next few weeks with duct tape and super glue and then look to make a trade with someone with some pitching depth.

Perhaps I'll look back at some older articles.....I seem to recall one discussing the "point of no return" with regards to burying yourself in the ratio categories, i.e. WHiP, ERA, AVG and the like.

It wouldn't surprise me if Javy was skipped in Fenway to work out his mechanical issues. The Yankees have an off day so it would keep every else on regular rest.

I'm not sure we will have our older stuff accessible, though we are presently working behind the scenes to do a mini-revamp, post merger. We needed to focus on immediate needs like producing the 2010 draft kit.

Anyway..

This being a keeper league with the chance to build for the future may trump this, but the two pieces of advice I most often offer in this instance is

1. It is NEVER too late to improve your ratios (ERA, WHIP, BA). Even with a large accumulation of at bats or innings pitched, the distribution within the ratio cats is TIGHT, allowing for late season movement up and down. Admittedly, this is more apropos for late season category management and not early season strategic decisions.

2. At some point, if your ratios are poor, you need to make an honest assessment of the situation and try to determine using best case scenario just how much you can improve. Then you need to consider the possibility of totally ignoring WHIP and ERA and simply focusing on bullying up wins and strikeouts, keeping in mind this may involve dealing some decent remaining pitching for help in hitting or saves.

[Todd Zola]

http://twitter.com/BloggingBombers/statuses/13324072640

Vazquez will start Monday in Detroit. "We'll give him a couple days to catch his breath," Girardi said.

[captgus]

2. At some point, if your ratios are poor, you need to make an honest assessment of the situation and try to determine using best case scenario just how much you can improve. Then you need to consider the possibility of totally ignoring WHIP and ERA and simply focusing on bullying up wins and strikeouts, keeping in mind this may involve dealing some decent remaining pitching for help in hitting or saves.

It's good food for thought and something I'll definitely consider in the coming weeks. I just quickly looked back at the older copies of articles I saved ( is that ok?) and couldn't find it and odds are I don't have it but I'll search later this evening.

The good news, at least for the short term is that I finally got a dominate outing out of a pitcher last night, Brett Cecil and at some point here, the Pelfreys, Pennys and Zitos of the world will regress and some of the stats will come back to me.

I was really hoping to see something out of Vazquez before inserting him back into the active lineup and while I'm sure it's an excellent move to skip his next turn against Boston, I hope the lure of two starts next week against Detroit and Minnesota doesn't come back to haunt me.