Kevin Millwood, pictured here, is 0-8 with a 5.91 ERA after his first 14 starts of the 2010 season after being traded to the Baltimore Orioles.
The 2010 baseball season has not been kind to the Baltimore Orioles, and a big part of their failure has been Kevin Millwood failing to win a game this season. His 0-8 record and 5.91 ERA were not what the Orioles expected when acquiring him in a trade that sent Chris Ray and Ben Snyder to the Texas Rangers.
Millwood has taken the mound 14 times this season, and has yet to win a game as of June 14th. The Orioles are paying him $9 million of his $12 million this season. He is in the last year of a five-year contract he signed with the Rangers for $60 million.
He leads all major league pitchers in most home runs allowed with 19. He posted a 13-10 record in 2009, but is tied with Kenshin Kawakami of the Atlanta Braves for the worst record in the majors among pitchers who have not recorded a win with a 0-8 record.
Millwood’s contract ends in 2010 and unless he improves over the rest of the season his career may be ending as well.
Zack Greinke
2009 AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke probably won’t win again in 2010, since he was 8-2 with a 1.72 ERA on this date in 2009. So far in 2010, he is 2-8 with a 3.94 ERA. He finished the 2009 season with a 16-8 record and a 2.16 ERA.
This season, he has already lost eight games and has given up 10 home runs before the halfway mark. Last season, he allowed 11 home runs in the entire 2009 season.
Scott Feldman
Last year was a breakthrough season for Scott Feldman of the Texas Rangers. After not winning more than six games in a season previously in his career, he posted a 17-8 record and a 4.08 ERA in 2009. After 13 starts in 2010 Feldman’s record is 4-6 with a 5.28 ERA.
Felix Hernandez
After posting a 19-5 record and a 2.49 ERA in 2009, it looked like Felix Hernandez was finally ready to live up to the hype surrounding him. Instead he is 4-5, while posting an ERA of 3.61 in 2010.
The Mariners were supposed to have one of the best top of the rotations in the majors with the acquisition of Cliff Lee, combined with the returning 19 game winner in Hernandez. Instead, Hernandez and Lee have combined for an 8-8 record thus far in 2010.
Wandy Rodriguez
Wandy Rodriguez had a breakout season in 2009 for the Houston Astros, posting a 14-12, 3.02 season. However, he has hit a wall in 2010 and after 13 starts he is 3-9 with a 5.60 ERA.
Trevor Hoffman
Trevor Hoffman has imploded this season for the Brewers after converting 37 of 41 saves in 2009. This season, he has already blew five saves in 10 save opportunities. His 9.90 ERA is 19th among 20 pitchers who have pitched for the Brewers at some point in the 2010 season.
His seven home runs allowed are ranked third among the starters for the Brewers. It took him only 20 innings to allow those home runs, after allowing only two home runs in 54 innings in 2009. He has already doubled the number of runs allowed in 2009 from 11 in 2009 to 22 in 2010.
He has issued 11 walks after issuing 14 in 34 more innings last season. Opponents hit .183 against him in 2009 but are hitting .333 this season and is 432nd in the majors. His 1.95 WHIP is listed 422nd in the majors by mlb.com.
Any dreams Hoffman had of saving his 600th game this season have gone out the window with him needing five saves to reach 600. He should still be voted into the Hall of Fame someday, but it may be time for the 42-year-old Hoffman to retire before our memory of him is tarnished any more than it has been this season.
Around the Diamond
Stephen Strasburg may have walked five batters yesterday in the Nationals 9-4 win over the Indians, but he still won his second major league start and lowered his ERA from 2.57 to 2.19. The mound not being to his liking visibly perturbed him, and it appeared he lost his focus and started walking batters.
Still he allowed only two hits in 5 1/3 innings while striking out eight. He has struck out 22 in his first 12 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .143 against Strasburg, and he has posted a 0.89 WHIP. Only Tommy Hunter of the Rangers has a lower WHIP with a 0.87 mark among major league pitchers with at least two starts.
His next start should be next Saturday against the White Sox.
The six game home run streak of Carlos Pena ended at six games yesterday. If rumors that Cliff Lee may be traded to the Yankees before the trading deadline, it will probably mean Javier Vazquez would be included in that trade.
These are 2010 records for Yankee starters:
Phil Hughes—9-1, 3.11
Andy Pettitte—8-1, 2.46
C.C. Sabathia—6-3, 4.01
A.J. Burnett—6-4, 3.86
Javier Vazquez—6-5, 5.43
Vazquez has pitched better recently winning his last three starts and is 3-0, 2.57 in June, but he still is no Cliff Lee and may be the victim of the numbers game.
Lee has an amazing strikeouts to walks ratio of 60 strikeouts to four walks, and has allowed only two home runs in 68 innings. Surprisingly, Felipe Paulino 1-7 of the Astros has allowed only two home runs in 75 innings, but has walked 38 batters, which is fourth highest in the majors.
Andres Galarraga has pitched well, allowing four runs combined in his last two starts since his near perfect game, but didn’t receive the decision in either game. Josh Hamilton is back to being the player he was in 2008 with a .405 average in his last 10 games, while hitting six home runs and driving in 17 runs. Hamilton now has 15 home runs and 46 runs batted in for the season. It should be a contest between Hamilton and Carlos Pena for the AL Player of the Week last week.
Yesterday’s game between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox was old-school baseball in which the starters Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd both pitched six innings of hitless baseball, before Floyd gave up the first hit of the game in the seventh inning.
Lilly, who had been getting little run support despite pitching well lately, got the one run he needed to win his second game of the season but lost his no-hitter in the ninth on a pinch hit single by Juan Pierre. The Cubs had scored a total of nine runs in his last five games that resulted in a loss by the Cubs.
Prince Fielder hit two solo homers for two of the three hits by the Brewers in their 7-2 loss to the Rangers.
Troy Glaus homered twice in the Braves 7-3 win over the Twins. Glaus has hit 11 homers and driven in 40 runs since April 30. He is leading the NL in runs batted in with 49.
The Yankees were the only AL East team to win yesterday, as they moved into a first place tie with the Rays.
All five NL East teams won yesterday. The Braves have to improve on their 18-21 road record if they hope to hold onto the NL East lead, thankfully they have been 19-6 at home.
The Cubs were the only NL Central team to win as they moved to within 7 1/2 games of the first place Reds. Any hopes the Pirates had of having their first winning season since 1992 are evaporating as the 23-40 Pirates are mired in an eight game losing streak.
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