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July 17, 2003

Can Of Corn

The Others

by Dayn Perry

As you'll recall, last week we took a gander at the minor-league careers of today's elite pitchers. This time around, it's the less-than-stellar crowd that gets the once-over.

Last week, the study population included those starters who had pitched at least 1,000 innings at the major-league level as of the end of the 2002 season while maintaining a park-adjusted ERA+ (the pitcher's ERA relative to the league average) of at least 110. That is, their career park-adjusted ERA is at least 10 percent better than the league average over that same span. Thrown in for good measure were those young hurlers who'd thrown at least 500 innings in the bigs while posting a park-adjusted ERA+ of at least 120. Now, we'll meander to the other end of the quality continuum and look at something I like to call Group B: all active pitchers who have, as of the end of the 2002 season, pitched at least 500 innings and posted a park-adjusted ERA+ of 95 or less (at least five percent worse than the league average). Just like last time, I've attempted to isolate those minor-league innings that are developmental in nature--i.e., not an injury rehab assignment or late-career retread work.

Here are the minor-league cumulatives for those confined to the hinterlands of Group B:

               MLB              Minor League Statistics
Pitcher        ERA     IP    K/BB     K/9     BB/9    HR/9     ERA
------------------------------------------------------------------
Anderson, J.    86    755     1.7     6.8     4.0     0.4     3.55
Baldwin, J.     92    756     2.2     8.6     3.9     0.8     3.37
Banks, W.       90    756     1.3     7.0     5.5     0.4     3.79
Bere, J.        86    422     2.0     8.6     4.2     0.3     2.65
Castillo, F.    94    481     4.3     8.2     1.9     0.5     2.75
Clement, M.     93    726     2.1     9.0     4.3     0.4     3.57
Dempster, R.    89    484     2.4     7.8     3.3     1.0     3.85
Estes, S.       94    442     1.7     9.0     5.2     0.5     4.36
Hamilton, J.    95    327     2.0     6.2     3.2     0.3     3.44
Haney, C.       90    417     2.2     7.0     3.2     0.5     3.50
Hawkins, L.     90    827     2.7     7.1     2.6     0.5     3.45
Haynes, J.      87    893     2.8     8.8     3.1     0.7     3.13
Hernandez, L.   92    228     1.8     7.9     4.5     0.9     4.35
Hitchcock, S.   91    649     3.3     9.2     2.8     0.4     2.95
Jarvis, K.      77    653     2.6     6.9     2.7     0.6     3.45
Johnson, J.     88    704     2.6     7.6     3.0     0.6     3.78
Jones, B.J.     94    348     3.9     7.9     2.0     0.4     2.72
Lima, J.        87    777     3.1     7.4     2.4     1.0     4.14
Loaiza, E.      95    605     2.4     6.5     2.8     0.6     3.56
Mahomes, P.     83    851     1.8     8.9     5.0     0.5     3.13
Meadows, B.     82    533     2.7     5.6     2.1     0.8     4.02
Miceli, D.      91    243     2.7     11.1    4.2     0.6     3.19
Mlicki, D.      92    526     2.1     8.6     4.1     0.7     3.78
Mulholland, T.  94    707     1.4     5.9     4.4     0.4     3.70
Oliver, D.      94    324     1.9     9.1     4.7     0.2     2.50
Parque, J.      93    120     2.0     8.4     4.3     0.8     3.38
Pavano, C.      93    566     3.4     8.1     2.4     0.6     3.01
Rekar, B.       88    583     3.0     7.1     2.4     0.8     3.91
Rusch, G.       89    654     3.4     7.7     2.3     0.6     3.47
Springer, D.    88   1486     1.8     6.0     3.4     0.8     3.99
Sturtze, T.     90    969     1.4     5.8     4.1     0.7     4.38
Van Poppel, T.  81    293     1.3     8.1     6.1     0.3     4.02
Villone, R.     92    278     1.6     10.2    6.4     0.6     3.56
Weathers, D.    93    720     1.8     6.3     3.6     0.3     3.54
Wilson, P.      90    331     3.6     8.8     2.5     0.4     3.24
Witasick, J.    93    594     2.9     9.6     3.3     0.7     3.44
Woodard, S.     92    522     4.1     7.3     1.8     0.6     3.60
Wright, Jam.    93    471     1.8     6.3     3.5     0.3     3.55
Wright, Jar.    88    342     1.8     8.9     4.9     0.5     2.90

Now, a comparison of the two groups' cumulative minor-league numbers. Remember, at the major-league level A = good, B = bad.

                     Minor League Statistics
Group    Mi IP    K/BB    K/9   BB/9   HR/9    ERA
--------------------------------------------------
A       12,657    2.00   7.50   3.74   0.48   3.38
B       22,363    2.17   7.58   3.49   0.57   3.55