| Starting Pitcher | 2008 ERA | Career ERA | 2009 ERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yovani Gallardo | 1.88 | 3.45 | 3.54 |
| Jeff Suppan | 4.96 | 4.67 | 5.27* |
| Braden Looper | 4.16 | 4.06 | 4.99** |
| Dave Bush | 4.18 | 4.56 | 5.67*** |
| Manny Parra | 4.39 | 4.98 | 6.26*** |
| Seth McClung | 4.02 | 5.48 | 5.03 |
| Carlos Villanueva | 4.07 | 4.31 | 6.05*** |
Not that this is a surprise, exactly --- we all knew that our starting pitching had been a major disappointment. However, I was a little surprised to learn that every one of our starters is pitching worse than last year, every single one of them. Moreover, every one of them not a Klingon is also pitching worse than their career numbers (and McClung only gets a break because his numbers in Tampa were just God-awful). Even worse, only YoGa and McClung are not having their worst seasons in the past 6 years.
A while ago we were talking about the surliness of Doug Melvin. I feel bad for the guy. In the offseason, he tries to build a pitching staff, and figures, "well, we lose Sheets here, but we bring Gallardo back; we lose CC, let's try Looper," blissfully unaware that his entire starting rotation is going to tank, and tank hard.
(You know...this doesn't reflect particularly well on Bill Castro, either.)
