When He's On, He's On

Tuesday, May 10 2005 @ 08:19 AM EDT

Contributed by: Rob

Josh Towers, meet eight near-shutout innings.

Innings, meet Josh Towers. I like this arrangement.

It took the pitiful Royals until the sixth inning to get a man past first base, and after that, they hardly mounted a threat against the suddenly...well, good Josh Towers.

Notice how the biggest dip in Game Score hardly brought him into the danger zone.

In his last two starts, Towers has thrown 16 innings and allowed exactly one run to score. One! He has struck out only seven over that period, but his strikeout rate is still remarkably high compared to last year.

K per IP
2004: 3.9
2005: 6.1

6.1 strikeouts every nine innings isn't Brad Lidge, but it's not Brad Radke either.

Also, his Average Game Score this year is at 56, well above what anyone should expect from a fifth starter. In fact, last year in the American League, only two pitchers exceeded 56 -- Johan Santana and Curt Schilling. When you're third in anything to Santana and Schilling, you're in mighty fine shape.

Towers is now pumping strike after strike in the zone, and they aren't as hittable as 2004 Towers was. On his first time through the order against Kansas City, he went 0-2 on five batters. You can say, "Oh sure, but those were the Royals -- they suck!" True, but this is the same pitcher who shut down Baltimore's offense a week ago today.

Finally, and for what it's worth, in his seven starts this season, Joshua Eric Towers has outpitched the other starting pitcher six times. If not for the Texas Rangers, Towers would be a perfect 7-for-7.

What do Bauxites think of the reason for Towers' success as of late? Is he pitching "for the other 29 teams" again? Has he found something new in his delivery? Or is he a little nervous about the pitching wealth in the minors and wants to show he belongs with the big boys?

There was a good point made in the chat last night -- without Josh Towers, the Blue Jays would have sent Mike Smith to the mound every week for the last three years. And I don't want to think about that. (Smith, by the way, is currently pitching in Double-A after two straight subpar seasons in Syracuse.)

Another point of discussion is the much-maligned Matt Whiteside. Complaining about his presence, while fun, and predicting his collapse, while inevitable, is completely useless. Instead, answer this: Who should the Blue Jays call up in his place? Chad Mottola? John-Ford Griffin? Eric Crozier? Anton French? Jason Arnold -- er, never mind. Even if Whiteside has to stay, he still isn't going to pitch until June anyway.

One last statistic I found rather strange.
Combined AAA and MLB home runs since Opening Day 2004:
Player A: 12
Player B: 4

I think you know who these players are.

So, there you have it. Feel free to talk about anything baseball-related here, as long as you don't float the possibility of another catcher going down. We don't need to speculate on that. Do you really want Ernie Whitt catching tomorrow?

In fact, forget I asked that question.

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