Comments on: Johan Santana = Still Really Good

By: Tonio

Tonio — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:58:41 +0000

You clearly missed the whole point of the article. Well done.

By: don

don — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:30:58 +0000

Santana may well pick up more wins because he’s pitching in front of a much better lineup, but Lincecum is sporting a 1.85 FIP and 13K/9 rate despite a couple of much-ballyhooed bad starts to start the year. Both are benefiting from very low HR/FB rates at the moment, which is a bit of an unknown because neither Lincecum nor Citi Field have been around long enough to know for sure what to expect there.

By: rwperu34

rwperu34 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:13:25 +0000

Here’s his RAR/9 as a starter since 2002;

2002-2.52
2003-2.27
2004-2.90
2005-2.75
2006-2.70
2007-1.89
2008-1.73
Car-2.42

Three years ending;
2004-2.67
2005-2.72
2006-2.76
2007-2.46
2008-2.11

My hypothesis for the drop in 2007-2008 is that he was injured during that time but he’s such a freakish athlete he was able to be one of the best in the game where others would have gone to the DL. The rest of 2009 will certainly be interesting.

By: KG

KG — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:10:16 +0000

While I agree it’s not likely he will end up as good as he is now, remember when people were predicting absolute dominance upon his switch to the NL? Perhaps after a year of adjustments, that dominance will finally come.

By: lester bangs

lester bangs — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:10:01 +0000

One of my pet peeves in baseball analysis is when a writer decides to “blow the lid off” something obvious, like, oh, I don’t know, Johan Santana being really frickin’ good. What’s the matter, you didn’t want to expose Albert Pujols today?

Aim higher, please. Tell us something we *might not* know.

By: lester bangs

lester bangs — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:09:33 +0000

Am higher, please. Tell us something we *might not* know.

By: David A

David A — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:36:06 +0000

Amen to this. He seems to have much more movement on his pitches this year (just look at the PitchFX data) particularly his changeup which has just been devastating. I was ecstatic to get him for ONLY $35 in my NL-only auction league when pitchers like Lincecum, Webb, and Peavy were going for not much less. I think he is going to dominate the NL this year much like he dominated the AL between 2004 and 2006.