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We are closing in on the halfway point of the Blue Jays season, so I thought we’d do mid-term report cards.
Let’s start with Hyun Jin Ryu.
Ryu has made 15 starts. He’s 7-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 89.2 innings. His FiP is slightly higher, 3.90, but in the same range. He’s averaging 6 innings a start. His strikeouts are down a bit from last year, 20.0% compared to 26.2 and his walks are down a bit too, 5.2% from 6.2.
Maybe he’s had some luck. His BABIP is .265 when career it has been closer to .300. Also, 8 of his 15 starts have been Quality Starts. bWAR is 2.1, fWAR 1.1. fWAR seems to like pitchers getting more strikeouts, but then who doesn’t like strikeouts.
He went 4-0 in 5 starts in May, with a 2.64 ERA, but he had a little slump in early June, but he’s still giving us 6 innings a start.
Ryu, to me, has that Ace thing. When I know it is his day to start, I feel confident that we will be in the game. If the offense can do anything at all, we have an excellent chance at a win. And, on average, he’s been getting run support, 5.36 runs per game. But then we have scored 10, 11, and 12 runs in three of his games, which raises the average. He’s had three starts when they scored just one run and two with two runs, so they haven’t always given him a chance at a win.
I enjoy watching him pitch. We see many pitchers who can hit the mid to high-90s but see a guy win who tops out at about 92 and can still win? He isn’t like Aces or old, but then there aren’t really Aces of old. We aren’t going to see a guy like Roy Halladay, who you figured would get a complete game or at least get us 7-8 inning a start, again. The game has changed.
But with Ryu, we can expect him to finish 6 innings or pitch into the 7th most times out. And, as much as the old man in me would like to go back to the days of Dave Stieb pitching 250 innings a year, that’s not happening.
Ryu seems, from a distance, to be a very thoughtful pitcher. A student of the game. As well as someone who can have fun with his teammates. It must be an interesting clubhouse. I wonder how much learning of different languages goes on. If I was in there with those guys, I’d want to learn some Spanish. I’d want to learn some Korean. Not that I think I could become fluent but, when you have those guys around you all the time, why not try to pick up some things.
Anyway, let’s get to the poll:
Poll
For the first half, I’d give Hyun Jin Ryu an
This poll is closed
-
19%
A
(176 votes) -
44%
B+
(403 votes) -
26%
B
(238 votes) -
7%
B-
(64 votes) -
1%
C+
(18 votes) -
0%
C
(3 votes) -
0%
C-
(1 vote) -
0%
D+
(0 votes) -
0%
D
(0 votes) -
0%
D-
(0 votes) -
0%
F
(5 votes)