DICE v2.01

I haven't yet figured out how this feature will be set up. This time I will post the numbers followed by some statistic that jumped out at me as a reason for the players success or lack thereof. This time the starters will be covered, maybe next time I will cover the relievers. All data from Royals.com and fangraphs.com.

Zack Greinke has lowered his line drive percentage to 5% better than any earlier point in his career. It currently sits at 15.8% and as roughly 74% of line drives fall in for hits this is probably a big factor in his success. Bonus stat(s):1.12 GB/FB Ratio 1.12 second highest of his career.

Gil Meche's fastball has dropped over 1 mph from last year  and is the slowest of his career. This could explain his high HR/9 Ratio of 1.58 ( the highest of his career). Bonus stat(s): 5.72 K/9 3.35 BB/9 both worse than last year.

Brian Bannister has thrown his fastball about 5% less than last year but fangraphs is showing a cutter at 85mph as the source of that change. This could be a sign of Banny's problems as he has said that he junked his cutter a few years ago (which fangraphs seems to back up showing none over the last few years) and Posnanski has noted in his Banny Logs that  this cutter that seems to have hurt him this year. Bonus stat(s): How could I give a bonus stat on Banny and not have it be BABIP: 2.85 which is still below league average and his K/9 is  the highest of his career at 5.10.

Brett Tomko has suddenly turned into a groundball pitcher with a GB/FB Ratio of 1.84. This is by far the best of his career, but otherwise his numbers seem to be well within his career averages. Bonus stat(s): He is slightly more than doubling his career curveball percentage throwing that pitch 13.4% of the time. This is at teh expense of all of his other pitches suggesting that he isn't junking something else to throw the curve.

Luke Hochevar 4.18 BB/9 is my only complaint as it  is too high but I suspect as he gets more time it will go down. Bonus stat(s): This is not a stat at all really but I was at the last game where he pitched and I was truly impressed. He looked done a couple of times and got himself through it. I was surprised to see him back out there in the 7th but he pitched well in that frame. The walk before the homerun was the killer to me because he should have been out of the inning by then.

Bonus Player: Joakim Soria has a K/BB Ratio of 15. Bonus stat(s): 10.13 K/9 there is no point in talking about any of the hitting stats against Soria because virtually no one has even come close. Forget about walking too as his BB/9 is .68. I will leave the starter v reliever debate to others but he has to pitch more than the 60 or so innings that he is on pace for. Bonus Bonus stat(s): .38 WHIP.