The Curious Case of Mr. Jorge De La Rosa

by StonewallPDS on Oct 14, 2009 5:59 PM EDT Comment 18 comments

It would seem that Jorge De La Rosa got himself a bad case of J.P. Howell disease this season.

I don't mean to be a snarky little crybaby about this sort of thing, but how does this happen so often to the Royals? Is there a specific explanation? Worse of all, for the Royals anyway, I understand he was 16-3 over his last 19 decisions.

Here are Jorge's lines for the past 5 years:

SEASON▲	TEAM▲	W▼	L▼	ERA▼	G▼	GS▼	SVO▼	IP▼	H▼	R▼	ER▼	HR▼	HB▼	BB▼	SO▼	AVG▼	WHIP▼	GO/AO▼	▲
2004	MIL	0	3	6.35	5	5	0	22.2	29	20	16	1	1	14	5	.309	1.90	1.21	158
2005	MIL	2	2	4.46	38	0	2	42.1	48	23	21	1	0	38	42	.289	2.03	1.50	158
2006[+]		5	6	6.49	28	13	0	79.0	81	59	57	14	2	54	67	.266	1.71	0.99
2007	KC	8	12	5.82	26	23	0	130.0	160	88	84	20	3	53	82	.304	1.64	0.95	118
2008	COL	10	8	4.92	28	23	0	130.0	128	77	71	13	7	62	128	.262	1.46	1.26	115
2009	COL	16	9	4.38	33	32	0	185.0	172	95	90	20	9	83	193	.249	1.38	1.22	115
CAREER		41	40	5.18	158	96	2	589.0	618	362	369	69	22	304	517	.272	1.57	1.14

1 recs | Comment 18 comments

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Strange...

Perhaps some pitchers don’t feel like they have to pitch perfectly and still get the W for them, and the team…???

and if that is the case they could pitch more relaxed and……then that could be why????

I don’t know. This is another strange quirk about baseball that I can not be educated about.

Sponsor of the Will Ebner Physical Therapy Center for Will Ebners' Torn Lateral Meniscus Get Better Quick Fund. Or the SWEPTCWETLMGBQF for short.

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Oct 14, 2009 6:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

In Muhwawkee

Jorge comes up occasionally in discussion. I can’t remember exactly what I heard Doug Melvin say last season, but it was something like ‘pitchers often take a while to develop so you often see them performing well for teams other than the ones that drafted them.’ Maybe it was about LHers. Now they’ve got Manny Parra who has great stuff and comes out and shuts down the other team or loses it and walks the world and/or gets clocked. You’d think having a LH pitcher who throws in the mid 90s and has 4 pitches that he can control would engender some patience, but just today I was listening to a year end blabfest with local media and most were like trade him now for whatever you can get. Actually, one crazy suggestion was something like Hardy, Parra and Gamel for Greinke.

by Salty on Oct 14, 2009 8:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the Royals already have Matt Gamel

in KC, they call him “Billy Butler.”

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

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by devil_fingers on Oct 14, 2009 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yep....except for gamel is older and not as good...

and short so not likely to add a bunch of power….there arent a shit ton of 6’ sluggers out there

Fire Everyone

by billybeingbilly on Oct 14, 2009 9:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

good point

I was just thinking “hitter without a position”

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by devil_fingers on Oct 14, 2009 10:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

man, now that phrase is echoing around

has Keith Law had another chat?

by Salty on Oct 15, 2009 9:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He moved to the NL and his change up went from liability to asset

With no DH, the National League gives high strikeout/high walk guys like de la Rosa much more room for error.

As fangraphs pitch type values indicate, with the Royals, de la Rosa really did not have an effective pitch to throw to right-handed hitters, as both his curve and change (his two most frequent pitches after fastballs) produced lousy results. His slider, however, was effective, but he threw it only 6% of the time, the least of his pitches.

With the Rockies, his change became a good pitch (which brought his platoon splits under control), and his slider became a weapon. His control and command are still not very good, but the resulting boost in strikeouts bumped his K/BB above 2.0. I am not sure he could maintain that in the AL, but in the NL, he is doing fine.

by Gopherballs on Oct 14, 2009 9:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

although the NL is totally as good as the AL!?!?!?!?!?!

I bet he doesn’t pull that sh-t on the Giants

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by devil_fingers on Oct 14, 2009 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Extremely successful against the Giants

who, as you know, have been a lousy offensive team by any standard.

And so, goodbye.

by 2X2L on Oct 15, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

25% of de la Rosa's starts were against the Giants and Padres

He’s the anti-Roy Halladay!

by Gopherballs on Oct 15, 2009 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm so tired of the title

“The Curious Case of [inser athlete’s name]”

by NotAHippie on Oct 14, 2009 9:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

hey bro, check your irony meter

the reference to the phrase is possibly put in context here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Case_of_Benjamin_Button_(short_story)

The “curious case” phrase refers to someone who either “grows” backwards or forwards, for unexpected reasons. Thus, the aptness to the particular cases of Mark Teahen and Jorge De La Rosa.

I hope this makes you feel less tired.

StonewallPDS

by StonewallPDS on Oct 15, 2009 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs