Pearly Gates is...Quick ReferenceRecent postsLinksRichard's other blog:Hall Of Fame:
The "Real" Media:
Halosphere:
Minor League Affiliates:
Other Baseball Blogs:
Other Random Crap (in a good way):
Soccer:Archive
Blog*Spot ArchivesContactRichard Ceccarelli Josh Mandir |
Friday, June 18, 2004Kelvim Escobar steps-upNOTE: This post was written for, and will be displayed at, AngelsWin.com. Go check them out for more great Angels coverage. Coming into the season Kelvim Escobar was known as "the Angels' other big right-hander." It's easy to see why the Angels' acquisition of Escobar (from Toronto for 3-years/$18 million) went largely unnoticed by the baseball world, as he was promptly overshadowed by the signings of Bartolo Colon, Jose Guillen, and eventually Vladimir Guererro. Colon was clearly brought in to anchor the Angels rotation, while Escobar was brought in to be a dependable back-of-the-rotation guy. That is not how things have panned out. Escobar has elevated his game to become the Angels' stopper, ace, number one- whatever you want to call it, while Colon has struggled mightily. Here are his numbers leading up to today's start in Houston:
As you can see, Escobar has been nothing short of dominant. He leads (qualified) Angels starters in almost every major statistic, including ERA, WHIP, K/9, K/BB, and BAA. He also leads the club in quality starts. None of this has translated into wins, however, as the Angels offence has only been able to supply Escobar with 48 runs in his 12 starts. By comparison, Jarrod Washburn has received 95 runs in his 13 starts. Homeruns have really been the only problem for Escobar, as he has allowed nine in 74 innings thus far- a few more then I'd like to see. While he never put up numbers quite like this in Toronto, he did show signs of dominance at times. If you look close enough at his past numbers you will see the makings of the pitcher we see today. Over the past three seasons, his ERA when pitching on turf was 4.41- over a full point higher then when pitching on grass (3.40). That's not all that surprising considering (until this season) he's been a rather heavy groundball pitcher. Getting him off the SkyDome's artificial turf appears to have done him wonders. Can Escobar keep it up? I don't see why not. He has five major-league quality pitches, and velocity in the high 90's. He's always had the stuff to be a staff ace, it's been control which has been his downfall in the past. Like most pitchers, getting ahead of hitters is key for Escobar. If he can continue to get ahead of hitters early in the count, he will continue to have success. When he's ahead in the count (and his splitter comes into play) he is holding opposing hitters to a miniscule .101 BA. Escobar has stepped-up for the Halos, and not a moment to soon. It looks like he may turn out to be the steal of the off-season for Angels GM Bill Stoneman. Now if only Bartolo Colon could get his act together... |
