Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Cutoff Man: Strikeouts not enough for Nova

Only five of the 18 batters who made outs against Nova did so without striking out as the righthander established a career high in punchouts. Nevertheless, his overall performance would have to be rated mediocre since his ERA rose to 5.69. Despite all the strikeouts, the Reds put runners on base with seven hits, two walks and a hit batter. Nova has allowed 84 base runners on 65 hits, 16 walks and three hit batters in 50 innings. His 1.62 WHIP is not very good, so Nova is fortunate that his record is 4-2.

All season I’ve been focusing on the walks and strikeouts for Nova and thinking he was going to start pitching better.  I still think that, but at some point his actual performance has to temper those thoughts somewhat.  I didn’t get to see the game so I have no idea how he looked.  I don’t know if it’s a case of one bad pitch to Joey Votto being the difference between a 2 ER game that would’ve looked great in the box score or a 5 ER game which does not.

The Yankees could option Nova down again, but I don’t think there are five starting pitchers better than him in the organization right now so I don’t see the point.

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