Milton Lit up
But that's not a newsflash to you, is it? Its happened plenty this year. I was under the impression things had been getting better for Milton, so I did a little work with the numbers today to get the story.
His second half has been a little better (note all stats below do not include yesterday's "performance". His ERA for the season is 6.42. For the first half, it was 6.92, and for the second half was 5.46. Obviously, 5.46 is still pretty poor. But there's a little more to the story than that.
In July his ERA was 4.63...the NL average in 2005 is 4.23, so that's at least moving in the right direction. Than, in August, he was 4.40, even closer to the mean.
His HR numbers have really improved from brutal to poor. He allowed 29 in the first half of the year, in 106 innings, or a staggering 2.46/9. In the second half, its only 8 in 56 innings, or 1.29/9, or twice as good as before....or half as bad. Take your pick. (League average is 1.02/9).
His 37 HR's allowed lead the NL by a far sight. Jon Lieber has allowed 31, for second place.
Eric has only average K's--just over 6 in a league that has a 6.53/9 average rate. His big problem is that in addition to homers, he gives up hits by the bushel basket--11.68/9. League average is 9.11. Batters have a .350 OBP, well above the league average of .326, while his SLG is .560, shockingly above the .413 league average.
We're stuck with him, so we might as well get used to it. On the other hand, it someone in a pitcher's park wants him, we should trade him. In the meantime, maybe he generally positive second half means we might someday get something around his career mean from him...someday.
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