Monday, July 28, 2008
Lester?!
Who IS this Jon Lester? I have to admit, after last-season and the beginning of this one, I never thought this guy would have front of the rotation ability. Now he's pitching circles around Buccholz and the stopper in the rotation. The pitcher I watched last night has no relation to the guy I saw last year with control problems who would never get through 5 innings. For every pitcher the Sox organization seems to have screwed up (See Hansen, Craig and Del Carmen, Manny) they somehow got this one right. Incredible turn-around in a year and making the lack of a move on Johan look a whole lot better.
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2 comments:
He has really been impressive - Keeping the ball on the ground much more than last year and better than a 2 K/BB ratio. It will be interesting to see how he holds up towards the end and especially in the playoffs. He's never pitched more than 90 innings in the majors, and is already close to his minors+majors innings pitched total from last season.
His K:BB ratio is what really excites me about Lester. By cutting his walk rate he makes himself able to go deeper into games. And the increase in K rate, while increasing pitching efficiency, is amazing. Hopefully he'll be able to keep it up, despite the IP count. Coming into this year his ERA was always much better than his peripherals, and I really thought Gammons missed the mark on his assessment of Lester, but in the second half he's been absolutely spectacular.
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