Ricky Nolasco, SP

[Swifty]

Yeah, St. Claire's been great. I don't really see a problem with him. Miller sucked before he got here.

[Bobbob1313]

I'd be down with Zambrano-ing him for a few weeks if West wants to force the issue in a couple of weeks.

You've got til the ASB to show me something, asshole. Cut the crap.

[Ramp]

4k thru 3ip tonight is a start, even if the 2hr aren't
--------------------
velo looks good tonight, pitches are moving too

[LocoMarlinFan]

Did Nolasco save himself from another demotion?
BALTIMORE -- Lot of interesting story lines as we leave Ca
mden Yards. The obvious ones involve the manager. But when it comes to the team, I think the biggest development was that Ricky Nolasco probably saved himself from another trip down to the minors.

The 26-year old right-hander was getting pounded in the second inning Wednesday by the Orioles, who lit him up for four runs on six hits (including two home runs). Interim manager Edwin Rodriguez, who had 21-year old reliever Alex Sanabia warming up in the bullpen, admitted afterward he was "really close" to pulling Nolasco before he recovered.

"He was struggling with his breaking ball," Rodriguez said. "But then after he made an adjustment, he was mixing his pitches much better."

I think it is fair to wonder if Fredi Gonzalez had still been managing if Nolasco would have been given such a long leash. Nolasco, of course, rewarded Rodriguez's faith by giving up just two hits over the next five innings and got the win to end a two-game losing streak and improve to 6-6 on the season.

But had Nolasco not recovered, he probably would have lost his third straight start -- and with the way management has talking these days -- been sent down to the minors like he was a year ago to work out his struggles.

Nolasco ended up throwing a season-high 119 pitches Wednesday, of a which a season-high 77 went for strikes. Nolasco said high pitch counts don't bother him at all. "I don't mind getting run out there quite like that," Nolasco said. "I feel like I respond well and do what I have to do in five days to be 100 percent. I enjoy being out there."

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_...#ixzz0rq4ev9t1

[Ralph]

The Consistently Inconsistent Ricky Nolasco

There are few pitchers in baseball as interesting (or, if you're a Marlins fan, frustrating) as Ricky Nolasco. Consider this fluky little statistic, for instance:

2008, K/BB ratio: 4.43
2009, K/BB ratio: 4.43
2010, K/BB ratio: 4.43

Based on that, we'd like to call him Mr. Consistency. Except, if you've watched him pitch, he's been anything but. In 2008, he was pretty darn good, throwing 212 innings and posting a 3.52 ERA in a breakout season. While he sustained most of his underlying performance last year, his ERA shot up to 5.06, as his BABIP rose to .336 and his LOB% was a crazy low 61%. Most of us had him pegged for a bounceback year, as his luck was bound to improve, but it hasn't been the full return to form we expected. His BABIP is still .324 and now he's giving up more HR/FB too, so his ERA (4.66) once again doesn't come close to his xFIP (3.73).

Despite having good stuff and strong peripherals, he's more Javier Vazquez than Roy Oswalt at this point. Like Vazquez, Nolasco simply allows more runs to score than we'd expect based on his numbers.

Five years ago, Dave Studemund introduced a formula to predict LOB% from a pitcher's xFIP. As you can see in the chart, there's a pretty strong correlation between the quality of a pitcher and how many runners he leaves on base.

Nolasco, a good pitcher, should have posted a LOB% of about 74.2 percent over the last three years, based on Studes' formula. In fact, if you look at the average LOB% for all pitchers with a K/BB ratio of 3.00 or higher in that time frame, the average is 74.6%, and Nolasco has the fourth highest K/BB ratio of that entire group.

Instead, his actual LOB% since 2008 is 69.1%, the second lowest in baseball among qualified starting pitchers. He's ahead of only Brian Bannister, and he's stranded about the same amount of runners as Livan Hernandez and Nick Blackburn. Clearly, he's better than those guys.

What's the deal? Well, his high BABIP is almost entirely concentrated in situations with runners on base. With the bases empty, his career BABIP is .290, but if you put a runner on, its .326. Most pitchers are better from the wind-up, but this is an extreme split. The league average BABIP with the bases empty is .295 versus .304 with a man on base.

The sample is too small to say this is evidence of Nolasco doing something wrong, as we're still just dealing with 600 innings of data, but it's something to keep an eye on. Vazquez has almost 2,600 innings in the big leagues and has a career LOB% of just 70.9%, significantly lower than the 73.8% that is predicted based by his xFIP. It is at least within the realm of possibility that these two share a common trait that cause them to perform worse out of the stretch.

Only time will tell, but it's an area worth looking into.

http://www.fangraphs.com/

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

Well, his high BABIP is almost entirely concentrated in situations with runners on base. With the bases empty, his career BABIP is .290, but if you put a runner on, its .326.

Sounds like another pitcher we were talking about who you guys said got sent to the minors for.

[nny]

Except ricky is awesome with no one on and volstad sucks in both cases?

[Fritz]

Sounds like another pitcher we were talking about who you guys said got sent to the minors for.

I remember not disliking you.

[Bobbob1313]

Sounds like another pitcher we were talking about who you guys said got sent to the minors for.

Not really.

Volstad's issue was that he's dreadul with runners on. Like, 1:1 BB:K ratio awful. His has nothing to do with BABIP and everything to do with the fact that he was stinky poo with runners on. His BABIP with runners on is only .006 higher.

[Mainge]

[MiamiHomer]

This one is better.

[Ramp]

Sounds like another pitcher we were talking about who you guys said got sent to the minors for.

You need professional help

[HUGG]

Or a trip to AAA for adjustments.

[Swifty]

Good Ricky's back.

His mood swings make my head hurt.

[Namaste]

This guy is full nasty right now. My Jedi sense feels a Lefty sighting is immenent