Is Joel Pineiro peaking late?
Is Joel Pineiro a better pitcher at the age of 30? Or is it the National League's seemingly weaker talent crop?
All I know is that Pineiro has been better than any pitcher in baseball at putting the ball on the ground this season. 59 percent of the time, Pineiro has the ball where he wants it to be. He isn't a strikeout pitcher, whiffing only 4.20 batters per game-frame. But nonetheless, he is recording outs.
And what else helps is that he walks almost no one. Pineiro has allowed the third fewest free passes, while--as mentioned--leading the league in Groundball percentage. If that continues, the low K rate will only hurt his overall performance so much.
And for a sinker-ball pitcher, the BABIP monster hasn't been friendly to him either. Balls in play--and there are many of them--are falling in approximately 32 percent of the time. Usually that would hurt Pineiro more than it has, but since he doesn't allow home runs--or hasn't anyway--then those baserunners aren't coming in to score quite as often
UZR points to the Cardinals having an average defense. Defensive Efficiency suggests it's a little better than that. 8th to be exact.
So having a pitcher that relies on his defense, needs, well, a reliable defense. And the Cardinals may not have a great one, but it seems to be capable enough, possibly even better than the average unit.
But Joel has never had a GB% north of 49 percent. However, it is roughly ten percent higher than that as we speak. So I pose the question again; Is Joel Pineiro learning how to become a good pitcher?
Generally, if he hasn't done this well before, he will probably regress into what he's been in the past. But since pitchers have no defined "prime," anything might go.
The home runs will start to come off of Pineiro, but if he continues keeping people off the bases unless they earn it. And if he continues to induce ground balls at such a high rate, then the Cardinals will continue to have a solid starter on their hands.
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You definately get that kind of thing with some pitchers. As you know, pitchers are usually rushed to the majors more than hitters. Pinerio has probably got through the learning process of succeeding as a pitcher in the majors just now. Who else was like that? Doug Davis for a time, Cliff Lee is an extreme example, and Edwin Jackson has finally found his niche now. You could probably put Pinerio up around there now. I don't watch the Cardinals enough, but maybe he has be working on other pitches to make those sinker's more effective? That would really help him, in my opinion along with the solid D behind him.
If he keeps getting those groundball outs, he likely will have more success, as that is good for any starting pitcher accomplish ... Ask Roy Halladay, expect he is able to spell a hitter with a much more complete arsenal of pitches than Pinerio. I must annoy people mentioning Halladay in almost every comment I make. lol.
Anyway, great interesting analysis, as always!
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Thanks, welike roy. Just to let you know, my main site has moved to the link at the bottom of the post. Stop by...every day. :)
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