A Few Thoughts- Lima, Halladay, Silva
This will be kind of a miscellaneous entry since I don’t have a lot of time to do a bunch of research on one topic. I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but I’ve been busy with my first full week of work and I’ve also started a project related to this blog that hopefully I’ll be able to reveal before too long. Without further ado…
RIP Jose Lima
Keep former Major Leaguer Jose Lima‘s friends and family in your thoughts as he unexpectedly died today from a heart attack at the age of 37. I best remember him as a member of the Houston Astros, though he also spent time with the Tigers, Royals, Dodgers, and Mets. His best season came with Houston in 1999 when he was an all-star and finished 4th in Cy Young voting with a 21-10 record and a 3.58 ERA. He also posted a career high 187 K’s that year. His most similar players (See here if you don’t know what I mean by this) are Brian Moehler, Eric Milton, and Sidney Ponson.
The Red Sox Know How to Beat Roy Halladay
The Sox beat Halladay again today, and prove to be the toughest team against him. Here are his career splits by opponent sorted by most losses (today’s is not included).
| I | Split | W | L ▾ | W-L% | ERA | G | CG | SHO | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Sox | 14 | 14 | .500 | 4.28 | 41 | 6 | 1 | 269.1 | 280 | 128 | 29 | 64 | 200 | 1.277 | |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 12 | 11 | .522 | 3.67 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 225.2 | 236 | 92 | 19 | 47 | 170 | 1.254 | |
| Texas Rangers | 7 | 7 | .500 | 5.36 | 20 | 4 | 0 | 124.1 | 144 | 74 | 13 | 32 | 98 | 1.416 | |
| New York Yankees | 18 | 6 | .750 | 2.84 | 37 | 7 | 3 | 247.1 | 221 | 78 | 23 | 54 | 190 | 1.112 | |
| Seattle Mariners | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2.51 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 97.0 | 92 | 27 | 5 | 19 | 63 | 1.144 | |
| Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | 8 | 5 | .615 | 4.32 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 108.1 | 118 | 52 | 8 | 19 | 83 | 1.265 | |
| Oakland Athletics | 6 | 4 | .600 | 4.54 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 83.1 | 92 | 42 | 7 | 35 | 65 | 1.524 | |
| Chicago White Sox | 5 | 4 | .556 | 3.28 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 90.2 | 87 | 33 | 7 | 26 | 72 | 1.246 | |
| Baltimore Orioles | 20 | 4 | .833 | 2.89 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 193.0 | 189 | 62 | 16 | 39 | 111 | 1.181 | |
| Kansas City Royals | 9 | 3 | .750 | 2.65 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 102.0 | 87 | 30 | 10 | 21 | 61 | 1.059 | |
| San Francisco Giants | 0 | 2 | .000 | 7.23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 18.2 | 25 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 1.607 | |
| New York Mets | 3 | 2 | .600 | 4.05 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 33.1 | 37 | 15 | 4 | 8 | 21 | 1.350 | |
| Detroit Tigers | 12 | 2 | .857 | 2.19 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 119.0 | 99 | 29 | 10 | 10 | 73 | 0.916 | |
| Cleveland Indians | 6 | 2 | .750 | 3.52 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 79.1 | 72 | 31 | 2 | 33 | 74 | 1.324 | |
| Chicago Cubs | 0 | 2 | .000 | 3.00 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12.0 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1.250 | |
| Washington Nationals | 6 | 1 | .857 | 2.43 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 66.2 | 56 | 18 | 6 | 10 | 53 | 0.990 | |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1.13 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 24.0 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 22 | 1.125 | |
| Minnesota Twins | 8 | 1 | .889 | 2.90 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 87.0 | 74 | 28 | 5 | 12 | 70 | 0.989 | |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 0 | 1 | .000 | 6.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1.167 | |
| Florida Marlins | 1 | 1 | .500 | 3.71 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17.0 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 1.353 | |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 16.0 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 0.938 | |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 0 | 0 | 2.45 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.818 | ||
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.50 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 24.0 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 0.875 | |
| Houston Astros | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.778 | |
| Colorado Rockies | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.17 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15.1 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0.913 | |
| Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.68 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14.2 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 1.568 | |
| Atlanta Braves | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.46 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 19.2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 0.763 | |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.86 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11.2 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1.200 |
Carlos Silva is Really Good…?
Carlos Silva has baffled me and opposing hitters thus far, recording his 6th win tonight to improve to 6-0. He becomes the first Cubs starter to do so since Ken Holtzman in 1967. When interviewed after the game, Silva said, “It’s because they’ve been scoring a lot of runs…The whole rotation has been really good, but I’ve been getting more run support than anybody else.” Of course I had to investigate. Silva, after tonight, has received 6.67 runs of support per start. The other Cubs starters rank as follows:
Ryan Dempster 3.89
Randy Wells 4.98
Tom Gorzelanny 3.68
Ted Lilly 3.23
Maybe Silva is on to something! But there’s no denying that his 3.55 ERA is far and away better than his career mark of 4.66 and his 2009 mark of 8.60.
The 26th Man 
It’s strange how one team can dominate an otherwise dominant pitcher. I wonder how much of that is the pitcher allowing a team “to get in his head” so to speak. As far as Silva goes, I’m not convinced yet. Perhaps I’ll research the teams he has beaten and the opposing pitchers he gets matched with. What’s his place in the rotation? Is he only matched against #5 starters? Answers to those questions might tell us more. Hate to admit I actually remember watching Ken Holtzman pitch!