Good Banking, Bad Bullpen Pitching
Jonathan Papelbon leaving a lot to be desired on the Citizens Bank Park mound.
Good Banking, Bad Bullpen Pitching
Bob Vetrone Jr.
Unless you've been living under a rock or buried in NFL Fantasy homework since April, you no doubt have seen or heard the Citizens Bank commercials during Phillies games that brag that "good banking is good citizenship."
That may be true, but its ballpark is not conducive to good bullpen-pitching, especially in the case of $50 million man Jonathan Papelbon, whose numbers at Citizens Bank Park are nowhere near those he has put up in road stadiums. For instance — ERA: 4.05 vs. 1.52 ... WHIP: 1.39 vs. 0.76 ... Opponents batting average: .278 vs. .159 ... and Home Runs: 5 vs. 0.
Here are some other Papelbon stats to chew on ... Eighth-inning batters are 0-for-12 in 14 plate appearances against him (two walks, seven strikeouts) ... Batters facing him in a tie game are now 13-for-32 with a .406 batting average, a .472 on-base percentage and a .719 slugging percentage ... To that end, his ERA in save situations is 2.03; non-save situations, 4.19.
Papelbon's home/road breakdown after Tuesday's loss is below.
| Home | Road | |
| Games | 25 | 24 |
| W-L | 3-4 | 0-1 |
| ERA | 4.05 | 1.52 |
| Saves/Opp. | 10/11 | 17/19 |
| Innings | 26.2 | 23.2 |
| Hits | 30 | 13 |
| Runs/Earned | 12/12 | 4/4 |
| Walks | 7 | 5 |
| Strikeouts | 34 | 26 |
| Home Runs | 5 | 0 |
| WHIP | 1.39 | 0.76 |
| Strikeouts/9 IP | 11.47 | 9.89 |
| Opp. Batting Avg. | .278 | .159 |
| Opp. On-Base Pct. | .328 | .216 |
| Opp. Slugging Pct. | .472 | .183 |
I felt better with Lidge coming into a game.......and that was not good.— Phil Lee- In non-save situations Paps is just as good (or bad) as the rest of the bullpen. He's obviously a save-situation only pitcher, but for some reason Cholly hasn't figured that out yet.— The K Man
- These stats have nothing to do with pitching at the Bank. It's the non-save situations that are skewing the splits. If you take those out, he's just as effective at home or on the road in save situations. It's just that closers generally don't come into tie games on the road. That only happens when they are at home. So all of his non-save situations have come at home and he clearly doesn't have the same focus and energy when coming into non-save situations. If he's just getting work in a blowout game, I could see that. But in a tie-game, there's no excuse for not being pumped up to pitch. This has nothing to do with Charlie. He doesn't really have any good late-game options besides Papelbon and when you're getting paid over $10 million per season, you need to be ready and able to pitch effectively in a tie game in the 9th inning. There's no excuse for that.— JimG
- Boop - I know it has been publicized before, but how many games have become losses this year after the bullpen took over with a lead?— dwp66
- dwp66 -- whoever you are -- As a staff, they have 15 blown saves, but I'll gave to go through game-by-game to see which of those games they actually lost. — BVJR
