Archer needs more victories in 2017./TRAVIS PENDERGRASS
Friday, 6 a.m.
Bottom of the seventh. Score tied. The go-ahead run on third base, although he would be an unearned run. A reliever is in the bullpen, but all things being equal, you'd prefer to start him in the eighth inning.
Time to win.
The starter is laboring. He's tired, but the bullpen is down to volunteers. The batter hit a double his last time up.
It's time to get a guy out.
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Odorizzi led the Rays' pitchers in wins with 10./TRAVIS PENDERGRASS
Forgotten in all the ways there are to measure a pitcher these days, this one still counts. There are moments in game when the ERA doesn't matter, when Whip is just a number, when strikeouts aren't that crucial. There are times when a pitcher swallows hard and out-competes the batter. There are times when winning matters, too.
From time to time, I have this conversation with the professionals. For the record, Chris Archer disagrees with me. Kevin Cash does, too.
Even now, however, winning matters. Oh, in a day of a half-dozen relievers a night, it is not the best way to evaluate a pitcher, perhaps. Maybe not even second best. But somewhere along the line, winning matters more than losing. For a team. For a pitcher.
When I'm evaluating a pitcher, I look at ERA. I look at Whip (walks and hits per inning pitched). I look at the opposing batter's average. And, somewhere along the line, I look at wins. At those unmeasured moments where a pitcher needs a crucial out. When he takes over the game. When he becomes better than the guy in front of him.
I wrote this a few years ago, and some troglodyte on the internet climbed all over me, saying “Here's a guy who says only winning matters.” Well, only to illiterates, because I clearly stated it was not “the” factor, it was “a” factor.
Here's a question: If we put pitchers in the Hall of Fame because they collected a lot of wins, then why don't they matter over the course of one season, too?
The truth is, they matter.
Still.
The point of all of this is that the Rays need more winning out of their starting rotation this season. Archer won only nine games last year (and lost 19).The six pitchers listed by BaseballReference.com won 47 games...and lost 60. When a starting rotation is supposedly one of the strengths of the team, it has to win more.
I know, I know. Support matters. Defense matters. Bullpen matters. If you're going to measure a pitcher by his record, you have to take all of those things into consideration.
Still, there are moments that go beyond the numbers. There is a part of winning a baseball game that is guts and guile and grit. I still believe that.
If it makes me sound like a product of the 60s, well, that's okay, too.
Winning was important then, too.
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