If I can keep it up all month, 31 days of positive posts! There's going to be enough negativity going around with the Cardinals not in the post-season.
Day 9
On a day in which I believe we've gotten approximately 4,000 inches of rain (I'll have to check the weather after typing this just to be sure it's not more) here in KC, today is Tsunami day. While it feels like Carlos Martinez took a huge step back this year, he hit the DL on three separate occasions, walked a lot more batters, had to pitch out of the bullpen in his last 15 outings (officially because he couldn't have gotten back to starter form by playoff time anyway, and allegedly was late on multiple occasions this year...there were also reasons for great optimism.
Despite seeming setbacks like the ones above:
Martinez's ERA was 3.11, over 25 points lower than his career totals.
Martinez was 2 strikeouts shy of having at least 1 per inning.
Martinez faced over 500 batters and only allowed 100 hits on the year and only 5 homers and only 26 extra base hits.
Despite the walks, Martinez threw about 64% strikes (typically about 0.94% higher is all).
My favorite stat for Carlos Martinez in 2018 is that prior to his first injury, his 2nd-7th games of the season (bad 1st game, and injured in the 8th game) were PHENOMENAL. How phenomenal? 6 games, 6-0 as a team (3-0 for Martinez), 40 2/3 innings, 24 hits, 40 K, 13 BB, .173/.277/.233/.500 line against, 0.66 ERA, 0.910 WHIP, and an average game score of 70! (To put the game score in perspective, Clayton Kershaw from 2011-2017 (top 5 Cy Young votes each year) he had average game scores of 65, 63, 67, 70, 68, 70, and 64.
Positive October Day 9, in the books!
In case you missed them: