The World's Worst Sports Blog

Quickie: Farnsworth is unraveling June 13, 2014

While the World’s Worst Sports Blog is on a temporary work-related hiatus, its regular entries have been replaced with periodic unfocused ranting by the author.

When the Mets released Kyle Farnsworth, I celebrated. Although he’d converted 3 out of 4 save opportunities, he was a waste of money for an unpredictable arm. He’s been wildly inconsistent throughout his career and wasn’t worth the money the Mets had decided to spend on him.

It’s clear why he was given the chance to close: in his first ten games, Kyle has a 0.96 ERA and a 6/2 KBB on a BAbip of .286. His next nine games before release tell a different story: he threw a 5.86 ERA, and yes, some of that is due to his BAbip jumping to .320. It was also due in part to his inability to throw strikes; he faced 36 batters on 138 pitches in the first ten games, 65% of them strikes; in his second block of games, he faced 35 batters on 137 pitches (almost identical) but his strike percentage dropped to 58% and his KBB fell to 4/4. (That basically means he took two Ks and replaced them with walks. Good for you, Kyle!)

Thus far, his time with the Astros has been mostly new Kyle, not old Kyle: 11 games, .280 BAbip, 58% strikes, and a KBB below 1. Thanks, Houston, for taking him off our hands!