Rabblerabblerabble Joe Blanton SUX!

     Just like in South Park, many of the casual Phillies "fans" go rabbling about something. On any given day it could be Cole, Charlie, Rollins, Howard, Utley, or their favorite whipping boy- Joe Blanton. The nonsense that comes out of some of their mouths is amazing in itself. For entertainment sake, I’ve included some actual quotes I found on facebook. In case you haven’t noticed, using exclamation points and caps proves you know what you are talking about.

think the phillies let the wrong guy [Werth] go...JOE BLANTON ASS SHOULD BE SOMEWHERE FAR AND AWAY FROM THE PHIILIES ORGANIZATION

Because as we all know, the Phillies had the option of erasing Blanton’s contract off the books and sign Werth to an $8 million per year deal.

Been Saying It And NOBODY Has Been Listening To Me. I'll Say It Again. TRADE JOE BLANTON!!!

Could’ve traded him in the offseason for something, now he has NO VALUE.

The top guy is the first to ever suggest trading Blanton. No one else is on board with him obviously. And as we all know, MLB general managers base their decisions of a player’s value on their first two starts of the season. I think we can get Pujols right now for Kendrick. Do it Amaro.

Time to give Blanton the boot

Joe sux!!!! Period

needs to go to the bullpen. Enough is enough.

When will we dump him? He's always been a fat bum!

Kendrick should be the 5th starter.

I WANT MOYER!!!

I agree bring Moyer anything is better than sloppy Joe

Bring moyer back

Bring up Jesse Bittle, Their number one pitching prospect he is a beast!

I said this last July when he was awful I had everyone down my throat, they all forgot he did this until August last year before he got outta the 1st inning. A guy who pitches 5 inns and 5.00 era, for 10 mil, thats more than Hamels,Rollins,Polanco, Chooch, Valdez, Ben Fran, Kendrick,..... and Worley could do it and probably better for 1/25th the amount of money. LITERALLY. He did this as our 3rd starter last year until he had a few good games. Now hes doin it again. His career numbers are IDENTICAL to adam eaton,look it up!

Ah the always effective Moyer and Kendrick. Let’s stick inferior options in the rotation and let a better option at $8.5 million sit in the pen. And the hell with player development, "Bittle" was a first round pick. Making up numbers and stats also the best way of making a sound argument.

     For some reason people are under the impression that for $8.5 million, he was going to be some borderline all-star, which no one in their right mind was expecting. But pointing out other people’s absurd statements isn’t what this is about. It’s more about showing he’s still the same pitcher- even in such a small sample size as he has been, and not al albatross 7.00+, or even more extreme 10.00+ ERA pitcher like those previous people may believe.

     Let’s start with the basics. So far he’s got a 4.83 FIP and 3.31 xFIP. Due to such a small sample size, that is a pretty significant difference compared to his career FIP/xFIP difference of .09. But averaging them out give you 4.07, pretty much in line with 4.24 and 4.11 the previous two seasons.

     The biggest things that stand out so far are the luck dependent BABIP(.429) and LOB%(49.5%). Both of which will regress to normal as the season goes. With those numbers and a .583 BABIP with runners in scoring position, it’d be extremely difficult, maybe impossible, for any pitcher to have his current ERA be in line with his career norms.

     Blanton even has shown improvements in a couple areas. His current 54.3 GB% is up from 43.9% career and his 8.71 K/9 would be a career high by far. However, chances are this is just due to such a small sample size as his swinging strike percentage and contact percentages are pretty much in line his recent career norms.

     On a pitch by pitch basis, he’s velocity is pretty much the same across the board, with the exception of his changeup which actually has done up 1.3 MPH to 83.3. That isn’t necessarily a good thing when your fastball is only 89.3, but the velocity increase hasn’t shown to be a detriment in his changeup. On Fangraphs’ main page, it shows his fastball as being his worst pitch by far at 5.33 runs below average per 100 pitches. However, PitchFX has been classifying most of these fastballs as a sinker. He looks to be throwing this fastball/sinker more often than his normal fastball and its this pitch that has given him the most trouble this year. But even when looking at this pitch specifically, there is nothing that pops out its any different than it was year. Horizontal and vertical movements, speed, and release points have all been consistent compared to last year with that pitch and every other pitch. Most likely, the BABIP gods have just looked unfavorably with it.

     By the time July comes around I’m still confident he’ll be the Big Joe most of us expect. Unfortunately, he will always have his pro-Kendrick haters who just don’t understand.