Saarloos signed; two left for arbitration
Kirk Saarloos signed a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, leaving just Bobby Kielty and Justin Duchscherer on the arbitration schedule.
Saarloos is going to make just over $1 million, and will be a candidate for the last slot in the rotation. If that last part sounds familiar, it’s what’s described Saarloos for the last couple years. He’s been back and forth between the bullpen and rotation quite a few times. Last year, he was one of only seven pitchers in baseball to make at least 15 starts and 15 relief appearances.
| GR | GS | |
| Ryan Madson | 33 | 17 |
| Brett Tomko | 29 | 15 |
| Seth McClung | 24 | 15 |
| Kirk Saarloos | 19 | 16 |
| Juan Cruz | 16 | 15 |
| Kyle Lohse | 15 | 19 |
| Joel Pineiro | 15 | 25 |
I think that Saarloos can be an effective pitcher, even though he doesn’t strike anyone out.
Here’s a list of the 10 pitchers who pitched at least 250 innings over the past two years combined, sorted by fewest strikeouts per game:
| 2005-2006 | SO/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 | GB/FB | WHIP | ERA | IP |
| Chien-Ming Wang | 3.31 | 2.26 | .57 | 3.02 | 1.29 | 3.77 | 334.1 |
| Kirk Saarloos | 3.36 | 3.43 | .96 | 2.18 | 1.52 | 4.42 | 281 |
| Carlos Silva | 3.44 | 1.00 | 1.54 | 1.41 | 1.36 | 4.66 | 368.2 |
| Aaron Cook | 3.53 | 2.16 | .76 | 2.86 | 1.40 | 4.07 | 296 |
| Horacio Ramirez | 3.78 | 3.17 | 1.20 | 1.69 | 1.43 | 4.59 | 278.2 |
| Jason Johnson | 4.07 | 2.33 | 1.02 | 2.02 | 1.47 | 5.10 | 325 |
| Kenny Rogers | 4.19 | 2.59 | .86 | 1.48 | 1.29 | 3.65 | 399.1 |
| Jason Marquis | 4.40 | 3.23 | 1.44 | 1.36 | 1.42 | 5.05 | 401.1 |
| Paul Byrd | 4.46 | 1.55 | 1.13 | .97 | 1.34 | 4.27 | 383.1 |
| Ryan Franklin | 4.57 | 3.19 | 1.38 | 1.06 | 1.47 | 4.94 | 268 |
Saarloos has the second lowest SO/9 of any pitcher. Wang is an extreme ground ball pitcher, so his ERA is kept down by that. Saarloos has shown an ability to toss groundballs, since he’s third on that list in GB/FB ratio. It certainly appears that he’s just giving up too many walks, and though he gives up a high percentage of grounders, batters are still getting hits.
He’s given up a .291 batting average against, and his batting average on balls on play is .301, which is above average. It’s odd that he’d have such a high BABIP, since he’s a ground ball pitcher and only gives up a 20% line drive percentage, which is normal. For some reason the defense behind him is allowing a few more balls to slip through. I’d have to think that with Bobby Crosby back at SS and Nick Swisher at 1B, that rate is going to go down in 2007.