Pitching, or more specifically, starting pitching, was responsible for much of what went amiss with the 2007 season of the Ottawa Lynx. Too many times manager John Russell was forced to go with relief pitchers in the role of starters or inexperienced lower minor leaguers. What began as a very solid and promising starting rotation in April, quickly turned sour in May and turned into disaster in July. Too often the substitute starters couldn’t go deep into games which had a ripple effect on the bullpen who in turn were overworked and hopelessly behind with no margin for error. The beginning of the end came in May with the departure of Brian Mazone to South Korea, their number one starter and most solid pitcher. This was quickly followed by injuries to the number two starter, Matt Childers, and their most promising rookie, lefty J.A. Happ. Mazone was only around for six starts, compiling a 3-2 record with an ERA of 2.21 and a WHIP of 1.04. No team can afford to lose a starter of this quality and I remain curious to this day as to why the pitching, especially starting pitching strapped Philadelphia Phillies, couldn’t have used him. Couple that with the fact that Mazone is a lefty, a starter and that he had an excellent 2006 season and my confusion grows. Childers, 7-4), usually kept the team in the game and despite a high ERA, (5.17) and a WHIP of 1.60, he usually kept the games close and the Lynx often found a way to win when he started. He had the highest run support of any Lynx starter, (3.06), and the team were 12-6 when he started. Childers had a very good strikeout to walk ratio, (73-26), which helped offset somewhat giving up 138 hits in 102.2 innings. He seemed to, many times, get into trouble and then work his way out.

Happ had a season in which he was finally stretching out and going deeper into games only to be sidelined for two weeks with injury. When he returned to the Lynx, he had to begin the process all over again and it was only in his last few starts we saw the Happ everyone was talking about. Although not blessed with dominating stuff, he hid the ball well and batters often had a difficult time picking up the pitches. He lead the team with 117 strikeouts in 118.1 innings and in twenty four starts had a 4-6 record and an ERA of 5.02. He did average slightly under five innings per start, (4.92), and it wasn’t until late in the season that Happ went deep into ball games. He was an example of an organization being very careful with a young pitching prospect and was on a very strict pitch count throughout the season. Ottawa had of record of 13-11 when Happ started, making Childers and Happ indirectly responsible for twenty five of the team’s 55 wins. Despite the high numbers from both of these starters, their combined team record when they started of 25-17 far exceeds the Lynx overall winning percentage of .385, a significant statistic. Wether by luck or design, a win is a win and can’t be dismissed lightly. Happ did make one emergency start with Philadelphia and while not an impressive one, the experience can only help Happ in the long run. The top three starters combined for a won-lost record of 14-12, the bullpen went 24-24 which means that the other Lynx starters had a record of 17-52, clearly showing where the problem lay. Zack Segovia started thirteen games, Landon Jacobsen twelve, Bubba Nelson eleven, J.D. Durbin and Eude Brito ten. Between them, they had a record of 8-24. Segovia had a brutal 2007 season with Ottawa, going 1-9 with an ERA of 6.05 and a WHIP of 1.64. Ottawa were 3-10 in games he started and he had only one successful start. Jacobsen went 2-7, an ERA of 4.80, WHIP of 1.73 and Nelson went 3-7, (5.19-1.37). Segovia and Jacobsen had pitched in Double A ball the year and early in the 2007 season. Nelson was sent down to Double A Reading where he was used mainly as a reliever, (twenty four games-three starts). Segovia was sent down midway through the year and finished off the season at Reading. Brito was much better suited to the bullpen and performed better there but still ineffectively. Fabio Castro was another Lynx reliever pressed into the starters role and he was much more effective in the bullpen. Heath Totten started six games and went 1-5. One of the more successful Lynx starters, Charles Weatherby III, came up from Single A came up from Clearwater, appeared in nine games and started four and was very effective. He was then sent down to Reading with the explanation that he was caught in a numbers game and he was young and inexperienced. Weatherby went 2-1 and had an ERA of 3.16. Baseball can be a strange game but perhaps the Phillie brass knew what they were doing as Weatherby was hit hard at Double A.

The constantly up to Philadelphia and back down to Ottawa Lynx bullpen was already going through enough with the many “emergency starts”. Brian Sanches led the Lynx with sixteen saves and appeared in thirty six games. Kane Davis led the team with forty one appearances and had a very good season. With more strikeouts than innings pitched, (60-53), Davis became a very effective setup, sometimes closer for Ottawa. He had a very solid 1.38 WHIP and allowed only 46 hits. Sanches allowed a lot of hits but had a very good 52-8 strikeout to walk ratio. He, like Davis, struck out more than a batter per inning, (52-47). As a reliever, he had a record of 2-2 with an ERA of 4.00.

John Ennis finished with a record of 4-4 and an ERA of 3.38 in thirty seven games, seven as a starter. Ennis is probably better suited as a starter as the strikeout to walk ratio as a starter was an impressive 32-5 while as a reliever it dropped to 51-26. Obviously Ennis was more comfortable as a starter, one of those pitchers who needs a couple of innings to get comfortable on the mound. His stats were very similar in both roles in 2007 except for the strikeout to walk ratio. Clay Condrey and Geoff Geary were the other two effective relievers, combining for a 3-1 record in twenty four games and ERAs of 2.45 and 2.52 respectively. Both had excellent WHIPs as well, 1.09 and 1.16. Sanches, Davis, Condrey and Geary were all up and down between Ottawa and Philadelphia all season long.

The rest of the bullpen were usually a disaster. Rick Bauer was awful resulting in his eventual release. Anderson Garcia went 1-5, an ERA of 5.13, Joe Besinius rarely got the job done, (3-4, 5.48), Jason Anderson, (5.32), Ryan Cameron, (5.84)….well you get the picture.

Ottawa ranked last in the league in ERA, (4.77), WHIP, (1.53), hits allowed, (1,395), runs allowed and earned runs, (737-657), strikeouts, (903), and shutouts, (3). The Lynx were tied for tenth in saves, (34), second worst in home runs allowed, (125), ninth in walks allowed, (500), second last in holds, (30), but tied for third with six complete games. They were outscored 86-60 in the first inning, 89-52 in the second, 92-76 in the third inning and 676-531 overall.

The pitching staff were a major contributor to a season which saw Ottawa win only 55 games. But as John Russell is want to say-there were a few bright spots. Obviously not nearly enough.