The Livan Hernandez Cy Young Watch

[DPMOmaha]

Yes.  Twice.  First I posted a hint, then dropped it, then added the link.

The clip was from Amalie Benjamin's game story on the Red Sox - Rays last night, discussing John Lackey's performance this year. He's basically putting up Livo's numbers from the past few years (before htis year).

I thought I was losing it there for a minute...

[PANatsFan]

Gee, what if Livan has 12 wins again by the break?

[houston-nat]

My local newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, awarded Livan Hernandez "player of the day" honors, which netted him a nice picture and a two-paragraph story about his nice comeback season and 2.98 ERA. Comeback Player of the Year?

[hammondsnats]

Awesome watching Livan pitch ... really is.  He's some pitcher. 

[Nathan]

My local newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, awarded Livan Hernandez "player of the day" honors, which netted him a nice picture and a two-paragraph story about his nice comeback season and 2.98 ERA. Comeback Player of the Year?

[sportsfan882]

Livo is minor league trash but most knew that already. God what a bum

[spidernat]

Livo is minor league trash but most knew that already. God what a bum

but seriously he has a 4.45 ERA. not bad for a #5 pitcher. he's not good by any means but I would much rather have him as a #5 starter over livan.

Hernandez' ERA 3.37

Lannan is a beast. I initially thought he would be a solid 4-5 guy for us for years to come. I am now inclined to think that he could be a really capable #2 guy (maybe ace eventually?) for us. His control is just awesome. Nothing phases him.

Lannan 5.76
 

BTW, I also found this bold post. 

yeah freak this.

he's hurt. dl him and let him recover.  this team takes way too long to correctly diagnose injuries and take action to deal with them.

Lannan will be on the DL. book it.

hell, if he isn't on the DL by the all star break, I will take the sacred title of The ASSCLOWN from Chief.

[cmdterps44]

Livo is a beast. I don't understand. He has one bad start after having 3 good ones and some people jump on him. Aw well. He decided today was his bad start. Tuesday he had a phenomenal start. Strasburg and him are the two good things in this rotation. Livo is one of the least worries for this team.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Livo - 18 starts, 12 quality starts. Just what his backers predicted.  But one red flag - he's 5 for 10 in his last 10 starts.

[The Chief]

Livo - 18 starts, 12 quality starts. Just what his backers predicted.  But one red flag - he's 5 for 10 in his last 10 starts.

I blame Riggleman for his last start.  Sending him back out in the 8th was a mistake.

[tomterp]

Free Agent Midterms
by Ken Funck, Baseball Prospectus:

Livan Hernandez has been the most productive starter signed in the offseason, and his $900,000 salary makes him this year’s biggest bargain.  So far: when last we peeked under his hood, Livan was sporting a 5.53 SIERA and a 1.62 ERA in late May.  At midseason, his ERA is now 3.12, while his SIERA is 4.94—one might say he’s pitched better and gotten worse results.  Expect the “getting worse results” part, at least, to continue.  In the meantime, we can refer to the fact that Hernandez and Carl Pavano have been the most productive free agent starter signings as Reason No. 2,845 why the unpredictability of baseball is a gift that keeps on giving.

[Potomac Cannons]

Livo is a beast. I don't understand. He has one bad start after having 3 good ones and some people jump on him. Aw well. He decided today was his bad start. Tuesday he had a phenomenal start. Strasburg and him are the two good things in this rotation. Livo is one of the least worries for this team.

4 of his last 6 starts have been below average to bad.

6/16 @ DET  6.2 IP   7 H, 6 BB, 8 ER
6/26 @ BAL  6.0 IP   11 H, 0 BB, 5 ER
7/6  SD  7.0 IP   9 H, 2 BB, 4 ER

Add in today and that's not a good sign.  Oddly the 5 games after the Detroit start are the best strikeout run I've seen Livan on in quite a while.  He's starting to look more like 07-09 where he was only a placeholder in teams rotations until finally being cut by the Mets.  Hopefully the break does him some good and he's refreshed for a good run over the 2nd half of the season.

[cmdterps44]

4 of his last 6 starts have been below average to bad.

6/16 @ DET  6.2 IP   7 H, 6 BB, 8 ER
6/26 @ BAL  6.0 IP   11 H, 0 BB, 5 ER
7/6  SD  7.0 IP   9 H, 2 BB, 4 ER

Add in today and that's not a good sign.  Oddly the 5 games after the Detroit start are the best strikeout run I've seen Livan on in quite a while.  He's starting to look more like 07-09 where he was only a placeholder in teams rotations until finally being cut by the Mets.  Hopefully the break does him some good and he's refreshed for a good run over the 2nd half of the season.

I agree with what you're saying but I have to disagree with one of the games. Riggleman should have taken him out during the SD game in the 8th. Clippard gave up 2 of Livans runs. While that is what happens during baseball, I still believe he pitched awesome that game and was unfortunate that the 8th inning came around. So IMO 3 out of 6 he's pitched subpar... Like that makes a difference. He's still serviceable here, more than the other 4 guys we've messed around with. (Martin, Atilano, Lannan, and Stammen)

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Chief / cmdterps44 - i think riggs is tempted to leave him in longer than most pitchers.  Between the view that he is a vet who has earmed his right to wriggle out of jams by being successful at it for a long time and his role as "the innings eater / bullpen saver," I think you will see Riggs pretty consistently err on the side of stickng with him too long than giving him a short leash.  Even yesterday, if his defense picks him up (Nyjer, I'm looking at you), he keeps us in the game.

[cmdterps44]

Chief / cmdterps44 - i think riggs is tempted to leave him in longer than most pitchers.  Between the view that he is a vet who has earmed his right to wriggle out of jams by being successful at it for a long time and his role as "the innings eater / bullpen saver," I think you will see Riggs pretty consistently err on the side of stickng with him too long than giving him a short leash.  Even yesterday, if his defense picks him up (Nyjer, I'm looking at you), he keeps us in the game.

I agree. Phil Wood made a great point after the SD game. He was in "2 men on base 0 out" jams a couple times during that game but got out of it. He knows what to do. I think he may have gotten out of it but Riggleman decided to bring in a reliever who struggles with inherited runners so it hurt Livan which in turned hurt the team (letting livan leave runners on base). My point was that he pitched much much better that game than his final line declared.

[sportsfan882]

Bum! 

[Minty Fresh]

Bum! 

You've been waiting a long time to be able to say, "I told you so...."   

[The Chief]

The team is 4-2 in his last 6 starts.  Obviously such an outcome can't be counted on, but if Livo wants to get some bad starts out of his system, he seems to have picked a good time to do it.  The second half will be the real test.

[HalfSmokes]

I think at this point 'the real test' is over. Even if he stinks up the joint for the rest of the season, I think the team should offer him a contract for next year to at the very least eat some innings while guys recover (lets face it someone will have a set back or get injured before the year is out) or finish off their time in the minors.

[Kevrock]

Bum! 

 

[sportsfan882]

Just give it up, Chief. This thread has Epic FAIL written all over it.

[cmdterps44]

Just give it up, Chief. This thread has Epic FAIL written all over it.

Yeah, Okay SF. Whatever you say.

[The Chief]

Just give it up, Chief. This thread has Epic FAIL written all over it.

What are you talking about?  It's not even my thread

That aside, you're about as dense as it gets when it comes to your pet hatreds.  Livan has been a great pickup for the team, and probably brought in 4-5 wins the team wouldn't have otherwise had judging by the worn out deck of AAAA cards they've been playing.

[blue911]

Livan has put together a pretty nice first half. The team has won 11 of his 18 starts, so I don't know how he is a "bum". The Nationals have scored a total of 64 runs in those 18 starts (3.55/start they average 4.25/start for the rest of the starters) while he has allowed 45 in his 117+ innings.

 What stands out is he has only allowed 1 unearned run on a team that has allowed 47, but that could be because the Nats average 2/3 as many errors when Livan is on the mound.

In a league that averages 4.39 runs per game, anytime your offense scores 5 or more runs you should win, if they score 3 or less, you should lose. The Nats have lost one game Livan started where they scored at least 5 runs (June 26 @ Baltimore) but have won 4 games where they scored 3 or fewer. Yeah Livan can throw some clunkers, but he manages to luck into those games when the offense decides to take the same game off.

[JMW IV]

Just give it up, Chief. I has Epic FAIL written all over me.

fixed.