Minnesota Twins' Pitchers and the Team's Defense

This recent series with the Yankees was disastrous in many ways. The bats, at least Minnesota's bats, never lit up the way they have in the past. The pitching wasn't the best it has ever been, either.

The normally fundamentally-sound defense that the Twins are known for has also been lacking.

While defensive blunders have been a regular occurrence for a few weeks now, this series in Yankee Stadium really pointed them out to the world.

In fact, there were so many mistakes on the defensive side of the ball this series; you almost can't fault the pitching at all. Wednesday afternoon's game is a perfect example of this. Key mishaps were made by Casilla, Punto, Mauer, Harris, and others.

That provoked the thought: "Just how good are these Twins pitchers, really?"

There is a popular statistic out there called 'Fielding Independent Pitching." That's perfect! The Baseball Prospectus definition of FIP goes like this:

Tom Tango's Fielding Independent Pitching. Fielding Independent Pitching, a measure of all those things for which a pitcher is specifically responsible. ...FIP helps you understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded.

Let's go through the current five starters and see what kind of defense they have benefited from.

Livan Hernandez

ERA - 5.29
FIP - 4.51

Hernandez isn't having the best season of his career by a long shot. In fact, he is having one of the worst, historically. He is giving up an average of 12.5 hits in every nine innings he pitches, to go along with 5.9 runs. The only way in the world to describe how he has 10 wins is to look at the offense.

Or, the defense?

Could it be that outstanding defense that has kept more runs from crossing the plate than what Hernandez would normally allow? From what this statistic says, no. If you narrow Hernandez's ERA down to only what he is responsible for, and take out the defense, he is a much better pitcher.

It could be flawed in Hernandez's case, though, simply because he gives up so many hits. You cannot expect a defense to be totally perfect all the time. If Hernandez keeps giving up over 12 hits every nine innings, the defense will be bound to make a mistake or two. I still think it shows that Hernandez has been the beneficiary of some poor Twins defense, though.

Scott Baker

ERA - 3.26
FIP - 3.92

Things are a little different when you look at Baker. This ace is giving up only an average of 8.3 hits per nine innings. The defense doesn't have to worry when Baker is on the mound as much as they do when Hernandez is.

From this statistic you can tell that without the defense, Baker would allow more runs. It is obvious that he has some solid defense behind him for the majority of the time he has spent pitching.

Baker is the only true ace of the ballclub. He has shown that he can be a phenomenal pitcher at times, but had one or two bad outings that has bloated his earned run average.

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