Bronson Arroyo might be a Rockette in his next life. Photo: Icon SMI
Bronson Arroyo pitches as a starter for the Cincinnati Reds. His strength as a pitcher is his durability. Over the last five seasons, Arroyo ranks fourth in innings pitched behind CC Sabathia, Dan Haren and Johan Santana. He’s also one of only four pitchers to record at least 200 innings in each of the last five years, the others being Dan Haren, Mark Buehrle and Javier Vazquez.
That makes Arroyo a rare commodity, a third starter who can save the bullpen.* His main strength in terms of facing batters is his low walk rate, 2.8 per nine for his career. That helps him as a pitcher who tends to give up home runs. (Arroyo actually gives up more power on the road since joining the Reds.)
*I don’t mean by this that Arroyo is the Reds’ third starter. I think that on most teams he would be considered a third starter based on this statistics.
Arroyo is the reason young players on the Red Sox should not give team a home-town discount when negotiating a long term deal. That trade did not work out well for Boston as Wily Mo Pena turned out to be unproductive and is now out of the majors while Arroyo returned over 11 wins above replacement in his four years with Cincinnati.
Bronson is bothered by carpal tunnel syndrome, which is trying to overcome with rest this winter. His strikeouts were down in 2009, but so were his hits allowed and ERA. His ERA was well below his FIP this season, so I would expect more runs allowed from Bronson in 2010.
Finally, I enjoy Arroyo because he’s also a character. He sports an unusual hairdo, has a second life as a guitar player. He strikes me as a free spirit, and it’s always fun to have a few of those in the game.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:32 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | 1 Comment
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November 19th, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
The A-Z survey is a great idea. Regarding Arroyo I saw him (on TV) on 8/13 when he shut the Nationals out and while I was rooting for the Nats, it was fun to watch him work. I wonder how he’d fare in a bigger park…it has to be a nightmare for a pitcher to have pitch half of his games at the launching pad that is GAB.