ROCHESTER, NY - What’s Going on in Rochester? On April 1, the Rochester Red Wings had their home opener against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs and won the opener 10 to 1. The win improved their record to two wins and one loss. Since that impressive win, the Red Wings have one win against nine losses.

First, the season is only in its beginning stages. Currently, the Red Wings position in the International League out of 20 teams with a won/loss record of 3-10 has them currently in 20th place. What’s going on with this team? Baseball is a game of pitching, defense, and hitting.

Rochester ranks 20th in team pitching with the highest ERA, 19th in defense with a fielding percentage of .963, and 16th in hitting. Over time, the Wings can climb the ladder in these three areas, and they are only one good series win of climbing in the standings. I believe that complaining about a team is disrespectful unless you try to think about why they have reached a rough point in the season and try to find a way they can turn it around. Matt LeCroy is an excellent manager, and if anyone can turn the fortunes of this team around, he and his coaching staff can do that. The pitching is what I want to focus on today. Statistics by themselves never tell you much, but when you look at them as a group, you discover the story that they tell. Pitching stats that I believe are important are ERA, strike-out-to-walk ratio, WHIP (walks and hits per inning), and opponents’ batting average. WHIP is a stat that analysts use to evaluate the success rate of a pitcher.

WHIP SCALE

1.0 Excellent

1.10 Great

1.25 Above average

1.32 Average

1.50 Below Average

1.60 Awful

The Red Wings have been using five starters and one of their high pitching prospects, Tyler Stuart, is on the IL. Andrew Alvarez has been the ace of the staff with a 3.00 ERA, almost a 3:1 strikeout ratio, a 1.07 WHIP, and an opponents’ batting average of .190. Alvarez has been a very efficient starter, and these numbers tell the story that he has excellent control and is getting ahead in the count to where he has the leverage and is pitching well. Shinnosuke Ogasawara has had two good starts and one start against the Iron Pigs where he was hit hard. Shin is usually pitching ahead in the count and has a 4.80 ERA with a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.33 WHIP.

The other three starters have had rough outings. Andry Lara has an ERA over 9.00 and has given up more walks than strikeouts. The opponent’s batting average is .360, and his WHIP is 2.23. These numbers are very high, but remember Lara is only 22 years old, and it is his first time pitching in AAA. The coaching staff will continue working with him on his control and location; when he makes these adjustments, his metrics should improve. Hyun-il Choi and Chase Solesky have similar numbers to Lara, but each has only thrown six innings total.

Relievers that have a good WHIP number under 1.33 are Carlos Romero (0.21) and Jack Sinclair (1.24). Konnor Pilkington and Patrick Weigel both have a WHIP of 1.50. The rest of the bullpen pitchers have a WHIP over 1.60, and some are over 2.00. The Rochester Red Wings have been struggling, but like I said in the beginning, it is early in the season. The pitchers need to lower their WHIP numbers, which will lower the opponents’ batting averages and, in turn, will begin to lower their ERA and lead to success.

This week, the Worcester Woo Sox come to Innovative Field in Rochester for a six-game series. It’s a good time to start a winning streak.