Vogey Vogey Vogey

Ah, the mystery of the Vogey.

He's currently nine games into the worst season of his career. Coming into tonight's game, he's 1-4 with an astounding 8.06 ERA. His worst year before this (as a starter) was in 2004 with Pittsburgh where he went 6-13 with a 6.50 ERA.

In his one win this season, he still gave up four runs in six innings. He hasn't had a single shutout all year, compared to five games without allowing an earned run last year (although, he didn't have his first shutout game until May 19 last season, so maybe tonight, May 20, will give him his first of this season).

So, what's going on for a guy who's had a solid last two years with the Giants with a 27-16 record and a 3.05 ERA in the regular season, and who went 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA in last year's postseason run?

Well, it's not his age. At 35, his 8.06 ERA is well above-average for 35-year-old pitchers, which is 4.17.

It's not his walks per nine innings, which is only slightly above average (Vogelsong's is 3.70, the MLB average is 3.11).

He's still striking out an average of 8.27 per nine innings pitched, which is the highest it's been since 2000, where he averaged 9 Ks/nine innings.

The biggest difference in Voegy's 2013 vs. Vogey's 2012 or 2011 numbers (or other pitchers in the game this year) is the homerun. Vogelsong's HR/9 innings is a whooping 2.40, more than double the MLB average of 1.04. In 2011, he gave up 15 homeruns all season, and he allowed just 17 in all of 2012. So far this season, he's given up 11 long balls, and we're only nine starts into the year. He's on pace to give up 40 homers this season. Obviously, that cannot continue if he hopes to help the Giants win.

The problem doesn't seem to be his velocity. It's actually up on his off-speed pitches. His curveball last year averaged 76.3 and so far this season has averaged 76.6. However, opponents are hitting .381 off of the curve (they hit just .210 last year). His change-up is also up to 83.6 from 83.1 in 2012, but once again, it's getting hit a lot more, with batters hitting an astounding .433 this season, double what they hit last year (.216).

His fastball is down slightly to 89.9 from 90.7, but he has hit 92.5 on the radar gun this year, so he's still throwing in the same range. And considering he's had less starts so far on the season, it's definitely possible that by the time mid-season rolls around, he'll be throwing as fast as he did last season. And because he had a short spring training this season since he was pitching in the World Baseball Classic, he didn't have as much time to get up to speed (pun very much intended).

As I was writing this, Vogelsong was busy pitching five shutout innings - his first shutout start of the year. He allowed three hits and one walk, while striking out two. He lowered his season ERA to 7.19, almost a full point lower than what is was coming into tonight's game. Hopefully, these are good signs of a Vogelsong turn-around.

(The Giants just announced that Vogelsong fractured his pitching hand during an at-bat earlier in the game and will be out at least 6 weeks. Prayers and good thoughts for a speedy recovery for the poor guy, who seemed to finally be finding his groove on the mound.)


P.S. - Brandon Belt went 4-for-5 tonight with a HR and four runs. He now has six homers on the year, tied for second-most on the team (Buster Posey also has 6, Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval each have 7). He's also tied with Brandon Crawford with 22 RBIs, fourth on the Giants. He's batting .302 in May with 4 HR and a .521 SLG %, after a dismal start to the season (.235 AVG, 2 HR, .353 SLG in April). Just sayin'.