Jorge De La Rosa came onto the Colorado Rockies scene last year, and the team wisely stuck with him even despite his struggles. In 2008 he had an ERA approaching a 5.00, but managed to win 10 games and struck out 128 batters in 130 innings pitched.
It was the Cool De La article over at Fantasy Phenoms this off season that put De Rosa on my radar again. In 2009, De La Rosa owners are being rewarded with his breakout thus far giving up only 15 ER so far in 42 innings pitched. Along the way, he has more than a strikeout per inning pitched with a WHIP of 1.17.
Last night, in a dominant performance against the Pirates, it looked as if De La Rosa would once again be on the receiving end of another loss due to bad run support. He pitched 7 strong innings striking out ten with only one run given up. When he left the game, it looked like he would be in line for a fourth decision, all in the loss column. But, Brad Hawpe would have none of this and belted a home run which took De La Rosa off the hook and Rockies went on to win the game.
This goes to show you how little win and loss records really mean in evaluating pitchers. The Cy Young voters should pay a little more attention to the pitching peripherals than they do to this outdated win and loss record.
This string of bad luck of Jorge De La Rosa with his 0-3 record made me think of Anthony Young (A.Y.), the New York Mets pitcher who holds the record of bad luck. Young lost 27 consecutive games in which he had a decision.
Lets hope De La Rosa gets some luck from here on out and gets some decent run support. These are the type of pitchers its fun to root for.
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