S11 Pitchers

As disappointed as management was in the Wolverines offense last season, our pitching was the best.  We finished with a ML best team era with .390, 2nd in WHIP with a 1.29, 5th in strike outs, 6th in HR allowed, and 3rd in hits allowed.  We had no problem allowing all pitchers to come back this season and expect another great season with the arms we have.

Starting Pitching
Ching-Lung Komatsu (SP) - Komatsu's stats from last season are deceiving as he posted an 8-16 record with a 3.64 era in 35 games.  He simply did not recieve any run support from the offense last season.  Going into his 3rd arb season management decided to lock him into a long-term contract, giving him 5 more years of being a Wolverine.  We decided on giving him a $4M bonus this year to decrease his contract for S14 and S15 at only $6.0M which we think is a steal for a pitcher of his talents.  Hopefully the offense will allow him the opportunity to win some games for us.

Quilvio Lima (SP) - Lima posted a 13-11 record with a 3.29 era in 33 games last season.  At 31 he is the Wolverines oldest SP and will continue to be in the lineup until at least S13.  He was our bright spot in the playoffs last season going 3-0 with a 2.61 era in 3 starts.

Teddy Conway (SP) - Conway won the #3 spot having gone 12-10 with a 3.52 era in 32 starts.  At 30 he is considered a veteran for the Wolverines.  He went 3-3 in postseason play in 6 starts with a 1.14 WHIP.

Julio Johnson (SP) - Johnson is a guy that the pitching staff can't figure out.  On paper he looks like he should put up better numbers than what he's producing gonig 10-12 last season with a 4.35 era in 31 starts.  He gave up 35 HR's last season which was double what he gave up in S7 and almost S9.  We traded in S8 thinking he would be a #2 pitcher for us but so far he's not getting the job done.

Artie Hinch (SP) - Hinch won out the #5 spot from Herm Thompson who pitched great for us last season but we thought that Hinch deserved the chance.  At 30 and signed cheap at $360K in his 2nd arb contract, we'll be keeping a close eye on Mr. Hinch.  He started for us in S7 and went 16-8 but Thompson has always put up good enough numbers to keep him in the rotation. 

Bullpen
Herm Thompson (LR) - At 33 Thompson is going to start coming out of the bullpen, although if Hinch can't handle the #5 position we have no problems throwing Thompson back into the starting rotation.  In the last 4 seasons he's gone 41- 27 with a 3.34 in 105 starts.  His contract ends up at the end of the season and if it wasn't for his health he'd have an extension right now but we'll see how things work out for him.

Don Creek (LR) - Creek got his call-up late last season and we decided it was time for him to stay in the majors.  At 27 he's got great control and 3 solid pitches and has put his time in the minors where he went 19-2 in AAA last season.  He only has pitched 1.0 innings at the majors but he'll have his chances this season.

Alex Franco (LR) - At 25 Franco found himself on the trading block this season but had no one interested.  He has spent the last 4 seasons at the majors for the Wolverines with a career 3.96 era.  He's always worked out of the pen but could find himself at the #5 spot every once in awhile depeding on rest this season.

Rico Rivera (Setup) - Rivera was another late callup last season but will remain with the major league club to start S11.  He found himself pitching in 5 games for 3.2 innings of work with a horrendous 7.36 era but at 23 and being an international free-agent in S10, we know that Rivera is capable.  His ratings are already good enough for the majors and he's only projected to get better, especially in his control.

Roy White (Setup) - White was a guy that we worried about this season.  He was up for arb, but in roder to trade Navarro, we had to offer him arb, so our budget wouldn't allow us to sign White to a long-term contract.  Luckily White didn't mind going to arb three times, and signed a three year extension with us.  In 96.1 innings White had an impressive 1.87 era and 0.97 WHIP.  At 28 the Wolverines have White locked in for another 4 years at under $5.5M and consider him a bargain.

Ronald Berger (Setup) - Berger started out S10 hot, winning player of the week and being consider for the Fireman of the Year award.  At 27, we're looking for him to stay consistent this season and expect even better things out of him this season.

Johnny Fossum (Setup) - At 23 we are expecting great things from Fossum.  He pitched in 8 games at the majors last season for only 9.2 innings but had a 1.86 era and 0.72 WHIP.  Fossum could find his way into spot closing situations but will likely be used for the 8th inning this season.

Karim Cabeza (Setup) - As of no Cabeza is put into the closer role although any of the setup guys may find their way into that role as the season goes on.  Last season Cabeza struggled putting up a 6.97 era in 41.1 innings when he managed a 2.52 era in 75.2 of work at the majors before then.  At 26 he helps make up a young bullpen that only looks to improve but we'll have to see how they perform before we lock in the roles for the season.