David Pauley vs. You

I have a quick question this morning. What’s with the David Pauley hate? We are getting all these Nate Robertson monologues about him rebuilding his career being pumped throughout the local media but there is no real talk of David Pauley. Who is on the other side of the coin they consider all Doug Fister to be a legitimate #3 starter. Take a quick look at the following

I get that Fister has pin-point control/accuracy. But I would say in return that Pauley gets more swings and misses (not to mention more ground balls).  It’s a trade off and I would argue that it’s a fair one at that.

I’m not trying to make either of these guys out to be more than back-of-the-rotation type pitchers. But, really the difference between these two guys (I’d argue) last year was Pauley allowed more home runs. In fact Pauley not only had a higher home run per ball hit in the air it double inside of Safeco (that’s 18%). #1 That’s not normal. #2 That’s double the league average of home runs given up and it’s inside a pitchers park.

I’m not saying that Pauley is the answer to the question “What if Erik Bedard doesn’t work out” but I am saying why not consider him. He’s a better option than Robertson.

Nate Roberston maybe a cool dude. I don’t know, I’ve never met him. I hope the best for him and that his career turns around while here in Seattle. But, I don’t get why people play him over Pauley just because he has pitched more than 200+ innings in his career.

Maybe it’s not hate… per-say but rather an under appreciation. Regardless, Pauley is the better pitcher between him and Roberston and really another (less-good?) version of Doug Fister.