Somebody will still have to break down why the entire team pitches better at home vs. on the road.... pitching should travel. These are Coors Field-like splits... except its for pitching, not hitting.
It's certainly a little odd that the splits are this pronounced, but I don't think there's any real reason for it. Sometimes weird splits just happen. While it's late in this season, it would still be early in a normal season. If you were to remove any one start from most pitchers it would likely have a massive impact on their ERA.
A future rotation with Valdez, Javier, and Urquidy is beginning to look promising. Man, if only Whitley would come around we'd be freakin set.
LMJ is the worst offender of them all... and this goes beyond this year. He's a HOF pitcher at MMP... and a guy that doesn't belong in the majors everywhere else. Our young guys are going to be prone to inconsistency... yet they have pin-point control at home with limited walks, but can't find the plate on the road. Has to be part mental.
Probably part mental. Also: Record of teams we've played in Houston: 578-672 (.462) - 7 games against +.500 Record of teams we've played in their park: 664-599 (.526) = 13 games against +.500 Throw in 2 games in Coors Field (2nd overall in Offensive Park Factors), 7 in Anaheim (6th), 3 in Phoenix (12th)...all while Minute Maid is currently 31st overall in Offensive Park Factor http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor Basically, Minute Maid is acting like the Astrodome used to be this season.
Basically the main factor is that out of all the times they played the A's, only 2 were in Houston (and the Astros happened to win both and pitch well in both). Their 4 game sweep in Anaheim heavily skews the road numbers, and is the main reason why this team is at .500 vs. being 4-5 games up (which is probably their ceiling with this core in a 60 game sample).
Sad but true. Since there will be no playoff games at MMP, wonder what kind of value, if any, Lance has for the post season? I think the booth said last night that Lance has two more starts before the playoffs, both on the road. If he blunders both outings, do we even include him on the playoff roster? Part mental?
