Jeremy Hefner

[OFFNY]

.

I was looking at the Mets' starting pitcher for today's spring training game against the Braves. While his W-L and ERA stats for his rookie season last year were underwhelming (4-7, 5.09 ERA), I noticed that his walks-to-innings ration was excellent ....... only 18 BB's in 93.67 innings, one of which was intentional. That's better than a walk every 5 innings.

So, I went to his minor league stats, and over the last few years, he pitched well in AA in 2010 (11-8, 2.95 ERA in 167.67 innings.) Upon being promoted to AAA in 2011 he had a mediocre year, but in 2012, he had an excellent season before being promoted to the Mets, including an excellent walks-to-innings pitched ratio: he had a 2.77 ERA in 61.67 innings pitched, while walking only 10 batters (1 intentionally) in those 61.67 innings. Also, his WHIP improved dramatically at the AAA level from 2011 to 2012, from 1.519 in 2011 to 1.054 in 2012. His WHIP in the majors in 2012 was in between the two, at 1.367.

It seemed to take Hefner a season to adjust from AA to AAA when he was promoted between those 2 classes. Could he have similar success at the majors in 2013 after getting half a season of MLB experience under his belt in 2012 ???

MINORS: O http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hefner001jer

MAJORS: O http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hefneje01.shtml