Daniel Cabrera

Daniel Cabrera had a rough outing last night in the O's loss to the Nationals. 7 earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched will certainly hurt his numbers. Cabrera is 26 and still a young pitcher, however, this is his 4th year in the Orioles rotation. I wanted to take a look at his numbers to see if there are any noticeable signs of improvement.

Currently Cabrera has a 36-38 career record. Granted some of those losses come from the O's being a below average team, but he has earned his fair share of those losses as well. So far in his career he has been a .500 pitcher. His best year in terms of W/L was his rookie year in 2004 when he went 12-8. Since then he has been 10-13, 9-10, and currently 5-7. The trend seems to be that he is a slightly below .500 pitcher.

The most innings he has pitched in a year has been 161.3 in 2005. He is on track to surpass that this year if everything continues like it has. His innings per start has increased from 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, to 6.3 in 2007. Its a good sign to see that he is able to go further in games. However, that stat means nothing if it doesn't translate into wins.

In Cabrera's rookie year he had more walks than strikeouts. That certainly isn't a good sign for a pitcher. However, he has improved over the years. His K to BB ratio has been 1.8, 1.5, and 1.6 the last 3 years. Those are solid numbers, but again there are a lot of walks involved.

Cabrera's ERA has never been great. He has always been described as having great stuff, but being unable to control it. His best era was 4.52 in 2005. That followed his debut of 5.00, and in 2006 he had a 4.74. This season he currently has a 5.16 ERA.
His WHIPs have been 1.585, 1.432, 1.581, and 1.472. His WHIP appears to reflect his ERA except for this season. I think the difference this year has been the 11 home runs he has given up. In his first 3 seasons Cabrera allowed 14, 14, and 11 homeruns. Having 11 before the All Star break certainly explains why his era has jumped to higher than it has been in his career.

Overall I am slightly disappointed in Cabrera's progress. He has made improvements since his rookie year, but they have yet to translate into on field success. He still leads the AL in walks like he did in 2006. He is also in the top 10 for wild pitches and hit batsmen. He seems to always have starts that open your eyes and wow you. However, we also are used to nights like last night when he gets in a rut that he can't seem to buy his way out of.

I'm not about to give up on a guy who is as talented as Cabrera is at his age. O's fans might have to live through his rough starts, but the possibility of him pitching a great game is always there. If his overall statistics don't improve, and the O's don't see more wins, than they need to consider upgrading their rotation. However, I know that is very unlikely to happen with Angelos and crew running the business. As long as additions to the rotation include guys like Benson, Trachsel, and Wright, then Cabrera will have a place in Baltimore. I would rather see Daniel truly find control of his ability, and cement himself as an Orioles starter by his results, rather than the O's reluctance to acquire better talent.