
The Pittsburgh Pirates were unbearably bad last season, with a final record of 57-105. How Wiz Khalifa still parades around their apparel in his rap songs and is proud of it, I have no clue. Anyway, Ross Ohlendorf, one of the starting pitchers, was brave enough to take a case to arbitration and ended up getting a raise… despite the fact that he only had one win last season.
Ohlendorf was awarded a raise from $439,000 to $2,025,000 Wednesday by arbitrators Steven Wolf, Fredric Horowitz and Robert Herzog, who heard the case a day earlier. The Pirates had argued he should be paid $1.4 million.
The 28-year-old right-hander had a 4.07 ERA in 21 starts for Pittsburgh last year, and his record on a team that went a major league-worst 57-105 was down from 11-10 the previous year.-ESPN.
Now, obviously wins aren’t indicative of a pitcher’s ability, but looking at Ohlendorf’s other stats, it’s not a fluke he only won a single game in 2010. He had a 1.38 WHIP this season, 8.8 hits per nine innings and an ERA of 4.07 in 108.1 innings pitched. Ohlendorf also had a WAR rating of 2.0, meaning that he was basically a below average pitcher. Paying a little over $2 million for that kind of player doesn’t sound like a lot, which is exactly why the Pirates will pay it and keep their parade of astounding ineptitude going all the way until next season. Go Pittsburgh!


yet another reason why baseball is the worst sport in America, yet people are still stupid enough to watch it.
Its still less than what those moms on MTV get for popping out kids at age 16, if that makes you feel any better.
GO DUKE… Let’s go DUKIES… GO DUKE… Let’s go DUKIES… DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…DUKE…
Ohlendorf is not a bad pitcher. For a Pirates starting pitcher, an ERA of 4.07 and a WHIP of 1.38 is really pretty good, and it’s also important to keep it mind that neither statistic takes into account just how bad the defense was behind him. He also missed a lot of time due to injury, which further skews these two statistics.
What Ohlendorf has going for him is how well he pitched during those losses. piratesproperty.com points this out: ” Since 2000, 54 pitchers have gone winless in 14 consecutive starts or more. Only Kansas City RHP Zack Greinke (2004-05) and Milwaukee LHP Doug Davis (2005) have posted lower ERAs over their winless span. Both had ERAs of 3.65.”
Evaluating Ohlendorf is interesting in that very few stats are very reflective of what he is actually capable of. Last year, he started off the season as a ground ball pitcher and was actually able to somewhat adapt to the bad Pirates defense and pitch to contact a lot more. If he can manage to stay healthy this season, his true value will become evident.