Is Francisco Rodriguez a Postseason Stud?

by Eric Simon on Nov 15, 2008 5:23 PM EST

The baseball world officially met Francisco Rodriguez in October 2002 when, thanks to a loophole in MLB's postseason roster rules, Rodriguez was added to the Angels' ledger for their ALDS series against the Yankees. A few weeks later the Angels had won their first World Series title and the legend of K-Rod was born.

Rodriguez is a free agent now and has some kind of reputation as a big game pitcher -- at least, I've read that a few times lately -- but I don't know whether that's really true. It is true that he was almost unhittable in 2002, but he hasn't been especially dominant in five playoff series since then.

Year	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ERA	K/BB
2002	18.2	10	4	5	28	1.98	5.60
Since	13.0	17	7	9	13	4.85	1.44

Neither set of data is a particularly large sample, but there's hardly conclusive evidence that Rodriguez is any sort of big game pitcher, and it might be easier to make an argument to the contrary. I won't suggest that he should be judged by his last thirteen postseason innings, but he certainly shouldn't get any bonus points for being a playoff star since reality doesn't seem to support that particular assertion.

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Great Stuff

Eric,

I was going to write a post along these lines at my blog, good work. I too have read statements about K-Rod’s supposed postseason success or strong showings in “big games” and had a look to see if the stats back up this perception. Seems like he shouldn’t be given credit or lose credit for his postseason performance.

K-Rod for 3 years, $40 million yeahhhhh
K-Rod for 5 years, $70 million noooooooo

by James Kannengieser on Nov 15, 2008 8:03 PM EST reply actions

Lets not forget

That in 2002 the Angels exploited that loophole to have him be on their postseason roster, no one had ever seen him before. His slider was never anywhere close to the strike zone and they were swinging at it because they had no scouting reports on him.

Since then? Pretty choke-tastic.

"I got my pregnant wife (the Yankee fan) with me. Hoping my kid learns to kick her everytime the Mets score." -Schifftis-

by future on Nov 15, 2008 8:45 PM EST reply actions

Fuentes btw

Also has terrible postseason numbers.

"I got my pregnant wife (the Yankee fan) with me. Hoping my kid learns to kick her everytime the Mets score." -Schifftis-

by future on Nov 15, 2008 8:46 PM EST reply actions

Word

Again, small sample, but he was pretty crappy in the LCS and WS in 2007.

by Eric Simon on Nov 15, 2008 9:28 PM EST up reply actions

List of postseason stud closers:

1) Mariano Rivera
2) Jonathan Papelbon
3) Armando Benitez*

*just kidding

by cjmulrain on Nov 16, 2008 12:00 PM EST reply actions

Does anybody think...

…there is a chance of the Mets beginning next year with two of the main closer candidates on offer in their bullpen? For example Fuentes & Hoffmann or Rodriguez & Street etc. Can’t see both Fuentes and Rodriguez signing but maybe one of them plus one from the next tier. Now the prices might be dropping it is perhaps feasible…

by deadspy3 on Nov 17, 2008 10:38 AM EST reply actions