I don’t really like the Broxton-Heilman comparison though.

Broxton has had two terrible outings out of 24 appearances so far this year (the one against the Mets and one earlier in May against Milwaukee when he gave up 6 runs in 1/3 inning) but has otherwise been lights-out; those are the only two times this year that he’s given up more than one run in an appearance. 31 strikeouts against only 9 walks in 23 2/3 innings. The 2 HR he’s given up this year are marginally above his pace from last year (0.76 HR/9IP this year, 0.65 HR/9IP last year).

Heilman has been a lot worse. He’s given up more than one run in seven appearances, his strikeout rate is actually not bad (31 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings) but 13 walks in those innings as well. And as we all know, he’s been victimized by the home runs. 5 HR in 28 1/3 innings is just way too much, it’s 1.59 per 9 innings. Last year it was just 0.84 HR/9 innings.

I guess I’m sorta defending Broxton because he’s on my fantasy team, but I still think he’s been better than Heilman this year.

That said, there’s hope for Heilman to recover. He’s given up a couple of homers to role players, but three of them were Mark Teixeira, Ryan Howard and Brian McCann – those guys hit home runs off a lot of good pitchers. I’m not excusing it, don’t get me wrong. I’m just saying, he’s not walking a lot of guys, he’s striking out a good number. Home runs are a small number of bad pitches and IF he can avoid making those bad pitches, he can return to being useful.