Sunday, May 18, 2008

This Day-Night Thing With Bannister Is Odd

If you're a Kansas City Royals fan, and you've been reading Royals-related blogs this week, then you might have already read about right-handed pitcher Brian Bannister and his bizarre stat splits between his performances during day games, and those at night.

I believe it was initially pointed out in the reader comments section on Joe Posnanski's blog, and then written about by Rany Jazayerli on his Rany on the Royals site.

For those who haven't seen this yet, Brian Bannister's stats during day games and night games are as follows:

Bannister in the Daytime (2008): 4-0, 0.62 ERA, 29 IP, 12 hits, 3 R (2 ER), 0 HR (no extra-base hits), 7 BB, 18 SO, 1 CG, .126 BAA, .320 OPS, -10 OPS+, .156 BABIP

Bannister at Night (2008): 0-5, 8.13 ERA, 27.2 IP, 40 hits, 25 R (25 ER), 6 HR (14 extra-base hits), 7 BB, 16 SO, 0 CG, .325 BAA, .914 OPS, 147 OPS+, .337 BABIP

Well, Mr. Bannister pitched again last night for the Royals, and wouldn't you know, he lost. Bannister worked 6.1 innings against the Florida Marlins, allowing seven hits, six earned runs, and one home run, while walking two and striking out five.

The odd thing was, when the game started, it was still light outside, and Bannister was faring pretty well until that daylight faded. Through six innings, he had limited Florida to a pair of runs on just four hits. That was, until the seventh inning -- yes, when it was dark -- and the Marlins struck for four runs on three hits, including the decisive three-run blast by pinch-hitter Wes Helms.

And, the good news out of this? Bannister's next scheduled outing comes Thursday at Fenway Park against the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka.

And, you're probably wondering, how is there any good news in that? Well, first pitch is slated for 12:35 p.m. CT.

Brian Bannister Photo Credit: Wilfredo Lee/AP

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's so weird. Has anyone given thought to having Banny's eyesight checked?

Michael A. Molde said...

I'm not sure, Chaim. I'd like to think that it's just some odd coincidence, based on which teams he's faced for day games and which he's faced after dark. But Rany's post from the other day even looked at Bannister's career day and night numbers, and the stats were fairly consistent.

It almost makes you think that Trey Hillman and Bob McClure would be smart to sit down and try to work the rotation so that most of Bannister's starts come in day games. But I think that'd be taking it a bit too much to the extreme.

It is weird stuff, though. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to drop in and tell you I'm still reading and enjoying it.


I do find this whole Banny night/day thing VREY odd. I'm thinking one of the KC Star, or KC area radio guys to bring it up to Dayton/Trey at some point in time. I'm sure they already know it, but I'd love to hear their opinions on it.

 
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