Missing Pitchers

The Tides are home for a four-game series against the Gwinnett Braves; I’ll be datacasting tonight’s game and BIS-sing Wednesday’s game. Jake Arrieta is scheduled to start for the Tides tonight, and Troy Patton is likely to start Wednesday. That means that again I miss Alfredo Simon, probably the least interesting of the rotation starters.

Bill James once wrote that a certain pitcher was his “draw” — if you attend twenty games a season, you’ll see the same starting pitcher in fifteen of them. My missing Alfredo Simon got me wondering who my draw will be. I looked at 2009 to get a sense of the possibilities.

I saw 47 Norfolk Tides games in 2009. That’s just under 1/3 of the games the Tides played — 33.0% to be somewhat precise. So, I should see about 1/3 of each Tides’ starting pitchers’ starts. There were fifteen pitchers who started a game for the Tides in 2009, and the table below lists whom I saw.

Hmm. Throwing out the pitchers who made fewer than five starts (for example, the two starts I saw Livingston make were on the same homestand; he was quickly sent out afterward), it doesn’t look like I saw anybody substantially more than expected. However, I had the fortune — I don’t know if it was good or bad — to miss all of Troy Patton’s starts. It’s as if Gary Allenson found out the games I’d be working, and adjust the rotation so I’d miss Patton.

This season, I’ve seen Patton make his only home start so far, and will see him again this homestand.