By now you know the most amazing news of the offseason, that the 2-time Cy Young, 3-time All-Star, Johan Santana is on the New York Mets. I used the split feature on baseballreference.com (which is always fun to play around with) to find some statistics on Santana.
2007 stats:
15-13, 33 G, 219.0 IP, 3.33 ERA, 1.073 WHIP, 9.66 K/9, 2.14 BB/9, 7.52 H/9
All Time stats:
PHI- 1 G, 0-0, 4.2 IP, 1.93 ERA
ATL- 2 G, 0-1, 11.2 IP, 3.09 ERA (2.57 ERA in '07)
@ Shea- 2 G, 2-0, 15.0 IP, 0.60 ERA (0.00 ERA in '07)
Career ERA by month (2007 ERA)
April/March 4.23 (3.60)
May 4.05 (2.73)
June 2.63 (1.98)
July 3.67 (3.440
Aug 2.44 (3.60)
Sept/Oct 2.75 (4.94)
Other 2007 ERA's
2.52 at home
3.75 away
2.60 open stadium
2.59 grass field
So what do all of these numbers mean? Well first off they mean excitement. Literally just like Wagner said, with Santana comes excitement and it should spread to other players. There isn't enough data to make predictions about his play against the Phillies, Braves and playing at Shea.
His ERA at home should be a big boost because the natural order of things is to be great at home and good on the road, (as opposed to the Mets who win on the road and are slightly above average at home). Furthermore, look at his monthly numbers last year, his ERA was better in the earlier months than it normally is (the inflation at the end has been attributed to him losing Luis Castillo in trade and not contending for the playoffs.)
Which brings me to another point outside the numbers, Castillo and Santana are on the same team again! This should cause some positive inflation in both of their numbers.
Yesterday was also the second busiest day on this website in terms of unique hits. There were 63 yesterday which nearly missed the high of 68 (the day after the 2007 series). Do you feel that in the air? It is pure excitement.
Bring on April.
