Over at The Baseball Analysts, Rich Lederer looks at the best and worst pitchers according to the number of strikeouts a pitcher had per 100 pitches. Lederer offers a number of links to stories he wrote over the last few years on this stat, which you should read, and Lederer finds that:
Not surprisingly, K/P has the highest correlation to ERA and RA. K/BF has the second-highest correlation and K/IP has the lowest correlation. In any other words, K/P > K/BF > K/IP.
There were 142 qualifying pitchers in this study (he provides a link to an Excel table if you want to see every pitcher), but I went through it and picked out the Rockies that qualified in 2008.
| Rank | Player | K/100P |
| 21 | Jorge De La Rosa | 5.67 |
| 43 | Ubaldo Jimenez | 5.13 |
| 93 | Jeff Francis | 3.94 |
| 130 | Aaron Cook | 3.13 |
| 142 | Livan Hernandez | 2.39 |
| 107 | Greg Smith | 3.59 |
| 117 | Jason Marquis | 3.42 |
Livan Hernandez ranked dead last. Moving on, according to Lederer's distribution table, De La Rosa and Jimenez were better than average, while all the others fell below the median. But let's take a look at the 2007 chart for K/100P (compiled from Lederer's top 80 article linked to in the above link):
| Rank | Player | K/100P |
| 33 | Jeff Francis | 4.73 |
| 66 | Jason Marquis | 3.60 |
| 78 | Livan Hernandez | 2.68 |
| 80 | Aaron Cook | 2.53 |
Despite being near the bottom in 2008, Cook actually improved from his 2007 number, which we saw translated into his best season yet. Francis's 0.79 dip offers a bit of insight into the wrong turn he took in 2008.
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Troy Renck writes about the approach Clint Hurdle will take with the players during Spring Training: back to the basics, the fundamentals. Renck closes with this:
So if the Rockies start poorly again, it won't be because of Holliday or because they weren't ready.
"Fire Hurdle!" "The guys just suck!" Those'll be the alternative explanations for a poor start. Not that the former isn't already heard often.
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Atkins on his place with the team:
“I don’t know if it’s being selfish or whatever, but I just think that they’re a better team with me here.”
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Baseball America should unveil their Rockies' Top 10 Prospects List later today.