During Brandon Claussen's recent outings Marty and Steve have both mentinoned Claussen's effectiveness the first time through a line-up and his propensity to fall apart the second time around. This would suggest that Claussen is well-suited for the bullpen, a suggestion that I have seen tossed out on the board over the last couple of days.
All of this got me thinking about Claussen's stats in innings 1-3 v. 4-6 and whther or not they would back an argument that he is best suited for the pen. Since looking at only this year would be such a small sample, I looked at every start Claussen has ever made. Here's what I found.
This seems to suggest that he would be good in the pen. His numbers early in the game are better than his numbers as he gets going. Claussen has a lower ERA, higher K/9, higher K:BB, and lower WHIP in innings 1-3 than innings 4-6.Code:Inn ER K BB H ERA K/9 K:BB WHIP 1-3 Inn 157.33 67 105 56 143 3.83 6.01 1.875 1.26 4-6 Inn 132.33 72 68 44 156 4.90 4.62 1.55 1.51
But, with a little more digging, I found that these numbers might be deceptive. I decided to look at Claussen's numbers inning by inning.
Claussen's 1st inning numbers are bad, but he does settle down. The 4th inning is absolutely awful for Claussen. Maybe, using him in long releif, where his 1st inning troubles can be balanced out by second and third innings, but not letting him get to the point where he gets completely rocked would be good.Code:Inn ER K BB H ERA K/9 K:BB WHIP 1st Inn 53 34 32 21 59 5.77 5.43 1.52 1.51 2nd Inn 52.1 17 34 20 46 2.92 5.85 1.7 1.26 3rd Inn 52 16 39 15 38 2.77 6.75 2.6 1.02 4th Inn 48 44 24 26 84 8.25 4.5 0.92 2.29 5th Inn 45 17 25 9 32 3.4 5 2.78 0.91 6th Inn 39.1 11 19 9 40 2.52 4.35 2.11 1.25
But, I still wouldn't move him to the pen. We don't really have anyone to replace him in the rotation.