OK, Back in December . . .

(Which turns out to be over two months ago)

I wrote an analysis of the Sea Dogs hitting stats for the year - and I promised to follow up with an analysis of the Sea Dogs pitching stats for the years.

I failed to come through on that promise. (Like THAT's never happened before!) Frankly, I was not inspired by the Portland Sea Dogs pitching staff last year.

The best pitcher, bar none, was Abe Alvarez, who made 26 starts, pitched 135.1 innings, had a 10-9 record, 3.66 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 3.4 K/BB ratio and only walked 2.1 batters per nine innings. He earned himself a midseason start in Boston, and a promotion to AAA for 2005.

The biggest disappointment was knuckleballer Charlie Zink, who came in highly touted and disappointed from opening day. He made 18 starts in Portland, finishing 1-8 record, 5.79 ERA and 72 walks vs. 50 Ks in 93.1 IP.

Chris Smith showed promise, starting 14 games and going 5-3 with a 3.75 ERA. He struck out more than a batter an inning and had an impressive 4:1 K:BB ratio. Then he got hurt and shut it down for the year. This was a great performance cut short.

The rest of the starters were unimpressive. Josh Stevens started the year in Pawtucket, was sent down to AA, where he pitched well for a while but ended the year 6-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 20 starts. The rest of the guys were a middling combination of guys named Cameron, Gabbard, Gamble and Glaser. Nobody did anything to inspire much confidence.

The bullpen was worse. Joe Nelson started out strong (3-2, 1.78, 13 saves in 22 games) then was called up to Pawtucket and eventually Boston, where he managed to lower his career ERA to just over 25.00. Juan Perez looked like he was going to do some big things after Nelson left, but he was maddeningly inconsistent. Marc Deschesnes came in at the end of the year and had some good numbers (1-1, 11 sv, 2.45 ERA in 27 games). Then there were the guys like Colin Young, who will forever be the enemy of my soul after I was forced to watch him balk a guy all the way around the bases in a driving rainstorm. And he wasn't the worst of the bunch.

So there you have it. Promise kept, from a technical standpoint, though I didn't really dig into the numbers. Only a couple of these guys are even remote prospects at this point, with Flaky Abe (who I will really miss) being the best of the bunch. Things look a lot better this year, with the two Jons (Papelbon and Lester) likely to arrive from Wilmington (nee Sarasota), along with a couple of other promising pitchers.

I'm looking ahead to the BIS gig again this year, so I'll have frequent updates from the ballpark. And maybe more to say between now and then!