Friday Foto: Extricated Eddie

This season hasn't gone quite as well as Eddie Guardado and the Rangers hoped it would, allowing 5 ER in 4 2/3 IP. Eddie's struggles this season were something that I predicted a couple of weeks ago here at HWC in a post about Batting Average on Balls in Play:

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Eddie Guardado: 2008 BABIP (with Rangers): .240 Career BABIP: .290

I have to admit that I was surprised with "Everyday" Eddie's strong season in 2008. It was great; he's the scrappy underdog that we all root for inside. But perhaps he got a few too many lucky bounces this last season, as showcased by his .240 BABIP with the Rangers in 2008. His luck started to catch up with him when he arrived in Minnesota, however, which his .427 BABIP from that point on suggests. Look for Eddie's 2009 BABIP to regress towards his career BABIP of .290, and hence for his ERA to inflate as well.
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Hopefully this is just an aberration, but it seems more likely that Everyday Eddie's arm has finally had it (he's allowed 11 ER in just 12 IP since being traded to the Twins last year).

Apparently the frustration just got to him, as he was ejected from yesterday's game after Ron Washington pulled him for walking in a run with the bases loaded:



Even still, you have to love Eddie Guardado. He's a class-act, evidenced by his summary of the whole ejection process:

"There is nobody to blame but me. Even if one of the pitches should have been a strike . . . It’s nobody’s fault but mine for not throwing the ball over the plate."