Robinson TejedaIt’s hard to make much out of what Robinson Tejeda is doing, but it’s even harder not to. Because KC has won seven of eight games and because Butler has been on a tear and because Greinke is still in the ALCY race, and because there is no downside left in 2009… perhaps it makes it easier to look for hidden nuggets. Perhaps. But, you don’t really have to look very hard to see signs of what could be a consistent Royal’s starter in 2010.
Tejeda has started his last three games. In those three starts, he has two wins and a no decision. Admittedly, each required significant relief work from others, but who wouldn’t want the first 5.44 innings Tejeda has given us? Here are the three starts and his totals for them.
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | |
| DET | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| DET | 6 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| LAA | 5.1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| TOTAL | 16.1 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 19 |
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That’s an ERA of 0.55 – a number even Zack would drool over. However, that’s only part of the story.
2007: Tejeda played for Texas. He started all 19 of his games, was 5-9 and had an ERA of 6.61. Yikes! You might wonder if it got any worse than that in 2007. Well, yes, but just barely. Tejeda had the second worst ERA for any pitcher with 19+ games started.
2008: No wonder the Royals did not start him in 2008. His first 27 games were in relief where he had a 4.19 ERA. He started his 28th game on September 13th. He went five innings and gave up two hits and one run. So, his last four starts since his abysmal 2007 season have all been solid.
2009: Taking it one step farther, here is this season broken into three parts. Part I – relief appearances up to July 29th. Part II – relief appearances from July 31st to August 31st. Part III – his last three starts.
| Period | W-L | ERA | SO/BB |
| PART I | 1-1 | 6.31 | 1.36 |
| PART II | 0-0 | 0.55 | 5.25 |
| PART III | 2-0 | 0.55 | 2.38 |
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Now, if you think that double 0.55 is a misprint, it isn’t. In his nine relief appearances before his last three starts, he had exactly the same stats with respect to innings pitched and earned runs allowed (16 1/3 innings, 1 earned run, 0.55 ERA).
Naturally, the next thing you would want to look at is his entire performance up to July 29th and his performance since then. Pretty dramatic.
| Period | IP | ER | ERA | SO/BB |
| Up to July 29 | 25.2 | 18 | 6.31 | 1.36 |
| After July 29 | 32.2 | 2 | 0.55 | 5.00 |
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Is there reason to think he might become a regular starter in the future? I would think so. He’s still only 27 despite this being his fifth big league season. He might just now be getting into his groove.
AGE 23 (2005): His first year at Philly. He started 13 of 26 games, was 4-3 with a 3.57 ERA. Pretty good for a rookie. Even better, he allowed more than three earned runs in only two of his 13 starts! In fact, he was second among NL rookies in ERA with at least 13 starts.
AGE 24 (2006): Traded to Texas. His first season there was respectable. He was 5-5 with a 4.28 ERA. He started all of his games (14) and only four of the 14 did he allow over 3 earned runs. Of the five Texas pitchers in 2006 with at least 14 starts, Tejeda had the lowest ERA among them.
AGE 25 (2007): The roof caved in as I pointed out earlier. He was 5-9 with a 6.61 ERA in his 19 starts. I presume someone can speculate as to why. Heck if I know.
AGE 26 (2008): He was a relief pitcher after being traded from Texas early in the 2008 season. He started only one game for KC, which I mentioned earlier and his ERA (as a Royal) last season was a very respectable 3.20.
AGE 27 (2009): See above for Jekyll and Hyde season.
September is a good time to give guys a chance to prove what they can do. Let’s just hope he continues to prove it.
I know that this is about Tejeda and he has pitched very fine over the last 3 starts. I'm cautiously optimistic that we may have found another starter (by accident as usual). However, I'm going to take issue with the Greinke is still in the Cy Young hunt. I was one of those 2 weeks ago that said that I thought Zack had a decent shot of getting the award. His numbers were so good that voters couldn't ignore them simply due to the fact he's on a pathetic team. However he needed to get to at least 18 wins in order to have a shot. Unfortunately the Royals let him down over the last 2 starts & now he simply won't have enough starts to get to 18. I think they are figuring 4 starts over the next 2 1/2 weeks. With this pathetic offense (I know they have played better of late) I seriously doubt that Zack will get the run support he needs to win ALL 4 possible starts. I'm afraid the dream is over...for this year.