The Crystal Ball: Chad Bradford

Chad Bradford reached back in time and recaptured his 2002 performance (the season where he made a name for himself) for the 2006 Mets. Look at the numbers:

      ERA ERA+ WHIP  SLG  BB/9  K/9  H/9
2002 3.11  150 1.15 .326  1.67 6.69 8.72
2006 2.90  149 1.16 .328  1.89 6.53 8.56

Spooky, huh?

After a couple sub-par years, has Bradford straightened himself out? Maybe. While Shea probably helped him a bit last year, he is really an extreme groundball pitcher so being in a smaller park shouldn’t hurt him much. Camden Yards was actually slightly pitcher friendly when it comes to runs allowed. But nothing like Shea.

Chad will need some help from his infielders to convert his groundballs into outs. The Mets had the second highest DER in the NL. Baltimore is in the bottom half of the AL in DER.

Even if Bradford reverts to his Boston stats, he’ll still be a huge improvement over last year’s bullpen mess in the 7th or 8th inning.