Zach Duke was one of the Pirates better pitchers in the last half decade, which is a pretty sad thing to say. His ERA with the Pirates was 4.54 with a WHIP of 1.484 and a record of 45-70. Duke had two seasons you could call "good". The first one was his first stint in the majors in 2005. He was a late season call-up and only started 14 games, but was phenomenal in those games. He had an 8-2 record with a 1.81 ERA and a 1.205 WHIP.
However, hitters figured him out fast after that and Duke posted a 4.47 ERA with a WHIP of 1.500. He quickly became one of the league's most hittable pitchers after his first season in the league. 2007 was Duke's worst season prior to 2010 posting a 5.53 ERA, a 1.733 WHIP, and surrendering a ridiculous 13.5 hits per nine. 2008 wasn't too much better although he did keep his ERA under 5 (4.82).
He was a big surprise in 2009 and had a really good first half of the season, earning a pity spot on the National League All-Star team (he didn't play in the game of course). Duke's season numbers finished at 11-16 with a 4.06 ERA, a 1.315 WHIP and he got his hits per 9 back in single digits at 9.8.
His strikeout per walk rate was his best since his rookie year at 2.16 in 09, but dropped to 1.88 in 2010, which brought his career strikeout per walk rate to 1.92 in his 5 seasons.
Duke's 2010 season gave the Pirates no choice but to get rid of him. He surrendered 12 hits per 9 innings with a 1.654 WHIP and a career worse 5.72 ERA. He was statistically one of the worst starting pitchers in the major leagues.
All that said, Zach Duke was, pretty by default, a fan favorite in his time with the Pirates, although most of the more educated fans hated him just because of his numbers and his low ceiling. He has never posted good strikeout numbers and really never gave Pittsburgh much to be excited about after that 2005 season.
Duke had some good moments in Pittsburgh, none better than his complete-game shutout of the Houston Astros in the home opener of the 2009 season. I'm happy that Zach was picked up by another team this quickly, he's a quality guy and deserves another chance, although his days as a starter might be behind him.
He's a lefty, so he can automatically be effective coming out of the bullpen and he's a good guy to have on your team for those games where you need a lot of innings from your bullpen.
The worst part of this is that my Doumit-Duke-Duffy 3-in-1 bobblehead now has only 1 active Pirate player on it. Sigh...
