Olsen & Correia

The Pirates have appeared to have reached deals with both Scott Olsen and Kevin Correia. Here's some numbers, and stuff:

Olsen:
2008: 33 GS, 4.20 ERA, 4.95 xFIP, 8.7 H/9, 3.1 BB/9, 5.0 K/9, 1.64 K/BB, 37.4 GB%, 1.0 WAR
2009: 11 GS, 6.03 ERA, 4.91 xFIP, 11.9 H/9, 3.6 BB/9, 6.0 K/9, 1.68 K/BB, 36.7 GB%, 0.1 WAR
2010: 15 GS, 5.56 ERA, 4.39 xFIP, 10.3 H/9, 3.0 BB/9, 5.9 K/9, 1.96 K/BB, 46.5 GB%, 0.6 WAR

Correia:
2008: 19 GS, 6.05 ERA, 5.11 xFIP, 11.5 H/9, 3.8 BB/9, 5.4 K/9, 1.40 K/BB, 38.2 GB%, 0.6 WAR
2009: 33 GS, 3.91 ERA, 4.20 xFIP, 8.8 H/9, 2.9 BB/9, 6.5 K/9, 2.22 K/BB, 44.8 GB%, 2.5 WAR
2010: 26 GS, 5.40 ERA, 4.19 xFIP, 9.4 H/9, 4.0 BB/9, 7.1 K/9, 1.80 K/BB, 48.9 GB%, 0.1 WAR

That's a lot of numbers. Let's get down to words.

Scott Olsen does not have impressive numbers anywhere in this post. His ERA to xFIP show that he was pretty unlucky last year and was actually better than his basic numbers say, however he's a pitch-to-contact guy, just like almost every other Pirates pitcher, and the Pirates infield is bad. The xFIP will probably be higher than the ERA again in 2011 just because he's got Alvarez, Cedeno, and Walker playing behind him. He is a left handed pitcher, and he fits right in with the rest of the league's lefties in being much more effective against left handed batters. In his career, lefties have hit .252 off of him, while righties hit .282, you could say the same thing about Zach Duke however, and that didn't work out very well. The WAR (wins above replacement) numbers for Olsen tell the whole story. He's a below average big league pitcher that is easily replaced, and can only make a living in a 4 or 5 starter role.

As for Correia, the numbers are more encouraging. The 4.20 and 4.19 xFIP the last two years are pretty solid. He had some struggles late in the year last year which led to him losing his rotation spot, but that could be attributed to the fact that he tragically lost his brother in the middle of the season and it really shook him up. He's a better strikeout pitcher than Olsen, and also most of the other pitchers in the Pirates system. He had walk trouble last year, but the 2.9 BB/9 in 2009 show that he is capable of being a good control pitcher. Petco Park certainly helped his cause out, and his numbers could inflate a little just because of leaving the pitcher-friendly NL West. However, he has been very good at getting groundballs and should keep the ball in the ballpark.

While neither of these guys are really good big league pitchers, they will certainly find it easy to help the 2011 Pirates. These two will be the 3-4 or 4-5 guys in the rotation and will undoubtably help us out just by keeping guys like Jeff Karstens out of the rotation. They should get us solid innings and keep us in ball games that we weren't in last year with less than capable big league pitchers on the mound.

Good acquisitions for the Pirates, but I still think they went the safe route. I would have liked to see them get one of these guys and then take a chance on someone like Brandon Webb or Justin Duscherer.