Eric Stults is our Irvin Santana except the splits are backyard and he did his bizarre work for AAA.
His home/away splits have to be seen to be believed.
What was he doing in Vegas on the days he pitched? If I were the Dodgers, I'd hire a Dick to find out what he was doing on game days. They don't call Vegas sin city for nothing. His WHIP was 2.62. 2.62 and he's pitching in the major leagues! You'd be hard pressed to find an AAA pitcher with a 2.62 whip that is given the opportunity to pitch in the big leagues. Home run rate was 1.80, and his walk rate was 5.20.
At this point you'd think he'd be headed for the glue factory instead of Wrigley, until you look down one line and see his numbers while on the road. In the Pacific Coast league on the road no less. Now the Whip is 1.26, very reasonable, in fact, good. The home rate is .65, again very good. The walk rate plummets to 2.18.
Now the BABIP at home is ungodly at .494 so bad luck has a lot to do with the Jeff Weaver like numbers he's throwing up at home, but those walk rates and home run rates are bad bad bad.
So, who is the real Eric Stults?
As a starter in the big leagues he's made 5 starts. 2 in 2006 and 3 in 2007. In those 5 starts he's pitched 28 innings, given up only 18 hits, 10 earned runs, with 1 home run. The walk and K rates are adequate.
Whenever he's pitched I've been impressed with his stuff and composure. If I had to choose between Wells and Stults for the rest of this year, I'd probably bet on Stults. Right about now I expect the Phillies, Braves, Padres, and Diamondbacks all wish they had a Stults to turn to.
Oh - kudos to the Braves for getting off the floor and delivering a key blow to the Philly midsection.