Johan Santana: A Product of His Time

Josh Deitch explores the question, “What’s the matter with Johan Santana?”

 

I have a problem—an addiction really.  Everyone says that the first step to recovery is acceptance.  So, here goes: my name is Josh Deitch and I love sports talk radio.  (Everybody: Hi Josh.)  Whether it’s Mike and Mike in the Morning, Mike and the Mad Dog, or any show where supposed experts listen to, address, and ultimately deride the many theories of every single listener; I’m always sucked in.  I love the yelling.  I love the arguments.  I even love the vernacular (“first time-long time” stands for first time caller, long time listener).  Lately though, New York sports talk radio (found mostly on WFAN and ESPN radio) has taken a dramatic turn.  Besides Brett Favre’s addition to the Jets, one theme pervades WFAN: the sins of Johan Santana.

The Mets’ bullpen has been at best god-awful since Billy Wagner’s trip to the DL, and instead of piling on the ineffective middle relief, callers and anchors alike harp on Johan Santana’s inability to pitch complete games.  In fact, the criticism has reached such a crescendo that I decided to write a musical about the struggles of the New York Mets.  Much like Damn Yankees , I titled my show Rassafrassing Mets .  While I haven’t developed a lot of the plot or characters, I do have a song titled “What’s the Matter with Johan.”  The song represents the same refrain that has intruded upon my drive time listening.

What’s the matter with Johan?
There’s not a lot to go on.
His game’s incomplete,
So his faults we will bleat.
Let’s call the FAN,
And deride the man,
Even though the bullpen’s the one that got beat.  

I expect a long and successful off-Broadway run.  On WFAN, every other caller demands that Santana at least lobby for an eighth and ninth inning of work.  When SNY announcer Gary Cohen appears with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, the first query always is, “Did Johan want to stay in?  Did he want to finish his game?”  Enough, please.

Do I fall exclusively on Santana’s side?  No, he will make almost $17 million dollars for the 2008 season.  He is widely considered the best pitcher in the league and has been for a few years.  In the forties and fifties, owners consistently negotiated with their pitchers and used the stat of complete games to the advantage of the ownership.  If a pitcher completed ten games, he was asked, why not fifteen ?  If he completed more than fifty percent, the owner would question, how come the number’s not sixty?   Every pitcher up until about 15 years ago saw throwing complete games as a point of pride.  Moreover, a pitcher’s livelihood relied upon it.  If a pitcher didn’t finish the job and had to be bailed out, he had failed.  The fact that the best pitcher of his era remains a seven inning player should be inexcusable.

However, Santana does not exist in a vacuum.  He pitches in an era where closers have assumed roles almost as valuable as starting pitchers.  A good closer, such as Mariano Rivera or Joe Nathan, is worth his weight in gold.  Baseball remains indelibly entrenched in the era of the specialized bullpen .  More importantly, Johan Santana has lived out his entire career under the shadow of this specialization.

In 2002, Santana made fourteen starts for the Twins, won eight games, and finished with a 2.99 ERA.  As a part time starter the following season, Santana made eighteen starts, won twelve, and had a 3.07 ERA.  In 2004, Minnesota acquired Joe Nathan.  That same year, Santana had finished transitioning to the starter role, making 34 starts, winning 20 games, and ending up with a 2.61 ERA.  At the same time, Nathan recorded 44 saves, blowing only three of those opportunities.  He struck out 89 batters in 72.1 innings and recorded a 1.62 ERA.  Since 2004, Nathan has been a top five closer.  Between 2004 and 2008, Nathan has not blown more than five saves in a single season.  When he enters a game, it’s over.  In the time that Santana and Nathan were teammates, Santana won 86 games, but only completed a total of six games.

Johan Santana learned how to be a major league pitcher with Joe Nathan at the back end of the bullpen.  He rarely completed games because he didn’t have to.  He knew if he left with a lead, Nathan would lock down the win.  There was no need to complete any of his starts.  His salary didn’t depend on it.  His reputation didn’t depend on it.  His numbers didn’t depend on it.

Look at American history.  Over the past fifty years, evidence has surfaced that the founding fathers of the U.S. all had their skeletons in their closets.  Of our first three presidents, two owned slaves.  Does this mean we should step back and condemn George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as racists and thugs, while we ignore their contributions as philosophers, leaders, and statesmen?  No, we have to instead understand that these men were products of their time.  They were in fact bright enough to realize the dangers of bigotry and slave ownership, but could not find a way to overcome their own environment and upbringing.

The same thing goes for Johan Santana.  Santana came of age as a major league pitcher in a game that almost exclusively defines the eighth and ninth innings as bullpen territory.  He did so with consistently one of the best bullpens in the league.  Just as Jefferson and Washington were products of their time and environments, Johan Santana is a product of the specialized bullpen and the effectiveness of Joe Nathan.

To end where I began, the other day, I listened to Max Kellerman on ESPN Radio.  For whatever reason, I tend to take what Kellerman says as gospel.  He seems so confidant and so sure of his opinion that he convinces all those in his wake to side with him.  That day, Kellerman asserted that once a pitcher reaches 105 pitches, fatigue sets in and that pitcher’s mechanics begin to break down.  Unless the pitcher is an athletic freak like Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan, each pitch increases the risk of injury.

This season, Santana has made 24 starts.  He sports an ERA of 2.85 and has won nine and lost seven. Where does the blame for those eight no-decisions fall?  Does it rest on the paltry run support he has received from his offense, the shaky bullpen, a lack of competitive spirit on his part, or the culture and general knowledge that surrounds today’s game of baseball?  Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in a combination of all of those notions, but we certainly cannot point our collective finger exclusively at Johan Santana.  To Met fans everywhere, I say give the guy a break.  Back off, look at the solidity Santana has brought to the front of your rotation, and enjoy the fact that you get to watch one of the best modern pitchers perform for your team every five days.  Opportunities like that don’t come around as often as you’d think.

And by they way, I love the show.  I’m a first time caller, long-time listener…