Bruce Chen, Mariner Killer

By Patrick

This picture seemed appropriate

How awesome is it that we're still playing the Royals? It's easy money for a dominant team like the Mariners. Who's pitching today? Probably another dominating win, let me just look…OH MY GOD NOOOOOOO! NOT BRUCE CHEN! ANYONE BUT BRUCE CHEN! 

I'm sorry. I got a little carried away there. That is my natural reaction to Bruce Chen pitching against the Mariners though. He's really, really good against us. It just scares me. But most of my reactions to Mariner-related stuff is instinctive, and not necessarily based in fact. So I'm going to take this time to see whether my immense fear of Bruce Chen is factual, or just based on some isolated memories. Disclaimer: I'm writing this on the fly, and don't know whether I'll be right or not.

A few things that jump out to me right away on his Baseball Reference page. First, he's represented by Scott Boras. How rich is Scott Boras? He represents all of the best baseball players and draft picks every year, and still has time for Bruce Chen. Secondly, I didn't realize Chen has been in the majors for 15 years. That's absurd to me. I don't think I'd ever heard of him until about three years ago. I may have guessed seven years pro at most. I would have been way wrong. 

For reference to when we get to the Mariners part, Bruce Chen has career numbers of 67-66 with a 4.61 ERA. Not terrible. Not anything special though. That's about how I feel about Bruce Chen not against the Mariners. 

OK, here come the stats against the Mariners. Bruce Chen has appeared against the Seattle Mariners 12 times in his major league career. Eight of those 12 appearances were starts. In those games, he holds a 4-0 record with a 3.10 ERA in 58.0 innings pitched. He has 37 strikeouts in those 58 innings. 

Alright, so what did those basic stats say? The most important part of that last paragraph for me is the record. Bruce Chen has simply never lost to the Seattle Mariners. So my perception of him as a Mariner killer looks pretty good there. His ERA against the Mariners is also significantly better than his career ERA. A whole 150 points better. So just looking at the common numbers, Bruce Chen does pitch better against the Mariners than he theoretically should. 

Other interesting stats that help my point. Bruce Chen has 4 career complete games. In 15 years. He doesn't throw then all too often. He has one of those against the Mariners. He has a pretty low career K/BB ratio, since he's not a huge strikeout guy and walks about a league average amount of hitters. He has a 3.36 K/BB against the Mariners, which is his fourth highest number against any team. He also has a 1.15 WHIP against the M's in his career, which is pretty damn good. That WHIP is his sixth best against any team. 

Here's a stupid meaningless fact that I could somehow spin to help my point: Bruce Chen has two career saves. One is against the Mariners. Boom. He dominates us. 

Bottom line about Bruce Chen, he is a bonafide Mariner killer. Bruce Chen really isn't a very good pitcher. He's league average. But against the Mariners, he's a stud, significantly better than against an average opponent. So I'm going to continue to freak out, and will do so in the near future anytime I see KC-Chen on the probables list. Go M's, beat Chen.