The Henderson Alvarez Anomaly

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In life consistency is key and baseball is no different. When you are a starting pitcher in the major leagues you are judged, evaluated and payed solely based off your consistency. This one characteristic is how we judge athletes in every sport in terms of how great they are. Miami Marlins pitcher Henderson Alvarez is a talented guy, his consistency on the other hand comes and goes. He has all the tools to be a bona-fide #2 starter in a good rotation but in this case with Jose Fernandez on the disabled list for the year he has the stuff to be the best starting pitcher on the Marlins staff. It’s been just over 75 innings but Alvarez has by far been one of the most intriguing arms in th national league.

On the national landscape its most likley that the baseball world only knows about Henderson Alvarez because of his no-hitter that he threw in the season finale of last year’s game versus the Detroit Tigers. That was his introduction but this year is serving as his thesis statement to the baseball world. Eyes around South Florida are perched more on him because he has to step up in the absence of Jose Fernandez. Last night he threw a gem versus the struggling Tampa Bay Rays as he went 9 innings, allowing 8 hits, no runs and striking out 5. Sure the Rays knocked him around but he never broke when he was bent and pitched himself out of several tough situations.

When he wins he is dominant, but when he loses he is very underwhelming. Consider the following, in his 3 loses Alvarez has given up 20 hits, 9 earned runs, 7 walks and 1 home run in 12.2 innings pitched. So in those starts he has lacked command on his fastball and has failed to get deep into his starts. In his 3 wins he has went the distance in all of them giving up 16 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 home runs and has struck out 16 hitters in 27 innings. Talk about a real difference in performance when Alvarez is on he is Brandon Webb 2.0 that displays the ability to go deep into games. When he is off he shows off a very Scott Olsen like inability to be efficient and forces his team to dip into the bullpen.

Alvarez is going to be interesting to watch moving forward, if he stays consistent its very likely the Marlins will be playing in October. If he fails to do so then the Marlins are going to have a hard time making the playoffs. Either way Henderson Alvarez is still only 24-years old and still has some upside left.