A Tale of Two (or Three) Ranaudos
May 26, 2010
The first thing you should know about Anthony Ranaudo is that he suffered an injury to his elbow earlier this season.
The second thing you should know is that he is most definitely not the same person as Tony Ranaudo, the "popular young comedian, Chippendale dancer, New Jersey Italian kid" who asks that you get ready for a "Ball Breakin' good time."
There's also a third thing you should know about Anthony Ranaudo - he was once arguably the second-best player available for this year's draft. But as you'll soon see, this third thing now has about as much relevance to his current draft standing as the second.
Usually, we'd frown upon the use of a player's monthly splits because the date cut-off is so prohibitively arbitrary. But this time, Ranaudo's 2010 data by month matches nicely with the diagnosis of, and his return from, his injury.
But before we refresh your mind on the exact timing, see if you can guess for yourself (we'll also include his 2009 data as prologue, and to set a sense of mood for the numbers he was previously putting up)
YEAR MONTH IP ERA BB/9 K/9 2009 February 11.0 1.64 2.5 13.9 2009 March 27.0 3.67 3.3 14.3 2009 April 26.3 2.73 3.4 13.0 2009 May 35.3 3.31 4.6 10.2 2009 June 22.3 2.82 3.6 8.5 2010 February 5.0 0.00 3.6 10.8 2010 March 2.0 0.00 0.0 4.5 2010 April 17.0 10.59 4.8 9.0 2010 May 10.3 11.32 7.0 8.7
Other than that triumphant two-inning return to the bullpen in March, Ranaudo has simply been unable to perform at any semblance of a high level since returning from his injury.
On draft day, we suggest MLB Scouting Directors be as leery of calling Anthony Ranaudo's name in the first round as the rest of us should be of clicking on Tony Ranaudo's MySpace page.