Phillies 2019 first half awards: MVP, LVP, Cy Young, Cy Yuk
By John Town
Cy Yuk: Nick Pivetta
To put it mildly, pitching has not been the Phillies’ strength this year. Nothing has, but that’s beside the point. One pitcher deserves the mantle of the club’s worst, and he is Nick Pivetta.
Pivetta’s 2019 season mirrors the team’s in nearly every way. He came into the year with a lot of hype after making significant strides in 2018. I was one of many people expecting big things from Pivetta this year.
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However, Pivetta is pitching nearly as bad as he did his rookie year of 2016. In 11 starts, he has a 5.84 ERA, 2.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio, 1.476 WHIP, and 5.91 fielding-independent pitching. Pivetta started the year off so poorly that he was demoted to Triple-A for over a month.
Even after returning, Pivetta isn’t faring too well. He has allowed four or more earned runs in each of his last four starts, giving up six runs in two of them. Only three of his starts so far this year are average in terms of game score; the rest are duds.
Pivetta’s high point of the season occurred June 8 when he pitched a one-run complete game against the Cardinals.
It could have been the start of the breakout we were all expecting. Instead, he has a 7.33 ERA since the complete game.
While Pivetta, Vince Velasquez, and Jerad Eickhoff all have strong cases for the worst pitcher on the team. However, the high expectations for Pivetta only make his poor season look that much worse. Like the Phillies, Pivetta had plenty of hype coming into the year, but that has since petered out.
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