Dodgers First Half Awards
By Alex Campos
Worst Pitcher- Chris Hatcher
I’ve long been a defender of Hatcher, but in a bullpen full of pleasant surprises, Hatcher has undoubtably been the sore spot.
Hatcher has been the victim of reliever ERA. He’s had scoreless appearances in 22 of 34 outings this season. He’s also inherited 15 runners and allowed three to score. Those numbers are not horrible.
In the 12 outings that Hatcher has allowed runs in, he’s allowed 21 runs. He’s allowed one run five times, two runs five times and three runs twice. When Hatcher is good, he tends to be really good. When he’s bad, he is really bad.
Hatcher has seen his strikeouts drop a little and his walks increase a little. The main reason for his struggles has been an increase in hard-contact rate (39.4 percent, up from 33.3 percent last season).
Hatcher still has the potential to be a key piece of the bullpen moving forward, but his Dodger career has not been good thus far. He was phenomenal down the stretch last year, so Dodger fans can only hope for a similar run to strengthen an already strong bullpen. Patience is deservingly wearing thin with Hatcher, and when Yimi Garcia and Frankie Montas are healthy, it might be hard to justify keeping Hatcher on the roster.
Dishonorable Mentions- Pedro Baez, Mike Bolsinger
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