Hot Take: Brooks Raley hasn’t performed as bad as it seems this year

Scandalous title I know. Bear with me.

At first glance, Raley has been a bad pitcher this year. His ERA is ugly, and he seems to give up runs almost every time he goes out there. The eye test has not been pretty. However, digging a little deeper we find a LARGE discrepancy between his ERA (6.08) and his FIP (2.60). His home run and walk rates are actually quite low, and he's struck out 34 batters in 26.2 innings. Add to that a .352 BABIP against (league average is .300), and it points some bad luck on his part.

But the big kicker is bequeathed runners. Of the 11 runners Raley has exited the game with, a whopping 82% have gone on to score (9 of 11). A full 43% of his runs allowed happened after he left the game. This points to some terrible bullpen pitching post Raley.

TLDR; BABIP luck and shitty pitching once he leaves make Raley's season seem worse than it's actually been.