After a devastating weekend sweep at the hands of the crosstown rival Yankees, the Mets begin a three-games in Milwaukee against the Brewers. Tonight’s game one will feature a Milwaukee starter not far removed from Metsdom – Braden Looper (5-4, 5.16 ERA, 1.40 WHIP)
Name: Braden Looper
Born: October 28th, 1974 in Weatherford, Oklahoma
Height: 6-3 Weight: 235 Bats: Right Throws: Right
High School: Mangum High School (Mangum, Oklahoma)
College: Wichita State
Drafted: Selected by St. Louis Cardinals in 1st Round (3rd overall) of the 1996 draft.
Lifetime (63-62, 103 SV, 4.03 ERA, 1.35 WHIP)
Well that's not at all frightening...
Scouting report via mets.com:
“Looper pitched six solid innings in his last outing, against the Twins, but he took a no-decision in the Brewers’ 4-3 comeback win. In the fifth inning, Looper was hit by a line drive off the bat of Carlos Gomez, but he remained in the game for the next two innings. As of Thursday, Looper was diagnosed with a contusion in his right triceps, but he is not expected to miss any starts. Looper is 3-1 with a 2.35 ERA in 47 appearances against the Mets in his career. He has just one start against New York, in 2007, when he gave up three runs on eight hits in six innings while with the Cardinals.”
According to fangraphs.com (2009), Looper uses 3 pitches:
Fastball – 50.6 % – 89.1 MPH
Split-fingered Fastball – 32.6% – 82.2 MPH
Slider – 16.7% – 84.4 MPH
Per thebaseballcube.com,
| Scouting Report | |
| Control: | 77 |
| K-Rating: | 27 |
| Efficiency: | 67 |
Control: Walks compared to batters faced.
k-Rating: Strikeouts compared to batters faced.
Efficiency: Similar to WHIP, a higher rating for pitchers allowing less baserunners per inning pitched.
The ratings are based on formulas that sum a player’s entire career based on available statistics in our database, including minor league and college data. These scouting scores are to be used as indicators of a player’s strength. A career minor leaguer might have a speed rating of 100 though this does not insinuate that he is a better runner than a major leaguer with a speed rating of 90. Though it does indicate that a player was an excellent base-stealer in the minors, we do not know how he would have fared in the majors.
***According to baseball-reference.com, Looper is most similar to Tom Hume.
Salaries (baseball-reference.com)
*Salaries may not be complete and may not include some earned bonuses
| 1998 | St. Louis Cardinals | $170,000 |
| 1999 | Florida Marlins | $201,000 |
| 2000 | Florida Marlins | $255,000 |
| 2001 | Florida Marlins | $400,000 |
| 2002 | Florida Marlins | $800,000 |
| 2003 | Florida Marlins | $1,600,000 |
| 2004 | New York Mets | $2,000,000 |
| 2005 | New York Mets | $800,000 |
| 2006 | St. Louis Cardinals | $3,500,000 |
| 2007 | St. Louis Cardinals | $4,500,000 |
| 2008 | St. Louis Cardinals | $5,500,000 |
| Career (may be incomplete) | $19,726,000 | |
Braden earned a bronze medal in the 2006 summer Olympics playing for the Men’s Baseball team.
17 comments
trs86
6/29/2009-12:08pm at 12:08 pm (UTC -4)
Wow, he has been pretty damn bad.
wannybackstra
6/29/2009-12:15pm at 12:15 pm (UTC -4)
He’ll look like Ben Sheets, Pete Vukovich, Teddy Higuera or Rollie Fingers in a Brewers uniform tonight.
There's Always '14
6/29/2009-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
Tonight is a good chance to get on track. (see Wang)
wannybackstra
6/29/2009-12:39pm at 12:39 pm (UTC -4)
Speaking of Charles Wang, I’d like to thank him for having at least kept my weekend of sports interesting.
There's Always '14
6/29/2009-1:23pm at 1:23 pm (UTC -4)
Seriously. Let’s GO Islanders!!! I think they had a great draft and think they can be a playoff team if they add an impact player on both sides of the rink.
wannybackstra
6/29/2009-1:32pm at 1:32 pm (UTC -4)
I think they’re probably a year (and another high pick away) from being a playoff team. But I do think they can be in the mix for the 8 spot this season with some better health, particularly in goal and on defense.
Once kids like Okposo, Bailey and Tavares establish themselves and put arses in the seats of the Mausoleum, I think the Isles will have a good foundation for the future and will hopefully be able to attract some free agents to fill in.
The Isles have lots of prospects who are still a few years away, i.e. Trivino, Ness, Hamonic, Petrov and Katic.
QnsNative718
6/29/2009-12:16pm at 12:16 pm (UTC -4)
Nice job, Adam. ; )
prismo
6/29/2009-12:17pm at 12:17 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks…it’s your format! haha
stickguy
6/29/2009-12:22pm at 12:22 pm (UTC -4)
THe best hope for the Mets might be the fact that I have looper on my fantasy team (hey, 12 teams NL only, you get deseprate!)
If that doesn’t get the offense going, nothing will.
saltygary
6/29/2009-12:29pm at 12:29 pm (UTC -4)
Looper is by far my wifes most hated Met.
On the night my wife was in labor with our first child (05/07/05) I sat in the hospital in NH and was able to watch the game on ESPN. This jerk doesn’t blow just one save he blows 2 save chances against the Braves which is basically the death blow to the Mets season. I will never forget this…
As a good memory, that same season I was at Shea for a game against the Cubs. Looper comes in to put a couple runs on the board and gets yanked in favor for the guy forget his first name, Koo. The stadium kept playing the music where everyone screams “Charge” but replaced charge with “Koo”. The crowd was so passionate I doubt that guy ever heard anything like that for him. Good days.
mrose
6/29/2009-1:01pm at 1:01 pm (UTC -4)
so anyone else seen this?
http://rotoinfo.com/read_article.php?articleId=318
wannybackstra
6/29/2009-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
They don’t source the information?
saltygary
6/29/2009-1:19pm at 1:19 pm (UTC -4)
No Piazza, I’ll take it!
There's Always '14
6/29/2009-1:26pm at 1:26 pm (UTC -4)
This is scary:
27.Brent Abernathy
Imagine what his career would have been like without em? This makes me mad, as if I took steroids, I may have been able to sign a big league deal.
prismo
6/29/2009-1:32pm at 1:32 pm (UTC -4)
Fake.
Jeremy Burnitz is on the list TWICE.
wannybackstra
6/29/2009-1:36pm at 1:36 pm (UTC -4)
That’s just proof that he, unlike Andy Pettite and Manny Ramirez, used more than just once as they claimed!
There's Always '14
6/29/2009-1:56pm at 1:56 pm (UTC -4)
He was there because the writer of the list misremembered that he put him on earlier.