My Vance Worley Man Crush is in Full Swing

The odds were stacked against a rookie pitcher last night:

• The weather was miserable with a steady and sometimes heavy rain all night.
• The game started nearly two hours late in front of a nearly empty stadium.
• The opponent was a division rival and a playoff contender desperate for a victory.

Still, Vance Worley hit the mound last night and threw 6 solid innings with 2 ERs and 6 Ks using 108 pitches.  And while the ship has already sailed on the NL ROY discussion due in part to a late call up and because of a certain Braves pitcher who has been kept off the field thus far in the series, Vance Worley has already won a little bit of man-love from this blog.

We've grown accustomed to quality young pitching from the back end of our rotation the past few years, but what Worley is putting together is something completely different. As much as some people would like to sit back and say that the team's 14-0 record over his last 14 starts (the best effort by a Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton led them to victory 15 times in a row in 1972) is a fluke, we've passed the luck stage in these last few weeks. His last three starts, all of which have been victories, have been his second start against his respective opponent. The novelty of facing a new pitcher for the first time has worn off and yet hitters still can't seem to figure him out.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has been Worley's uncanny ability to work himself out of trouble. Last night, with a tight strikezone, his pitch count was getting up there early and home plate umpire Dale Scott didn't seem too eager to let Worley get away with nibbling the corners. In the 1st, he got himself out of a 2 on, 1 out situation with a pair of strikeouts. In the 4th, he got through 2 on, no out with a pair of Ks and a soft grounder. In the 6th, he got through the bases loaded with no outs by only letting up one run. That kind of composure on the mound isn't something you learn on the job as Worley is doing.

But Vance Worley has an uncanny ability to freeze batters with called strikes. In fact, 34% of all strikes that Worley throws are of the uncontested variety and a whopping 52% of his strikeouts are called looking! To put it into perspective, the league average is 24% and the Phillies as a whole hold the highest average in baseball at a fraction over 30%.

He does it all with an odd mix of sinkers, sliders, cutters, and a changeup that don't have exceptional speed or movement, but get the job done. He's effectively wild at times, often finding himself in the 100 pitch neighborhood by the 6th inning, but again he gets the job done. But despite not having the greatest of BB rates, his .277 BABiP suggests that he's no longer just "lucky" as we assumed early in the season and he probably falls closer to the league average than you might think.

And he does it all after a routine of going to bed at 4AM the night before a game, napping until about 4:30pm the day of, ignoring the video tape and pregame prep, and just taking the mound to throw the baseball however Brian Schneider tells him to. He's the Anti-Roy Halladay with swagger and charisma to spare. On a team full of consummate professionals who have honed their craft for years with endless bullpen sessions, tireless video study, and rigorous game day preparation, it's refreshing to see a kid who tucks his mohawk into his hat, puts on his glasses and goes out there every 5th day just as strong as the other four.