Bobby Seay has had a good year for any pitcher but an even better one for a pitcher that didn’t make the team coming out of spring training. Having been beat out for a spot on the club by Chad Durbin, Seay eventually was slotted in the bullpen when Durbin was put in the starting rotation to fill in for the injured Kenny Rogers. Because of this, it is safe to say, expectations were not all that high.

His 2007 pre-season PECOTA projection had him earning a 4.34 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 3.20 BB9 and 6.03 K9 over 47.7 innings. These ended up not being very far from the mark as he posted a 2.33 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 2.91 BB9 and 7.38 K9 over 46.1 innings. The only major difference was in his ERA which was undoubtedly helped by his high Beq Runs Prevented of 6.4, 8th highest in the majors for relievers.

Ultimately Bobby ended up playing a crucial role out of the bullpen with the early loss of Joel Zumaya and the on-again/off-again relationship Fernando Rodney had with the Disabled List. He stepped up and filled the roll well when the team most needed him, but was it a fluke year? I do not believe so.

While his ERA the previous two seasons in the big leagues was a poor 7.33, this was over only 27 innings pitched. At the same time he fared much better in the minor leagues posting a 2.28 ERA (1.30 WHIP) in 2005 split between Double-A and Triple-A and a 4.68 ERA (1.24 WHIP) in 2006. The 2007 season was his longest stint in the major leagues and it appeared that he would perform as he had in the majors in previous year when he ended May with a 5.40 ERA. However he pulled it together and held a 0.86 ERA for the remainder of the season while not allowing a single home run.

Bobby will have a hard time keeping that streak going into 2008. The Bill James projections have him falling back a bit on his performance during last season but still posting a solid 3.96 ERA (1.38 WHIP). James does have his HR9 jumping from 0.19 to 0.72 which I have a hard time believing. Thought it does seem that the increased innings have helped Seay perform in the majors much as he had in the minor leagues. This is good news as the Tiger bullpen is the largest question mark again going into the 2008 season. This year, however, Seay won’t have problems making the big league squad.