Who are Edward Mujica, and Ryan Webb? On Friday, November 12, they were San Diego Padres and their importance to Marlins fans was minimal. 24 hours later, they are now expected to contribute to the Florida Marlins 2011 bullpen as solid relievers. These two provided much talent to the rich San Diego bullpen and, at the price of Cameron Maybin, are now expected to continue their successes in teal and black.

 

It's probably a good idea to remember that the Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres are two different teams with two very different ways of winning ballgames, and so one can't accurately predict how well new players produce until they actually produce for their new team. Factors like ballpark dimensions and defense play a role (albeit relatively small) that cannot be measured.

 

 

First let’s take a look at Edward Mujica step-by-step:

 

 

 

 

The thing that stands out the most here is the tremendous BB/9. In 2010, Mujica had 72 K’s to only 6 BB’s, adding much needed control to a sometimes-erratic Marlin bullpen. The alarming thing about Mujica is his HR/9. 1.81 being rather high, especially for a pitcher who plays half of his games at a pitcher-friendly park like Petco. It is something Marlins fans are going to need to keep in mind when making expectations of Mujica’s worth.

 

 

 

 

Pitch F/X has Mujica throwing his fastball, changeup and splitter for a combined 89.9% of pitches thrown with his fastball (averaging 92.3 MPH) being thrown 52.9% of the time. Now, his changeup averages 87 MPH and none of his 3 primary pitches average below that. One must wonder how Mujica’s overall HR numbers change if he can take some heat off of the changeup seeing as a 5 MPH differential isn’t ideal.

 

Mujica’s splits are another area of concern, as his home ERA was 2.61 while his road ERA was 4.83 (2010 season) and he posted an alarmingly high ERA’s of 5.84 (12.1 IP) and 6.00 (9.0 IP) during the final two months of the season. Mujica is virtually the same player with men on base as he is with bases empty. He does seem to limit damage very well and, contrary to what many San Diego fans say, he seems much more efficient in terms of XBH with men on base. Mujica gave up 10 out of his 14 HR’s, 2/3 triples and 5/6 walks with the bases empty. He kept 79.3% of baserunners from scoring. Perhaps a larger field In Sun Life Stadium and a new pitching coach in Randy St. Claire could provide Mujica with the tools to become more efficient than he already is.

 

 

Now let us move on to what is seemingly the centerpiece of this trade: Ryan Webb.

 

This kid was expected to do great things in San Diego after his mechanics were tweaked and his pitching delivery altered. When analyzing the data provided below, one must take into account that his mechanics changed after the second half of 2009.

 

 

 

 

What we’ve got here, ladies and gentlemen, is a textbook ground ball pitcher. Quite opposite to Mujica, Ryan Webb allows .15 HR/9 with a 62.3% chance of inducing a ground ball. He doesn’t strike out as many batters as Mujica does, just 6.71 per nine innings and his walks are higher than Mujica, but one can imagine Ryan Webb will take over the 8th role instead of Mujica if Leo Nunez is in fact traded.

 

 

 

 

In 2010, Ryan Webb used his fastball, slider and sinker (FT) for a combined 85.9% of pitches thrown. His average fastball speed was 95.1 MPH, while his slider and sinker clocked in at 85.3 MPH and 94.9 MPH on average respectively. So what we’ve got here is a hard throwing groundball pitcher who seems to alternate pitches very effectively.

 

Despite being a groundball pitcher who has minimal use for Petco's generous dimensions, pitching at Petco really benefited Ryan Webb's stats. Webb sports an amazing 0.90 ERA at Petco (30 IP) and a less-than-flattering 4.97 ERA on the road (29 IP) He was virtually identical with men on and bases empty. The only glaring difference is that 12/19 BB’s were given up with men on base, which is going to put added pressure on a struggling Marlins defense to make plays for him. One must remember the airtight nature of the Padres infield and prepare for perhaps a small decline in numbers from this groundball pitcher. 58.4% of balls in play with men on base for Webb are groundballs. Alarming is the fact that Webb spent more time with men on base than with bases empty (30 IP vs 29 IP.)

 

 

 

So overall the Marlins brought in a decent, but very different, pair of relief arms. Both have their faults but there are great perks to having either of these guys in your bullpen. Edward Mujica predicts to be a fly ball pitcher with superb command and decent situational peripherals while Ryan Webb is a ground ball pitcher with a power fastball and very good upside. Comparing their worth to Cameron Maybin is for some other time, but it’s quite evident that what the Marlins have to work with in the bullpen has greatly changed within the last 24 hours – for the better.

 

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thanks for the analysis, I didn't know much about the guys we got back and this helped