Age: 30 (31, April 21)
2008: 48 IP / 3-2 / 4.88 ERA / 24 BB / 39 K / 0 SV / 4 BS / 1.69 WHIP
Summary: As the primary left-handed pitcher out of the Giants bullpen, Jack Taschner was OK againast left-handers. He held them to a .279 average and a .394 slugging percentage. Not bad, but not good enough to be a solid lefty specialist. Sadly, he wasn’t good against righties (.308/.406/.495). Interestingly he was much better in the first half of the season, recording a 3.03 ERA, as opposed to a second-half ERA of 8.80.
Career Level: Prime (Year 2)
Green Flags: The first-half numbers show maybe Taschner is just good for a small period of time, which might do the trick since JC Romero is missing the first 50 games. … He did have good K/9 ratings with 7.31.
Red Flags: Taschner did, however, walk a ton of hitters, at a rate of 4.5 per nine. … Taschner also let up a lot of fly balls, inducing big flys from 42.6 percent of his pitches. That won’t bode well at Citizens Bank Park.
Prognostication: Taschner won’t be a great lefty specialist. In fact, he won’t be used too much, very likely, which can’t be such a bad thing. But he might have trouble. He hasn’t really had a great season yet in the majors, so don’t expect anything eye-opening.
2009 Projection: 19.1 IP / 1-3 / 5.12 ERA / 13 BB / 18 K / 0 SV / 2 BS / 1.81 WHIP