Evaluating Five Pittsburgh Pirates Pitchers Using Deserved Run Average

Relief Pitcher Michael Feliz

If you look into the advanced metrics, Michael Feliz was pretty good in 2019. In 56.1 innings pitched, Feliz had a 3.99 ERA, 4.71 FIP and a career low 1.26 WHIP. He also registered a strong strikeout rate at 30.5%. Now, his walk rate wasn’t too great at 11.3%, but he still should be viewed as a good pitcher.

If you took out the one game where Feliz was thrown into an opener role vs the Los Angeles Dodgers, his ERA drops to 3.21. Feliz went just a third of an inning, and gave up 4 earned runs, including a home run, a walk, and no strikeouts. Plus he improved his many factors of his games like his quality of contact, line drive percentage, and ground ball rate.

Without that one game, Feliz’s ERA looks a lot like his DRA of 2019. Baseball prospectus placed his DRA at 3.38. Throughout his career, Feliz has a 3.53 DRA. In both 2016 and 2017, despite his ERA in the 4’s, his DRA was 3.18 (‘17) and 2.44 (‘16).

Going forward, Feliz is one of the Pirates biggest breakout candidates. His DRA, and SIERA both are very good and point to Feliz becoming better. Feliz took major strides in 2019 to become a better pitcher, and they’re starting to pay off. If Feliz can improve his ground ball rate to even a league average level, and keep batters from hitting it out of the park, he should become a much better pitcher.