Happ the "Fluke"

Well if you're a Phillies fan, chances are you have heard how J.A Happ is being called a fluke who only pitched well because he was incredibly lucky. Let's have a look at J.A Happ's career stats.

James Anthony Happ, drafted in the 3rd round of the 2004 draft, has had a large amount of success in his career. Dating way back to the 2006 season Happ was in A+ and pitched well posting an ERA of 2.81. Happ was promoted to AA in 2006 and for his great performance of a 2.65 ERA Happ was quickly promoted to AAA. In Happ's first full year(Happ had pitched one AAA game in 2006) in AAA he recorded a 4-6 win loss record and an ERA over 5. J.A started one game for the big league team in 2007, he was hit around for 5 runs in 4 innings. He was sent back down to AAA. Happ's second season in AAA went much smoother recording an 8-7 record and a 3.6 ERA over 24 games(23 starts). J.A was called up in 2008 and even pitched an inning in the World Series. Happ's 2008 season was successful while pitching in 8 games(4 starts), racking up 1 win, 31.2 innings pitched, and an ERA of 3.69.

Now after looking at Happ's history you can't contribute 100% of his success to luck. After all, who doesn't need a little bit of luck? How good of a pitcher would Mariano Rivera be if all the broken bat bloopers he gets found a hole for a base hit? Or how about the broken bat home run off Cole Hamels last year? Luck factors into the game, good or bad, there's no way to control it. Now is Happ going to have an ERA under 3 again? Who knows. Is there anything wrong with a mid-high 3's or low 4's ERA? Absolutely not!