Paul Maholm may or may not be the best pitcher in the Pirates' rotation. But he is clearly the one to beat for front-runner.
A stalking horse, by definition, is a pretty good racehorse that may or may not be the best, but is certainly good enough to set the pace for the others. In short, his defining characteristic is reliability. That pretty much describes Maholm.
As late as the beginning of 2008, he was a distant third among Pirates' hurlers. But two more obviously talented throwers, Ian Snell, and Tom Gorzelanny, fell by the wayside that year.
Maholm, on the other hand, finished the year with an ERA in the threes, and managed to keep his monthly ERA below 4.00 in all but one month. He "regressed" in 2009, with a 4.44 ERA, but his FIP (sabermetric ERA) actually FELL last year, from 4.15 ...
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Article written by Tom Au
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