Australian Baseball League: Mike McGuire

Mike McGuire became the first pitcher in the Australian Baseball League to strikeout 14 people in one game. McGuire spent 2011 in the Phillies organization (he has also spent time in the Indians organization) and has never been above A ball. As mainly a reliever, he has a PE of -.294, mainly because of his great strikeout ration 9 K/9IP. In 2011, despite only giving up .3 HR/9IP, he had a terrible 3.38 PE basically all in relief. Along with a pretty small sample size (29.2 innings), he was destroyed by a BABIP over .400. Despite his ERA over 8, his FIP was less than half than that, under 4. Certainly this would fix his terrible PE. He does walk a little bit too much at 4 per 9 innings, but one would expect that from a strikeout pitcher. It is really difficult to judge the quality of play of the ABL, and considering McGuire's numbers, it seems easy to say it is below A ball (although that would be anecdotal). However, strikeout pitchers always can find jobs in the Major Leagues, so McGuire could be a guy to look out for in the next few years.