You will hear that Santiago is pitching better during the second half of the season. While that may be true on some level (his ERA is down, OBA is down, etc), he still struggles as a solid starting pitcher.
A good starting pitcher will go out and give you 6-7 solid innings and not give up more than 2 or 3 runs. Santiago has shown over and over this season that he has a hard time pitching more than 5 solid innings. I still contend he makes a great middle reliever – but a starter?
In some ways the Angels don’t really have a choice as to whether or not he pitches. Santiago has proven to be able to throw 80-100 pitches and the Halos options are limited when it comes to that. Looking at his stats by inning you see something very interesting:
| Inning | ERA | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | AVG | WHIP | OPS |
| 1 | 2.25 | 20 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 0.219 | 1.25 | 0.655 |
| 2 | 3.15 | 20 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 0.197 | 1.15 | 0.577 |
| 3 | 5.12 | 19.1 | 20 | 11 | 6 | 24 | 0.253 | 1.34 | 0.714 |
| 4 | 0.47 | 19 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 0.127 | 0.58 | 0.389 |
| 5 | 2.16 | 16.2 | 18 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 0.286 | 1.56 | 0.704 |
| 6 | 14.04 | 8.1 | 16 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 0.400 | 2.52 | 1.024 |
Santiago does pretty great in his first two innings. He is facing the top of the lineup but facing them for the first time. By the third inning his stats take a dive – most likely because the top of the order is coming up again and they have adjusted to his pitches.
Somehow, the fourth inning is his best. Most likely he’s often facing the bottom of the order at this point and they haven’t adjusted well to his pitches like they do in the top of the lineup.
The wheels start falling off in the fifth inning. While his ERA is still just 2.16, his walks are up and strikeouts are down. Batting average jumps to it’s highest and WHIP jumps to 1.56. It’s pretty clear that by the fifth inning, Santiago starts to falter. His ERA would probably be even higher were it not for the times the bullpen comes in and saves his ass in the fifth.
After Santiago made it through the fifth inning against the Twins last night I said “alright – time to go to the bullpen!”. Scioscia and Butcher insisted on leaving him in, most likely due to his low-ish pitch count. But Santiago has not really shown he can handle the sixth inning.
Santiago’s sixth inning struggles are clearly highlighted above. His ERA SOARS to 14.04 and his innings pitched drops by 50%. Opponents start teeing off on Santiago during the sixth with a .400 AVG and 1.024 OPS. His command struggles and he either misses the zone altogether or throws in meatballs. A 2.52 WHIP is far from even being close to good.
All this being said, Santiago is not really a great starter. The Angles need him down the stretch but I don’t think he should be allowed to pitch the sixth inning. At all. Ever. For the rest of the season.
