Season Review: Logan Webb

We’re marching along with the San Francisco Giants season reviews, and on the eve of pitchers and catchers reporting, we’ve made it to the penultimate name on the alphabetical list: right-handed pitcher Logan Webb.

Season stats

13 games (11 starts), 54.1 innings, 61 hits, 24 walks, 7 hit by pitch, 46 strikeouts, 1.564 WHIP

5.47 ERA, 4.17 FIP, -0.4 rWAR, +0.7 fWAR

Status throughout the season

Webb was on the active roster all season long.

Season review

I have no idea how to evaluate Webb’s second MLB season. His ERA (5.47) was bad, but his FIP (4.17) was good. His xFIP (4.52) was passable.

He did a decent job limiting hard contact, but was rather wild, with 4 walks per 9 innings, and 1.2 hit batters per 9 innings (his 7 hit by pitches led the league). Stretched out to a full season, his rWAR depicts a disaster and his fWAR depicts a quality starter.

On the one hand, Webb’s ERA lagging behind his FIP suggests that he’s a better pitcher than the results would indicate. On the other hand, we now have a two-year sample of Webb’s ERA being well over a run behind his FIP, so maybe that’s just who he is: the reverse Matt Cain. On the other other hand, he still hasn’t even pitched 100 MLB innings, so it’s probably way too small of a sample size to make that assumption.

If you go through Webb’s game log, it paints a similar picture. There were some nice spots, such as 8 strikeouts against just 5 baserunners in 7 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks in late August. There were also some rough patches, as he allowed 5 earned runs or more in 3 of his 11 starts.

He looked like a prospect trying to figure some things out and hey, what do you know, that’s exactly what he is.

A lot of good, a lot of bad. But a little filthy when things were working.

Role in 2021

Technically, Webb has lost his prospect status, but it’s easy to forget just how young he is — at 24, he’s less than a month older than Joey Bart.

Health permitting, the Giants rotation already has four of five spots locked up: Johnny Cueto, Anthony DeSclafani, Kevin Gausman, and Alex Wood. Webb seems the heavy favorite to earn the fifth spot, but the team has openly spoken about adding another starting pitcher or two, and Tyler Beede is still scheduled to return relatively early in the season.

Webb will certainly pitch a lot this year, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s a mix of starts, relief appearances, and developmental time in AAA.

Grade

Kind of a weird season. No grade feels right, so this is hard. But they don’t pay me to complain.

C+