As Yovani Gallardo's strikeout rate decreased, so did his ERA (plus prospect notes)

There has been some discussion about free agent pitcher Yovani Gallardo and his declining strikeout rates in recent years. But at the same time, while the strikeouts have declined, so has his ERA.

Over the last four years, his two lowest seasons of strikeouts per nine innings have also produced his lowest ERAs in that stretch:

2012: strikeouts per nine innings rate of 9.0 and 3.66 ERA
2013: strikeouts per nine innings rate of 7.2 and 4.18 ERA
2014: strikeouts per nine innings rate of 6.8 and 3.51 ERA
2015: strikeouts per nine innings rate of 5.9 and 3.42 ERA

So Gallardo is striking out fewer batters in 2014-15 than in 2012-13, but still getting the outs. One key for him is left-on-base (LOB) percentage. Last year he stranded 77.2 percent of runners on base and American League hitters batted just .215 against him with runners in scoring position.

LOB percentage in 2015:
80.5 - Wei-Yin Chen
77.2 - Yovani Gallardo
73.8 - Ubaldo Jimenez
73.1 - Miguel Gonzalez
72.3 - Kevin Gausman
68.2 - Chris Tillman

By the way, that number for Chen ranked first among AL starters in that category in 2015. Gallardo ranked seventh. Tillman was well down the list and that could have been a factor in his ERA rising to 4.99. Tillman's LOB percentage in 2013 was 80.5 and it was 76.7 in 2014.

Career LOB percentages:
78.3 - Gonzalez
76.7 - Chen
74.8 - Gallardo
73.3 - Tillman
71.8 - Jimenez
71.2 - Gausman

More top prospects lists: Two Orioles made ESPN's Keith Law's latest list of baseball's top 100 prospects on Thursday. Catcher Chance Sisco was rated No. 81 and pitcher Hunter Harvey No. 100.

The article is for subscribers only, but Law says that Sisco's receiving on defense has improved in two years behind the plate for the club and that his glove is ahead of his arm in grading out present tools.

"There are a lot of ifs around Sisco, but I can also see him having a very long, quiet career in the majors, like A.J. Pierzynski but without the drama, because Sisco can catch and can put the ball in play so often," Law concludes.

Of Harvey, Law states that when healthy, his stuff can be electric with a fastball that can touch 97 mph and a curve that "could probably miss major league bats right now if he could consistently throw it for strikes."

He has a criticism that "he started to have delivery problems in 2014 while creeping to the extreme third-base side of the rubber."

In earlier top 100 lists that were released, Baseball Prospectus ranked Harvey No. 58 and Dylan Bundy No. 69. MLBPipeline.com rated just one Oriole in the top 100 with Harvey at No. 85.

In the ESPN organizational rankings, the Orioles are No. 27, down from No. 22 last year. Around the rest of the American League East, Boston is No. 10 with New York No. 13, Tampa Bay No. 14 and Toronto No. 25.

Baseball America will release its top 100 prospects list later today. But on Thursday, the Orioles were No. 27 in its organizational rankings, which also listed Boston at No. 4, Tampa Bay No. 13, New York No. 17 and Toronto No. 24.

Baseball America has ranked outfielder Hyun Soo Kim as the Orioles' No. 6 prospect, making a change to their top 10 O's list that was released in mid-December. Even though Kim played 10 years in Korea and is now 28, he is a rookie per Major League Baseball rules and thus eligible to be ranked on the Baseball America prospects list.

So the revised top 10 now goes in this order: Bundy, Harvey, Sisco, Jomar Reyes, Mychal Givens, Kim, Chris Lee, Ryan Mountcastle, Trey Mancini and D.J. Stewart.