Fromer Indians/Astros Pitcher Jeriome Robertson Dies

[Cowsrus]

 

Josh Alper

MLB Blogger

Some sad news to report from the world of baseball over the weekend. Jeriome Robertson, a former pitcher for the Astros and Indians, died when he crashed his motorcycle in Exeter, Calif., on Saturday night.

 

According to the Visalia Times-Delta, Robertson was taking a turn on his motorcycle at 70 mph when he lost control of his bike. Robertson was 33 years old and grew up in Exeter before being drafted by the Astros in the 24th round in 1995. Our condolences go out to his friends and family on the death of such a young man.

 

Robertson is almost certainly best remembered for his rookie season in 2003 when he won 15 games for the Astros and finished seventh in the voting for the National League Rookie of the Year award. That's partially because it was such an unusual amount of wins for a pitcher who didn't perform all that well, but also because he only pitched in eight more games following that season.

 

Robertson was dealt to the Indians for outfielder Luke Scott after Houston signed Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte as free agents and he was done in the big leagues on July 21, 2004 after he posted a 12.21 ERA in eight relief appearances for the Tribe. He spent some time in the Reds and Mets organizations and bounced around foreign and independent leagues, but he never returned to the majors again.

 

Robertson's 15 wins are a testament to the school of thought that win-loss records are an inefficient way of judging the quality of starting pitchers. Robertson had a 5.10 ERA, had a strikeout/walk ratio of less than 2:1 and, per win probability, his efforts actually made his team less likely to win games. Still, he won 15 games more than most of us will ever win in the big leagues and it's a bit surprising that a lefty with that on his resume never got another big-league look at 27.

 

Heidi

(I tried to copy the URL to put in here to go to the article but I couldn't get it to copy right, sorry)