Define Mediocre

1. of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate. See Chad Durbin

Durbin pitched 5 decent innings today and looked very solid right up to the point where he gave up a 2-run HR in the 5th. Still, his pitches looked crisp and he all in all gave a solid performance. Sadly, an game ERA of 5.40 is now solid when it comes to the Phillies pitching staff. Durbin is somewhat of a mystery. He doesn't throw very hard, doesn't really have any real plus pitches, and is basically a tribute to the overall dearth of quality pitching in the majors as he has somehow hung around to the ripe age of 31 while sporting a career ERA of 5.75. Given the amount of AAA pitchers who could probably post the same numbers as him, it is truly a mystery that he is still in baseball. On average, he strikes out about 5.1 per 9 IP and walks 3.7 for his career (4.6 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 in 2007). There is nothing to suggest that he can be anything more than a long-reliever kind of guy for the Phillies this year. At 31, he has almost no upsides other than saving the rest of the bullpen during blowouts. Anyone expecting anything else from Durbin will be sorely disappointed this year.