Brackman, NC State Pitcher

First, some NCAA averages from 2006, with an appreciative tip of the hat to Ryan Armbrust for his excellent research. The average I-A hitter had the following numbers last season:

         AVG     OBP     SLG     OPS     ISO    
2006    .292    .361    .420    .781    .128    

Just bear those in mind.

Next up, a look at each of Brackman's three seasons on the mound. What you'll see below is straightforward, but let me go through all of the columns for the sake of completeness.

ERA = Earned Run Average
IP = Innings Pitched
HR/9, H/9, etc = home runs, hits, etc. allowed per nine innings pitched.
K/BB = Strikeouts-to-walks ratio.
WHIP = (Walks + Hits) / Innings Pitched

        ERA      IP     HR/9     H/9     K/9   BB/9    K/BB   WHIP   
2005    2.09    43.0     0.0     6.7     9.0    3.8    2.4    1.16 
2006    6.35    28.3    0.64    11.8    10.2    6.0    1.7    1.98 
2007    3.42    47.3    0.76     8.6     8.6    3.4    2.5    1.33   

Brackman followed up a strong freshman debut with an injury-plagued sophomore season. He was shut down in 2006 because of a stress fracture in his hip, an injury that no doubt played a major role in his decision to give up basketball in 2007. In this next table, I combined his 2005 and 2006 numbers (that's everything he did while also playing basketball) and have compared those to his current 2007 numbers (which of course is everything he's done since leaving the basketball team):

                   ERA      IP     HR/9    H/9    K/9   BB/9    K/BB   WHIP    
Two-Sportin' It    3.79    71.3    0.25    8.7    9.5    4.7    2.0    1.49 
Hoops Schmoops     3.42    47.3    0.76    8.6    8.6    3.4    2.5    1.33    

One last table: how opponents hit against Brackman:

AVG = Batting Average
OBP = On-Base Percentage
SLG = Slugging Percentage
OPS = On-base Plus Slugging (OBP + SLG)
ISO = Isolated Power (SLG - AVG) (i.e., extra bases per at-bat)

         AVG     OBP     SLG     OPS     ISO
2005    .216    .314    .250    .564    .034
2006    .319    .432    .440    .872    .121
2007    .251    .345    .369    .714    .118

Those 2005 figures are filthy. Opponents managed 32 hits off him that year, and all but five were singles.

            AVG     OBP     SLG     OPS     ISO
05 + 06    .261    .367    .333    .700    .072
2007       .251    .345    .369    .714    .118

I was mainly interested to see if his control improved, but I'm not going to make any conclusions based on so few innings. His walk rate is a bit better in '07, but he's hit eight batters this season--as many as he hit in his first two seasons combined.

Some additional stats here.