Though it was largely a foregone conclusion at this point, longtime starting pitcher Livan Hernandez will file his official retirement papers tomorrow, reports MLB.com's Bill Ladson. As he continues to discuss his future with the Nationals in a non-playing capacity, Hernandez said that he had been waiting for "the right time" to make his final decision.
Now 39 years old, the Cuban-born righty saw action in 17 different MLB seasons, starting with the Marlins and ending with the Brewers. In between, he spent time with seven other clubs, including seven seasons with the Expos/Nationals. Hernandez's best stretch came in 2003-05, straddling the move from Montreal to D.C. Over those three seasons, Livo threw 734 2/3 innings of 3.60 ERA ball, leading the bigs in innings pitched in each season.
Throwing one of the slowest fastballs in the game towards the end of his career, Hernandez nevertheless logged outs with a variety of crafty offspeed offerings. He finished his MLB career with a 4.44 ERA in 3,189 innings.
It must be tough Livan the game behind. Best of luck!
Well he will always Livan in our hearts.
I’ll show myself out.
Somebody had better poke him just to make sure he’s really gone.
He is one of those guys that are passable in the weak NL but would be out of baseball 15 years ago if he was in the American League.
Like Bartolo Colon??????????
The A’s moved to the NL?
Yep the Angels too when he won his Cy Young
Unrelated, but that should have been Johan’s award. Just saying…
But he didn’t have the wins.
And wins didn’t stop mattering until 2009.
you got it.
And wins didn’t stop mattering until 2009.
Why bring up Colon, he is an AL-lifer (with 1 year in the NL that was offcourse better stats wise). Don’t pretend you don’t know that pitching in the NL is MUCH easier. I have two hundred exampled but just look at AJ Burnett, he was to be cut and released but just put him in the NL and wow he looks great again. It happen all the time. NL stinks hitting wise.
Getting to hit in small ballparks doesn’t make you a better hitter. Your stats just look better.
But a player still has to be good enough to have his stats inflated in a small ballpark. Playing in Yankee Stadium did nothing for Vernon Wells last season.
That’s because Yankee Stadium is not a friendly park for Right Handed Hitters.
Can I get the other 199 examples please, AJ Burnett had the best season of his career (2008) while pitching in the AL East.
FIP, xFIP and WAR are all stats that account for league, defense and stadium and indicate he still would have been a valuable pitcher on an AL team
Indicate he would have been passable.
A 2-4 fWAR pitcher is more than passable; but, regardless of the semantic differences in adjective choice, my point is there are statistical ways to account for the effect of pitching in the NL v AL aside from the blind conjecture that he “would be out of baseball 15 years ago if he was in the American League.”
Outside of a few years he was mostly a backend starter, but WAR also accounts for him pitching a ton of innings every year. There is still value in that though. The NL is easier, but it’s not a whole different game. If you can cut it in the NL you can cut it in the AL, maybe not as good, but still play.
He tried one year in the AL and got a 5.48 ERA, that is not okey. That is maybe okey if it is a first year rookie you hope has afuture and he makes league minimum, for an older pitcher you have to pay, bad idea. So many L pitchers can only make living in that league, because it is just not as difficult as the AL.
Livan pitched only part of 2008 in the AL and did have an ERA of 5.48 but he also pitched part of 2008 in the NL and had an ERA of 8.03, does that mean he was a worse pitcher in the NL than AL?
ERA is a stat with little to no predictive value, also he had only 139 IP in the AL (4% of his career IP). That is such a small sample size its had to project anything from it.
I’m just saying the avarage split between the leagues is a guy like AJ Burnett, that is the avarage between pitching in the NL and the AL. I am a little sad we will never see how good Clayton Kershaw really is, he is agreat pitcher in the NL but put him in the Al East…? Surely still good but probabaly not even in the conversation with Felix and Verlander. .
King Felix and Verlander aren’t in the AL East so what’s your point?
Burnett was fine in Toronto, but it wasn’t until NYY that he imploded. And to suggest that Kershaw is only good in the NL is ridiculous. Against the AL in his career he has a 2.67 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 1.01 WHIP.
Suffice to say it was his time, his last few years he was livan on the edge.
Livan let live, I always say.
If he waited it out, he could’ve ended up with another job with the Braves.
He really should have retired earlier. He certainly helped the Angels win the World Series in 2002 by losing both games he pitched. I still can’t believe he was allowed to pitch in that series after doing NOTHING in the regular season for the Giants. I actually lost track of him when he left the Giants. I was so glad that he left.
Livan liked his money. He made a lot they say.
Congratulations Livan, great career 🙂
Is there anyone who really believes that Livan is only 39?
No way. He faked his age just like his brother tried to when he came over. But it doesn’t matter. Livan was a really good pitcher when he had mediocre stuff. When he had nothing at all, he still managed to get enough people out to hold a job for a long time.
I have long felt that Livan Hernandez would make a fine pitching coach. He seemed to reinvent himself every year, and sure knows something about how to pitch.
I hope he gives coaching a try.
-mrsjohnmiltonrocks
If that doesn’t work out, he could always be a hitting coach. The man swung a better bat than many position players.
Very lame jokes
How this guy lasted so long is beyond me.
Not so fast Livan! Frank Wren is speed dialing you.
Eephus pitch =P.
Great pitcher, but somehow a player announcing his retirement when he hasn’t played in over a year doesn’t seem to me to be news. I think 30 teams have already announced his retirement for him.
I would expect a flurry of such “they tore the jersey off me retirements” in the coming week or two as veterans get released. At least Hernandez had a distinguished career. Many of the guys who retire this way were marginal players. In the past month we’ve had Rick Ankiel, Ryan Theriot, etc.
Not a hall of fame guy but he has had one Damn fine career. My hat is off to a really good career.
his best feat was going 3-0 last season with a 7+ ERA to finish his career 1 game over .500, now that’s skill.