Thankfully, we don't live on wins and ERA alone. We have our very own nERD metric and some other fun sabermetric tools that allow us to get a better sense of just how well, or poorly, Turner has done this season.
| Season | vFB | K/9 | BB/9 | BABIP | LOB% | GB% | FIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 92.2 | 6.20 | 2.64 | .368 | 64.0 | 51.3 | 4.00 |
| Career | 91.6 | 5.97 | 3.31 | .304 | 68.3 | 47.1 | 4.45 |
| League Avg | 91.7 | 7.72 | 2.96 | .296 | 73.0 | 45.2 | 3.78 |
Turner's nERD this year, the number of runs prevented by comparison to a league-average pitcher per game, is 1.04, meaning he's been a better-than-league-average pitcher this year. That is also born out by his fWAR of 0.4, which is the same as more heralded starters C.J. Wilson, Ubaldo Jimenez, and Alfredo Simon, and is better than Brandon Morrow, Josh Beckett and Jeff Locke.
In addition, Turner has increased his strikeouts per nine over his career average, lowered his walks per nine, and increased his ground-ball rate. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) of .368 is way over the league average of .296, meaning he's been the victim of a lot of bad luck. And his fielding independent pitching (FIP) of 4.00 this year, is a bit above league average, but below his career mark of 4.45 and far below his ERA of 5.97, which also indicates he's been unlucky.
Not only that, Turner has increased his fastball velocity, averaging 92.2 miles per hour this year, according to FanGraphs, better than his career average of 91.6 mph. He's also still just 23 years old and was the former 9th overall pick in the draft in 2009.
All the peripherals point to a pitcher who could be a diamond in the rough for a team good at taking on pitching reclamation projects.