Week 23 Pitchers Poll: This Is Why You Should Use Matt Thornton

Last week I wasn't shy about expressing my opinions on the way Robin Ventura was handling his bullpen in our two losses to the Tigers. This is because Ventura was acting like an idiot and bringing in pitchers who had no right to be in the situations he put them in, particularly with Matt Thornton just sitting in the bullpen with nothing else to do.

Robin said he was doing this because Thornton needed a rest. Apparently nobody needs a rest against Minnesota, though, as Matty came in for key situations there as well as in Monday's win.

Still, look at Thornton in the rankings.

RANK	PLAYER	POINTS	LW	+/-
1	Jake Peavy	288	2	21
2	Chris Sale	287	1	13
3	Gavin Floyd	156	3	7
4	Jose Quintana	133	4	0
5	Matt Thornton	98	5	5
6	Nate Jones	88	7	3
7	Addison Reed	85	6	-2
8	Phil Humber	77	8	2
9	Hector Santiago	74	9	0
10	Jesse Crain	66	10	10
11	Francisco Liriano	50	12	11
12	Dylan Axelrod	47	11	0
13	John Danks	34	13	0
14	Brett Myers	27	16	8
15	Donnie Veal	23	15	3
16	Zach Stewart	21	14	0
17	Brian Omogrosso	11	17	0
18	Will Ohman	10	18	0
19	Eric Stults	7	19	0
20	Brian Bruney	2	20	0
21	Leyson Septimo	1	20	-1
21	Deunte Heath	1	21	0
23	Jhan Marinez	0	23	0
23	Dewayne Wise	0	23	0
25	Pedro Hernandez	-4	24	0

Thornton has been the fifth most valuable pitcher on this staff even though my rankings reward pitchers for innings and he's pitched only 4.6% of the team's total innings. Gavin Floyd has pitched 11% and Jose Quintana 9.7% yet neither has double the amount of points Thornton has put up.

Matt is averaging 1.63 points per inning. Jake Peavy averages 1.45 and Chris Sale averages 1.64.

We starting to see how much #ThorntonSucks yet?

Last week's rankings can be found here.