"The Franchise" wins August Pitcher of the Month

H'ville, Tn (AP) - Scott Hill's been around the league long enough to appreciate the honor he received today. After going 4-0 in August, the 29-year-old Hendersonville hurler has been named National League Pitcher of the Month.

"My arm feels great and I'm just excited to be able to be pitching and helping my team win again," Hill told reporters gathered around his locker.

He fanned 38 and only walked 3 in 38 innings, logged an ERA of 1.42, a WHIP of 1.26 and allowed opponents to hit .285 against him in August.

Hill's July was actually better than his August as he also went 4-0, but had an outstanding 0.30 ERA and a 0.56 WHIP with 28 strikeouts to only 3 walks in 30.1 innings and 4 starts.

In only 13 starts this season Hill has reached double digit wins with a 10-1 record. Two of his last 3 starts he's been touched up (6 ER vs Orl and 4 ER vs NFF), but he still has a nice ERA of 1.73, a 1.06 WHIP, 86 K's to only 10 BB's, but he's been very unlucky with a .317 BABIP (84 HA) and extremely high extra base hit percentage.  In 88.2 IP Hill has allowed 84 hits and 27 have gone for extra bases resulting in a 32% of all hits being extra base hits.

Right now with 11 games left to play management has a tough decision with sitting Hill (and Bamber) to prevent a devastating injury or giving them one more start.  Siting them will put them around 14 days without pitching which might be a little to long before the playoffs.  What to do, what to do?