Sunday, June 28, 2009
Random Thoughts While Watching Baseball on a Sunday Night
(The Keeping the Work Week at Bay Edition)
Ultimately, there's nothing really wrong with Robinson Cano hitting .300 with 24 home runs and playing pretty good defense at second base. It's just that sometimes you feel he should be doing so much more. Getting on base more. Hitting more consistently over the course of the season.
Remember early in the season when he was red hot, hitting line drives all over the place and seemed on his way to having a huge season? Specifically, he was peppering the ball to left field, either slicing it down the line or driving it with authority toward the left-cente gap. That's gone now. As I expected it eventually would be. I can't remember the last time I saw him hit a ball with authority to left or left-center.
Cano hit into two DPs and left a tidy nine runners on base. He had two chances to salt the game away with the bases loaded in the late innings. In the 6th, he hit into a DP with 1 out; and in the 8th with two outs and the bags juiced, he grounded out to Castillo.
It hit me. Wang's theme song for 2009. A mid-90's alterna-rock classic by Dave Grohl.
I'm ready to knock him out of the rotation at a moment's notice. And then he gets an inning-ending double play. Or flashes a nasty slider (something new in his arsenal?) and strikes out David Wright. The Mets had the tying run on 2nd in the 4th, and he was able to get the ground ball to get out of it.
He's still allowing too many baserunners and has lost his magical ability to be economical on a game in/game out basis (remember those 85 pitches through seven innings nights of '06 and '07?). But after watching his start in Atlanta and against a AAAA team at Citi Field tonight, I can't justify taking him out of the rotation. Yet. His next start will be against the Blue Jays, and then either at Minnesota or at Anaheim. In a couple of weeks we'll know for certain of Wang is going to be in the Yankees' rotation for the 2nd half of the season.
His final line: 5.1/4/2/2/3/3. He had 11 groundouts and 2 flyouts, threw 85 pitches, 49 of them for strikes. And got his first win of the season. That monkey's gone to heaven.
As the game got deeper, I realized that a loss tonight would've bothered me more than I expected. I can't remember a more depleted major league line-up than the Mets are shuttling out there everday; they're one player away from being a bonafide AAA line-up. To not be able to put them away, complete the sweep and enjoy Monday's off-day would've been disappointing
As is typical for an ESPN national broadcast that features the Yankees, there was a ton of Jeter Talk. Chances to get to 4,000 hits. The imminent prospect of a position switch. The Yankees' move at the end of his current contract.
The most interesting tidbit they offered was that since 1950 Jeter has been involved in the 4th most number of wins of any player in the major leagues before turning 35 (which Jeter did the other day). 1. Brooks Robinson; 2. Mickey Mantle; 3. Hank Aaron
Sure there's the factor of payroll advantage and being born under a good sign, but I find it amazingly impressive that Jeter is 4th on that list.
And by thinking "In five years Derek Jeter is going to be 40" gives me one of those "Damn, I'm getting old" moments which always suck.
In two games against Livan Hernandez the Yankees haven't bludgeoned him like I thought they could/should. His effort at Stadium 2 earlier in the month was no great shakes, but he did pitch into the 6th inning and tonight he was even more game than that. 7/3/3/3/5/1
This fits into his overall trend for this year of defying the odds of being left for road-kill by nearly every preseason prognostication, and giving the Mets a guy they can hand the ball to with a modicum of confidence every five days. Before tonight he had a 3.66 ERA in June in 32 innings of work. He's pitched into the 6th inning in 12 of 15 start this season. Who could've predicted that in the spring?
I don't know if there is a lesson to be mined from Hernandez's work this year . . . maybe never underestimate the wily veteran with the rubber arm of all rubber arms.
That's a big home run for Brandon Inge in Houston. The Tigers were on the verge of an inexcusable sweep at the hands of the Astros, and with one swing with 2 outs in the 9th down one, they were able to save face and stay a healthy margin ahead of the Twins.
The Giants have the second best record in the National League. It's time to start paying closer attention.
I didn't like the Tatis bunt in the 6th. Sheffield on first with no outs, and a count of 1-0. Granted, Tatis was clearly trying to bunt for a base hit, but I would rather see him hit away there.
I also wasn't crazy about lifting Wang at 85 pitches with one out in the 6th. He has Fernando Martinez (.173) and Brian Schneider (.233) coming up there and you're going to need the pen for 7-8-9 anyway. I always hate going to the bullpen until you clearly have to. And I didn't think they needed to in that spot. Maybe with the off-day tomorrow, the rest the relievers have had over the last 48 hours and their sub-3.00 ERA in June, Girardi didn't want to push Wang any further . . . It's a decision that could go either way. I probably would've stuck with him for at least another batter or two.
Coke struck out Martinez, and then Girardi pulled a double-switch with Damon & Hughes. Hughes got Santos to fly out on one pitch.
Since May 8th (the date of A-Rod's return), the Yankees have the best record in the majors, just ahead of Boston. The other two teams in the top four are the two Los Angeles teams. The Dodgers are no surprise, but I was surprised to see the Angels on that list. With the Rangers losing at home to the Padres, LA/Anaheim is two up in the loss column now.
The two A.L. West rivals start a series tomorrow in Texas.
Appropriately enough, A-Rod made a Keith Hernandez-esque play in the 7th on a sacrifice bunt attempt. With Castillo on first on no outs, Argenis Reyes but a bunt toward the third base side of the pitcher's mound. Rodriguez was moving in as the pitch was being delivered (a move that Hernandez made an art form as a first baseman in obvious bunt situations) fielded and threw to Jeter covering second to get the lead runner. Great execution of a difficult play.
It's funny the details you remember from your formative years as a sports fan. And some of the things you forget. I honestly forgot that Eckersly won both the Cy Young and MVP in 1992. I don't think I could ever condone a reliever winning an MVP award, regardless of the gaudy save numbers, ERA and WHIPs. He was *amazing* though during that stretch ('88-'93), wasn't he? How 'bout those WHIPs in '89 (0.607) and '90 (0.614)? From 1989-1991, three seasons, he pitched 207 innings, facing 767 batters in the process, and walked 16 men unintentionally (four intentional). And struck out 215! His K:BB ratio in '89 and '90 was 18.33 and 18.25 respectively. And the thing is those ratios were in the 6's in '87 and '88, 9.67 in '91; and never higher than 9.00 again.
It was like he hit an oasis of pitching-control perfection for two years, never to be found again at that level. Not that his K:BB splits thereafter were anything to scoff at.
For a point of comparison, Mariano Rivera's best K:BB ratio of his career was last year at 12.83. Before then he had never been higher than 6.92.
A couple of years ago, a buddy of mine who's a Red Sox fan and wasn't familiar with Brian Bruney at the time asked me about him. And I described him simply as "a country chucker." That description still fits to a large extent. And why I'm not dead-set on believing that Bruney is some kind of nirvanic answer to the 8th inning, his injury history aside for the moment.
He put two runners on in the 8th via the walk, then blew away Martinez with a high fastball. And then Girardi decided it was time for Mariano, well-rested and with four outs to claim as his own before his 500th save was in the books.
Twilight Zone Moment of the Night: Mariano Rivera hitting against K-Rod in the 9th with the bases loaded and two outs. And to truly add to the bizarro-reality moment, Mariano actually drew a walk! He was up 2-0 in the count to start, and Rodriguez came back to even the count at two. And after a foul ball, Frankie threw two balls in a row to walk in a run. Unbelievable. Not surprisingly, it was the great reliever's first RBI of his career.
After that, he closed out the 9th in efficient fashion, reaching a nice, round-number milestone in the process. He's only the second pitcher to reach 500 saves, the other being Hoffman of course.
A good baseball night even if my enthusiasm for sweeping the Mets is tempered by the reality of just how under-manned they were.
(The Keeping the Work Week at Bay Edition)
Ultimately, there's nothing really wrong with Robinson Cano hitting .300 with 24 home runs and playing pretty good defense at second base. It's just that sometimes you feel he should be doing so much more. Getting on base more. Hitting more consistently over the course of the season.
Remember early in the season when he was red hot, hitting line drives all over the place and seemed on his way to having a huge season? Specifically, he was peppering the ball to left field, either slicing it down the line or driving it with authority toward the left-cente gap. That's gone now. As I expected it eventually would be. I can't remember the last time I saw him hit a ball with authority to left or left-center.
Cano hit into two DPs and left a tidy nine runners on base. He had two chances to salt the game away with the bases loaded in the late innings. In the 6th, he hit into a DP with 1 out; and in the 8th with two outs and the bags juiced, he grounded out to Castillo.
It hit me. Wang's theme song for 2009. A mid-90's alterna-rock classic by Dave Grohl.
I'm ready to knock him out of the rotation at a moment's notice. And then he gets an inning-ending double play. Or flashes a nasty slider (something new in his arsenal?) and strikes out David Wright. The Mets had the tying run on 2nd in the 4th, and he was able to get the ground ball to get out of it.
He's still allowing too many baserunners and has lost his magical ability to be economical on a game in/game out basis (remember those 85 pitches through seven innings nights of '06 and '07?). But after watching his start in Atlanta and against a AAAA team at Citi Field tonight, I can't justify taking him out of the rotation. Yet. His next start will be against the Blue Jays, and then either at Minnesota or at Anaheim. In a couple of weeks we'll know for certain of Wang is going to be in the Yankees' rotation for the 2nd half of the season.
His final line: 5.1/4/2/2/3/3. He had 11 groundouts and 2 flyouts, threw 85 pitches, 49 of them for strikes. And got his first win of the season. That monkey's gone to heaven.
As the game got deeper, I realized that a loss tonight would've bothered me more than I expected. I can't remember a more depleted major league line-up than the Mets are shuttling out there everday; they're one player away from being a bonafide AAA line-up. To not be able to put them away, complete the sweep and enjoy Monday's off-day would've been disappointing
As is typical for an ESPN national broadcast that features the Yankees, there was a ton of Jeter Talk. Chances to get to 4,000 hits. The imminent prospect of a position switch. The Yankees' move at the end of his current contract.
The most interesting tidbit they offered was that since 1950 Jeter has been involved in the 4th most number of wins of any player in the major leagues before turning 35 (which Jeter did the other day). 1. Brooks Robinson; 2. Mickey Mantle; 3. Hank Aaron
Sure there's the factor of payroll advantage and being born under a good sign, but I find it amazingly impressive that Jeter is 4th on that list.
And by thinking "In five years Derek Jeter is going to be 40" gives me one of those "Damn, I'm getting old" moments which always suck.
In two games against Livan Hernandez the Yankees haven't bludgeoned him like I thought they could/should. His effort at Stadium 2 earlier in the month was no great shakes, but he did pitch into the 6th inning and tonight he was even more game than that. 7/3/3/3/5/1
This fits into his overall trend for this year of defying the odds of being left for road-kill by nearly every preseason prognostication, and giving the Mets a guy they can hand the ball to with a modicum of confidence every five days. Before tonight he had a 3.66 ERA in June in 32 innings of work. He's pitched into the 6th inning in 12 of 15 start this season. Who could've predicted that in the spring?
I don't know if there is a lesson to be mined from Hernandez's work this year . . . maybe never underestimate the wily veteran with the rubber arm of all rubber arms.
That's a big home run for Brandon Inge in Houston. The Tigers were on the verge of an inexcusable sweep at the hands of the Astros, and with one swing with 2 outs in the 9th down one, they were able to save face and stay a healthy margin ahead of the Twins.
The Giants have the second best record in the National League. It's time to start paying closer attention.
I didn't like the Tatis bunt in the 6th. Sheffield on first with no outs, and a count of 1-0. Granted, Tatis was clearly trying to bunt for a base hit, but I would rather see him hit away there.
I also wasn't crazy about lifting Wang at 85 pitches with one out in the 6th. He has Fernando Martinez (.173) and Brian Schneider (.233) coming up there and you're going to need the pen for 7-8-9 anyway. I always hate going to the bullpen until you clearly have to. And I didn't think they needed to in that spot. Maybe with the off-day tomorrow, the rest the relievers have had over the last 48 hours and their sub-3.00 ERA in June, Girardi didn't want to push Wang any further . . . It's a decision that could go either way. I probably would've stuck with him for at least another batter or two.
Coke struck out Martinez, and then Girardi pulled a double-switch with Damon & Hughes. Hughes got Santos to fly out on one pitch.
Since May 8th (the date of A-Rod's return), the Yankees have the best record in the majors, just ahead of Boston. The other two teams in the top four are the two Los Angeles teams. The Dodgers are no surprise, but I was surprised to see the Angels on that list. With the Rangers losing at home to the Padres, LA/Anaheim is two up in the loss column now.
The two A.L. West rivals start a series tomorrow in Texas.
Appropriately enough, A-Rod made a Keith Hernandez-esque play in the 7th on a sacrifice bunt attempt. With Castillo on first on no outs, Argenis Reyes but a bunt toward the third base side of the pitcher's mound. Rodriguez was moving in as the pitch was being delivered (a move that Hernandez made an art form as a first baseman in obvious bunt situations) fielded and threw to Jeter covering second to get the lead runner. Great execution of a difficult play.
It's funny the details you remember from your formative years as a sports fan. And some of the things you forget. I honestly forgot that Eckersly won both the Cy Young and MVP in 1992. I don't think I could ever condone a reliever winning an MVP award, regardless of the gaudy save numbers, ERA and WHIPs. He was *amazing* though during that stretch ('88-'93), wasn't he? How 'bout those WHIPs in '89 (0.607) and '90 (0.614)? From 1989-1991, three seasons, he pitched 207 innings, facing 767 batters in the process, and walked 16 men unintentionally (four intentional). And struck out 215! His K:BB ratio in '89 and '90 was 18.33 and 18.25 respectively. And the thing is those ratios were in the 6's in '87 and '88, 9.67 in '91; and never higher than 9.00 again.
It was like he hit an oasis of pitching-control perfection for two years, never to be found again at that level. Not that his K:BB splits thereafter were anything to scoff at.
For a point of comparison, Mariano Rivera's best K:BB ratio of his career was last year at 12.83. Before then he had never been higher than 6.92.
A couple of years ago, a buddy of mine who's a Red Sox fan and wasn't familiar with Brian Bruney at the time asked me about him. And I described him simply as "a country chucker." That description still fits to a large extent. And why I'm not dead-set on believing that Bruney is some kind of nirvanic answer to the 8th inning, his injury history aside for the moment.
He put two runners on in the 8th via the walk, then blew away Martinez with a high fastball. And then Girardi decided it was time for Mariano, well-rested and with four outs to claim as his own before his 500th save was in the books.
Twilight Zone Moment of the Night: Mariano Rivera hitting against K-Rod in the 9th with the bases loaded and two outs. And to truly add to the bizarro-reality moment, Mariano actually drew a walk! He was up 2-0 in the count to start, and Rodriguez came back to even the count at two. And after a foul ball, Frankie threw two balls in a row to walk in a run. Unbelievable. Not surprisingly, it was the great reliever's first RBI of his career.
After that, he closed out the 9th in efficient fashion, reaching a nice, round-number milestone in the process. He's only the second pitcher to reach 500 saves, the other being Hoffman of course.
A good baseball night even if my enthusiasm for sweeping the Mets is tempered by the reality of just how under-manned they were.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday Afternoon Snapshot
(Odds & Sods Edition)
I wish I had mentioned the Yankees' BABIP sooner . . . As if a light clicked on after the 5th inning on Wednesday, the offense has snapped back to life after a lethargic two weeks of play. In three games they're hitting .289/.387/.474 and have scored 28 runs.
Their RISP numbers have still been paltry over the last few days: .208/.400/.302, but it's made little difference. From a base standpoint, the most damage they've done is with a man on first base: .571/.625/.905. And from an outs situation, it's been one out: .352/.478/.611.
----
Did anyone else catch the Yankees-Mets game on television last night? In the early stages of the game, for about 20 minutes or so, the camera crews would continually break away and take panoramic shots of the sky over Citi Field. It was downright majestic, with all kinds of atypical colors. A wicked line of thunderstorms had rumbled its way over the Tri-State area (the lightning strikes in southern Connecticut were like those perfect vertical jagged likes that you see in science textbooks) after 5:00 and actually caused the game to start late. By the time the sun was setting, the storms had passed and there was a blend of sun and clouds and moisture in the air to cause an amazing natural display over the steel beams, electrical light, green field and brown infield. It was like something out of a Kevin Costner movie. But was 1,000x better than that.
----
Brett Gardner after his ridiculous 5-6 game last night stands at .303/.374/.376. He has 17 steals in 19 attempts and for his career is 30-33. I don't know how high the ceiling is for this guy offensively, but at these rates he is will be the Yankees' everyday centerfielder no ifs ands or buts. With all the attention that Boston gets for developing talent in its everyday line-up (and rightly so), the Yanks may have their answer to Ellsbury (.306/.354/.399 to this point in '09).
----
The first final of the day is in the books. Phillies 10, Toronto 0. Werth hit two home runs. The Cards are up on the Twins 5-3 in the 8th and everything else starts later.
----
I'm out of the business of predicting what teams are going to do in a short-term timeframe. My 10.5 over/under on the Yanks' schedule from the Nats to the M's went bust and looks ridiculous now. And so I didn't step out on any limb in my Tigers' piece yesterday, even though I saw they had Houston & Oakland coming up on the schedule.
Of course, Detroit's winning streak went poof last night against the Astros, as they gave up two runs in the 8th and lost 5-4. Alfredo Figaro makes his second career start tonight for the Tigers. In his only other appearance he threw a 5/8/2/2/2/7 line against the Brewers.
----
Scott Kazmir is back on the mound tonight for the Rays. He hasn't pitched since May 20 and will attempt to resuscitate a 4-4, 7.69 ERA campaign.
----
Want to know the state of the Royals? Here's all you need to know. Bruce Chen is starting tonight for K.C. tonight at Pittsburgh. Chen hasn't been in a major league game since 2007, and hasn't been a full-time starter since 2005. He was one of my personal favorites in the early part of this decade. Not blessed with much baseball talent at all, I remember him studying to be a nuclear physicist or some such thing. I don't know where he took that secondary career, but it always struck me how atypical that was for a major league baseball player.
----
After being under a perpetual bank of clouds for virtually the entire month of June, we have a perfect summer day at our disposal. My back deck & a beer combo was Son Volt/Pearl Jam/Springsteen's Seeger Sessions this afternoon.
Enjoy the games tonight.
(Odds & Sods Edition)
I wish I had mentioned the Yankees' BABIP sooner . . . As if a light clicked on after the 5th inning on Wednesday, the offense has snapped back to life after a lethargic two weeks of play. In three games they're hitting .289/.387/.474 and have scored 28 runs.
Their RISP numbers have still been paltry over the last few days: .208/.400/.302, but it's made little difference. From a base standpoint, the most damage they've done is with a man on first base: .571/.625/.905. And from an outs situation, it's been one out: .352/.478/.611.
----
Did anyone else catch the Yankees-Mets game on television last night? In the early stages of the game, for about 20 minutes or so, the camera crews would continually break away and take panoramic shots of the sky over Citi Field. It was downright majestic, with all kinds of atypical colors. A wicked line of thunderstorms had rumbled its way over the Tri-State area (the lightning strikes in southern Connecticut were like those perfect vertical jagged likes that you see in science textbooks) after 5:00 and actually caused the game to start late. By the time the sun was setting, the storms had passed and there was a blend of sun and clouds and moisture in the air to cause an amazing natural display over the steel beams, electrical light, green field and brown infield. It was like something out of a Kevin Costner movie. But was 1,000x better than that.
----
Brett Gardner after his ridiculous 5-6 game last night stands at .303/.374/.376. He has 17 steals in 19 attempts and for his career is 30-33. I don't know how high the ceiling is for this guy offensively, but at these rates he is will be the Yankees' everyday centerfielder no ifs ands or buts. With all the attention that Boston gets for developing talent in its everyday line-up (and rightly so), the Yanks may have their answer to Ellsbury (.306/.354/.399 to this point in '09).
----
The first final of the day is in the books. Phillies 10, Toronto 0. Werth hit two home runs. The Cards are up on the Twins 5-3 in the 8th and everything else starts later.
----
I'm out of the business of predicting what teams are going to do in a short-term timeframe. My 10.5 over/under on the Yanks' schedule from the Nats to the M's went bust and looks ridiculous now. And so I didn't step out on any limb in my Tigers' piece yesterday, even though I saw they had Houston & Oakland coming up on the schedule.
Of course, Detroit's winning streak went poof last night against the Astros, as they gave up two runs in the 8th and lost 5-4. Alfredo Figaro makes his second career start tonight for the Tigers. In his only other appearance he threw a 5/8/2/2/2/7 line against the Brewers.
----
Scott Kazmir is back on the mound tonight for the Rays. He hasn't pitched since May 20 and will attempt to resuscitate a 4-4, 7.69 ERA campaign.
----
Want to know the state of the Royals? Here's all you need to know. Bruce Chen is starting tonight for K.C. tonight at Pittsburgh. Chen hasn't been in a major league game since 2007, and hasn't been a full-time starter since 2005. He was one of my personal favorites in the early part of this decade. Not blessed with much baseball talent at all, I remember him studying to be a nuclear physicist or some such thing. I don't know where he took that secondary career, but it always struck me how atypical that was for a major league baseball player.
----
After being under a perpetual bank of clouds for virtually the entire month of June, we have a perfect summer day at our disposal. My back deck & a beer combo was Son Volt/Pearl Jam/Springsteen's Seeger Sessions this afternoon.
Enjoy the games tonight.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Team in Focus
Detroit Tigers Edition
The team with the longest winning streak in baseball on the morning of June 26 is the Detroit Tigers. After completing a sweep of the Chicago Cubs yesterday afternoon at home, Detroit has now won seven in a row and has a cushy five-game lead in the A.L. Central over the Twins.
The Tigers started the month in a bad way, getting swept at home by Boston and dropping the first of a three-game set vs. the Angels. Since then, however, they're 13-6 and that includes a blip when they lost four straight from June 13-17.
As is typically the case when a team goes on a week-long or longer winning streak, it's a case of their pitching & offense coming together. Over the last seven days they lead the American League in runs and are tied for 2nd in runs allowed with 18. The three teams they've played in this stretch are all from the N.L. Central: St. Louis (1); Milwaukee (3) and the Cubbies (3).
It's the Tigers second seven-game winning streak of the season. The other came from May 15-22 and included three-game sweeps against Oakland & Texas at home and a win against Colorado.
In my mind, I've grouped the Tigers in with the Mets to this point in the season as both teams are talented but enigmatic. The Mets seem likely to dance around the .500 mark for the near timeframe, due to both injuries and their overall persistent inconsistencies. The Tigers have moved beyond such company, at least for the time being, as they're now ten games over .500 for the first time this season.
Overall, the Tigers are third in the American League in runs allowed. However, over the last 30 days, they're third from the bottom. Better than only Cleveland and Kansas City.
Minnesota, who I expect to stay within shouting distance of the Tigers for now and make a legitimate run at them later, is 2nd in the league in RA in the same timeframe.
Top 5 - RA American League Last 30 Days
80 Seattle
97 Minnesota
100 Boston
102 Tampa
107 New York
In the same timeframe, Detroit is 8th in the league in runs scored. Granted, "the last 30 days" encompasses that awful series vs. the Red Sox in which they were trounced 26-9 over the three games, but still . . . I'd expect a little better showing for the Tigers. In the other four-game losing streak this month they were outscored 30-11.
Looking at the entire season, Detroit is a pretty good defensive team, but not great. They're 6th in the league in Defensive Efficiency and 6th in the league in BABIP.
Detroit's run margin is +34. Minnesota's is +23. Based on those numbers you'd expect them to be closer than five games.
Detroit's a good team. They have three guys offensively who are having very good to excellent seasons in Cabrera, Inge and Granderson. They have a solid, stable rotation with three starters having very good to excellent years in Jackson, Verlander and Porcello. They have a good, but not great, closer. LIke I said they have a good defense, but nothing that jumps off the page. And I think we all like Jim Leyland as a manager.
Maybe it's that Boston series, but I still put them a peg below the Red Sox, Tampa and yes, even the Yankees. And if we're looking at run differential, then you have to consider Toronto who's at +47 compared to Detroit's +34.
It's a well-balanced team. I don't expect them to be in the World Series, but at the same time I wouldn't be shocked if they gave their first round opponent (possibly the Wild Card winner from the East) absolute fits in a short series.
Postscript: Detroit and Minnesota play July 3-5 at Minnesota; August 7-9 in Detroit; and twice in September: 18-20 at Minny, 28-10/1 at Comerica.
Detroit Tigers Edition
The team with the longest winning streak in baseball on the morning of June 26 is the Detroit Tigers. After completing a sweep of the Chicago Cubs yesterday afternoon at home, Detroit has now won seven in a row and has a cushy five-game lead in the A.L. Central over the Twins.
The Tigers started the month in a bad way, getting swept at home by Boston and dropping the first of a three-game set vs. the Angels. Since then, however, they're 13-6 and that includes a blip when they lost four straight from June 13-17.
As is typically the case when a team goes on a week-long or longer winning streak, it's a case of their pitching & offense coming together. Over the last seven days they lead the American League in runs and are tied for 2nd in runs allowed with 18. The three teams they've played in this stretch are all from the N.L. Central: St. Louis (1); Milwaukee (3) and the Cubbies (3).
It's the Tigers second seven-game winning streak of the season. The other came from May 15-22 and included three-game sweeps against Oakland & Texas at home and a win against Colorado.
In my mind, I've grouped the Tigers in with the Mets to this point in the season as both teams are talented but enigmatic. The Mets seem likely to dance around the .500 mark for the near timeframe, due to both injuries and their overall persistent inconsistencies. The Tigers have moved beyond such company, at least for the time being, as they're now ten games over .500 for the first time this season.
Overall, the Tigers are third in the American League in runs allowed. However, over the last 30 days, they're third from the bottom. Better than only Cleveland and Kansas City.
Minnesota, who I expect to stay within shouting distance of the Tigers for now and make a legitimate run at them later, is 2nd in the league in RA in the same timeframe.
Top 5 - RA American League Last 30 Days
80 Seattle
97 Minnesota
100 Boston
102 Tampa
107 New York
In the same timeframe, Detroit is 8th in the league in runs scored. Granted, "the last 30 days" encompasses that awful series vs. the Red Sox in which they were trounced 26-9 over the three games, but still . . . I'd expect a little better showing for the Tigers. In the other four-game losing streak this month they were outscored 30-11.
Looking at the entire season, Detroit is a pretty good defensive team, but not great. They're 6th in the league in Defensive Efficiency and 6th in the league in BABIP.
Detroit's run margin is +34. Minnesota's is +23. Based on those numbers you'd expect them to be closer than five games.
Detroit's a good team. They have three guys offensively who are having very good to excellent seasons in Cabrera, Inge and Granderson. They have a solid, stable rotation with three starters having very good to excellent years in Jackson, Verlander and Porcello. They have a good, but not great, closer. LIke I said they have a good defense, but nothing that jumps off the page. And I think we all like Jim Leyland as a manager.
Maybe it's that Boston series, but I still put them a peg below the Red Sox, Tampa and yes, even the Yankees. And if we're looking at run differential, then you have to consider Toronto who's at +47 compared to Detroit's +34.
It's a well-balanced team. I don't expect them to be in the World Series, but at the same time I wouldn't be shocked if they gave their first round opponent (possibly the Wild Card winner from the East) absolute fits in a short series.
Postscript: Detroit and Minnesota play July 3-5 at Minnesota; August 7-9 in Detroit; and twice in September: 18-20 at Minny, 28-10/1 at Comerica.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
A Sabermetric Silver Lining
(The "Where We Would We Be Without Wishful Thinking?" Edition
Or "Determined to Make You Sick of RISP" Edition)
All Stats Thru Tuesday, June 23
Pete Abraham took a critical look at the Yankees' recent woes yesterday afternoon, in the simply titled "Breaking down the slump."
We've spent a lot of time focusing on the questions in the back-end of the starting rotation and bullpen in recent weeks. In the meantime the everyday starting nine has crumbled. As P.A. points out, the team does have a 3.89 ERA in the 13 games since New York arrived in Fenway Park two weeks ago.
This stretch has dropped the Yanks to 11th in the American League in BA/RISP at .261. That's the bottom five in the league, which is rounded out by:
.256 Texas
.250 Oakland
.246 Chicago
.231 Seattle
Overall, not the company you want your line-ups to be paling around with.
Specifically, what have the Yankees done poorly with RISP, which are the situations that are defining their offensive troubles as much as anything of late?
Double plays/RISP: They've grounded into the second most DPs in the league when presented a good scoring opportunity. But the team that's first has had 43 more plate appearances in these situations.
31 in 826 PAs - Toronto
27 in 773 PAs - New York
26 in 756 PAs - Minnesota
24 in 685 PAs - Detroit
24 in 783 PAs - Boston
Sacrifice Flies: They're 2nd to last in the American League in SFs/RISP. The Yanks have 15; the Royals have 10. The Royals, by the way, are hitting about the same as New York with RISP: .262 to .261. Again, not exactly the offense you want to pattern yourselves after.
There are things the Yankees have done well with RISP, relative to the rest of their A.L. brethren.
a. They've hit the second most doubles (42; the Jays have 48).
b. They've hit the most home runs (21).
c. They're 13-0 in stolen bases. That total ranks 7th in this category, but Cleveland is the only other team that's been perfect in these situations and they have 7 steals.
d. They're 3rd in walks at 102 (Boston and Tampa have 113).
e. Maybe surprisingly, they haven't struck out an inordinate amount of time with RISP. And K's are the silent cousin of the Real Rally Killers, i.e. double plays. They're tied for 7th with Minnesota at 117. Tampa has the most with 171. As an aside, the Rays have also had the most RISP opportunities with 877 plate appearances.
f. They're in the top 5 in the A.L. in OBP/RISP:
.394 Boston
.371 Tampa
.368 Cleveland
.367 Baltimore
.364 New York
g. Thanks to the aforementioned doubles & home run totals, they're third in SLG/RISP at .364.
This doesn't appear to be a team that has some inherent trait that forces them to go into the fetal position when there are runners standing on second base or third base or both. This is a team with an .805 OPS/RISP. The league average is .769.
Is their propensity to hit into double plays a function of bad luck? Their age (slow feet & sometimes tired/lazy bats)? A fault of not "being able to grind things out in a big spot"?
What about not being able to hit a sac fly every now and then with a guy on third base? It has been cited many times, by fans, talk show hosts and the media in general, that this is a poor situational baseball team. And this is the kind of nugget that supports the hysteria. Making it somewhat less hysterical.
The one potential silver lining I do want to point out is their BABIP or Batting Average on Balls in Play. For those unfamiliar with this stat, here it from the proverbial horse's mouth. From Baseball Prospectus:
The average BABIP in the A.L. with runners in scoring position this year is .296. The Yanks are at .283, which is in the bottom 5 in the league:
.245 - Seattle
.275 - Oakland
.276 - Chicago
.283 - New York
.284 - Minnesota
In all situations, the Yankees BABIP is .287 is 11th in the A.L.
From how I understand the stat, that number is going to continually try and pull itself towards the .300 range. And at quick glance, this seems to be a consistent stat over the last several, full seasons.
2008
.302 - MLB Average
.325 - Highest (Texas)
.281 - Lowest (Chicago AL)
2007
.305 - MLB Average
.323 - Highest (Detroit)
.278 - Lowest (Chicago AL)
2006
.305 - MLB Average
.324 - Highest (Cleveland)
.285 - Lowest (Oakland)
I'll admit I'm a novice at using this stat to look at team-wide offenses, and I'm still learning how it applies to individual players. (For an interesting article on David Wright's season and this stat, go here.). As a general statement, it does seem to be in line with the overall quality of an offense. Tampa's OPS+ is 111, tops in the league; they're hitting .315 on balls in play, also tops in the league. Likewise, Oakland is last in the league in OPS+ and last in the league in BABIP at .265. The White Sox, for example, have been among the worst in the league in this category for several years and are again this year. So I'm assuming a correlation between the quality of hitters on your team and BABIP.
The reason I brought this stat up in relation to the Yankees, is that their BABIPs (RISP and overall) are numbers more typical of a bad offense. And of all the things I can say about the Yankees, I can't say they're a bad offense. They've been bad lately, but they're scoring 5.4 R/G on the season (2nd in the league) and are among the top five in the American League in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, home runs and stolen bases.
Their BABIPs put them down with teams like the Royals and the Mariners and the White Sox, which makes me think the Yanks' numbers have the potential to rise as the season progresses. Which should/could equate to more hits and more runs. Of course, the stat is also a measure of defensive efficiency (turning batted balls in play into outs), so maybe they've just had a lot of glove being flashed against them . . . or they have some extra hits heading their way to balance things out a bit.
Last night in Atlanta, the Yanks were 2-9 with RISP. However, one of those hits was a key in helping them to an 8-4 victory, and one of their bigger hits in a couple of weeks. With the bases loaded and two outs in a 1-1 game in the 6th, Alex Rodriguez delivered a line drive single to right to score two and give New York a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
(The "Where We Would We Be Without Wishful Thinking?" Edition
Or "Determined to Make You Sick of RISP" Edition)
All Stats Thru Tuesday, June 23
Pete Abraham took a critical look at the Yankees' recent woes yesterday afternoon, in the simply titled "Breaking down the slump."
We've spent a lot of time focusing on the questions in the back-end of the starting rotation and bullpen in recent weeks. In the meantime the everyday starting nine has crumbled. As P.A. points out, the team does have a 3.89 ERA in the 13 games since New York arrived in Fenway Park two weeks ago.
Offense: What else could it be? The Yankees are hitting .240 with a .326 on-base percentage and a .394 slugging percentage in those 13 games and averaging 4.0 runs. In their previous 57 games, they were averaging 5.7 runs and hitting .277/.356/.482 as a team.
Clutch hitting: The Yankees were hitting .266 with runners in scoring position over the first 57 games. Not great, but it was working. They are at .238 since. If you discount that 15-0 game against the Mets, it’s .194. They’ve fallen off the cliff of clutch.
Clutch hitting: The Yankees were hitting .266 with runners in scoring position over the first 57 games. Not great, but it was working. They are at .238 since. If you discount that 15-0 game against the Mets, it’s .194. They’ve fallen off the cliff of clutch.
This stretch has dropped the Yanks to 11th in the American League in BA/RISP at .261. That's the bottom five in the league, which is rounded out by:
.256 Texas
.250 Oakland
.246 Chicago
.231 Seattle
Overall, not the company you want your line-ups to be paling around with.
Specifically, what have the Yankees done poorly with RISP, which are the situations that are defining their offensive troubles as much as anything of late?
Double plays/RISP: They've grounded into the second most DPs in the league when presented a good scoring opportunity. But the team that's first has had 43 more plate appearances in these situations.
31 in 826 PAs - Toronto
27 in 773 PAs - New York
26 in 756 PAs - Minnesota
24 in 685 PAs - Detroit
24 in 783 PAs - Boston
Sacrifice Flies: They're 2nd to last in the American League in SFs/RISP. The Yanks have 15; the Royals have 10. The Royals, by the way, are hitting about the same as New York with RISP: .262 to .261. Again, not exactly the offense you want to pattern yourselves after.
There are things the Yankees have done well with RISP, relative to the rest of their A.L. brethren.
a. They've hit the second most doubles (42; the Jays have 48).
b. They've hit the most home runs (21).
c. They're 13-0 in stolen bases. That total ranks 7th in this category, but Cleveland is the only other team that's been perfect in these situations and they have 7 steals.
d. They're 3rd in walks at 102 (Boston and Tampa have 113).
e. Maybe surprisingly, they haven't struck out an inordinate amount of time with RISP. And K's are the silent cousin of the Real Rally Killers, i.e. double plays. They're tied for 7th with Minnesota at 117. Tampa has the most with 171. As an aside, the Rays have also had the most RISP opportunities with 877 plate appearances.
f. They're in the top 5 in the A.L. in OBP/RISP:
.394 Boston
.371 Tampa
.368 Cleveland
.367 Baltimore
.364 New York
g. Thanks to the aforementioned doubles & home run totals, they're third in SLG/RISP at .364.
This doesn't appear to be a team that has some inherent trait that forces them to go into the fetal position when there are runners standing on second base or third base or both. This is a team with an .805 OPS/RISP. The league average is .769.
Is their propensity to hit into double plays a function of bad luck? Their age (slow feet & sometimes tired/lazy bats)? A fault of not "being able to grind things out in a big spot"?
What about not being able to hit a sac fly every now and then with a guy on third base? It has been cited many times, by fans, talk show hosts and the media in general, that this is a poor situational baseball team. And this is the kind of nugget that supports the hysteria. Making it somewhat less hysterical.
The one potential silver lining I do want to point out is their BABIP or Batting Average on Balls in Play. For those unfamiliar with this stat, here it from the proverbial horse's mouth. From Baseball Prospectus:
Batting Average on balls put into play. A pitcher's average on batted balls ending a plate appearance, excluding home runs. Based on the research of Voros McCracken and others, BABIP is mostly a function of a pitcher's defense and luck, rather than persistent skill. Thus, pitchers with abnormally high or low BABIPs are good bets to see their performances regress to the mean. A typical BABIP is about .290.
The average BABIP in the A.L. with runners in scoring position this year is .296. The Yanks are at .283, which is in the bottom 5 in the league:
.245 - Seattle
.275 - Oakland
.276 - Chicago
.283 - New York
.284 - Minnesota
In all situations, the Yankees BABIP is .287 is 11th in the A.L.
From how I understand the stat, that number is going to continually try and pull itself towards the .300 range. And at quick glance, this seems to be a consistent stat over the last several, full seasons.
2008
.302 - MLB Average
.325 - Highest (Texas)
.281 - Lowest (Chicago AL)
2007
.305 - MLB Average
.323 - Highest (Detroit)
.278 - Lowest (Chicago AL)
2006
.305 - MLB Average
.324 - Highest (Cleveland)
.285 - Lowest (Oakland)
I'll admit I'm a novice at using this stat to look at team-wide offenses, and I'm still learning how it applies to individual players. (For an interesting article on David Wright's season and this stat, go here.). As a general statement, it does seem to be in line with the overall quality of an offense. Tampa's OPS+ is 111, tops in the league; they're hitting .315 on balls in play, also tops in the league. Likewise, Oakland is last in the league in OPS+ and last in the league in BABIP at .265. The White Sox, for example, have been among the worst in the league in this category for several years and are again this year. So I'm assuming a correlation between the quality of hitters on your team and BABIP.
The reason I brought this stat up in relation to the Yankees, is that their BABIPs (RISP and overall) are numbers more typical of a bad offense. And of all the things I can say about the Yankees, I can't say they're a bad offense. They've been bad lately, but they're scoring 5.4 R/G on the season (2nd in the league) and are among the top five in the American League in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, home runs and stolen bases.
Their BABIPs put them down with teams like the Royals and the Mariners and the White Sox, which makes me think the Yanks' numbers have the potential to rise as the season progresses. Which should/could equate to more hits and more runs. Of course, the stat is also a measure of defensive efficiency (turning batted balls in play into outs), so maybe they've just had a lot of glove being flashed against them . . . or they have some extra hits heading their way to balance things out a bit.
Last night in Atlanta, the Yanks were 2-9 with RISP. However, one of those hits was a key in helping them to an 8-4 victory, and one of their bigger hits in a couple of weeks. With the bases loaded and two outs in a 1-1 game in the 6th, Alex Rodriguez delivered a line drive single to right to score two and give New York a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Bad Moon Rising
This is one of those moments, when I sit back in my chair and marvel to what extent this New York Yankee franchise has been deconstructed.
Down again tonight. This time 3-0 to the Braves. A two-time 19-game winner is on the verge of getting bounced from the rotation, which will put a stake in the Joba-to-the-Bullpen contingent. A defensive play that should've been made with two outs and no one on helped open the door to a three-spot in the bottom of the 3rd for Atlanta. No excuses for Wang though; the hits he's given up could've been hung up on a line.
There is a ton of talk now about the A-Rod contract. Pete Abraham wrote about it this morning. Tyler Kepner wrote about A-Rod's current freefall in The Times. We all knew it was a bad contract from the beginning. Did we suspect it could turn nightmarish? Maybe some doomsayer out there was making a clarion call that this could potentially be the worst contract in the history of professional sports. I never went that far. I couldn't foresee the guy having a degenerative hip or succumbing to the steroids hysteria. Although the latter wasn't much of a surprise.
Alex Rodriguez needs a big summer. If July & August are anything close to his .153/.315/.288 (.288!) June, then this will go beyond simple contract-regret and typical booing into a kind of frantic search for an answer to one question: how are the Yankees going to get out of this contract?
This is one of those moments, when I sit back in my chair and marvel to what extent this New York Yankee franchise has been deconstructed.
Down again tonight. This time 3-0 to the Braves. A two-time 19-game winner is on the verge of getting bounced from the rotation, which will put a stake in the Joba-to-the-Bullpen contingent. A defensive play that should've been made with two outs and no one on helped open the door to a three-spot in the bottom of the 3rd for Atlanta. No excuses for Wang though; the hits he's given up could've been hung up on a line.
There is a ton of talk now about the A-Rod contract. Pete Abraham wrote about it this morning. Tyler Kepner wrote about A-Rod's current freefall in The Times. We all knew it was a bad contract from the beginning. Did we suspect it could turn nightmarish? Maybe some doomsayer out there was making a clarion call that this could potentially be the worst contract in the history of professional sports. I never went that far. I couldn't foresee the guy having a degenerative hip or succumbing to the steroids hysteria. Although the latter wasn't much of a surprise.
Alex Rodriguez needs a big summer. If July & August are anything close to his .153/.315/.288 (.288!) June, then this will go beyond simple contract-regret and typical booing into a kind of frantic search for an answer to one question: how are the Yankees going to get out of this contract?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saturday Morning Snapshot
(The Pitching Friendly Edition - Look, Tables!)
Main Topics: Pettitte & Dice-K
Edited 9:38 a.m.
From Pete Abe's LoHud blog, posted last night after the game:
Alright, let's take a quick look at some pitching numbers. Road stats do not include last night's game in Florida.
Home
326 IP / 7.70 K/9 / 53 HR / 1.48 WHIP / 4.91 ERA
Road
275.2 IP / 7.20 K/9 / 34 HR / 1.35 WHIP / 4.56 ERA
That's a pretty crude study, but to go further, you could bring into account strength of schedule on the road vs. at home and a myriad of other factors. This will suffice for now. *Outside of the increased home run rate, which isn't enormous if you take into account the differences in innings played, the Yankees' staff isn't getting bludgeoned at home compared to the road. The rate stats are better on the road, but they're also benefiting from a .281 BAbip away from New York vs. a typical .304 at home.
*Update, 9:38 a.m.: The home run rate while looking small on the surface [1.4 HR/9 at Yankee Stadium vs. 1.1 HR/9 on the road] does end up making a huge difference. Equaling out the number of innings played at home and on the road to 326, the staff would have allowed 53 gopher balls at the former and 40 at the latter. As we'll see below, Pettitte plays a big role in this difference.
The Yankees have used only six starting pitchers this year, which is a far cry from the 13 they had to hand the ball to last season. Included in that motley cast of characters were Kei Igawa, Dan Giese, Carl Pavano, of course, and even Brian Bruney for a start. We think things are rocky this year with the pitching staff? Darrell Rasner started 20 games last year, but I digress.
Burnett and Chamberlain have started 13 games apiece and Sabathia and Pettitte have both thrown 14 games. Hughes and Wang round things out with seven and six starts respectively. Leaving Hughes & Wang aside, let's look at the main four starters and their home/road splits.
Record at Yankee Stadium
On The Road
Well, there's not much here that suggests that Yankee Stadium has been obviously detrimental (or will be detrimental "over the course of time") to any regular starter besides Andy Pettitte. I'm struck by the similarity of Sabathia's home/road splits; the numbers go up (with the K's going down) a tick at home, but nothing stark. Burnett has actually been better, much better, at Yankee Stadium, and my perception of Joba is that he's been burned less by his home ballpark than his wildness, immaturity and inexperience. In three less innings of work, he's walked five more batters at home than on the road, and has actually allowed fewer home runs in the "Lil' Stadium" than at opposing parks.
Pettitte though? Well, small sample size blah blah blah aside, it does look like the Stadium has had an ill effect on the veteran left-hander. The 9:2 home run split just jumps off the page, and based on the quotes from Abraham it seems to now be inside his head. "I need to figure something out at home" indicates that he's going to make some kind of adjustment but what? Pitch sequence? Trying to nibble on the corners more?
Burnett's given up seven home runs at the new park this year, but that's balanced out by five on the road (in 11+ less innings of work to boot).
The only other starter that really jumps off the page in terms of his home run split (and I'm not going to even bother looking at Wang's numbers) is Phil Hughes. In 24+ innings on the work on the road he's allowed two long balls. At home: five home runs in 18 IP.
And for what it's worth, here's a quick wrap on what the four relievers with the heaviest workloads have done at home vs. the road. All four have pitched between 17-19 innings at home, and 8-11+ on the road. Home WHIPs are first:
Aceves:
WHIP: 1.89 / 1.18
Coke:
WHIP: 0.92 / 1.32
Rivera:
WHIP: 1.16 / 0.92
Veras
WHIP: 1.38 / 1.56
Jose Veras in 8.1 innings of work on the road compiled this line: 8.1/10/5 earned runs/4/5 good for an 8.64 ERA. Easy to see why he was DFA'ed.
Again, when you're talking about eight and 11 innings of work, these are very small sample sizes, but Veras actually pitched better at home for whatever that's worth, and Coke has been much better at the new ballpark. I can't speak for Aceves particularly, but the times I've seen Mariano struggle at Yankee Stadium it's been less about wind currents and short fences, than line drives getting hit all over the joint.
In any case, I'm not convinced that the new Stadium has been "detrimental" to anyone's confidence besides Andy Pettitte, the subject of Abraham's story to begin with. He needed a tidy concluding sentence like all writers do, but I'm not sure it quite fits. And besides the team is 21-14 at home and 17-15 on the road. So they're coping.
----
The End of the Dice-K Era?
Rob Neyer was busy last night, and piggy-backed on David Pinto's post at Baseball Musings. What does that make me? Oh well, whatever, never mind . . .
The one thing Rob didn't point out, which Pinto alluded to, is Dice-K's H/9, which stood at 14.8 before last night. It was 8.4 in '07 and 6.9 last year. There has to be some regression in that number, but the bottom line is he isn't getting bleeped and blooped to death. He's getting whacked. His line drive percentage was steady in both of his first two seasons at 18%. This year, it's close to 30%. Theo Epstein and Bill James and HAL 9000 know all these numbers better than I do, and they're not going to sit there and watch this guy pitch like this when there are capable moundsmen waiting in the wings.
I've probably been a supporter (and I use that term with the lightest of connotations) of Daisuke Matsuzaka more than most people in these parts. The Red Sox fans are tired of him. The Yankee fans think he's been over-rated. And both camps are right in their own respective ways. If one of my projected top 3 starters were pitching to an 8.23 ERA and an unsightly 2.20 WHIP then yeah, I'd be pretty sick of it too. And truth be told, Matsuzaka has not lived up to the expectations that were levied on him in the winter of 2007, and there was a bit of smoke-and-mirrors act to his 2008 campaign.
However, the record does show he had a 200 inning/200 strikeout season for a team that won a championship. His record in 2007 wasn't as good as his peripherals would suggest, as he went 15-13 that season. Last year with the strikeout rate dipping a bit and his walks taking a turn for the worse, he still went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA, which probably was a little misleading. But again, 160+ innings of work for a team that was one win away from another trip to the World Series.
Cut it however you'd like, but Masuzaka has been a major contributor to the Red Sox since 2007 and his apparent/possible demise is a problem for them. There's been so much talk about the Sox rotation, it's made prospective fantasy league GMs out of all us: who's out/who's in, should they trade Penny, how long are they going to let Buchholz rot in Pawtucket. John Smoltz is on his way, scheduled to pitch Thursday in what would be Matsuzaka's normal turn in the rotation. Although he's apparently been lights-out in his minor league stints, do we really know what the old, venerable right-hander is going to give the Sox from now until October? Buchholz is a guy who apparently has sorted out the kinks. And he better have; he pitched to a 6.75 ERA in 76 innings of work in the bigs last season.
Some if this is a Yankee fan grasping at straws. This (Boston) is a team that has the 2nd best run differential in the sport and has been the 2nd best team in the American League at preventing runs. For all of the inconsistency in the starting rotation this season, they're still 13 over .500 and in first place and remain the best team in the A.L. And now it looks as if they're going to make major changes to their rotation, whether it's simply addition & subtraction, or the quasi-six-man rotation that's being bandied about. Smoltz for Dice-K makes sense right now, but if they're going to try and shoehorn Buchholz in there for Penny, who's pitched well post-April, there's a chance that things will be getting jumbled a little too much for their own good.
---
On My Turntable
Neil Young. Lots of Neil Young. I don't think I'm going to make the plunge and buy the Mt. Olympus of all box sets. For the time being, I'm content to just plunge into the varied live recordings I have and the various studio albums in my collection. He's an artist that you can forever chase and never catch, like Dylan like Robert Pollard like a whale of some renown. The archives just go on and on like an endless stream. Watching the river flow, indeed. You never quite reach fulfillment with artists like these, which makes something like Archives both a monument and a gnomon.
Listened to a wonderful Nirvana recording last night for the first time. Melbourne, early '92. Sounded golden. That was right in the thick of it. And it now takes it's place alongside the Del Mar, California December '91 show as the best documents I've heard that capture that moment when it all went boom.
One of my favorite documentaries is streaming at Pitchfork. One week only though. There's at least one GBV fan who frequents these parts from time to time . . .
(The Pitching Friendly Edition - Look, Tables!)
Main Topics: Pettitte & Dice-K
Edited 9:38 a.m.
From Pete Abe's LoHud blog, posted last night after the game:
Those who think the skewed dimensions of the new Yankee Stadium aren’t a factor should ask Andy Pettitte what he thinks. The lefty has a 5.77 ERA at Yankee Stadium in nine starts. In six starts on the road, it’s 2.35. He has allowed nine home runs in the Bronx, two elsewhere.
“I might have given up three or four (home runs) tonight at home,” he said after holding the Marlins to one run over seven innings. “For the most part, that’s it right there. I’ve given up a few more long balls at Yankee Stadium. … I need to figure something out at home.”
The other pitchers, for the most part, feel the same way. While the new Lil’ Stadium helps the hitters, it’s causing havoc among the pitchers. They’re pitching away from contact, giving up more home runs, etc. Over the course of time, it’s detrimental to maintaining mechanics and confidence.
“I might have given up three or four (home runs) tonight at home,” he said after holding the Marlins to one run over seven innings. “For the most part, that’s it right there. I’ve given up a few more long balls at Yankee Stadium. … I need to figure something out at home.”
The other pitchers, for the most part, feel the same way. While the new Lil’ Stadium helps the hitters, it’s causing havoc among the pitchers. They’re pitching away from contact, giving up more home runs, etc. Over the course of time, it’s detrimental to maintaining mechanics and confidence.
Alright, let's take a quick look at some pitching numbers. Road stats do not include last night's game in Florida.
Home
326 IP / 7.70 K/9 / 53 HR / 1.48 WHIP / 4.91 ERA
Road
275.2 IP / 7.20 K/9 / 34 HR / 1.35 WHIP / 4.56 ERA
That's a pretty crude study, but to go further, you could bring into account strength of schedule on the road vs. at home and a myriad of other factors. This will suffice for now. *Outside of the increased home run rate, which isn't enormous if you take into account the differences in innings played, the Yankees' staff isn't getting bludgeoned at home compared to the road. The rate stats are better on the road, but they're also benefiting from a .281 BAbip away from New York vs. a typical .304 at home.
*Update, 9:38 a.m.: The home run rate while looking small on the surface [1.4 HR/9 at Yankee Stadium vs. 1.1 HR/9 on the road] does end up making a huge difference. Equaling out the number of innings played at home and on the road to 326, the staff would have allowed 53 gopher balls at the former and 40 at the latter. As we'll see below, Pettitte plays a big role in this difference.
The Yankees have used only six starting pitchers this year, which is a far cry from the 13 they had to hand the ball to last season. Included in that motley cast of characters were Kei Igawa, Dan Giese, Carl Pavano, of course, and even Brian Bruney for a start. We think things are rocky this year with the pitching staff? Darrell Rasner started 20 games last year, but I digress.
Burnett and Chamberlain have started 13 games apiece and Sabathia and Pettitte have both thrown 14 games. Hughes and Wang round things out with seven and six starts respectively. Leaving Hughes & Wang aside, let's look at the main four starters and their home/road splits.
Record at Yankee Stadium
| Player | Starts | Innings | K/9 | HR | WHIP | ERA |
| Sabathia | ||||||
| Burnett | ||||||
| Chamberlain | ||||||
| Pettitte |
On The Road
| Player | Starts | Innings | K/9 | HR | WHIP | ERA |
| Sabathia | ||||||
| Burnett | ||||||
| Chamberlain | ||||||
| Pettitte |
Well, there's not much here that suggests that Yankee Stadium has been obviously detrimental (or will be detrimental "over the course of time") to any regular starter besides Andy Pettitte. I'm struck by the similarity of Sabathia's home/road splits; the numbers go up (with the K's going down) a tick at home, but nothing stark. Burnett has actually been better, much better, at Yankee Stadium, and my perception of Joba is that he's been burned less by his home ballpark than his wildness, immaturity and inexperience. In three less innings of work, he's walked five more batters at home than on the road, and has actually allowed fewer home runs in the "Lil' Stadium" than at opposing parks.
Pettitte though? Well, small sample size blah blah blah aside, it does look like the Stadium has had an ill effect on the veteran left-hander. The 9:2 home run split just jumps off the page, and based on the quotes from Abraham it seems to now be inside his head. "I need to figure something out at home" indicates that he's going to make some kind of adjustment but what? Pitch sequence? Trying to nibble on the corners more?
Burnett's given up seven home runs at the new park this year, but that's balanced out by five on the road (in 11+ less innings of work to boot).
The only other starter that really jumps off the page in terms of his home run split (and I'm not going to even bother looking at Wang's numbers) is Phil Hughes. In 24+ innings on the work on the road he's allowed two long balls. At home: five home runs in 18 IP.
And for what it's worth, here's a quick wrap on what the four relievers with the heaviest workloads have done at home vs. the road. All four have pitched between 17-19 innings at home, and 8-11+ on the road. Home WHIPs are first:
Aceves:
WHIP: 1.89 / 1.18
Coke:
WHIP: 0.92 / 1.32
Rivera:
WHIP: 1.16 / 0.92
Veras
WHIP: 1.38 / 1.56
Jose Veras in 8.1 innings of work on the road compiled this line: 8.1/10/5 earned runs/4/5 good for an 8.64 ERA. Easy to see why he was DFA'ed.
Again, when you're talking about eight and 11 innings of work, these are very small sample sizes, but Veras actually pitched better at home for whatever that's worth, and Coke has been much better at the new ballpark. I can't speak for Aceves particularly, but the times I've seen Mariano struggle at Yankee Stadium it's been less about wind currents and short fences, than line drives getting hit all over the joint.
In any case, I'm not convinced that the new Stadium has been "detrimental" to anyone's confidence besides Andy Pettitte, the subject of Abraham's story to begin with. He needed a tidy concluding sentence like all writers do, but I'm not sure it quite fits. And besides the team is 21-14 at home and 17-15 on the road. So they're coping.
----
The End of the Dice-K Era?
Rob Neyer was busy last night, and piggy-backed on David Pinto's post at Baseball Musings. What does that make me? Oh well, whatever, never mind . . .
Well, all that pitching depth is about to pay off if the Red Sox idle Matsuzaka for a spell. Which isn't all that easy, since his contract actually prohibits a trip to the minors. If they don't want him to pitch, they'll have to send him to the bullpen or make up some sort of injury. Plus, it's just one lousy game. Granted, there have been other lousy games. But before Friday night, Dice-K had, at the very least, been striking out and walking reasonable numbers of batters. It's probably not quite the time to panic.
And of course there's still Clay Buchholz. Wednesday night in Pawtucket, John Smoltz -- in his "final tuneup" before joining the big club -- started for the PawSox and went four solid innings ... but it's Buchholz who got the victory with four solid innings of his own. In 71 innings, Buchholz is 5-0 with a 1.90 ERA and 65 strikeouts.
I would agree with David that the Red Sox' pitching depth will pay off. It has already, and almost certainly will again. But I still maintain that the Red Sox, right now, have more than they need. And that they might have been better off worrying last winter about their shortstops.
And of course there's still Clay Buchholz. Wednesday night in Pawtucket, John Smoltz -- in his "final tuneup" before joining the big club -- started for the PawSox and went four solid innings ... but it's Buchholz who got the victory with four solid innings of his own. In 71 innings, Buchholz is 5-0 with a 1.90 ERA and 65 strikeouts.
I would agree with David that the Red Sox' pitching depth will pay off. It has already, and almost certainly will again. But I still maintain that the Red Sox, right now, have more than they need. And that they might have been better off worrying last winter about their shortstops.
The one thing Rob didn't point out, which Pinto alluded to, is Dice-K's H/9, which stood at 14.8 before last night. It was 8.4 in '07 and 6.9 last year. There has to be some regression in that number, but the bottom line is he isn't getting bleeped and blooped to death. He's getting whacked. His line drive percentage was steady in both of his first two seasons at 18%. This year, it's close to 30%. Theo Epstein and Bill James and HAL 9000 know all these numbers better than I do, and they're not going to sit there and watch this guy pitch like this when there are capable moundsmen waiting in the wings.
I've probably been a supporter (and I use that term with the lightest of connotations) of Daisuke Matsuzaka more than most people in these parts. The Red Sox fans are tired of him. The Yankee fans think he's been over-rated. And both camps are right in their own respective ways. If one of my projected top 3 starters were pitching to an 8.23 ERA and an unsightly 2.20 WHIP then yeah, I'd be pretty sick of it too. And truth be told, Matsuzaka has not lived up to the expectations that were levied on him in the winter of 2007, and there was a bit of smoke-and-mirrors act to his 2008 campaign.
However, the record does show he had a 200 inning/200 strikeout season for a team that won a championship. His record in 2007 wasn't as good as his peripherals would suggest, as he went 15-13 that season. Last year with the strikeout rate dipping a bit and his walks taking a turn for the worse, he still went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA, which probably was a little misleading. But again, 160+ innings of work for a team that was one win away from another trip to the World Series.
Cut it however you'd like, but Masuzaka has been a major contributor to the Red Sox since 2007 and his apparent/possible demise is a problem for them. There's been so much talk about the Sox rotation, it's made prospective fantasy league GMs out of all us: who's out/who's in, should they trade Penny, how long are they going to let Buchholz rot in Pawtucket. John Smoltz is on his way, scheduled to pitch Thursday in what would be Matsuzaka's normal turn in the rotation. Although he's apparently been lights-out in his minor league stints, do we really know what the old, venerable right-hander is going to give the Sox from now until October? Buchholz is a guy who apparently has sorted out the kinks. And he better have; he pitched to a 6.75 ERA in 76 innings of work in the bigs last season.
Some if this is a Yankee fan grasping at straws. This (Boston) is a team that has the 2nd best run differential in the sport and has been the 2nd best team in the American League at preventing runs. For all of the inconsistency in the starting rotation this season, they're still 13 over .500 and in first place and remain the best team in the A.L. And now it looks as if they're going to make major changes to their rotation, whether it's simply addition & subtraction, or the quasi-six-man rotation that's being bandied about. Smoltz for Dice-K makes sense right now, but if they're going to try and shoehorn Buchholz in there for Penny, who's pitched well post-April, there's a chance that things will be getting jumbled a little too much for their own good.
---
On My Turntable
Neil Young. Lots of Neil Young. I don't think I'm going to make the plunge and buy the Mt. Olympus of all box sets. For the time being, I'm content to just plunge into the varied live recordings I have and the various studio albums in my collection. He's an artist that you can forever chase and never catch, like Dylan like Robert Pollard like a whale of some renown. The archives just go on and on like an endless stream. Watching the river flow, indeed. You never quite reach fulfillment with artists like these, which makes something like Archives both a monument and a gnomon.
Listened to a wonderful Nirvana recording last night for the first time. Melbourne, early '92. Sounded golden. That was right in the thick of it. And it now takes it's place alongside the Del Mar, California December '91 show as the best documents I've heard that capture that moment when it all went boom.
One of my favorite documentaries is streaming at Pitchfork. One week only though. There's at least one GBV fan who frequents these parts from time to time . . .
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Hard Rain
(The "You Gotta Be Kidding Me!" Edition)
Alright, if I put the over/under at 10.5 (for the Yankees' 15 games from the Nationals series through the Mariners series), the under is looking pretty darn good this morning. Last night, after the dreariest June day I can ever remember and an interminable, please-put-us-out-of-our-misery rain delay, the Yanks concluded what was nothing less than a deplorable series loss to the worst team in baseball. A team that is/was/maybe still is on pace to be one of the worst teams of all-time. A team that hadn't won a series since May 8-10, well over a month ago.
There's the Joba issue and the Wang issue that weigh on the make-up of this team on a daily basis, with the bullpen/starter/bullpen/starter scuttlebutt forever on an endless reel. Beyond those issues, which did rear their heads over the last few days no question, the Yankee bats went dead against the worst team at run prevention. In a series that was just begging for stat-padding, Robbie Cano-style, the rest of the team took a pass, opting for ridiculously quick & impatient at-bats early last night and waking up too late in all three games offensively to do much damage.
The Yanks dropped to 8-8 in June, and have now officially entered the next phase of their season. After a woeful April and a spitfire May, which carried into the first week or so of this month, the team has settled into the kind of malaise that has been the trademark of most of the Yankee teams post-'04. The difference this time around is that they're not floating around the .500 mark and in need of a 30-15 2nd half spurt to get back into contention. They're right there, still the favorites for the Wild Card, a manageable three games behind Boston. But when I hear my friends say things like, "This team is tough to watch" and "This team is tough to root for," well . . . this is the kind of thing they're talking about.
When the bats go dead on this team, even for three days (and granted it's more pronounced against the heretofore pitching-challenged Nats) it's like a four-alarm siren. Because the only thing about this team that even hints at being "special" is their offense. Their ability to get on base; their ability to hit home runs. And when those things go down the tubes, there's just not much there.
From the beats. McCarron first [Daily News]:
Jack Curry in the Times, with an idiotic quote from a once self-proclaimed idiot:
Hey Johnny, what does that make the people who weathered the delay, pun intended, and had to sit there and watch your half-assed performance?
Damon, by the way, is at the front of the line when it comes to the recent Yankee run of mediocrity. He's got four dingers and four doubles in June so he's slugging at a .500 clip for the month, which is fine (he was .500 in April and .565 in May), but his other main rate stats have plummeted.
Batting Average
.295 - April
.304 - May
.214 - June
OBP
.385 - April
.355 - May
.302 - June
From Pete Abraham's LoHud Blog:
For a beat writer, Pete doesn't mince words, which is why he probably has one of the top two or three most popular Yankee blogs on the planet.
Now the Yanks head off to that wasteland of a stadium to play the Marlins for three days. Yeah. Even if New York manages to take 2 of 3 in their next four series (Marlins, Braves, Mets, Mariners) they would still only hit the baseline of what I thought would be acceptable in these 15 games: 9-6. Amazing how a series loss to one team can change the colors of the landscape.
----
Foot-In-the-Mouth Disease
Wrote this little nugget on Tuesday night:
They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
As of this morning, the Jays are now up two on the Rays after an fairly improbably sweep at Philadelphia. I was home from work a little earlier than usual yesterday, so I was able to catch the last few innings of the Toronto game. They showed a lot of grit, and the Phillies are now 13-19 at home (23-9 on the road).
Meanwhile, the Rays lost the last two games of the Rockies series, and have slid back to two over .500. The Rockies are back to the .500 mark for the first time since April. Catching L.A. is a pipe dream, as it is for everyone in the West, but Colorado is now just 2.5 games behind St. Louis for the Wild Card. As Neyer noted earlier this week, it's amazing what one hot streak in June can do for a club. This is a team whose season looked lost, its manager fired and issues to address on both sides of the ball. They're now a player in the playoff race.
----
Most Interesting Series of the Weekend
Tampa @ New York (NL)
Milwaukee @ Detroit (The two leaders of the Central divisions)
Dodgers @ Angels (The halos have won six in a row, and are now within a game of the Yanks and 1.5 of the Rangers for the division lead)
(The "You Gotta Be Kidding Me!" Edition)
Alright, if I put the over/under at 10.5 (for the Yankees' 15 games from the Nationals series through the Mariners series), the under is looking pretty darn good this morning. Last night, after the dreariest June day I can ever remember and an interminable, please-put-us-out-of-our-misery rain delay, the Yanks concluded what was nothing less than a deplorable series loss to the worst team in baseball. A team that is/was/maybe still is on pace to be one of the worst teams of all-time. A team that hadn't won a series since May 8-10, well over a month ago.
There's the Joba issue and the Wang issue that weigh on the make-up of this team on a daily basis, with the bullpen/starter/bullpen/starter scuttlebutt forever on an endless reel. Beyond those issues, which did rear their heads over the last few days no question, the Yankee bats went dead against the worst team at run prevention. In a series that was just begging for stat-padding, Robbie Cano-style, the rest of the team took a pass, opting for ridiculously quick & impatient at-bats early last night and waking up too late in all three games offensively to do much damage.
The Yanks dropped to 8-8 in June, and have now officially entered the next phase of their season. After a woeful April and a spitfire May, which carried into the first week or so of this month, the team has settled into the kind of malaise that has been the trademark of most of the Yankee teams post-'04. The difference this time around is that they're not floating around the .500 mark and in need of a 30-15 2nd half spurt to get back into contention. They're right there, still the favorites for the Wild Card, a manageable three games behind Boston. But when I hear my friends say things like, "This team is tough to watch" and "This team is tough to root for," well . . . this is the kind of thing they're talking about.
When the bats go dead on this team, even for three days (and granted it's more pronounced against the heretofore pitching-challenged Nats) it's like a four-alarm siren. Because the only thing about this team that even hints at being "special" is their offense. Their ability to get on base; their ability to hit home runs. And when those things go down the tubes, there's just not much there.
From the beats. McCarron first [Daily News]:
The loss to the lowly Nats, which meant that the worst team in baseball - by far - took two of three games from the Yanks, plunged Joe Girardi into a funk. Afterward, the manager was clearly disappointed in the team's recent play and refused to delve into the Yanks' ineptitude against unknown hurlers.
"For me, I'm just not going to talk about it," Girardi said. "You've got to find ways to win games. That's the bottom line. We can harp on this this year, last year, the year before, 1999. But you have to find ways to win and put runs on the board, even if you don't know the pitcher. Look for a pitch and hit it."
"For me, I'm just not going to talk about it," Girardi said. "You've got to find ways to win games. That's the bottom line. We can harp on this this year, last year, the year before, 1999. But you have to find ways to win and put runs on the board, even if you don't know the pitcher. Look for a pitch and hit it."
Jack Curry in the Times, with an idiotic quote from a once self-proclaimed idiot:
“I think it probably seemed like 30,000 empty seats,” he said. “Thirty thousand smart people who didn’t want to weather the delay and wanted to watch it on TV.”
Hey Johnny, what does that make the people who weathered the delay, pun intended, and had to sit there and watch your half-assed performance?
Damon, by the way, is at the front of the line when it comes to the recent Yankee run of mediocrity. He's got four dingers and four doubles in June so he's slugging at a .500 clip for the month, which is fine (he was .500 in April and .565 in May), but his other main rate stats have plummeted.
Batting Average
.295 - April
.304 - May
.214 - June
OBP
.385 - April
.355 - May
.302 - June
From Pete Abraham's LoHud Blog:
UPDATE, 9:30 p.m.: And the Yankees have lost two of three to the Nationals. If this is not the low point of the season, I’m not sure what could be.
The Yankees just scored seven runs in 26 innings against the worst pitching staff in baseball — two in the last 18. It’s an embarrassment. The Nationals came to New York planning to fire their manager and took two of three. Brutal.
The Nationals were 16-45 when they showed up. They had lost 25 of 30. The Yankees mailed it in for three days and that falls on the manager. Even the game they won was a no-show job for six innings.
The Yankees just scored seven runs in 26 innings against the worst pitching staff in baseball — two in the last 18. It’s an embarrassment. The Nationals came to New York planning to fire their manager and took two of three. Brutal.
The Nationals were 16-45 when they showed up. They had lost 25 of 30. The Yankees mailed it in for three days and that falls on the manager. Even the game they won was a no-show job for six innings.
For a beat writer, Pete doesn't mince words, which is why he probably has one of the top two or three most popular Yankee blogs on the planet.
Now the Yanks head off to that wasteland of a stadium to play the Marlins for three days.
----
Foot-In-the-Mouth Disease
Wrote this little nugget on Tuesday night:
They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
As of this morning, the Jays are now up two on the Rays after an fairly improbably sweep at Philadelphia. I was home from work a little earlier than usual yesterday, so I was able to catch the last few innings of the Toronto game. They showed a lot of grit, and the Phillies are now 13-19 at home (23-9 on the road).
Meanwhile, the Rays lost the last two games of the Rockies series, and have slid back to two over .500. The Rockies are back to the .500 mark for the first time since April. Catching L.A. is a pipe dream, as it is for everyone in the West, but Colorado is now just 2.5 games behind St. Louis for the Wild Card. As Neyer noted earlier this week, it's amazing what one hot streak in June can do for a club. This is a team whose season looked lost, its manager fired and issues to address on both sides of the ball. They're now a player in the playoff race.
----
Most Interesting Series of the Weekend
Tampa @ New York (NL)
Milwaukee @ Detroit (The two leaders of the Central divisions)
Dodgers @ Angels (The halos have won six in a row, and are now within a game of the Yanks and 1.5 of the Rangers for the division lead)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In a Sea of Interleague
The Yankees began a stretch of 15 games last night that I expect will push their season record to a high-water mark of 13-15 games over .500 when it's completed.
3 vs. Washington
3 at Florida
3 at Atlanta
3 at New York
3 vs. Seattle
It's their last, extended rocking chair stretch of the season, with only smaller pockets of breathers (7 vs. Oakland/Baltimore in July; a West Coast slate against Oakland & Seattle in August) left in the schedule.
To the north, the Boston Red Sox are settling in for a summer of crusin', riding in style with the top down. A quick look at their schedule, and it's easy to see that Boston is set up well to maintain their stranglehold on the division into the midst of August.
Just knocking through the schedules quickly, I put the Sox at 66-40 and the Yankees at 62-45 going into their next series, August 6-9 at Yankee Stadium. By that time, I think the Yanks have a shot to be up 5+ games in the Wild Card, which means any subsequent match-ups between Boston and New York will be more about playoff positioning than anything else. Beyond the issue of the Yankees trying to get over the impenetrable, tantalizing, mind-numbing wall of beating Boston for the first time this year, if they can jockey back into position to make a run at the division over the final six or seven weeks of the season, it could be to their clear advantage come October.
I haven't thought this way in the past, but for the first time I think there is some value in securing the extra game at home if these two old combatants were to meet again in the post-season. And that's simply because of the way Yankee Stadium is playing, which I think would be a slight advantage to the Yankees' more power-laden line-up. Of course the Sox are 22-8 at home so there's that issue too.
----
Nothing like National League competition to help Tampa hit their stride. The Rays have won six in a row now, and have settled in comfortably above .500 now at +4. This is a dangerous team despite their wobbly first two months. They lead the league in runs, and their pitching is rounding into shape: 2nd in the A.L. with a 2.89 ERA in June.
Looking at the landscape of the league, the line for New York's competition for the A.L.'s 4th playoff spot begins & ends in Pinellas County.
----
The Jays staved off their freefall with a nice win against the Phillies last night, scoring five runs in the top of the 10th for an 8-3 win. They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
----
Big Papi hit his 5th homer of the year last night. His rate stats are still deplorable for the season (.210/.308/.355), but it's now time to suggest he's starting to come around. For June he's hitting .333/.429/.694 with 4 HR and 10 RBI. My earlier suspicion that we'd see Ortiz enter the realm of respectability, in terms overall numbers, by late July is starting to come to fruition. He's not shot just yet.
----
I keep discounting Texas in the way that I've discounted Toronto all along, as I envision LA/Anaheim asserting themselves as the summer rolls on and eventually taking control of that division. However, the Rangers are still maintaining a two-game lead and are now nine over .500 after last night's 6-1 win over the Astros. L.A. and Texas meet six times before the All-Star Break (6/29-7/1 in Texas; 7/6-7/8 in Anaheim). That little run could give an indicator of where the Rangers stand with half of the season in the books. Sidenote: Kevin Millwood dropped his ERA to 2.62 last night throwing a 7/4/1/1/3/6 line at Houston. In three starts in June (Boston, Toronto, Houston) he's 3-0 with a 0.42 ERA in 21.2 innings of work. I can't imagine him keeping up that kind of work, but he's had an outstanding season so far. This is from a guy whose ERA ranged from 4.52 to 5.16 over the last three seasons.
----
After the weekend series in the Bronx, the frustration of the Mets' fans was palpable on talk radio. One reason I can't pull the plug on them yet, or anyone in the National League for that matter: at the close of play on Sunday, the San Francisco Giants were the Wild Card leaders, albeit by percentage points over St. Louis. The Cards have a 1/2 game lead on New York and San Fran entering today's action. The story of the Giants has been one of "good pitch, no hit" all season long. However, this month they've found themselves in the realm of respectability with the lumber. Currently 6th the N.L. in runs scored for the month of June, they're hitting .268/.300/.410. That OBP number is dreadful to be sure, and they're actually dead last in the N.L. at .313 for the season, but their BA and SLG for the month are okay. And when you pitch like they do, you can be merely shrug-of-the-shoulders-okay with the bats, and you'll still win some ballgames.
Their pitching has remain remarkably steady throughout. ERA month-by-month:
3.90 - April
3.75 - May
3.54 - June
For the season, their 2nd in the N.L. in ERA behind the Dodgers, 3.57 to 3.70.
The Yankees began a stretch of 15 games last night that I expect will push their season record to a high-water mark of 13-15 games over .500 when it's completed.
3 vs. Washington
3 at Florida
3 at Atlanta
3 at New York
3 vs. Seattle
It's their last, extended rocking chair stretch of the season, with only smaller pockets of breathers (7 vs. Oakland/Baltimore in July; a West Coast slate against Oakland & Seattle in August) left in the schedule.
To the north, the Boston Red Sox are settling in for a summer of crusin', riding in style with the top down. A quick look at their schedule, and it's easy to see that Boston is set up well to maintain their stranglehold on the division into the midst of August.
Just knocking through the schedules quickly, I put the Sox at 66-40 and the Yankees at 62-45 going into their next series, August 6-9 at Yankee Stadium. By that time, I think the Yanks have a shot to be up 5+ games in the Wild Card, which means any subsequent match-ups between Boston and New York will be more about playoff positioning than anything else. Beyond the issue of the Yankees trying to get over the impenetrable, tantalizing, mind-numbing wall of beating Boston for the first time this year, if they can jockey back into position to make a run at the division over the final six or seven weeks of the season, it could be to their clear advantage come October.
I haven't thought this way in the past, but for the first time I think there is some value in securing the extra game at home if these two old combatants were to meet again in the post-season. And that's simply because of the way Yankee Stadium is playing, which I think would be a slight advantage to the Yankees' more power-laden line-up. Of course the Sox are 22-8 at home so there's that issue too.
----
Nothing like National League competition to help Tampa hit their stride. The Rays have won six in a row now, and have settled in comfortably above .500 now at +4. This is a dangerous team despite their wobbly first two months. They lead the league in runs, and their pitching is rounding into shape: 2nd in the A.L. with a 2.89 ERA in June.
Looking at the landscape of the league, the line for New York's competition for the A.L.'s 4th playoff spot begins & ends in Pinellas County.
----
The Jays staved off their freefall with a nice win against the Phillies last night, scoring five runs in the top of the 10th for an 8-3 win. They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
----
Big Papi hit his 5th homer of the year last night. His rate stats are still deplorable for the season (.210/.308/.355), but it's now time to suggest he's starting to come around. For June he's hitting .333/.429/.694 with 4 HR and 10 RBI. My earlier suspicion that we'd see Ortiz enter the realm of respectability, in terms overall numbers, by late July is starting to come to fruition. He's not shot just yet.
----
I keep discounting Texas in the way that I've discounted Toronto all along, as I envision LA/Anaheim asserting themselves as the summer rolls on and eventually taking control of that division. However, the Rangers are still maintaining a two-game lead and are now nine over .500 after last night's 6-1 win over the Astros. L.A. and Texas meet six times before the All-Star Break (6/29-7/1 in Texas; 7/6-7/8 in Anaheim). That little run could give an indicator of where the Rangers stand with half of the season in the books. Sidenote: Kevin Millwood dropped his ERA to 2.62 last night throwing a 7/4/1/1/3/6 line at Houston. In three starts in June (Boston, Toronto, Houston) he's 3-0 with a 0.42 ERA in 21.2 innings of work. I can't imagine him keeping up that kind of work, but he's had an outstanding season so far. This is from a guy whose ERA ranged from 4.52 to 5.16 over the last three seasons.
----
After the weekend series in the Bronx, the frustration of the Mets' fans was palpable on talk radio. One reason I can't pull the plug on them yet, or anyone in the National League for that matter: at the close of play on Sunday, the San Francisco Giants were the Wild Card leaders, albeit by percentage points over St. Louis. The Cards have a 1/2 game lead on New York and San Fran entering today's action. The story of the Giants has been one of "good pitch, no hit" all season long. However, this month they've found themselves in the realm of respectability with the lumber. Currently 6th the N.L. in runs scored for the month of June, they're hitting .268/.300/.410. That OBP number is dreadful to be sure, and they're actually dead last in the N.L. at .313 for the season, but their BA and SLG for the month are okay. And when you pitch like they do, you can be merely shrug-of-the-shoulders-okay with the bats, and you'll still win some ballgames.
Their pitching has remain remarkably steady throughout. ERA month-by-month:
3.90 - April
3.75 - May
3.54 - June
For the season, their 2nd in the N.L. in ERA behind the Dodgers, 3.57 to 3.70.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Sunday Morning Coffee
(The "Say it ain't so, Mo" edition)
If writing is in any way therapeutic, then I need a dose of it this morning. Yesterday's Yankee loss got under my skin and stuck in my craw until the evening hours. Throw in the fact that Jon Lester appears to be out of his early-season funk, and you have the recipe for a rough baseball day.
The weather was lousy on the back end of the workweek here in the Northeast, with Friday night being downright dreadful. Yesterday was one of those high-pressure-fronts-moving-in days where the air is crisp, the humidity is low and the sky is a consistent blue. A perfect day for June. With the rainout on Friday, the Sabathia-Price match-up on tap and a 1:00 start, I was raring to go. I put a little extra emphasis on this one.
Tampa came in winners of three in a row, and had fought their way back to the .500 mark despite their inconsistency & injuries over the first two months of the season. Since May 8, the Yankees have played only one other team that I think is going to wind up being better than the Rays this season: Philadelphia two weeks ago. Needless to say, with the Sox & Mets coming up, I thought this series would be a nice warm-up, and a challenge for New York to continue their winning ways.
It didn't happen as Mariano Rivera had his worst outing of the season. Given the ball and asked to preserve a 5-5 tie in the top of the 9th, he gave up four runs (three earned) and four hits, all of them seemingly bullets being sprayed into the outfield grass. New York showed some spunk to mount a rally in the 9th, but a hard hit ball off the bat of Cano, who was the tying run, landed in B.J. Upton's glove in deep center to end the game. Tampa 9, New York 7.
As P. Abraham pointed out in his blog, the Yanks are now 2-9 vs. Boston and Tampa with a run differential of -24.
Yesterday was my first opportunity to see David Price start, and I was impressed.
Price threw 107 pitches, 53 of them for strikes, which isn't a good ratio. Amazingly though, it never felt like he wasn't in control of the game. The Yankees had a good approach against him, cognizant of taking pitches early in counts and generally made him work throughout. But his velocity never wavered (typically 95 on the fastball), and they couldn't do much with the few opportunities they had. He finished with a line of 5.2/2/3/1/5/3
I think by 2011 he's going to be one of the best starters in the A.L. and has a great shot to be one of the top 5 starters in the game in about the same timeframe.
As far as Mariano? Maybe I over-stated the case when I left a message on my friend's voicemail yesterday after the top of the 9th, exasperated & disgusted. My basic point was that Rivera has now become an "X-factor" against the better offensive teams in the American League. And I'm speaking specifically about Boston, Tampa and maybe a team like Detroit, i.e. the type of teams New York would end up playing in a post-season series. In the case of Boston, it's been this way since the early part of this decade.
Supporters are going to point out an impeccable 28:2 K:BB ratio in 23.1 innings of work. And while I wouldn't ever want to be labeled a "detractor" of Mariano, I think it's worth noting that within that same workload he's given up 26 hits, nine earned runs and five home runs. Yesterday wasn't about old position players with limited range not getting to balls; it was about a great reliever in his twilight not having good stuff and getting racked all over the park.
As of this morning, ESPN projects his season out to include 77 hits allowed in 68 innings of work, an ERA of 3.47 and a record of 0-6.
Since he became the closer in 1997, here are his IP:H splits
71.2 : 65
61.1 : 48
69.0 : 43
75.2 : 58
80.2 : 61
46.0 : 35 (This was '02. Off the top of my head I don't remember the details, but there were injury issues there.)
70.2 : 61
78.2 : 65
78.1 : 50
75.0 : 61
71.1 : 68
70.2 : 41
??.? : ??
In that same timeframe he's only had an ERA over three once, and that was in '07 (3.15).
I bring up this topic not to complain or suggest a different course of action. As I said in the aforementioned phone message yesterday, there is nothing the Yankees should do . . . even if they could.
All I'm saying is that this is now morphing from "Mo's occasional hiccup" to something more problematic. And it's not like we haven't seen Rivera rendered human in the post-season before . . .
In addition, I'm glad I'm not on the lunatic fringe of addressing this topic. Of course, if I'm in concert with the New York media scribes, then maybe I am dabbling in lunacy. From P. Abraham's LoHud Blog yesterday:
And from John Harper this morning in the Daily News:
What can I say about Jon Lester's performance last night at Fenway? Throughout the Big Papi storm I've maintained that as long as Boston stays strong at the front of that rotation they're still the best team in the sport. Well, Beckett was very good in May after a poor April, and now Lester appears to be back on the beam. To put it mildly.
As a follow-up to his win at Toronto last weekend in which he struck out a career-high 12 batters, Lester flirted with perfection at the Fens.
Picking up Nick Cafardo's report in the Globe this morning:
I concur. I picked up the game going into the 6th, and Lester looked as good as any hurler I've seen this year. Need a sinker in the low 90s? Got it. How about 97 mph heater on the black, outside corner against a lefty with two strikes? Yup. A crisp, knee-buckling breaking ball spotted on dime? Had that too.
Watching him last night, it's hard to fathom how this guy still has an ERA north of 5.00. With things lining up again at the front of that rotation, the rest of American League better take heed. And hope some other aspect(s) of this team springs a leak, because when they're firing on all cylinders, no one's going to touch 'em.
(The "Say it ain't so, Mo" edition)
If writing is in any way therapeutic, then I need a dose of it this morning. Yesterday's Yankee loss got under my skin and stuck in my craw until the evening hours. Throw in the fact that Jon Lester appears to be out of his early-season funk, and you have the recipe for a rough baseball day.
The weather was lousy on the back end of the workweek here in the Northeast, with Friday night being downright dreadful. Yesterday was one of those high-pressure-fronts-moving-in days where the air is crisp, the humidity is low and the sky is a consistent blue. A perfect day for June. With the rainout on Friday, the Sabathia-Price match-up on tap and a 1:00 start, I was raring to go. I put a little extra emphasis on this one.
Tampa came in winners of three in a row, and had fought their way back to the .500 mark despite their inconsistency & injuries over the first two months of the season. Since May 8, the Yankees have played only one other team that I think is going to wind up being better than the Rays this season: Philadelphia two weeks ago. Needless to say, with the Sox & Mets coming up, I thought this series would be a nice warm-up, and a challenge for New York to continue their winning ways.
It didn't happen as Mariano Rivera had his worst outing of the season. Given the ball and asked to preserve a 5-5 tie in the top of the 9th, he gave up four runs (three earned) and four hits, all of them seemingly bullets being sprayed into the outfield grass. New York showed some spunk to mount a rally in the 9th, but a hard hit ball off the bat of Cano, who was the tying run, landed in B.J. Upton's glove in deep center to end the game. Tampa 9, New York 7.
As P. Abraham pointed out in his blog, the Yanks are now 2-9 vs. Boston and Tampa with a run differential of -24.
Yesterday was my first opportunity to see David Price start, and I was impressed.
Price threw 107 pitches, 53 of them for strikes, which isn't a good ratio. Amazingly though, it never felt like he wasn't in control of the game. The Yankees had a good approach against him, cognizant of taking pitches early in counts and generally made him work throughout. But his velocity never wavered (typically 95 on the fastball), and they couldn't do much with the few opportunities they had. He finished with a line of 5.2/2/3/1/5/3
I think by 2011 he's going to be one of the best starters in the A.L. and has a great shot to be one of the top 5 starters in the game in about the same timeframe.
As far as Mariano? Maybe I over-stated the case when I left a message on my friend's voicemail yesterday after the top of the 9th, exasperated & disgusted. My basic point was that Rivera has now become an "X-factor" against the better offensive teams in the American League. And I'm speaking specifically about Boston, Tampa and maybe a team like Detroit, i.e. the type of teams New York would end up playing in a post-season series. In the case of Boston, it's been this way since the early part of this decade.
Supporters are going to point out an impeccable 28:2 K:BB ratio in 23.1 innings of work. And while I wouldn't ever want to be labeled a "detractor" of Mariano, I think it's worth noting that within that same workload he's given up 26 hits, nine earned runs and five home runs. Yesterday wasn't about old position players with limited range not getting to balls; it was about a great reliever in his twilight not having good stuff and getting racked all over the park.
As of this morning, ESPN projects his season out to include 77 hits allowed in 68 innings of work, an ERA of 3.47 and a record of 0-6.
Since he became the closer in 1997, here are his IP:H splits
71.2 : 65
61.1 : 48
69.0 : 43
75.2 : 58
80.2 : 61
46.0 : 35 (This was '02. Off the top of my head I don't remember the details, but there were injury issues there.)
70.2 : 61
78.2 : 65
78.1 : 50
75.0 : 61
71.1 : 68
70.2 : 41
??.? : ??
In that same timeframe he's only had an ERA over three once, and that was in '07 (3.15).
I bring up this topic not to complain or suggest a different course of action. As I said in the aforementioned phone message yesterday, there is nothing the Yankees should do . . . even if they could.
All I'm saying is that this is now morphing from "Mo's occasional hiccup" to something more problematic. And it's not like we haven't seen Rivera rendered human in the post-season before . . .
In addition, I'm glad I'm not on the lunatic fringe of addressing this topic. Of course, if I'm in concert with the New York media scribes, then maybe I am dabbling in lunacy. From P. Abraham's LoHud Blog yesterday:
My vote is no, not worried. I think these blips are natural as Mo ages, but he’s still better than almost every other closer out there, including Jon Papelbon, who has his own issues with hits and walks. It seems like Mo as a few of these every year then you look up four weeks later and he at 1.79 and blowing people away.
But if you are worried, it’s hard to argue after seeing him walk off that mound today.
But if you are worried, it’s hard to argue after seeing him walk off that mound today.
And from John Harper this morning in the Daily News:
There is so much to like about these Yankees, from the best starting pitching this franchise has had since 2003 to a late-inning grit that has the home dugout believing no deficit is too big to overcome.
But what if the great Rivera, at age 39, has lost just enough to make the ninth inning an issue after all these years?
But what if the great Rivera, at age 39, has lost just enough to make the ninth inning an issue after all these years?
Four of the five batters Rivera faced, two lefthanders and two righthanders, put good swings on his cutter and squared it up in ways no Yankee fan is accustomed to seeing.
One major league scout who was at the game said, "I can't remember seeing so many comfortable swings" against Rivera.
One major league scout who was at the game said, "I can't remember seeing so many comfortable swings" against Rivera.
"I saw the stadium gun had him at 92," the scout said, "but I think that's a tick high. I had him at 91, and that makes his cutter much more hittable than it used to be. The break on it didn't have much late life today.
"He can still break (lefthanded hitters') bats when he gets in on their hands, but when he misses location I think he's going to pay more now. The thing that registered with me was how Zobrist took him to left-center for that triple.
"Lefthanded hitters are usually so inside-conscious of his cutter that he freezes them when he goes backdoor (outside corner). Zobrist had time to get to that pitch today and do something with it."
----"He can still break (lefthanded hitters') bats when he gets in on their hands, but when he misses location I think he's going to pay more now. The thing that registered with me was how Zobrist took him to left-center for that triple.
"Lefthanded hitters are usually so inside-conscious of his cutter that he freezes them when he goes backdoor (outside corner). Zobrist had time to get to that pitch today and do something with it."
What can I say about Jon Lester's performance last night at Fenway? Throughout the Big Papi storm I've maintained that as long as Boston stays strong at the front of that rotation they're still the best team in the sport. Well, Beckett was very good in May after a poor April, and now Lester appears to be back on the beam. To put it mildly.
As a follow-up to his win at Toronto last weekend in which he struck out a career-high 12 batters, Lester flirted with perfection at the Fens.
Picking up Nick Cafardo's report in the Globe this morning:
[He] was perfect until Michael Young doubled to the left-center field gap with one out in the seventh.
Lester, who improved to 5-5 and lowered his ERA to 5.09, ended with a two-hitter and the crowd stood up and roared.
While he lamented allowing the hit, "at least it was a well-struck ball," he said.
Lester, throwing 96-97 miles per hour, has struck out 23 over the last two games, after 11 Ks last night. He issued two walks, and Young had both hits.
He had 10 strikeouts through six innings, fanning the top of the Texas order (Ian Kinsler, Young, and Andruw Jones), all swinging, in the fourth. There were six innings of perfection, when he was either overpowering with his fastball or getting hitters to wave at his changeup in the dirt. It was stunning what he could do with the baseball.
Lester, who improved to 5-5 and lowered his ERA to 5.09, ended with a two-hitter and the crowd stood up and roared.
While he lamented allowing the hit, "at least it was a well-struck ball," he said.
Lester, throwing 96-97 miles per hour, has struck out 23 over the last two games, after 11 Ks last night. He issued two walks, and Young had both hits.
He had 10 strikeouts through six innings, fanning the top of the Texas order (Ian Kinsler, Young, and Andruw Jones), all swinging, in the fourth. There were six innings of perfection, when he was either overpowering with his fastball or getting hitters to wave at his changeup in the dirt. It was stunning what he could do with the baseball.
I concur. I picked up the game going into the 6th, and Lester looked as good as any hurler I've seen this year. Need a sinker in the low 90s? Got it. How about 97 mph heater on the black, outside corner against a lefty with two strikes? Yup. A crisp, knee-buckling breaking ball spotted on dime? Had that too.
Watching him last night, it's hard to fathom how this guy still has an ERA north of 5.00. With things lining up again at the front of that rotation, the rest of American League better take heed. And hope some other aspect(s) of this team springs a leak, because when they're firing on all cylinders, no one's going to touch 'em.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Better Late Than Never
(The Return)
Edited: corrected May runs allowed column
Time consuming and more trouble than its worth. Nevertheless, I'm pushing on with the next installment of Perusing the Stats. How useful are stats that are now four days old? Not very. But I still want to keep just a general tab on the progress of the season at monthly intervals. If you're looking for a "real" post, that should be coming by tomorrow morning.
Perusing the Stats v. 2.1
May 2009 Round-up
All totals are through May 31, 2009
American League Offense
Runs Scored Total
294 Tampa Bay
283 New York
274 Cleveland
271 Texas
270 Toronto
Runs Scored - May
184 Tampa Bay
168 Minnesota (were 12th in the A.L. in the month of April)
157 Cleveland
155 New York
148 Texas
How much of a difference did Joe Mauer's return make to Minnesota's line-up? After averaging 4.2 R/G this first month of the season, they were up to 5.6 R/G in May.
Runs Scored - Bottom 5 - Total
197 Seattle
205 Oakland
209 Kansas City
212 Chicago
233 Los Angeles
Run Scored - Bottom 5 - May
104 Seattle
112 Kansas City
115 Chicago
126 Oakland
128 Toronto & Los Angeles
Toronto's numbers in April: 142 runs (1st in the A.L.), .292/.366.472
Toronto's numbers in May: 128 runs, .275/.321/.388
Team OBP - Season to Date
.357 Cleveland
.356 Boston
.355 New York
.354 Tampa Bay
.350 Toronto
Team OBP - May
.362 Tampa Bay
.360 Minnesota
.356 Cleveland
.350 Boston
.349 New York
Worst Team OBP - Season to Date
.311 Seattle
.316 Oakland
.324 Chicago
.325 Kanas City
.321 Texas
The "Which Team Doesn't Belong on this List?" has to be the Rangers. Through May they were 4th in the league in runs scored, so it's hard to figure how they're fifth from the bottom in getting on base. With their SLG numbers both in May and overall, you can see that just with a couple more timely baserunners, their run total could be even better.
Worst Team OBP - May
.311 Seattle
.315 Chicago
.319 Oakland
.321 Kansas City
.322 Baltimore
Team SLG - Season to Date
.489 Texas
.486 New York
.457 Boston
.452 Tampa Bay
.441 Baltimore
Team SLG - May
.497 New York
.483 Texas
.461 Minnesota
.455 Tampa Bay
.454 Baltimore
If you had told me a year ago that on this date Manny Ramirez would be gone and Big Papi was sitting on a 186/.282/.284 line, and yet the Red Sox would still be one of the top offenses in the American League, I would've been scratching my head a bit. The Sox continue to get on base, and they ranked 6th in SLG in May and are 3rd in SLG overall.
Worst SLG - Season to Date
Oakland
Seattle
Chicago
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Worst SLG - May
.378 Oakland
.388 Kansas City
.390 Chicago
.394 Los Angeles
.398 Seattle
OPS, RISP - Season to Date
.866 Baltimore
.865 Detroit
.849 Boston
.841 New York
.806 Tampa Bay
This is kind of my "doing damage when it counts" stat, and it shouldn't go unnoticed that four of the top 5 spots here are teams from the A.L. East. And Toronto is #6 in this category. On the flip side the three worst teams in this category are all from the A.L. West.
Of course, the Orioles are the team that jumps off the page here. The forgotten team in the best division in baseball, Baltimore had a very strong ending to the month of May, winning 7 of their last 10.
Worst OPS, RISP - Season to Date
.709 Seattle
.723 Los Angeles
.734 Oakland
.740 Chicago
.761 Kansas City
Maybe it's kind of a quirky stat, but these have been the five worst offensive teams in the A.L. so far this year.
(AL pitching numbers and NL numbers to follow soon.)
(The Return)
Edited: corrected May runs allowed column
Time consuming and more trouble than its worth. Nevertheless, I'm pushing on with the next installment of Perusing the Stats. How useful are stats that are now four days old? Not very. But I still want to keep just a general tab on the progress of the season at monthly intervals. If you're looking for a "real" post, that should be coming by tomorrow morning.
Perusing the Stats v. 2.1
May 2009 Round-up
All totals are through May 31, 2009
American League Offense
Runs Scored Total
294 Tampa Bay
283 New York
274 Cleveland
271 Texas
270 Toronto
Runs Scored - May
184 Tampa Bay
168 Minnesota (were 12th in the A.L. in the month of April)
157 Cleveland
155 New York
148 Texas
How much of a difference did Joe Mauer's return make to Minnesota's line-up? After averaging 4.2 R/G this first month of the season, they were up to 5.6 R/G in May.
Runs Scored - Bottom 5 - Total
197 Seattle
205 Oakland
209 Kansas City
212 Chicago
233 Los Angeles
Run Scored - Bottom 5 - May
104 Seattle
112 Kansas City
115 Chicago
126 Oakland
128 Toronto & Los Angeles
Toronto's numbers in April: 142 runs (1st in the A.L.), .292/.366.472
Toronto's numbers in May: 128 runs, .275/.321/.388
Team OBP - Season to Date
.357 Cleveland
.356 Boston
.355 New York
.354 Tampa Bay
.350 Toronto
Team OBP - May
.362 Tampa Bay
.360 Minnesota
.356 Cleveland
.350 Boston
.349 New York
Worst Team OBP - Season to Date
.311 Seattle
.316 Oakland
.324 Chicago
.325 Kanas City
.321 Texas
The "Which Team Doesn't Belong on this List?" has to be the Rangers. Through May they were 4th in the league in runs scored, so it's hard to figure how they're fifth from the bottom in getting on base. With their SLG numbers both in May and overall, you can see that just with a couple more timely baserunners, their run total could be even better.
Worst Team OBP - May
.311 Seattle
.315 Chicago
.319 Oakland
.321 Kansas City
.322 Baltimore
Team SLG - Season to Date
.489 Texas
.486 New York
.457 Boston
.452 Tampa Bay
.441 Baltimore
Team SLG - May
.497 New York
.483 Texas
.461 Minnesota
.455 Tampa Bay
.454 Baltimore
If you had told me a year ago that on this date Manny Ramirez would be gone and Big Papi was sitting on a 186/.282/.284 line, and yet the Red Sox would still be one of the top offenses in the American League, I would've been scratching my head a bit. The Sox continue to get on base, and they ranked 6th in SLG in May and are 3rd in SLG overall.
Worst SLG - Season to Date
Oakland
Seattle
Chicago
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Worst SLG - May
.378 Oakland
.388 Kansas City
.390 Chicago
.394 Los Angeles
.398 Seattle
OPS, RISP - Season to Date
.866 Baltimore
.865 Detroit
.849 Boston
.841 New York
.806 Tampa Bay
This is kind of my "doing damage when it counts" stat, and it shouldn't go unnoticed that four of the top 5 spots here are teams from the A.L. East. And Toronto is #6 in this category. On the flip side the three worst teams in this category are all from the A.L. West.
Of course, the Orioles are the team that jumps off the page here. The forgotten team in the best division in baseball, Baltimore had a very strong ending to the month of May, winning 7 of their last 10.
Worst OPS, RISP - Season to Date
.709 Seattle
.723 Los Angeles
.734 Oakland
.740 Chicago
.761 Kansas City
Maybe it's kind of a quirky stat, but these have been the five worst offensive teams in the A.L. so far this year.
(AL pitching numbers and NL numbers to follow soon.)
