Pausing the divisional plan for a day, here’s what I got from around the majors:
@Cards 7, Giants 1 (nightcap): No walks, 10 Ks in a CG for Adam Wainwright, now at 6 and 84 for the year. The qualified record SO/BB ratio is 11.00 by Bret Saberhagen, 1994 (143/13, in 177 IP). The best by a 200-K pitcher was 9.58 by Curt Schilling in 2002 (316/33). The highest with 150+ Ks was 10.28 by Cliff Lee, 2010 (185/18).
We are now exactly one-third through the 2013 regular season (811 MLB games played, out of 2,430 scheduled for the season). That also means we are one-third through the decade of baseball that began with the 2010 season and runs through the 2019 season. After the jump are the Top 10 everyday player WAR totals accumulated from 2010 through last night, the first one-third of the “teens” decade. Continue reading
Just a few for me tonight; you can help fill in the blanks. We’re back to the Central divisions.
Reds 6, @Pirates 0 (box): Two of May’s hottest teams, and only one could go out a winner. For the 3rd time in 4 nights, a righty’s assault knocked the Bucs for a loop, and this time they couldn’t get off the canvas. Johnny Cueto faced the minimum in the 2nd through 8th, after working out personal issues in the 1st, and Sam LeCure finished off the combined 1-hitter. Cueto has owned them as no other since 2008, now 13-4, 2.44 ERA in 21 starts — 21% of his career wins, in 14% of his starts — and 13 straight with 3 runs or less.
On May 4, 2010, the Red Sox beat the Angels 5-1 on the strength of a 2-out, 4-run rally in the 8th inning that broke open what had been a tight pitchers’ duel between Ervin Santana and Jon Lester. Boston won that day despite a -0.418 WPA turned in by designated hitter David Ortiz, his fourth worst WPA score ever (his worst WPA game was also against Ervin Santana, in this 2009 contest). Here’s how David’s day went:
At the conclusion of that debacle, Ortiz was riding a 4 for 34 skid, with a season slash of .149/.240/.358. Hardly the start he was looking for after a disappointing 2009 campaign that saw Ortiz hit just .238, his first full season since joining Boston in 2003 that he failed to hit 30 homers or drive in 100 runs. Whispers were that Big Papi was done – it was only a matter of time before the Sox cut him loose. Remember.
As with Mark Twain, rumors of Big Papi’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, Ortiz’s turnaround since that nadir just over 3 years ago has been nothing short of spectacular. More on the Ortiz miracle after the jump.
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Did the Mets play tonight? I was busy…. Anyway, our divisional hopscotch continues with the big uglies. Oh, and the very best wishes to KC’s new hitting coach.
Red Sox 9, @Phillies 2 (box): Like records, streaks are made to be broken. Jonathan Pettibone‘s career began with 7 starts of 5+ innings and 3 runs or less. A modest threshold, perhaps, but he’s the only Philly rook who can say that since at least 1916, and the club had won 6 of those 7. But the BoSox have roughed up righties this year (.818/.684 OPS split for RHP/LHP), and they wasted no time in their quest for a series split. Four Sox made the four-cornered pilgrimage to the pentagon in the top of the 1st, two on a big 2-out double by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
One of the toughest things to quantify in all of sports is a catcher’s value on defense. Their are so many responsibilities and subtle nuances that go into being a quality Major League backstop. The best of the best are able to deftly juggle the responsibilities of managing a pitching staff, framing borderline pitches, blocking pitches, holding base runners, throwing said runners out when they attempt to steal, and much, much more. Recently I’ve been doing some research into catching defense and I have been somewhat unsatisfied by both the traditional statistics (caught stealing %, passed balls, and so on) and by the advanced metrics (URZ and defensive runs saved). A few excellent studies in particular have been done to analyze a catcher’s ability to frame pitches, but otherwise most analysis is left to judgment. I’ve been compiling some of my own numbers relating to catchers controlling the base running game in order to gain a better understanding of who the best backstops in baseball really are, and I’d like to share some of my findings today.
The spreadsheet below contains catchers or catcher groupings from all 30 Major League teams. Twenty-five Major League teams have primarily used one catcher for at least 50% of their innings behind the plate while the five remaining clubs have worked out of a platoon scenario for one reason or another. For that reason I’ve examined those five clubs as a unit to examine whether or not those platoons are actually working on the defensive side of things.
Our divisional theme heads west … and just like your morning paper, the scores from the coast come a day late.
@Dodgers 3, Angels 0 (box): Hyun-jin Ryu went past the 8th for the first time in America, and it felt so good, he just kept going, polishing off a 2-hit shutout with 7 Ks and no walks. It’s the Dodgers’ first individual shutout in their 94 games against the Angels, and was completed in 2 hours, 11 minutes.
This post is for voting and discussion in the twentieth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats. This round adds those players born in 1952 who were not added last round. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
The great and (defensively) powerful Ozzie Smith was a popular choice as the 19th inductee into the Circle of Greats. More on Ozzie and the voting after the jump.
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Yesterday, Mariners Manager Eric Wedge blamed sabermetrics, “for lack of a better term”, for Dustin Ackley’s failure to perform at the major league level. From the linked mlb.com piece (skip to the bottom to read it yourself):
“It’s the new generation. It’s all this sabermetrics stuff, for lack of a better term, you know what I mean?” Wedge said. “People who haven’t played since they were 9 years old think they have it figured out. It gets in these kids’ heads.” Continue reading