The Baseball Zealot | The Baseball Zealot

Changes in how we keep score

Piggy-backing on my last post about Cy Young winner King Felix and his dearth of wins, I thought I’d pass on this link to an article by Joe Posnanski entitled Talkin’ Baseball (Stats). Here Joe suggests some changes on how we score the game of baseball. In his view, let’s simplify them.

Number One on his list: Wins

Simplify. I’ve never hidden my disdain for pitcher wins as a statistic, especially in modern times, when hardly anybody pitches a complete game, but if you’re going to use this stat anyway (and let’s be honest, it ain’t going away), fine. Just keep track of how often a team wins the game when the pitcher starts. That’s all. Eliminate the no-decision, which, if you stop to think about it, is actually a bizarre concept. There are no “no-decisions” in baseball. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.

Crazy idea and I’m not sure if even I agree but I like anyone who thinks out of the box.

Really you should read his article. His section on RBIs is quite interesting. Actually come to think of it, Bud Selig should read it.

Felix Hernadez’ wins not a determinant factor in Cy Young: is this a trend?

King Felix didn’t run away with the AL Cy Young balloting. David Price came close with 111 points to Hernandez’ 167. Even CC Sabathia managed 102. But the important stat: Hernandez received 21 first place votes… much more than Price (4) and Sabathia (3). In political terms, that’s a mandate.

Hernandez 13-12 record is certainly up for discussion as a Cy Young award winner. His win total was 18th in the league. EIGHTEENTH! Can we safely say that win totals are becoming less important as a evaluator of a pitcher’s talent. More precisely, is this mode of thought becoming more mainstream? There’s no doubt that stat-heads and sabermetricians have been degrading wins as a statistic to quantify a pitcher’s ability. So much so that one year ago, pitchers in both leagues won the Cy Young award over pitchers with better win totals (the AL’s Greinke with 16 wins and the NL’s Lincecum with 15).

If the writers are so willing to forgive Hernandez for his 13-12 record (granted, he was pitching for the last place Mariners), are they becoming more stat-savvy? Or are we reading too much into this? If we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re putting some thought into this, why are we still using the save statistic to evaluate relievers? The save, in my opinion, is a much more antiquated, misused, and manipulated stat that is very situation-based. If there’s a grand movement among the baseball pundits to see the true value in baseball players, let’s re-evaluate the save statistic, overhaul it, or scrap it altogether. But I digress.

I don’t dismiss wins as a stat. It has a valued tradition in baseball and yes, it does have some value in telling baseball’s story. I’m interested in seeing what will happen one year from now. Will wins have a major factor in determining the 2011 Cy Young award winners?

Moyer ain’t giving up yet

48-year old pitcher Jamie Moyer re-injured his elbow in the Dominican Winter League. Is his career over? He doesn’t think so.

My plans are to get healthy and continue pitching," he said flatly.

What if the injury is worst-case scenario, so much ligament damage he needs Tommy John surgery and a year or rehabilitation?

"That wouldn’t change my plans," Moyer said.

I simply love Jamie Moyer.

Caray statue damaged at Wrigley

Maybe it’s an omen or something. Like telling us football should not be played at Wrigley Field.

The statue of Harry Caray at Wrigley was damaged by a vehicle that was used to prepare for the Illini-Northwestern football game next weekend.

They have already made preparations to repair the statue.

Morgan, Miller not renewed for ESPN TV

ESPN Baseball will sound a whole lot different in 2011… from what I’m hearing from a lot of fans, for the better.

The jist of it: Joe Morgan’s contract will not be renewed and Jon Miller will be relegated to radio only.

A buddy of mine had the best perspective on the situation and one many could empathize with:

Good riddance to Joe Morgan. You can take him, McCarver and Harrelson and lock them in a room and seal the windows, doors and vents for all I care. Although, it would have to be a very large room to fit their egos.

I liked Miller.

Harsh.

And yes, I do like Miller. He just had the misfortune to be paired up with Morgan.

Breaking down pitchers’ homers

Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times breaks down the gopher ball pitchers of all time. He ranks those pitchers who have given up homers of every type.

It’s a fun read. Don’t go in expecting to find low caliber pitchers on his lists. These are hurlers who have gotten on these lists because they were good enough to last a long time in the bigs. Similar to Pete Rose, who has the most hits all time but also has the most outs. You’re out there long enough, you’re going to manage enough negative stats.

The most interesting to me was Roy Face. He leads all pitchers in both walk-off homers and extra-inning homers.

RIP Sparky Anderson

As most of you know, Sparky Anderson died last week at the age of 76. No doubt, he was one of one of best managers of the 70s and 80s. As a Cub fan, I didn’t relish the days they had to play the Big Red Machine. The amazing part was when he left the Reds, he wasn’t done. He guided the Tigers to two first place finishes and a World Championship.

Tiger Tales has a good collection of links to articles about Anderson. And Sports Illustrated has a real nice photo gallery (via StumbleUpon) that spans the life of Sparky including a photo of him in a Phillie uniform back in 1959.

Free Agency season starts today

It’s free agency season. As of 12:01am today, all free agents are eligible to negotiate with all teams.

ESPN has my free agent tracker of choice. Take a look at it now while all free agents are rated “NR” which I guess stands for “No Regrets”.

The average age of the 167 eligible free agents is 33.9 years old but that includes Brad Ausmus who I thought retired. That skews it a bit by probably a tenth of the year or so.

Ausmus isn’t the oldest though. That honor belongs to reliever Trevor Hoffman who might like to add to his all-time leading 601 career saves in 2011.

Which team lost the most players to free agency? The answer might surprise you. The Tampa Bay Rays who succumbed twelve players including six pitchers.

Catholic nuns can’t appreciate inherit beauty of Wagner card

Good news for the Baltimore-based order of Catholic nuns who was bequeathed a Honus Wagner baseball card. They found a buyer.

Doug Walton of Knoxville, Tennessee, will pay $262,000 for the rare card which was auctioned off this week. This figure exceeded analysts expectations up to 100%.

Walton didn’t mind paying the extra dough, according to The Sporting News:

“To be honest with you, we probably paid a little bit more than we should have,” he said Friday. “But with the back story, and the fact that it’s going to a really good charity, to us it just seemed worth it.”

The nuns plan to put the money to good work. They plan to use it in their ministries to the poor in 35 countries.

Obama, typical Sox fan, talks about HIS team in congratulatory call

Listen and watch as President Obama follows protocol and calls the San Francisco Giants (is it Bochy he’s talking to?) to congratulate them for winning the 2010 World Series.

Within 10 seconds, Obama doesn’t hesitate to invoke the Chicago White Sox, who “broke a much longer dry spell” in his conversation. Let it go, Barack… we’re ALL happy the SOX won what, five years ago??

Nevertheless, a fine call despite the fact it was probably scripted on both ends.