Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
For those who havenāt noticed, Albert Pujols has done amazingly well with the bases loaded this year. Here are his stats with three runners on.
At this point in the season, Pujols is five for five with 3 homeruns and 16 rbis. Yikes!
If you believe in such stats, some of his other clutch stats are not as juicy, though. Interestingly, he is only 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position with two outs.
Washingtonās thirdbaseman Ryan Zimmerman just got a hit off the Giants tonight to extend his hitting streak to 29 games.
Heās hitting 45 for 122 (.369) during the streak.
I just ran across this page on Recondite Baseball which lists The āWorstā Hitting Streaks.
Juan Pierre tops the list. In 2000, his rookie year with Colorado, he went 18 for 66 for a .273 during his 15 game hitting streak. And in 1984, Cubbie catcher Jody Davis went 16 for 57 (.281) also for a 15 game streak.
Fortunately for Washington, Zimās hitting more than the bare minimum for his streak. Heās gotten his batting average up to .352 for the season.
This has been getting a lot of attention especially among Reds’ bloggers…
Brandon Phillips of the Reds:
āI donāt believe that on-base percentage stuff. Thatās overrated to me. If you get hits, youāll be on base. Thatās what itās about.ā
Some of Baker’s influence there??
Many have mentioned that while they don’t doubt Phillips is a talented player, he HAS led the Reds in outs in the past two seasons. And while he does have some tasty stats, his OBP is not one of them. Last year, it was an abysmal .312 and the year before it wasn’t much better at .331.
Among Chicago Cubs in the modern era, can you name the players with the most intentional walks in a season they hit less than 5 homers?
Cnt Player IBB HR H Year Age +----+-----------------+---+--+---+----+---+ 1 Don Kessinger 18 0 151 1973 30 2 Hobie Landrith 15 4 69 1956 26 3 Joe Girardi 11 1 113 1990 25 4 Daryle Ward 8 3 36 2007 32 5 Dave Rosello 8 1 55 1976 26
With the exception of pinch hitter Darlye Ward, these were normally 8th place hitters. Albeit, some of these hitters deserved the walk more than others.
Stat of the Day recently listed the top 20 hitters with best OPS+ with a batting average of under .220 over a full season.
Nick Swisher came in this year at 9th with an OPS+ of 93.
Perhaps, the Yankees can work with that.
In case you’re wondering, Rob Deer placed one and two with his performances in 1990 and 1989 respectively.
Looks like the Mariners who lost 101 games in 2008, are planning to focus more on statistical analysis.
It was about a year ago that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ newly hired smartypants GM Neal Huntington was talking sabermetric smack at a press conference. One would have thought that have meant they were approaching the game in a different fashion. So different that they finished… last again.
Must have been in the implementation.
The Mariners meanwhile, are creating a whole department devoted to the topic.
The department will fall under the auspices of Tony Blengino, a longtime baseball stats analyst and a special assistant to new Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik. Details of the department’s mandate and size are still to be worked out, but the move could vault the Mariners from their perceived Stone Age approach to stats to one in which they’re seen as one of the game’s more progressive franchises.
hehe, Stone Age. Good one.
The Mariners plan to take all the statistical data they accumulate and combine it with their scouting info.
Recently, David Pinto wrote an article on Sporting News’ web site entitled Fewer HRs, what the trend means.
According to Pinto, the HR numbers in 2008 were the lowest since the expansion in 1993. Taking that fact, he draws the maybe-not-so-obvious conclusion of the value of the modern slugger:
As the supply of home runs drops, home run hitters become more valuable. As fewer long balls lead to lower scoring, the base stealing environment should change as well. A tight run environment leads managers to invest in one-run strategies like steals. As base stealers become more plentiful, they become less valuable to fantasy owners.
Are we headed to an era similar to the 70s when we had a balance of power and speed?
There’s a rather interesting article in the Seattle Times about Nate Silver. Readers of Baseball Prospectus should be familiar with Silver… he’s been a partner there since 2004.
As of late, Mr Silver has taken his obsessiveness with stats to the political realm. As he did with baseball when he created the PECOTA system, he’s using political numbers to make predictions.
If you have any doubt analogous the two realms can be, take a look at Silver’s web site FiveThirtyEight.com. I see the similar pattern.
Baseball… politics… some people see life in stats.
It may be purely academic in a couple days but here’s a graphic compiled by Duane, a friend at work, comparing this season’s Cubs with the 1969 Cubs.
No surprise here. We see the decline of the 1969 Cubs around September 10 whereas the 2008 Cubs actually picked up a bit.
Teddy Ballgame pointed out to me over the phone the importance of Cliff Lee’s 2008 season. Here we are just entering September and the Tribe hurler has already hit the 20 win mark with only 2 losses. Teddy asked me if I knew who the last Cleveland pitcher to get 20 wins was. I admitted ignorance.
According to Tedd, it was the ol’ spitballer himself, Gaylord Perry. I looked it up and Tedd was right (he always is). The last Indian pitcher with 20+ wins before this year was Perry in 1974 when he had 21.
As of today, Lee has the highest Win % of all pitchers with 20+ wins. Here are the Top Five:
1 Cliff Lee .909 20-2 2008 CLE* 2 Ron Guidry .893 25-3 1978 NYY 3 Lefty Grove .886 31-4 1931 PHA 4 Preacher Roe .880 22-3 1951 BRO 5 Joe Wood .872 34-5 1912 BOS
*as of Sept 3, 2008
Tedd noted that Cleveland acquired Lee as a prospect which sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos. Oh, the Tribe got one other prospect in the deal. Who would that be?
Grady Sizemore.
As Tedd said, "The Indians did their homework".