alfonso soriano | The Baseball Zealot

Skip the first inning, Randy Wells

Can we just have a “reverse reliever” in those games that Cubs’ starter Randy Wells pitches? A pitcher to start the game and get through that first inning? Seems that Wells is having trouble with that recently. Today, he got rocked for five runs by the Chicago White Sox with two of them coming in the first frame.

For the season, Wells has a 10.64 ERA in he first inning. After the third inning, it dips below 4.50.

Split	G	IP	ERA
1st inning	12	11.0	10.64
Innings 1-3	12	32.0	5.34
Innings 4-6	10	28.1	4.45
Innings 7-9	6	6.1	4.26

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2010.

Soriano did get his tenth homer of the year and his 300th of his career. He passes Tim Salmon on the all-time list and joins Chuck Klein and teammate Derrek Lee (who hit his 300th on Wednesday) for #125 on the list.

The Sox won 10-5.

Let’s just pack it up now, cuz it won’t get any better for the Cubs

The Cubs won today. And you know winning the first game of spring training means everything in the world, right?

But the Cubs did get the right hits from the right people. Fuld, (homerun), newly acquired Marlon Byrd (2 for 2, homerun), Tyler Colvin (2 doubles, homerun), Derrek Lee (homerun, yawn), and Starlin Castro, who seems to be everyone’s freakin’ darlin’, (triple).

I kid, I love the guy. Castro came in relief for Ryan Theriot and his triple seemed to say, “Find a another position, Cajun dude!” Which just might happen. The baseball pundit hordes are calling for Theriot to move to second base and it’s probably on Cubs management’s mind, too.

But first and foremost on Cubs manager Lou Piniella’s mind, is how to spell Kosuke Fukudome’s nickname. From Cubs beat writer Carrie Muskat, Lou says it’s “Fuke”. I guess that “e” keep us Cub fans morally clean. Perhaps they should issue a press release.

The press (mlb.com and the Cubs in particular) have been making a big deal about Alfonso Soriano and how gosh darn healthy he is.

I don’t know about you but that kind of talk scares the beejeezus out of me. One, you don’t talk about it unless there is something to be worry about and two, why are they tempting fate? Almost like talking during a pitcher’s no-hitter. “Well, Ron, Soriano’s gone through the season so far a not a hint of a hamstring pull.” “We’ve been pretty lucky. He’s sure to go through the whole season without a visit to the DL.”

Then BAM!

Let’s just keep it quiet and count our blessings. And win another… even if it is just spring training.

Bring in (Jake) Fox

With the Cubs LF Soriano out now, maybe it would be a good time to get Jake Fox some playing time. He’s quite capable of playing left field.

Circling the Bases thinks so and I agree. Unfortunately, so far the Cubs have not taken that strategy. He hasn’t started since Sept 3 the last time Soriano played a game.

Cubs’ Fukudome finding leadoff spot quite comfortable

Cubs’ beat writer Carrie Muskat tells us what most Cub fans having been thinking for years now…

…put Kosuke Fukudome or more precisely, anyone other than Alfonso Soriano, in the leadoff spot. In this case, Fuk has fit the bill quite nicely. In the 11 games he’s led off he’s done what leadoff hitters are supposed to do.

Fuk is hitting .317 (13 for 48) in the top spot. More importantly, he’s taking the walk up there, too (6 walks). Yes, it’s a relatively small sample size but it’s a good trend and a sign that the Cubs management is open to change in the matter.

Now, finding a spot where Soriano can excel is key. Soriano is the kind of player who likes consistency… he wants to know he’s penciled in a particular spot every day. Perhaps that’s why he was so wedded to the leadoff role.

One more thought on Soriano and regarding Monday’s game. Give me an 0 for 4 performance and flawless fielding over his 3 hits and his atrocious play in left. The look on Piniella’s face after Soriano butchered that ball… I see that look on my wife’s face sometimes.

I hope that Soriano felt the wrath from Lou later.

Wasted power?

Playing around with Baseball Reference’s Play Index today, I decided to see which hitters were hitting the long ball but not driving in so many runs. Here are the five batters from the first half of 2009 with the lowest rbis totals with at least 15 homeruns.

Batter RBI HR

    1 Chris Davis        33 15  
    2 Troy Tulowitzki    37 16  
    3 Jay Bruce          41 18  
    4 Hank Blalock       42 19  
    5 Curtis Granderson  43 18

Here is the full list with all stats.

Granderson gets a bye here since he primarily leads off but the others need a better excuse.

No surprise here. We find batters with low batting averages (Bruce-.207) or worse a low batting average AND a high strikeout rate (Davis- 114 Ks and a .202 BA).

As for Tulowitzki, his .164 average probably accounts for his low rbi total.

Just for kicks, if I dial the homerun requirement down to 10, here are the results:

Batter RBI HR

    1 Josh Willingham    26 12  
    2 Ken Griffey        26 10  
    3 A.J. Pierzynski    27 10  
    4 Mike Jacobs        30 12  
    5 Scott Hairston     31 11

Again, the full list is here.

Some surprises here. I wouldn’t have expected to see Josh Williamham (.304) on this list though playing for the Nats could account for this. Griffey and Jacobs both are having sub-par years in their other stat categories (ok, maybe sub-par is the wrong term to use… Jacobs is having about the year we would expect).

AJ is hitting .299 playing for relatively offensively-minded team. He is hitting .226 with RISP. Not good but at the same time but four of his 10 homers have come in this situation. Strange.

If you’re wondering, Alfonso Soriano comes up #8 on this list with 33 rbis on 14 homers.

And to add some historical perspective, I cranked up some all time Wasted Power numbers. This time I took the homerun requirement up to 30. So here is the top ten list of the lowest amount of rbis for any batter who hit 30 or more homeruns:

Batter RBI HR

    1 Rob Deer           64 32 1992   
    2 Felix Mantilla     64 30 1964   
    3 Hanley Ramirez     67 33 2008   
    4 Brad Wilkerson     67 32 2004   
    5 Chris Young        68 32 2007   
    6 Brook Jacoby       69 32 1987   
    7 Alfonso Soriano    70 33 2007   
    8 Jose Valentin      70 30 2004   
    9 Rocky Colavito     72 30 1966   
   10 Mark McGwire       73 32 2000

Full list here

Like Granderson, last year’s Hanley Ramirez and 2007’s Alfonso Soriano can be excused because their managers deemed them fit to lead off instead of using their power in a more useful spot.

Otherwise, you find hitters I would expect. Rob Deer. Mark McGwire in his waning days. Jose Valentin who loved to swing. Bad Brad Wilkerson who struck out 152 times in 2004. Oh yeah, there’s Chris Young again.

I’ll probably revisit this topic at the end of season and see how the numbers how they’ve changed. By the way, if you haven’t tried out Baseball Reference’s Play Index and you like goofing around with baseball stats, give it a try. It does cost a little but it’s worth a bit in my mind.

Reed Johnson: Defense matters

Whatta catch by the Cubs’ Reed Johnson!

If you haven’t seen it, catch the video at mlb.com. Johnson’s catch stole a bases-loaded home run from the Milwaukee Brewers’ Prince Fielder on Sunday. The Cubs won the game 8-5.

Is it safe to say that Reed Johnson’s defense has won at least one game so far this year?

PS Alfonso Soriano hit his 51st career leadoff homerun in the game. I guess it’s a matter of perspective. I look at it as 51 home runs with nobody on base.

Five Ribbies and 3 HR for Alfonso (and a tense moment for Jason Marquis)

Linescore of the Day:

Alfonso Soriano: 4 for 5, 3 HR, 4 runs, 5 rbi (and no errors)

Soriano came though for the Cubs in a big way for the Cubs Saturday against the Reds in a game they quite honestly needed to win. They needed all of Alfonso’s production as the Reds made a comeback against the Cubs beleaguered bullpen scoring 8 runs in the last two innings. Final score: 14-9.

Much kudos to starter Jason Marquis who not only pitched a good game (2 runs in 7 plus innings though with five walks… more on that later), he had a good day at the plate. He hit two nicely hit flyballs for outs the first two times he was up but the third time was a charm. That one reached the right field seats for a solo homer.

The day wasn’t without a little controversy, though. The situation with umpire Brian Runge was just plain weird. With the bases loaded and a 3-0 count, Marquis threw one that looked like a strike to me. Regardless, Runge didn’t call it. Even stranger, batter Chris Dickerson didn’t make a move to first thinking it was a strike himself. It took a long while before anyone did anything. Finally, Runge made the call, Ball Four. Boy, that got Marquis upset and he got yelling and gesturing the shape of the strike zone.

The Play of the Game?

The best play of the game wasn’t a hit or a play in the field. It was a simple gesture made by catcher Geovany Soto to Runge that could have saved the game. While Marquis was yelling at Runge and things were getting tense, Runge started to move to go toward the mound. Soto touched Runge’s arm as if to say, "Don’t worry. I’ll handle it." and went out to the mound. Runge turned back to his spot behind home plate.

In my opinion, Soto prevented Marquis from getting ejected from the game. It may have been obvious and simple but it worked. Marquis pitched pretty well the rest of his outing, allowing one more run in the eighth (don’t forget about his homerun too). Had he been ejected, who knows what could have happened. We saw what happened in the 8th and 9th inning.

Soto has been showing this kind of maturity and presence of mind all year. I will most likely have the first pick in the rookie draft in the Ilowa APBA League next year.

I think I have made my decision.

DeRosa, Soriano favor us with corresponding run scoring streaks (twice)

Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano had corresponding run-scoring streaks last week, both starting on the same day. On games,between August 21 and August 26, both scored at least one run in each game. DeRosa went on to extend his streak one more game.

Both Soriano and DeRosa have had longer streaks earlier in the season. Soriano had a 7-game streak in May. DeRosa, however, has the longest run-scoring game streak on the team when he went 10 games crossing the plate pretty much at the same time.

Here are the top five run scoring streaks by Cubs in 2008:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+--- 
 Mark DeRosa        2008-05-09  2008-05-19    10 
 Derrek Lee         2008-05-18  2008-05-26     8 
 Mark DeRosa        2008-08-21  2008-08-27     7                                          
 Alfonso Soriano    2008-05-10  2008-05-17     7 
 Alfonso Soriano    2008-08-21  2008-08-26     6

Success breeds success, I guess.

(thanks B-R Play Index!)