199 replies to this topic

[nmigliore]

Fun Notes through 2 Months of Baseball

Though hes been helped out by a lucky BABIP and LOB%, Ubaldo Jimenez is 10-1 with a 0.78 ERA ..... wow.

Justin Morneau has been ridiculous; .377/.493/.680. His +4 WAR leads all of baseball.

Carlos Marmol is striking out nearly 2 batters per inning. Jonathan Broxton is doing pretty good too with his MLB-leading 1.74 xFIP, I'd say...

Alex Rios is having a great bounce back year, already accumulating nearly +3 wins in less than 200 plate appearances. He was worth 0.4 wins all of last year. Vernon Wells is also having a big bounce back year, already accumulating more wins than he did in 2008 and 2009 combined.

Vlad Guerrero is having a big year for the Rangers, but his home/road splits are quite drastic: 1.100 home OPS, .685 road OPS.

Jose Bautista, yea, Jose Bautista, leads MLB in homeruns with 16.

Jason Heyward leads MLB outfielders in OPS (2nd in wOBA).... and hes only 20 years old.

Luckiest reliever? Has to be Denys Reyes; don't let the 0.54 ERA fool you; hes been helped out by a 100% LOB% and .075 BABIP (!!). His FIP and xFIP suggests his ERA should be in the mid 4's. Manny Delcarmen and his fluky .140 BABIP gets honorable mention.

Luckiest starting pitcher? Easily, Livan Hernandez. His shiny 2.15 ERA is aided by a a LOB% just under 90% and a BABIP in the low .200's. Tim Hudson, Jon Garland, and Jeff Niemann get honorable mention.

Unluckiest reliever? I'll go with 2 guys - Chad Qualls and Nick Masset and their near-.500 BABIP. lol, wow. Both have xFIP's under 3.50 but ERA's over 7. Honorable mentions go out to Joba Chamberlain and Rafael Betancourt.

Unluckiest starting pitcher? Justin Masterson and his BABIP that's over .400. Brandon Morrow and Gavin Floyd have also been on the unlucky side.

More fun with BABIP: Austin Jackson leads baseball with a .458 BABIP (thanks to his MLB-leading 32.4 line drive percentage, jeez) while Aaron Hill, Aramis Ramirez, and Akinori Iwamura have a BABIP under .200.

David Eckstein is a little shrimp, but you can't put anything past him right now; his 2.7 K% is the best in baseball.

Most valuable batter: Justin Morneau, +4.0 WAR

Most valuable pitcher: Roy Halladay, +3.2 WAR

Least valuable batter: Akinori Iwamura, -1.3 WAR

Least valuable pitcher: Todd Wellemeyer, -0.4 WAR

Best defensive player: LF Carl Crawford, +8.1 UZR

Worst defensive player: CF Matt Kemp, -13.6 UZR

The Blue Jays are winning without Roy Halladay. Its not a fluke either; their starting pitching xFIP is 2nd in the AL at 4.06 (hello Ricky Romero and your 2nd best xFIP in baseball), and their bullpen xFIP also ranks 2nd in the AL at 3.97. Oh, and they're hitting too... and hitting with power - their team .340 wOBA is 4th best in the AL while their .226 ISO leads the AL. What's funny is that Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, and Lyle Overbay have been their worst hitters.

The Padres aren't hitting much (so of course they go and pound out 18 runs on 19 hits vs my Mets last night, ugh), but they are winning with an exciting, young rotation, the best bullpen in baseball, and great defense.

Oh, the Mariners. They aren't hitting, their pitching has been mediocre (by xFIP standards), their team defense has been strong but not on pace to be as good as last year.

The Diamondbacks can hit (tied for 2nd in the NL in runs) and their starting pitching has been unlucky (5.11 ERA, 4.13 xFIP), but their bullpen is a disaster.

The Reds can hit; only the Yankees have a higher team wOBA in MLB.


Okay, I'm getting tired of typing....

Edited by nmigliore, 01 June 2010 - 10:27 AM.

[thelastonealive]

Not sure if anyone saw it, but Armando Galarraga of the Tigers just lost a perfect game after 8 2/3rds on an absolute blown call by the first base ump. Look it up or check the highlights, if Jim Joyce makes it out of Detroit alive I'd be a minor miracle.

Also, I almost typed Andres Galarraga. Shows you where my formative years were for baseball. Still miss the early years of the Rockies.

Edited by thelastonealive, 02 June 2010 - 08:03 PM.

[nmigliore]

Jim Joyce just screwed Armando Galarraga out of a perfect game. Awful. Just awful. The batter was out by a MILE.

Edited by nmigliore, 02 June 2010 - 07:58 PM.

[Martyisth3b3st]

I'm an umpire. I defend them to the grave. That being said, Joyce should be out of a job tomorrow or I'll be pissed off. Worst call in the history of the major leagues. You gotta feel for Galarraga.

[thefiestygoat]

I feel horrible for Galarraga...I can't even imagine that. There has to be a way Selig could award the perfect game, it's just not right. I mean sure umps are human, mistakes are going to be made, but damn, that is one of the worst mistakes in history.

[thelastonealive]

I'm an umpire. I defend them to the grave. That being said, Joyce should be out of a job tomorrow or I'll be pissed off. Worst call in the history of the major leagues. You gotta feel for Galarraga.

Same here, I umped for three years as a teenager, it's a thankless job, and I remember how much it sucked to do, so I usually feel for them as well. But man oh man, Jim Joyce simply choked, and you can't do that. You always give a benefit of the doubt in that case, even if it was close (which, of course, it wasn't. That's what makes it even more ridiculous, dude didn't even NEED the benefit of the doubt).

[Martyisth3b3st]

I feel horrible for Galarraga...I can't even imagine that. There has to be a way Selig could award the perfect game, it's just not right. I mean sure umps are human, mistakes are going to be made, but damn, that is one of the worst mistakes in history.

Even if he does, as he should, it ruined this guys night. he should be crying and jumping with his teammates right now.

[thefiestygoat]

Even if he does, as he should, it ruined this guys night. he should be crying and jumping with his teammates right now.

I agree a 110%. I don't know if Selig even can overturn it, and I know its a longshot but I just felt compelled to make a facebook group in support of Selig officially awarding the pefect game. Feel free to join here... http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=128350057184641

[nyrsuck26]

I feel horrible for Galarraga...I can't even imagine that. There has to be a way Selig could award the perfect game, it's just not right. I mean sure umps are human, mistakes are going to be made, but damn, that is one of the worst mistakes in history.

i couldn't have said it better myself. A kid pitches the game of his LIFE (in all probability he will never come anywhere close to doing that again), and you make THAT call. You can tell by looking a the replay too that Joyce wasn't really sure (seemed hesitant). I know if I were the ump in that situation, I'm giving the call to the pitcher if it is anywhere close. This will no doubt haunt him for the rest of his life.

[devilsrule33]

Same here, I umped for three years as a teenager, it's a thankless job, and I remember how much it sucked to do, so I usually feel for them as well. But man oh man, Jim Joyce simply choked, and you can't do that. You always give a benefit of the doubt in that case, even if it was close (which, of course, it wasn't. That's what makes it even more ridiculous, dude didn't even NEED the benefit of the doubt).

I feel terrible for both parties. Joyce truly believed he was safe. Umps make bad calls nightly. Unfortunately, this happened to be this umpires biggest call of his career and he absolutely blew it. His life has forever changed and for that...I feel pretty bad.

Just a sh!tty situation. A perfect game was thrown tonight, and it won't be counted.

[losdiablos103]

A travesty!

[DaneykoIsGod]

I feel terrible for both parties. Joyce truly believed he was safe. Umps make bad calls nightly. Unfortunately, this happened to be this umpires biggest call of his career and he absolutely blew it. His life has forever changed and for that...I feel pretty bad.

Just a sh!tty situation. A perfect game was thrown tonight, and it won't be counted.

+1

Mistakes happen. This was just a really, really, REALLY bad place for a mistake.

Today we should be talking about Armando Galarraga's perfect game and Austin Jackson's Willie Mays-esque catch for the first out in the ninth preserving said perfect game. Instead we're talking about a bad call.

Can this be the catalyst for expanding Instant Replay in baseball?

[nmigliore]

I just hope it doesn't get reversed, as much as I feel for Galarraga, that would be pretty stupid.

Edited by nmigliore, 03 June 2010 - 11:12 AM.

[squishyx]

i couldn't have said it better myself. A kid pitches the game of his LIFE (in all probability he will never come anywhere close to doing that again), and you make THAT call. You can tell by looking a the replay too that Joyce wasn't really sure (seemed hesitant). I know if I were the ump in that situation, I'm giving the call to the pitcher if it is anywhere close. This will no doubt haunt him for the rest of his life.

The other side of this is, if the runner was safe and he called him out (giving the pitcher exceptional leeway), would you really want the perfect game anyway? Just gift wrapped for you regardless if you earned it?

Watching the reply in full speed I can easily see how someone can make that mistake. Maybe baseball can use a modified variant of the NFL's system where managers have 3-4 "reviews" per game they can use on questionable calls.

[DaneykoIsGod]

As bad as it was, this incident has brought out something that we almost never see in the chest-thumping, me-first world of professional sports anymore ... humility.

http://www.detnews.c...-s-perfect-game

About 45 minutes after the game, Joyce called him out of the clubhouse and apologized to the pitcher for soiling his slice of fame, what would have been only the 21st perfect game in major-league history (and strangely, it would've been the third this season). There were few words, just a deep apology, as tears welled in Joyce's eyes.

"He feels really bad, probably worse than me," said Galarraga, who began the season in the minors in Toledo. "I give a lot of credit to that guy, to say he's sorry. I gave him a hug. His body English said more than the words. Nobody's perfect, everybody's human."

...

Galarraga showed tremendous dignity containing himself, after the finest effort of the 28-year-old right-hander's career. At the moment Joyce called the runner safe, Galarraga looked up in disbelief, which melted to a nervous, you-gotta-be-kidding smirk.

It was especially poignant not because perfection was lost -- it was because perfection apparently, legitimately, was achieved, and the umpire simply didn't call it. I know you want to yell for Joyce's job and demand baseball immediately institute an instant-replay system to overturn calls, but good luck with that. Many want to lament the unfairness of it, and that's all understandable.

But Galarraga and Leyland and the Tigers handled it well, as well as can be expected. And it doesnt make people feel better, but Joyce dealt with the fallout appropriately, too.

"It was the biggest call of my career and I kicked the (expletive) out of it," Joyce said. "I just cost that kid a perfect game after he pitched his (butt) off all night. I had a great angle, and I missed the call. After I heard from the Tigers, who had obviously seen a replay, I asked the guy in the room to cue up the play as soon as we got in here, and I missed it from here to that wall."

[Masked Fan]

I'm proud of Galarraga. He handled it so amazingly well as is Leyland. Dude is playing a game after all.

And I'm proud to be a Tiger fan. The organization is doing a great job with rewarding Armando.

I'm also a bitter fan. This sucks. I'm writing a letter to Ilitch and the Tigers suggesting Armando change his uniform # to 21!

frustration once again for the Tigers and they are handling it so well!


Go TIGERS!

[thelastonealive]

I very rarely plug my own work on this board (besides the link in my sig), but:

http://intenttoblow.com/?p=614

My own little off-kilter contribution to the Joyce/Galarraga mess. Spoiler: Jim Joyce is not who he says he is.

[thefiestygoat]

Pumped up for the first round of the draft tonight! Rounds 2-30 tomorrow, then 31-50 Wednesday. Last year I had the pleasure of actually being online and following every round live. I can't this year, but if you get a chance, go for it! I have full confidence in Damon Oppenheimer and his crew to do a solid job for the Yankees. Give me upside or give me death.

[Martyisth3b3st]

The rich get richer... Sale is going to be one hell of a baseball player in Tampa.

[nmigliore]

Josh Sale is a sweet pick. My favorite prep bat in the draft, wouldn't have minded to see Mets take him at #7.

The Yankees should look at some of the high-upside high school kids: OF Austin Wilson who has a TON of tools but will be a really tough sign, or RHP Stetson Allie who has nasty stuff. Not sure if either of them will be there (I have a feeling Phillies take Wilson), but certainly worth a look if they are.

Edited by nmigliore, 07 June 2010 - 07:55 PM.