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Daily Archives: April 4, 2013
Brian, We Hardly Knew Ye
Brian Roberts didn’t stay healthy long:
Roberts appeared to injure his right knee on a headfirst dive into second base. He didn’t put any weight on the leg as he was aided off the field.
Roberts was 1-for-4 today and 5-for-12 on the young season. He was hurt on his first steal attempt of the year.
It’s too bad. Like Grady Sizemore, Roberts just can’t seem to stay healthy. At least Baltimore took two out of three in the series with the Rays.
Quantum Pirates
Super Sub
Chris Heisey, playing for the injured Ryan Ludwick, continues to be a super sub for the Cincinnati Reds. He hit well while Joey Votto nursed his injury in 2012, and Chris delivered a two-run homer today to put the Reds up 5-3 over the Angels in the fifth inning. The score remains there in the seventh.
Sick Sense of Humor
Games of the Day
Jeremy Guthrie pitches for Kansas City as the Royals try to win their first game of the season as they face Gavin Floyd and the White Sox. Guthrie posted a 3.16 ERA in 14 games for KC in 2012 after leaving the Rockies. Floyd saw his walk rate balloon in 2012, so watch his control early this season.
The Nationals have not allowed a run as Wade LeBlanc and Marlins face Jordan Zimmermann. Wade doesn’t walk many batters, but he does allow home runs. Three of Washinton’s five runs this season came on solo homers.
Finally, Cleveland tries to sweep the Blue Jays as Brett Myers and Mark Buehrle make debuts for their new teams. Myers spent last season in bullpen. He was hurt by the long ball as he allowed eight home runs in 65 1/3 innings. Buehrle was his typical self in his year in Miami. He allowed a high number of balls in play, but not a lot of hits on those balls. The Toronto defense needs to be ready for a workout.
Enjoy!
Early Short Shutouts
A few years ago I defined a short shutout as one in which a starting pitchers finishes at least six innings and leaves or finishes the game with no runs charged against him. The idea was to credit good pitching performances that the manager did not allow the starter to finish. Wednesday featured four such games, and 12 pitchers recorded short shutouts so far this season.
That seemed like a lot. I checked every year in the Day by Day Database (back to 1957), and indeed, that is the most short shutouts in the first three days of the season.*
*I counted days of the season from the first day multiple games are played. This adjusts for the times when MLB has scheduled one game opening days. When I was young, the Reds always played the lone game of opening day as homage to their being the first professional team. More recently, games in the far east and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball have kicked off the season.
| Season | Short ShO |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 12 |
| 1998 | 11 |
| 2003 | 9 |
| 1972 | 9 |
| 2008 | 9 |
| 2012 | 9 |
The 1998 season turned out to be a pretty good year for offense. Scoring is down slightly compared to the first three days last season (7.88 runs per game in 2012, 7..66 this year) and strikeouts are way up, 14.5 per game in 2012, 16.9 this season. The pitchers are dominating so far, but we’ll see what happens when the back of the rotations get a turn.
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