Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 31, 2011

Young Pitcher

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Jordan Lyles debuted for the Astros Tuesday night at the tender age of 20. He’s the second youngest player in the majors, and the second younger than my daughter! Lyles walked none and struck out four in seven innings of work, holding the Cubs to two runs as Houston won 7-3. Jordan did not get the win as the Astros scored six runs in the ninth, knocking out five hits off Carlos Marmol. We’ll keep our eyes on this youngster.

The Astros also waited long enough to probably keep him from being a super two.

May 31, 2011

Offense at the Top

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Chris Denorfria collected three hits tonight leading off for the Padres and figured in three of the team’s five runs as San Diego defeated the Braves by one run. He and Chase Headley are the only two regulars on the Padres with decent OBPs, and batting him lead off paid off tonight.

Ryan Ludwick picked up his seventh career game with at least four hits. Four of those came in the 2008 season.

May 31, 2011

Indians Youth

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Michael Brantley and Carlos Santana combined for six hits, three runs and two RBI as the Indians defeated the Blue Jays 6-3. Brantley hit a double and a triple, while Carlos added two doubles. Brantley led off and Grady Sizemore batted sixth tonight. Brantley is proving to be a good lead-off hitter, while Sizemore’s power is his main strength this season. With a low OBP so far, Grady is better lower in the order.

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

Winning Al

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Al Alberquerque won his third game in relief, pitching a perfect eighth inning, giving Brennan Boesch the chance to drive home the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning as the Tigers win a slugfest, 8-7 over the Twins. This was the sixth time Alburquerque struck out at least two in one inning of work, and now owns 30 K in just 17 1/3 innings. Batters are just 8 for 59 against him, a .156 BA.

The good news for the Twins was that Justin Morneau hit two home runs. He has ten hits in his last seven games, so maybe he’s starting to get his swing back.

May 31, 2011

Perfect Pen

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James McDonald pitched a six-inning quality start and the Pirates bullpen followed with three perfect innings as the Pirates defeated the Mets 5-1. R.A. Dickey made a 1-0 first inning Mets lead hold up until the eighth, when Neil Walker singled home two runs to give the Pirates the lead.

McDonald has now pitched six quality starts in his last seven outings. The Pirates bullpen ERA drops to 3.14.

May 31, 2011

Espinosa Espinouta

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Danny Espinosa hit two home runs and a single Tuesday night as the Nationals blew out the Phillies 10-2. Both home runs came off Cliff Lee, who has now allowed eight on the season. With his three for four night, Danny brought his hit total up to 39, with 20 of those for extra bases and ten for home runs. His average hit is better than a double.

Cliff Lee also walked three batters, giving him 19 on the season after walking just 18 during the 2010 season. His control is still impressive, however, but he’s not pitching like the ace the Phillies thought they were signing. With six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings tonight, his ERA rises to 3.94.

May 31, 2011

Longball for Longoria

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With the Rays down 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Evan Longoria launched his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot that gives the Rays a 5-4 lead over the Rangers. Longoria moved back down to fourth in the lineup, and he cleaned up on that shot.

Update: Kyle Farnsworth retires the side in order in the ninth and the Rays even the series with the Rangers. All five Rays runs scored on three homers, and Texas failed to hit a long ball.

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

Uggla Benched

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Fredi Gonzalez gave Dan Uggla the night off:

Uggla and Gonzalez had a conversation before the game. Uggla says he didn’t agree with the decision.

Uggla is simply not hitting. There’s only a .004 probability that a .258 hitter would collect no more than 37 hits in 208 at bats. This is more than a slump, something is not right with Dan. His line drive percentage is down and his ground ball percentage is way up. He seems to have the same problem as Derek Jeter.

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

Ike Davis Not Healing

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Ike Davis won’t return to the Mets lineup any time soon:

“The only baseball activities he can do, basically, is play catch, and he’ll be able to swing,” Collins said. “But he’s not to do any running whatsoever for the next three weeks. There’s still a hot spot where the bone bruise is. So we’re going to pretty much shut him down from that type of activity.”

Head trainer Ray Ramirez told Collins he had “never seen” this long a recovery time for an injury of this type, according to the manager.

I hope he doesn’t turn out to be another Nick Johnson.

May 31, 2011

The Boys from Bristol

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Just received Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN in the mail today. I happened to open to page 301 where Gary Miller was talking about the start of ESPN2, and Peter Gammons being asked to remove his tie for a live shot on the network. A Gammons rant and hilarity ensues. Leafing through the book I recognize lots of names, and I’m sure the stories will bring back a lot of memories. It’s an oral history told by the people who lived it, and should be a fun read.

May 31, 2011

Dodgers Make Their Payroll

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The Dodgers keep selling the future to pay for the present:

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was able to meet the team’s payroll Tuesday with cash advances drawn on the team’s corporate sponsorship deals, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Since McCourt has been unable to secure traditional loans to fund the cash-strapped Dodgers, front office executives in charge of revenue were charged with finding more creative ways to help float the troubled franchise for two more weeks.

Seems like the advertisers got a nice benefit out of the Dodgers troubles.

May 31, 2011

Soriano Disabled

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The Cubs placed Alfonso Soriano on the disabled list, despite his injury not being that severe.

According to Carrie Muskat of MLB.com the Cubs don’t actually think Soriano would be unavailable for a full 15 days, but put him on the DL anyway because they “don’t want to go too long a man short.”

Soriano was hitting home runs, but chewing up outs in the process. On top of that, the starting pitchers aren’t exactly eating up innings, and when an NL team goes to the bullpen early, they need pinch hitters for the rest of the game. Seems to me the Cubs made the right move here.

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

Welcome to the Ivy League

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Princeton presented Hank Aaron with an honorary degree:

The former home run record-holder was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities for making America a better place with his “imperishable example of grace under pressure.”

Very nice. Of course, why did it have to be Princeton?

Bill Russell received an honorary degree from Harvard at the 25th reunion of my class. I thought the citation to his degree was quite clever:

A Rembrandt of roundball whose championship rings are enough to outnumber his fingers; a peerless team player whose skill and tenacity led even his strongest foes to wilt.

May 31, 2011

The Six Man Rotation

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The White Sox went to a six-man rotation when Jake Peavy returned from the disabled list because Ozzie Guillen did not want to send down Phil Humber. The results through 19 games are mixed. There are a number of fine starts in this stretch. A 7-6 record with a 4.19 ERA isn’t bad, the rotation was posting a 3.90 mark before the change.

In terms of game scores, the six-man rotation is middle of the road, just averaging over 50, slightly on the positive side of the statistic. The team recorded eleven quality starts, however, which is right in line with the best teams during that stretch.

The problem with a six-man rotation is that you’re giving starts to your six-worst pitcher. In this case, that was John Danks. Remove Danks from the rotation and the starting ERA in that time drops to 3.62.

The problem, of course, was knowing to remove Danks. While he was losing games, in many ways he wasn’t pitching that poorly. That changed as his Ks fell through the floor in his last three starts. The six man rotation gave the White Sox a chance to shake out who belonged in the five-man rotation, and it looks like Danks is the odd man out.

May 31, 2011

Games of the Day

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The White Sox try to make it two in a row against the Red Sox as they send Phil Humber to the mound against Alfredo Aceves. Humber is the reason the White Sox decided to go with a six-man rotation when Jake Peavy returned. The way Phil is pitching, I suspect he’ll stick around longer than John Danks. The improvement in Humber comes from his finding his control. Coming into this season, Phil had walked 24 batters in 51 1/3 innings. This season, he’s walked 13 in 60 innings. Aceves performed well so far as a spot starter. In two starts, he allowed just two runs in 11 innings, giving the Red Sox a chance to take the lead before the bullpen takes over.

Florida at Arizona features two outstanding pitchers as Anbial Sanchez faces Ian Kennedy. Sanchez tries to finish May 4-0. He’s only allowed one home run all month while striking out 36 batters in 35 1/3 innings. Kennedy hopes he gets the win to go 4-0 in the month. He’s only allowed two hits with runners in scoring position this month.

Finally, Erik Bedard faces his old team as the Mariners host the Orioles and Jeremy Guthrie. Both starters pitched better than their records. The Orioles scored three runs or less if seven of Guthrie’s eleven starts, while the Mariners are 1-4 in one and two run games when Bedard starts. The Orioles do not hit lefties well, so maybe Erik has a chance in this game.

Enjoy!

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

The Keys to the Console

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Gaslamp Ball points out the instant replay console at PETCO Park:

In 2007, the General Managers voted 25-5 to approve Instant Replay. In 2008, Bud Selig made Instant Replay available to review boundary home run calls. Only the Umpire crew chief and at least one other member of his crew are allowed to open the box to review a play on the field.

I presume that each umpire has a key on a neck chain. The chief and his crew member place the keys into the dual locks and turn them at the same time in order to open it. It’s just like you’d see a submariner captain and his first mate do before a nuclear missile launch.

I did not realize that this level of security was needed, but I guess it prevents anyone from claiming someone tampered with the equipment.

May 31, 2011

Video Available

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It looks like MLB.com is starting to allow embedding of highlights:

However, it seems to take some time before these highlights are available. None of the must see highlights from yesterday carried an embed button.

May 31, 2011

Ubaldo’s Velocity

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Dave Krieger explores the reasons for Ubaldo Jimenez’s loss of velocity in 2011. There are a number of theories, from minor injuries preventing him from building up arm strength to Ubaldo’s desire for better control changing the way he pitches.

Ubaldo Jimenez Velocity Graph

Graph of Ubaldo Jimenez's fastball velocity over time, 2010-2011. Graph courtesy of Baseball Analytics.

Note that Ubaldo’s velocity declined slightly as 2010 progressed, but fell off the cliff in 2011. Note, too, that the main problem right now is that batters are squaring up his fastball better, as his line drive rate is up. That also rose as his fastball velocity fell last season.

Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the graph.

May 31, 2011 May 31, 2011

Matheny on Posey’s Collision

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Mike Matheny, the former catcher who changed the way MLB treats players who suffer concussions, thinks the Buster Posey collision was avoidable:

“He went hunting,” Matheny said of Cousins. “Buster gave hin an option and he didn’t take it.

“The play wasn’t illegal. He didn’t come in high spikes or high elbows, but it wasn’t necessary. I love the play at the plate, but when a guy goes out of his way to get you, I’m not a big fan of it. I thought it was avoidable.”

Mike also notes that Posey was not ready for the collision, and with more experience he likely would not have been in that position.

Five years after leading the majors, Matheny still suffers from his concussion when he performs activities that raise his heart rate.

May 31, 2011

Long Ball Holiday

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The majors celebrated Memorial Day with a home run barrage. Teams combined to hit 46 long balls on Monday, the highest one day total this season. It was the second highest total since the start of the 2010 season (47 on July 7, 2010) and the 14th highest total this century. Despite the big home run total yesterday, home runs are still of 0.1 per game from last year at the same point in the season, and run scoring is still off 0.5 runs, down to 8.4 runs per game from 8.9 runs per game.

May 31, 2011

What’s Wrong with Soria?

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I agree with Rany:

The data is clear that hitters are no longer being fooled. What isn’t clear is why. The Royals can go on and on about how he’s just having trouble locating his pitches, or finishing his pitches, or scuffing his pitches, or whatever excuse they’ll come up with today. But when a pitcher who has been an elite closer for four years suddenly can’t get anyone out, there’s only one conclusion. This isn’t a court of law: he’s injured until proven healthy. I have no reason to think that Soria’s hurting other than the results on the field. Frankly, those results are enough.

For now, Ned Yost has announced that Soria will take a breather from closing, and Aaron Crow will take over the glamour role. That’s all fine and dandy if the point is winning tomorrow’s game. If the point is to figure out what the hell is wrong with Joakim Soria, this is a massive fail. It takes a massive amount of stubbornness to not acknowledge that such a precipitous decline probably has a structural reason, and shifting Soria into a different role is not going to isolate, let alone fix, the problem. But then, it takes a massive amount of stubbornness for the Royals to have denied there was anything wrong with Soria to this point in the first place.

I need to start keeping track of declines that look like injuries that actually turn out to be injuries.

Update: Soria is having problems keeping the ball away from RHB.

May 31, 2011 May 30, 2011 May 30, 2011

Cycle Time

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Kelly Johnson is scheduled to bat third in the bottom of the eighth, needing a single for the cycle. He’s four for five with a double, triple and two home runs as the Diamondbacks lead the Marlins 15-4.

Update: Johnson cycled last season in an Arizona loss on July 23rd.

Update: Johnson fouls off the first two pitches. He then swings and missed to end his cycle quest.