Weirdo Stats More than a Month into the Season
There are some head scratching stats out there:
Chris Perez is leading MLB in saves with 12
Matt Kemp has 12 bombs. Pujols has 0.
Jason Hammel leaves Colorado for a much tougher league/park and he’s 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP
13 teams have already changed their opening day closers (due to injury or ineffectiveness). THIRTEEN!!!!!
The Indians are in first place
Jon Jay is hitting .405
Joses Reyes and Elvis Andrus have 13 steals combined. Emilio Bonifacio has 13 steals all by himself.
There are still 23 batters (who qualify) hitting .200 or under. Last year not a single player ended the year hitting under .200
I’m in last place in The Flap Fantasy Baseball League
This madness can’t continue……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Nice day at the park yesterday. Bumgarner has developed a presence out there on the bump. The club played pretty solid all around and catching a win was nice. Went with an old friend from my last time around in CA. Hadnt seen each other in more than 15 years and going to a game was great. Baseball really lends itself to good conversation as a spectator and I remember thinking about the George Carlin line about baseball having that picnic feeling in the stands or however that goes.
After initially thinking I would have to go early for a chance to get a Romo bobble head they were still giving them out at 5 minutes to game time. I ended up with two as my buddy didn’t care to keep his. Any Flappers interested shoot me a line.
I would love one, but I think Ed has been pining for one dirt . . . Flav, the good news in the Flap league is that Chuck has come back to Planet Earth and last I checked he was under 90. It’s going to be a tight race for the headless Aurelia bobble head doll. 🙂
Heading out to the park myself today and looking for Cainer to beat the Brew Crew. Go Giants!
Forgot to mention a funny note. After the game I come back to the pad and a neighbor is over and our daughters are playing together. So we get to talking and it turns out he is one of those minor league player hosts and used to have Sandoval, Romo and Joe Martinez over for BBQ back when they were unknowns.
love to hear what rox fans feel like after they hit a GS in the first, led 6-1 after 4, only to get hammered at home by braves 13-9 as chipper jones (how old is he anyway?) drove in 5 in a game started by even more ancient J. Moyer who gave up 10 hits and 5 ER in 5 innings. braves got 14 hits, 6 walks, one HBP, and were beneficiaries of a wild pitch and 4 Rox errors, including Tulo’s 7th.
I dunno, but Rox PS has to be worst in entire division—seem to be dooming themselves to trying to stay ahead of the Pads.
And uh, yeah, I don’t recall seeing many fantasty updates lately (not complaining!).
well I update the standings every day (as well as the Giants barely watchable *watch* list. Both links are to the right if you ever get interested in either subject!
my bad…without the BB I’ve been ignoring everything afterward til blogroll sites. do you guys set your LU for a week at a time?
Daily
willieD, that game even had a long delay (it only put off the inevitable). Chipper is 40.
Nice to hear all the reports of guys going to see games. What to make of Pagan again allowing a catchable ball to fall btw OFs due to “miscommunication”? When I was a corner OF as I got older, guy next to me told me, “If I don’t hear you I’m taking it.” Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be played? Quien es jefe?
Well, at least the fiction has been retired that last year was just a bad fielding year.. or the excuse was that the Mets were dysfunctional, THAT was why.
No denying he has been terrible. My turn for an honest question: what accounts for the decline in his defensive numbers, beyond the errors? I am a skeptic about those stats, so I’m not completely surprised. But I certainly don’t totally discount them. How can Pagan go from gold glove level UZR to the kind incompetence we’ve seen?
My favorite one is the Yanks and Red Sox bringing up the rear in the AL East.
“There are still 23 batters (who qualify) hitting .200 or under. Last year not a single player ended the year hitting under .200”
The stat is not relevant-what’s relevant is how many were under .200 at this time in 2011. I show 20 as of this date in 2011. And another 4 at exactly .200.
Twin, I think the point of Flav’s blog post this morning was HUMOR . . . I don’t think he expected anyone to “fact check” him. In any event, that was my take on the post and I found it funny. Did you find it at least a little bit funny and unusual that Pujols has no home runs? 🙂
He should be fact checked when irelevent stats are used to mispresent . A lot of the post was funny, the part where he mispresents statistics was not. It’s not a BFD, he probably didn’t want to be bothered checking this date in 2011..Pujols is funny (unless your’re the Angels). Anyway, he did the same thing on another thread that was meant to show the decline in offense this year. It IS declining, and has been for years as we all know and as I showed in my response. But comparing early May numbers to end of year numbers is not kosher. I’d be interested where you find the humor in ““There are still 23 batters (who qualify) hitting .200 or under. Last year not a single player ended the year hitting under .200″ or that it could even be said it was intended to be funny.
Think “quirky” rather than “funny”.
Taken out of context, that line is probably not “hand slapping the knee” funny – however, taken as part of his entire blog post, it was, i.e., that’s why I didn’t know or care about whether the stats in question were accurate or not. Flav indicated the other day that most of his morning monologue posts are stream of consciousness things, i.e., an idea pops into his mind and he runs with it. Amazing that he has kept this going for 3-4 years now.
It could be taken as quirky or funny if a similar tactic hadn’t been used when he was trying to establish a point about offense in 2012 vs. 2011.In his April 21, 2012 thread he compared April 2012 batting averages with end of year 2011 batting averages. It wasn’t intended to be funny, he was trying to establish a point used using faulty compariosonns. Look, it’s no BFD until it’s denied.
In the April 21 thread, Craig showed that 10 teams were hitting under .240 this year and that only 2 teams finished 2011 under .240. Obviously we don’t know how many teams will finish 2012 under .240, we do know that as of May 1 in 2011, there were 11 teams were .240 and under. This year? Also 11. That’s relevant. Comparing that to how many teams *finished* 2011 under .240 is not rtelevant.
Good info Twin. Thanks.
How nice to condescendingly agree with me- it IS good info. You know,Craig writes a great blog and he knows his baseball, but you won’t be denied soup if you disagree with him. He is not always right.
Who stole my frickin’ soup????????
I know some (most?) of you are probably sick of this discussion, and were hoping that Paul’s thank you was going to put an end to it . . . but I also just *know* that at least a few of you still think Bruce Jenkins isn’t just shaking his fist at the weather. If you look at the comparative RISP BA stats for the NL sorted by total RBI
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Situational&cut_type=39&conference=NL&year=season_2012&sort=707
with the team batting sorted by OPS
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2012-standard-batting.shtml
you’ll see that there is a closer relationship between that stat and the relative number of runs produced than the BA w/ RISP. The Phillies are an outlier for now.
Now, let the RIP’S to this thread flow.
I rarely listen to Eric Byrnes on KNBR, but I did catch a few minutes of him the other day. And what he was talking about, as a former major leaguer, was why the ‘runners in scoring position’ at-bats feel different to a major leaguer, and how it’s a challenge for them to reign in their over-eagerness.
That may be how he and others “feel,” but there is no major statistical difference between the way MLers perform in those situations and others.
And some of us will never agree that there’s no such thing as a ‘clutch hitter.’ It doesn’t matter what statistics are thrown out there. And we don’t all agree that ‘statistics = facts.’ That’s just not the way baseball totally is. David Bell was one of the best clutch hitters the Giants ever had, but statistics will never back that up. He was a big part of getting the team to the World Series in ’02, but stats won’t prove that. It could be seen by watching the games, though.
David Bell had a 267 BA w/ RISP, 10 points higher than his career BA. His BA w/ 2 outs and RISP, was 232. When the team was behind, his BA w RISP was 252.
I think we are entering the Earth is only 6000 years old territory, so won’t offer further comment.
In reading the stuff I post to this blog, do you honestly think I don’t watch the games?!
James, it doesn’t matter how many statistics you post about that, some of us are going to disagree with your conclusion. Sorry. (grin)
In 2002 Bell hit .261 for the season and .317 w/RISP. He was indeed clutch that year. Those stats that Z spit on actually support what he said. But no one has ever said a player may not over perform for a year or two. For his career, Bell hit .257, .266 w/RISP. An uptick,but as with nearly all players- close to his regular batting average.
Yeah, that’s true. I spit on stats a little. I don’t fully trust them.
Well, if you had looked them up this time, it would have confirmed what you saw.
And I guess it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the concept that Bell was an above average clutch hitter for the Giants in 2002, but average for his career. My only experience with Bell was 2002, and so it’s forever the way it plays out in my mind. Stats take away some of the magic. (grin)
I didn’t look up the stats because I don’t even fully trust the Runners In Scoring Position stat, because not all of those situations are the same. A pivotal moment late in a close game, is different than other situations.
For me, Bell’s performance in 2002 wasn’t diminished in any way because he was fortunate with RISP over a modest stretch of PAs. I just wouldn’t count on him to continue it the following year.
“Bell’s performance in 2002 wasn’t diminished in any way because he was fortunate with RISP over a modest stretch of PAs.”
That’s called ‘running over the magic with a steamroller.’
Whether things go right or wrong for the team, I get pretty loud in my living room. No magic required.
Blade, you were quick to respond but not quick enough. I went with the first response. Sorry man.
I’m confused Dirt – respond to what???? Thanks . . .
Misread your post Blade. My mistake.
Speaking of Eric Byrnes, I agree with BF. Byrnes has some possibilities as a broadcaster, but the surfer act has to go. The one show that I like on KNBR (other than Giants games) is Tolbert’s show, but KNBR’s been trying Byrnes and him as partners.
Not good.
And speaking of David Bell, I got curious about his stats and looked them up. I had forgotten that 2002 was his only season with the Giants. That really surprised me. He played for several teams before he came to the Giants, and went to Philly after the 2002 season, and ended with Milwaukee in 2006.
As everyone will remember, he was the guy who threw to the base Kent didn’t want him to throw to on a play, Kent got in his face in the dugout, Bell didn’t back down, Bonds stepped in, and Kent got in Bonds’ face, and thus the famous dugout altercation of ’02, a season they barely missed winning the World Series, which just goes to show that “team chemistry” can sometimes be overrated (grin).
Pujols with zero homeruns so far is causing some to speculate that he was juicing in the past, and has stopped juicing, because of Braun getting caught or Manny Ramirez, or whoever. It may or may not be true, but it will make some people wonder.
Flav bringing up Hammel, formerly of the Rockies, reminded me of yesterday’s disastrous pitching performance by a former Rockie, Aaron Cook. Cook was 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA at Triple-A, but when sinkerballers are involved, you just never know what you are going to get and yesterday it resulted in 2.2 innings pitched, 8 hits, 6 runs, no Ks, and a loss against Baltimore. Oh yeah, that’s not to mention a knee gash landing him on the DL. Personally, I think his career is just about over.
knee gash, amazing, it did look serious, but > there ya go
That was a harsh bit of video. My wife was not diggin’ it, and me neither.
I have always trusted the season start to be a showcase for those ready to excel. Batters always ahead of pitchers. That is how the season begins.
And now?
The big inning belongs to no one, excepting unexpected ones. Baseball is new again. go figure.
Good post . . . poetic in fact!
Suddenly, baseball victory seems so small compared to the game. To play, to field, to participate. Should this be subjected to money, stadiums, and no one producing more than we? Is it not the effort of a round bat on a round ball, a pitcher able to prevent that, a runner, a fielder, a team?
Be it as it may, I love this game.
Go Gigantes!
George Lindsey, best known as “Goober Pyle” passed away today. He was 83.
And on that note, here’s our lineup of Goobers for today…
Blanco RF, Gillaspie 3B, Cabrera LF, Posey C, Pagan CF, Belt 1B, Theriot 2B, Crawford SS, (Cain P)
While i occasionally gnash my teeth at some of the defensive lapses and the hitting lapses I still find it difficult to get too up or down this early in the season. my philosophy has, for some time, been: stay around .500, don’t let anyone run away too far, until you get to the all-star break. It seems to me that most teams who do well in the post season end the season on a roll. very few teams, without checking twin, seem to start well, coast into the playoffs and do well (the Yankee team in the ’90’s with 115 or so wins was one of the few I can remember. that was an incredible team though.). To illustrate my point, I had to go check to see where the g’s are in the standings (13-14, 5 games out) because i haven’t been paying too much attention to that. Just watching the games. So they are basically right where they need to be at this point in the season. the really good news it that they’re right where they need to be and NOT playing well. This team has all the fixin’s to go on a serious roll. The SP will stay tight, the relievers (who have been as responsible for some of the l’s as the offense) will tighten up, the hits will start dropping and voila. But doing that now doesn’t do a thing for your post-season chances, other than MAYBE giving you a leg up on getting there.
So relax, drink your beer (or whatever) and enjoy this part of the season for what it is: a delightful little appetizer for the feast that is to come.
Speaking of clutch hitting, I read in Yahoo where, “improbably, Philly has been pitching around the 19-year-old Bryce Harper in this series to get to Werth, and the veteran made them pay for it Saturday. He’s been one of the few durable regulars for the Nats early on this season, starting all but one of the team’s first 27 games.”
I have him on one of my Fantasy League teams and I tried to trade him before the season began . . . Glad I didn’t. He had such a bad rep last year, that everyone forgot that he still did more than 20/20 on HRs and SBs. His average was down, so people mostly saw that. In any event, glad to see he is performing a bit better in regard to that contract.
OBP and OPS were also way down. BA, OBP, and OPS were all worse than Rowand’s his first year away from Philly.
Whether they are where they need to be is not a given.. depends on how they fare without Pablo and whether Tim gets it together. Those are huge huge factors, and no one has any idea how they will play out, we just know how we hope they will..
A knee gash video? How did I miss it, I love knee gash videos..
It would have been a good one for that line in Bouton’s Ball Four:
“You’ve got a second mouth, Meat.”
Play on,maestro, play on.
as a team and as a manager, can we pull it together, the pieces are in place and Tim is a doer.
RIP George Lindsey who, of my generation, could ever forget? First there was Andy and then there was Goober? Time takes it toll on what is considered real life and Aunt Bee, Goober and Opie remains for us real.
Andy Griffith is still alive, I think.
Never a good thing when the movie going public isn’t sure if you’re still kicking.
and comfortable, I pray
Andy lives pretty close to me Z. They thought it was all over for him last year (planted a bunch of new flowers and had the Gov of NC on speed dial etc.), but the dude is still hanging in there.
Just watch a movie called ‘Somewhere’
great watch
not as good as my favourite Peter Sellers movies and no Ray Charles songs, but well worth the effort.
Really, nothing going on? And my poll on the Flap FL, nothing? Today’s game starts at late night UK time, let’s go Giants. Warts and all. Team, baby, team.
Edd you’re rolling today.
mets whip DBs again behind R.A. dickey 3-1. Andres 1-3 scores a run, leading off and playing CF; last night 1-3 drove in two walked and stole a base. The kid with long name N– has been in RF and LF last couple days.
DBs are only 6-7 at home despite how the season started, and have the WS champ Cards in Monday while SF makes first sojourn of season to Chavez. My godson (who lives in SD) and his mom (who flew in from south bay) are at Pads game…I’m going to have to figure out a convenient time to do this myself.
I dig Blanco. He makes stuff happen out there.
agreed. Only thing I wonder about with he and melk in there is the reasoning behind who is in LF or RF–isn’t the better arm traditionally in RF? Or does range factor into it?
Or maybe it’s running down a ball that Pagan missed.
Melky misses a bunt attempt then gets line drive single. Ignorance should not be rewarded.
That’s what I said after the 2004 election.
Shouldn’t Pagan be wearing sunglasses out there?
PaGONE again wearing his sunglasses on his hat and misses another ball.
He is without question my least favorite Giant. He royally pisses me off.
One last comment on the Derby, really? DMD? a complete miss after hangin’ with your friends with the KFC owners? Get on that jet, back here, and pump P a gone up, brother.
I ka no you can
No worries mate. I’ll get another chance to swing and miss in two weeks at the Preakness.
apparently my feed is a bit behind, as use you al
Pagan with 2 gaffes in 2 games, neither of which results in any runs. He’s clutch out there, saving his best plays for when they count. 😉
It was only out of his reach because he stopped short of the fence.Yet another misplayed flyball by Pagan
i’ll hold off on another of my rants about how I’m tired of the Giants continually trying to curry favor with Willie Mays, but that happy birthday song bit sounded half-assed and lame. Either do it with gusto or don’t do it at all.
I’m still not sure what I think about Pagan on this team. What I do know is that “Crazy Horse” is a great nickname for that dude.
“I don’t want to … think about it.”
Damn, misremembered the Crazy Horse lyric.
That’s some darned good singing by Renel. I’m impressed.
I will add that Willie was just in the booth with Miller and Fleming and I thought he handled it wel and it was a great segment.
San- my view is when the Gmen management first ignored number 24 they were clueless. And finally those things are getting behind us. The team, with all its history _needs_ its history.
Go Gmen, yes!
Cain seems unable to throw anything in on the plate. What’s a boy to do?
At least that birthday cake looked better than this one:
Poo Holes just hit a bomb. Must’ve been a fat cookie for THAT guy to hit one out 🙂
That 0-2 pitch from Marcum had a blue parking placard attached to it — it was a cripple.
The best player in baseball, Matt Kemp was scratched from today’s game vs the Cubs with a tight hammy.
Maybe we’ll catch a break and Kemp will be crippled for at least the next three days.
Nice blog post Flav… A strange year in baseball indeed. Now lets win one for Willie.
give Cain a lead, Willie, let’s go Giants
in SF the white city, great buildings, great history
Who could not be sick of Willie Mays by now? After decades as a surly, disagreeable prick who wanted nothing to do with the Giants, now he’s The Man Who Came To Dinner.
Is there anything about going to LaLa land tomorrow that K&K are not thinking about?
I grew up with Mays as my idol as youngster, it was quite a shock for me to read about him being a surly SOB.
I guess I bought into all that Say Hey Kid bullshit out of NYC. He does have a birthday one day after mine though, maybe that figured into the equation some. I bet a lot of players we grew up liking weren’t the nicest guys around though.
bill russell and boston didn’t exactly have a love affair either.
None of us know Mays and certainly shouldn’t judge a player off “what we heard”
I could care less about his personality if it weren’t being sugarcoated now.
I wasn’t aware of him being a prick, although I wasn’t even thought of back then. Now I’m interested. I’ll Google around later and read up on it.
he may have been who he was, but I always believed that the Giants, not claiming him as their own, made a major error.
This T7 is making me a little restless. I need something to come my nerves.
I know. Vodka and Vicodin usually help. I think a double dose of each are in order…
“calm” see how upset I am?
Like they need someone warming up, Cain is the man
Take a picture, it lasts longer. Stop looking.
Struck out the side!
DMD, that idea of a little Vodka just now sure calmed my nerves
Go Giants, motherfucker
Fuck hoping we miss Kemp, he’s just a man. And our pitchers are solid. Hoping to duck a guy is a pussy approach to playing a team. “you play hard, we play hard” and let’s see who wins..
For you Ws fans, Baron Davis had gruesome knee injury in the 3Q today and left on a stretcher.
columnist here was suggesting j. kidd for next year as backup Ws PG, coming back home to his roots. Hard to believe he’s what, 40 or almost?
Man, I loved watching Kidd play when he was in Jersey.
I don’t like PHing for the Horse here. Outside of Casilla, our pen has been iffy at best of late.
I woulda run the Big Horse out there for the 8th.
Right you are mate, Cain has two innings left in that fantastic arm
but i’ll give Nate credit, esp for the SB, and now in as a D replacement. Romo!
The pitch I love from Romo is he throws it one way and then it comes in another on command when he wants
you’d think for a Monday, they could have a day game. With my work schedule my only hope for TV and seeing my Gmen will be if the game is still going when I get up @ 10pm LA time.
Is there anyone, more than me, that wants a big fly from my man Belt?
Oh, and finished my kindle kopy of Starry Knights, thanks PK for the memories.
A pull on the vodka bottle for DMD and a no torture top of the 9th.
Dammit! That was some AB by Ishi.
nice to see Ishi, watched the mets and nice to see Torres playing, too
Well, at least Travis didn’t beat us. Hard to believe that ball wasn’t catchable, looked routine off the bat.
Please tell me you weren’t happy for Travis at that moment. I could have beaten him over the head with the splinters that were left from the 2×4 that I used to beat PaGONE over the head with just moments before.
Didn’t I say “at least he didn’t beat us” and the ball looked catchable? Does that sound happy for him? You’re the troll around here with your Dodger bullshit..
PaGONE can’t catch with or without the sunglasses properly placed. He took another shitty angle.
And our shitty D. rears its ugly head at the most inopportune time. It’s no wonder we’re currently under .500.
Though I’d make it to bed by midnight
There aren’t too many athletes I ever feel bad for but I really feel bad for Matt Cain
Nate’ll win it right here.
Nate is fucking worthless
That’s what they said about Einstein, Winston Churchill, Mozart and … and… Cher! He’s just pacing himself.
just a thought but, next time there is a late inning D sub, maybe blanco stays in and Pagan sits.
Like I said, Matt had some innings left
Like I’ve said- with pitchers, Bochy knows more than we do. No one has any idea how Matt would have fared. None.
What would YOU have done? Ed and I have made our cases clear.
You were both wrong. The fact that one run was given up doesn’t make either of you right unless you have a crystal ball showing what Cain would have done.Now move along troll.
Casilla had out 3 but for a can of corn somehow dropping.
nice play by morgan who will talk mega shit, but i’ll say right now that ball was hit harder and farther, and got there faster, than ishi’s.
That’s TWICE Melky has tried to bunt at times in the games that are just inexcusable.
If I were the manager, I was pull his ass out of the game now. Actually I would have down it in the T1 when he attempted to bunt with Conor on 2nd and no outs. Your #3 hitter bunting in that position? Justifiable homicide.
Thank god you’re not the manager.
Roger that..
So you agree with the strategy of you #3 hitter bunting with a runner at second and nobody out and bunting in extra innings with 2 outs and no one on when one swing of the bat could win the game?
Thank Christ you’re not the manager.
MIssed the first one, wasn’t thrilled with the bunt attempt in the 9th. But not enough to yank him.
The “yank him” reference was an exaggeration. But if I were the manager, I woulda pulled Melky aside after his first offense, grabbed him by the neck, and told him if he ever did that again, he would regret it.
The Menace would be the manager for one day and have no team left for game 2.Anyone who was deemed to have screwed up ( incorrectly deemed) would be slugged, pummelled, tortured, disemboweled..
I was at the pool and missed the Ishi hit. Did anyone see where they were placed defensively? Or was this just a clear cut fuck up by Pagan???
They we’re playing “no doubles defense,” but it was still a fuck up.
It was a long run because of the set, but Pagan did not look good, especially given his other misplays.
It wasn’t clear cut except for the fact that Pagan, like all shitty outfielders, plays too deep.
His uzr ratings are all over the map– makes me question the stat, he’s been horrendous in the outfield
An incredible chulk sighting. If that doesn’t bring Ferret out of retirement nothing will!
I like when managers implore this extra infielder strategy. May not work, but I like the gamble…
it’s gimmicky and dumb