Comments on: ’09 Yanks, ’93 Tigers & ’78 Brewers Stand Alone?

By: Jed

Jed — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:37:56 +0000

The 2009 Yankees currently have 7 players with 400+ PA and an OPS+ >=120.

. . . and six players who likely will finish the season with more than 80 RBIs but fewer than 100. Jeter might make it seven. What a strange set of numbers.

By: ImAShark

ImAShark — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:21:09 +0000

Hey, I was going to mention Posada having a 133 OPS+ with 388 plate appearances!

By: Sean Forman

Sean Forman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:38:37 +0000

Currently New Yankee and Citi are neutral. I'm going to try and recalculate the park factors for them next week and start using that number as I suspect it will knock the Yankees hitters down a good bit.

By: JohnnyTwisto

JohnnyTwisto — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:30:29 +0000

Surprisingly, it appears Yankee Stadium has not increased scoring that much this season. Or to be more accurate, the Yankees and their opponents have scored around the same number of runs in Yankee Stadium games as in away games. Considering HR are definitely increased, and there is less foul territory than the old Stadium, I tend to think it will play as more of a hitter's park in years to come, even if it hasn't this season for whatever reasons.

And I second David's question. A LOT of people tend to take the PF's and OPS+/ERA+ numbers as gospel...and then they suddenly change. I seem to recall they may not have been finalized for a few weeks after the season last year. I think it should be indicated on the site that those numbers are subject to change.

Also, B-R now has 1-year and 3-year park factors. I _think_ (but am not sure, and the glossary is no help) that he calculates OPS+ and ERA+ based on the 1-year PFs, so they won't be adjusted further after 2010.

By: DavidRF

DavidRF — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:07:45 +0000

The park factors just change the league averages associated with a team. A players numbers are adjusted from there and the home/road splits are not considered.

By: TheGoofyOne

TheGoofyOne — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:46:09 +0000

Yeah, I think the ballpark effect will lower some of those numbers, but will it make Swisher go up or down? On the one hand, he "can't" hit homers in a "homer-friendly" ballpark (tell that to the Rays), but he can slam anywhere based on his road figures. For those who don't know, before that two-homer game, he had more homers in Baltimore this year than New York.

By: DavidRF

DavidRF — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:10:53 +0000

Oddly, their team OPS+ leader is actually A-Rod who is having an off-year at just 141. This is 7-8 guys bunched between 120 and 140. Rare to see that level of balance up and down the lineup. Not really a row of "murderers", but incredibly balanced. Also, if I'm not mistaken OPS+/ERA+ numbers may see a couple of after season corrections due to the way the park factors are calculated. Sometime in the off-season, Sean will update the park factors based on this season's data causing those numbers to change a bit. And if I'm not mistaken, he'll update them 2009 park factors again following 2010. These changes are usually small, but could affect the Yankees more because their park is brand new. Perhaps this is worth clarifying... when exactly to the PF's and OPS+/ERA+ numbers get finalized?

By: leatherman

leatherman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:55:15 +0000

Completely off subject, but I thought I would share this stat: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/MqvTT

The other night, Billy Butler became the first player (since 1954, at least) to have four 3-double games in a season. Hard to believe that only two other players have even had three 3-double games in a season, and that it's happened only in the past 4 seasons is even crazier.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:07:53 +0000

somewhere in this blog over the summer i posted my research on the highest team OPS+ (which was at 115 in early July and is now at 119) and teams with the most players with 100+ OPS+s. Currently the Yankees have all nine of their starting line up with OPS+s of 100 or more. Talk about a murderer's row.

By: ‘09 Yanks Line-up Most Dangerous & Deepest Of All-Time?

‘09 Yanks Line-up Most Dangerous & Deepest Of All-Time? — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:32:33 +0000

[...] 7 players with 400+PA and an OPS+ >=120. The others to do it were the 1993 Tigers and 1978 Brewers. Click here for all the statistics on this [...]