Wednesday game notes
Posted by John Autin on August 25, 2011
-- Mark Teixeira drilled a solo HR that tied the game in the 8th. It's the first of his 35 HRs this year that tied the game or put the Yankees ahead after the 6th inning; he has just 2 other tying or go-ahead HRs after the 3rd inning. In fairness, I haven't counted his opportunities.
- Coco Crisp broke up a tie game in the 10th with a 3-run shot off Rafael Soriano, his 2nd HR of the game -- his first multi-HR game since 2007.
- Derek Jeter went 2 for 5 and saw his August BA fall to .417. He's hitting .353 since the start of July. Pass me my hat and the ketchup, would you?
-- Cleveland got clocked by Seattle and fell below .500 for the first time since April 3. All 3 AL Central contenders lost, so Detroit still leads by 6.
- M's rookie IF Kyle Seager had 3 doubles among his 4 hits, notching his 4th straight multi-hit game. After going 10 for his first 55 this year with 0 XBH, Seager is 15 for his last 25, with 2 HRs and 5 2Bs. Last year, Seager hit .345 with 126 Runs, both tops in the high-A California League (among full-year players); he hit .333 this season between AA and AAA. Since his promotion, he's hitting .313/.375/.450 in 23 games.
- Wily Mo Pena had a big day (3-2-3-4, HR, 2B), but he broke my heart by drawing his first walk since 2008. Pena was riding a career-high streak of 88 PAs that were also ABs. Seems like it was a semi-intentional pass, but still ... if he truly cared, he would have chased one!
-- The AL MVP race is heating up again now that Adrian Gonzalez has found his power stroke. He hit his 21st of the year and 3rd in 2 nights, and regained the AL lead in (yes) RBI, at 99.
- His teammates and MVP competitors also had good nights: Jacoby Ellsbury went 5-3-3-2 with his 23rd HR, and Dustin Pedroia was 4-2-2-2 before taking a rest in the blowout win.
- The AL East lead changed hands again, while a Nation shrugged.
- Meanwhile, in Toronto, the AL WAR leader hit his 37th HR, a game-tying 2-run shot that put the Jays on the road to victory.
-- Out west, a wizard called Tim allowed 1 run or less for the 4th straight game and 10th in his last 12 starts, and squeaked out a win with help from Carlos Beltran's first SF HR and his own RBI single. Lincecum allowed 7 runs in his prior 8 starts, but went just 5-3 with a pair of 1-0 losses; the Giants scored 20 runs in those 8 games. The champs remain 2 back of 'Zona.
-- Jered Weaver didn't get the shutout -- he left after 7 -- but on the bright side, he actually got a win for this batch of goose eggs. The Angels skunked the ChiSox, 8-0, and moved within 2.5 games of the Rangers. Weaver is 15-6, 2.03.
-- Bronson Arroyo began the game with a 5.28 ERA,MLB-high 34 HRs allowed, and no wins in 7 career starts against the Marlins -- but he threw 8 shutout IP, his first scoreless start in over a year, and earned a win.
-- Randy Wells (5.84 ERA in 16 starts) blanked the Braves on 1 hit through 6 and wound up with a strong win. Wells is 4-1, 2.70 in 6 career starts against Atlanta.
- Chipper Jones broke up the shutout with career HR #449.
-- Logan Morrison homered after serving out his minor-league detention.
-- In the 129th game, a Met finally had back-to-back 2-XBH game, and his name was ... Nick Evans? Evans had just 3 XBH in his first 25 games, but he doubled and tripled Tuesday and added a 2B and a 3-run HR today, and the Mets' team bus finally showed up in Philly.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:30 am
Cool note about the M's offense...Between the time they played the nightcap of yesterday's doubleheader at 4pm PST (7pm EST) and the end of today's game (started at 9am PST, 12pm EST, ended around 12pm PST), the Mariners scored 21 runs on 33 hits...in just about 20 hours.
If you combine today and yesterday's games, Seager is 10-13 with 5 doubles and a HR. Interesting thing is those are ALL of his doubles in his ML career!
Also, Seager and Willy Mo, batting 7th and 8th respectively today, reached base in all 10 PA they had today, going 7-7 with 4 doubles, HR, 5 R, 5 RBI, and 3 walks!
One more...Brendan Ryan just came back from the DL, and has made FOUR errors in the last 4 games (2 on Monday, 2 today), and ALL of them were throwing errors!
August 25th, 2011 at 3:19 am
john, i know i'm likely asking in the wrong space, but i'm not sure where to go with these types of questions. can you answer me why the official records of the day might not be observed, either here, or at mlb.com, for example, with respect to willie keeler's '98 season?
August 25th, 2011 at 3:43 am
it's pretty official-looking stuff I’ve read, so I imagine there's a solid reason the subsequent regimes have altered the records.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:45 am
why no mention of the ridiculous finale to an even more ridiculous rockies-astros series?
August 25th, 2011 at 9:36 am
One of the reason Weaver was pulled after 7 is because the Angels are considering moving Santana and Weaver up a day and giving them each a start on 3 days rest against the Rangers.
The Angels had an off day on Monday and have another one today This will allow to hide the fact that they don't have a 4th or 5th starter until after they leave Arlington.
The other option is Jerome Williams, who pitched well against the Orioles last weekend, but probably is not a long-term solution.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:38 am
John
One of these days, you might want to do a paragraph on Eugenio Velez of the Dodger
With his 0 for 1 yesterday Velez is now 0-27 for the year. He finished 2010 with an 0-9 so he is 0 for 36 over 2 seasons. Or if you prefer a larger sample he has 1 hit in his last 54 MLB AB over two seasons with SFG and LAD. His last hit was 16 months ago; May 18, 2010
August 25th, 2011 at 9:46 am
It's early, so my being asleep as half to blame. Still, there are better ways to say Carlos Beltran hit his first home run with the Giants than to say "Carlos Beltran's first SF HR". I spent a good five seconds wondering how you hit a sacrifice fly home run.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:59 am
In the Mets game, David Wright's homer made him the franchise all-time extra-base hit leader with 470 regular season extra-base hits, passing Darryl Strawberry, who had 469 for the Mets. Straw had four more Mets post-season x-basers than David has had, so if you include those in the career totals, Wright still has a few more to go to pass Darryl for the franchise lead.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Good work, everyone.
Tim, can I pretend I was just trying to stir you from your morning fog?
Jim, the answer is ... I'm like any other compiler/reducer at this stage of the season -- contenders' games get the most attention. Besides, do the 'Stros really need any more negative press as they stumble towards their worst record ever? BTW, I note that those 2 WPs were the first ever for Houston's "A-Rod."
Spartan, I'll keep a close eye on Velez's oh-fer, especially since we now know that Craig Counsell's 0-for-45 this year tied the all-time record first set by everyone's favorite automatic out, Bill Bergen. Velez is 8 ABs from tying the season record for most hitless ABs, set by the immortal Hal Finney in 1936. (Amazing to recall that SF -- er, the Giants -- batted Velez leadoff for much of 2009.)
August 25th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Speaking of the Rockies game, did anyone notice that they gave Ellis a hit on his first inning ground ball that was totally botched by the H infield.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Birtelcom, good note on Wright eclipsing Strawberry's Mets XBH record. It's worth noting, however, that through the same point in their careers -- 8 seasons, age 28 -- Straw had a 145 OPS+, while Wright's at 134; Darryl also had a substantial edge in WAR.
As a close follower of the Mets, I wonder why I've never heard an official explanation for Wright's conversion to throwing sidearm almost all the time. Does he have a shoulder problem? Whatever it is, he's become a bad defensive player. He has turned just 5 DPs in 70 games this year, partly because he just can't deliver a predictable throw to 2B.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:52 am
It seems to me that in recent years, a lot of great-looking young 3Bmen have fallen off, derailing potential HOF or HOVG careers. More than at other positions.
David Wright
Eric Chavez
Troy Glaus
Hank Blalock (not the same level, but still a good player who just collapsed)
Eric Hinske
Adrian Beltre once looked to be in the same club, but his odd-shaped career has actually turned out pretty well.
I don't know, maybe it's not as many as it felt like. Maybe this is no different from any other position.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
-- Mark Teixeira drilled a solo HR that tied the game in the 8th. It's the first of his 35 HRs this year that tied the game or put the Yankees ahead after the 6th inning; he has just 2 other tying or go-ahead HRs after the 3rd inning. In fairness, I haven't counted his opportunities.
What is this crap? How many homers came when the team was down and would later tie/take the lead? How many added onto a lead that would later be broken? How many gave insurance runs and gave mo the night off? You need a lot more info than that before you go picking and choosing which home runs "matter" and which ones don't...
August 25th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Joh, re Wright and Strawberry, you are correct that b-ref's WAR has Straw as a Met ahead of David 37.7 to 32.0. For what it's worth, fangraph's version of WAR has Wright ahead 38.5 to 36.6.
Maybe my mind is playing tricks but I seem to remember David frequently using that sidearm throw even early in his career, and being criticized for it then.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
@13... I don't see anyplace where JA said that this was Tex's first "important" home run, or that this one "mattered" where the others didn't - only that it was his first game-tying homer past the sixth inning this season. He also said that he hadn't counted his opportunities. Of course, this could be a measure of how amazing the Yanks have been this year offensively, that they're usually ahead and get very few late-inning game-changing hits as a result.
No doubt forty people would have already looked this up and answered the question, had recent news not made this "matter" a whole lot less important.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
For the record, 9.3% of MLB homers this season have tied or taken the lead after the 6th inning.
Only 7 Yankee homers meet those criteria, 4.0% of their total, each hit by a different player.
Jose Bautista leads MLB with 8 such HR this season (more fuel for his MVP fire?). Mike Stanton leads the NL with 6.
Over the past 5 seasons, Prince Fielder has the most, with 20.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Further: Teixeira has only had 55 PA this season when trailing after the 6th inning. He has hit 3 HR. For the prior two, no one was on base and the Yankees were down by 3 and 4 runs, respectively.
August 25th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
I have no problem with the accuracy of the stat or for the comparison. I have a problem with the statistician picking that stat. It's misleading at best. Those are far from the 55 at bats I would look at to judge clutch hitting.
August 25th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
@18, Mosc -- You're right that the Teix stat was devoid of context.
However, before you ride too far on your high horse, please look at the rest of Teixeira's "clutch" indicators this year, which I have referenced before in this space.
For instance, Win Probability Added:
-- Teixeira ranks 9th among AL first basemen in WPA, below the likes of Justin Smoak, Eric Hosmer, Mitch Moreland and Mark Trumbo.
-- He's 45th among all AL hitters in WPA.
-- He's a distant 3rd among Yankee hitters, well behind both Granderson (who usually bats before Teixeira) and Cano (who usually bats after Teix).
You might also check out his Leverage splits: His high-leverage numbers are poor.
August 25th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
B-ref also has the "Clutch" stat which measures systematically the degree to which a hitter's performances improves or declines form his normal level as the importance of the game situation (leverage) increases. This season thus far, Mark T.'s Clutch number is -1.9. The only player in the majors with a Clutch nuimber worse than that in 2011 is Kurt Suzuki of the A's.
A negative Clutch number does not mean that a hitter has hit poorly in clutch situations; it just means he has hit less well in more critical situations than in less critical situations. For a great hitter like Mark, that just means that in clutchier situation he has not been quite as great as he has been in less important situations. Note also that this is something that may happen more frequently to big power hitters, as pitchers may tend to pitch around them in high leverage situations, forcing them to hit tougher pitches.
August 25th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
@John, Genis: Good stuff on Kyle Seager.
In addition to being 10 for his last 13, he currently has hits in 6 consective at-bats (including 3 doubles and a homerun), and has reached base in 7 consecutive plate appearances (6 hits + 1 walk).
@John,
I am having a lot of fun with the search tool! After a couple of hours I was able to generate, what I believe to be a partial list of games where a win negated a save.
Try this: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, GF = 1, and IP <= 1]
Leave "Save Opp." unselected, as these appearances are not recognized in the system as save opportunities. Remember, saves weren't official until 1969.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
What the ...... just clicked on MLB.com to find out the afternoon scores. Yankees by two converted touchdowns??
JA, if you do a recap tonight, this game's analysis alone will be worth the price of admission!
August 25th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Interesting in the Yankees vs Athletics game today.
Yanks were behind 7-1 after 3 innings.
Yanks went on a tear hitting 3 Grand Slam homers.
GS homers by Russel Martin: 6 RBI's he went 5 for 5.
Curtis Granderson: 5 RBI's
Robinson Cano: 5 RBI's
Athletic pitchers gave up 13 walks
Yanks won 22-9
George Posada went into the game in the top of the 9th as the 2B Man and got a and assist on the final out fielding a ground ball hit to him.
Derek Jeter went to bat in the 8th inning with a 3-5 and was batting .300 at the time, but struck out so ends the day at .299
Otherwise nothing much happened in this game
August 25th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
@23,
The A's catcher was making his MLB debut too! 0-4, and 3 grand slams given up with him behind the plate.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
I didn't realize this until I just looked it up now, but Posada was actually drafted as a SS and in 1991 he played 64 games at 2B in short-season A ball.
It's been 20 years since he last played SS until today
August 25th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
@25,
I think you mean he was drafted as a 2B, right?
August 25th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
George Posada went into the game in the top of the 9th as the 2B Man and got a and assist on the final out fielding a ground ball hit to him.
Our third catcher to play second base this season, all within the past few weeks I believe. (Posada has not actually caught this year.)
August 25th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
In regards to games when a win negates a save, by rule 10.17c (post #21)...
Perhaps more interesting than the win negating the save in most of these games is that, in all of these games, the winning pitcher entered the game with his team already ahead!
Search: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, GF = 1, and IP <= 1]
This search turns up 14 games since 1969 (the year the save became a statistic) and 15 games from 1919 to 1968. (1919 is the earliest date one can choose for any search.) I guess rule 10.17(c), or a variation of this rule, has been around for a very long time!
Because I'm not yet a paying member, of the 14 since 1969, the most recent 9 show up as blank cells. Here are the 5 that I can see.
Pedro Borbon, Reds (9/4/73),
entered with 5 run lead (no save opp, but got the win).
Jerry Koosman, Mets (5/29/72),
entered with 1 run lead.
Al Santorino, Cardinals (4/17/72),
entered with a 2 run lead, 1 out, bases loaded.
Don McMahon, Giants (6/11/71),
entered with 1 run lead, 1 out, 1 man on.
Jack DiLauro, Mets (7/20/69),
entered with 1 run lead.
If someone can post these two lists (before 1969 and after 1969), it may be fun for some of us to look up the stats and game situations.
The weird thing about the Santarino game is that Joe Grzenda, the pitcher of record, did not give up a run or let an inherited runner score. He did though pitch only 1/3 of an inning. The other four games featured a blown save in the inning prior to the last inning. In three of the four blown saves, only 1 ER was allowed.
By comparison, from 1969 through 1973, there were 6 instances when the pitcher of a visiting team blew a save while giving up at least 1 earned run in 1 inning or less, and still was credited with the victory (as the pitcher of record).
Search: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, IP = 1]
I was expecting to find more than 6, but I think back then a save situation was either a 1-run lead or with the potential tying run on base/at bat.
Search explanations/limitations.
- If home games are included, the list becomes dominated by games where the winning team takes the lead in the bottom of the last inning. I'm not sure how to filter these games out or pick out the ones I'm looking for. Unfortunately (for the purpose of this search), a pitcher is credited with a game finished (GF) whether or not his team was in the field last.
- If the IP requirement is any number greater than 1, the list becomes dominated by games where the pitcher's win is the result of his team taking the lead during his appearance. Again, no way that I can think of to filter out these games or pick out the games I am looking for.
A couple of disclaimers:
- While it is likely that most of the other 9 on the list (since 1969) are examples of wins negating saves, it is possible that any number of them could be non-save siutations (like the Pedro Borbon game). Also, the requirements for a save changed a few times in the early '70's, so a situation that looks like a save situation may not have actually been one. - I can't, at the moment, locate the website that mentions exactly what these changes were. Can anyone help with this?
- These lists do not include other examples of rule 10.17(c) being applied; games in which the winning pitcher did not finish the game (and thus the win did not negate a save). One such example is the Tampa game on May 7, 2009. Dan Wheeler was the pitcher of record, but Brian Shouse got the win, and Joe Nelson got the save.
- Other disclaimers should probably made about the robustness of the data available and the robustness of the search algorithm itself. (I have no direct knowledge regarding either). - I suppose a rain-shortened home game could have the winning pitcher finish the game pitching 1 inning or less, and have his team take the lead during his appearance.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Looks like the search criteria I posted for Blown saves + Wins cut truncated.
It appears in the previous post like this:
Search: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, IP = 1]
But it should be this:
Search: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, IP = 1]
And just in case it got truncated again, here are two shortened versions.
[select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, IP = 1]
[select "visitor"; use wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, IP = 1]
August 25th, 2011 at 9:54 pm
@26 according to the page for the 24th rd of the 1990 draft, he is listed as SS. Perhaps that was his high school position
http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=year_round&year_ID=1990&draft_round=24&draft_type=junreg
August 25th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
grrr..... 🙂 lol
let's try re-arranging the terms.
Search: [select "visitor", and choose IP =1, Blown Save = 1]
now lets try list form (in the original order).
Select "visitor".
wins = 1.
Blown Save = 1.
IP = 1
and finally, with no symbols.
Select "visitor".
wins "equals" 1.
Blown Save "equals" 1.
IP "less than or equal to" 1.
ER "greater than or equal to" 1
August 25th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
How often does this happen?
Russell Martin ans Francisco Cervelli have also played 2 innings each as second basemen this season. Posada is the 3rd Yankee Catcher to man tat position.
somewhere in the land Craig Biggio is smiling.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
I figured it out. The "less than" sign from the IP category and the "greater than sign" from the ER category, and every character in between, gets mistaken for html. It is therefore not "printed" in the reply (even when the reply is in "list" form).
Placing ER before IP will make sure none of this gets deleted.
Search: [select "visitor", and choose wins = 1, Blown Save = 1, ER >= 1, and IP <= 1]
August 26th, 2011 at 12:56 am
Congratulations, Brett. Everyone stumbles over that snafu with the less-than/greater-than signs at some point.
August 26th, 2011 at 12:56 am
(I hope that didn't sound sarcastic -- it was entirely earnest.)
August 26th, 2011 at 10:11 am
@John - are you saying you can be sarcastic at times? I haven't noticed in my brief time posting, nor did I suspect it in #34. <-- no sarcasm intended!
August 26th, 2011 at 10:21 am
Brett, I'm afraid it's true -- though I try to tamp it down in my role here. 🙂
I do find that the intended tone is often misunderstood when quick thoughts are set in cold type, so I keep an eye out for how things might go wrong.
August 27th, 2011 at 12:09 am
Minor, minor quibble:
If you put the full date in the title of posts like these referencing the events of the day when they pop up in the related posts section that follows each post it will be easier for the reader to discern whether it was last week, two months ago, or three years in the past.
August 27th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Fireworks, good reminder. I've started using the "8/25" format, but sometimes I forget, and I guess I really should use "8/25/11" -- though that may confuse our British cousins.