Friday, June 11, 2004
Conflicts of interest
Posted by Matthew NameeA Dodgers-Red Sox game is a dream of mine. But not in the regular season. The only time I ever want those two teams to meet is in October. Unfortunately for me, they met today, and David Ortiz hit a walk-off single to give the Red Sox the win, 2-1. It was a really good game -- both starting pitchers (Derek Lowe and Odalis Perez) were excellent, and Ortiz went 3-for-4 with a home run and that game-winning single.
To make matters worse, the Yankees and the Padres are facing off tonight as well. I guess I'm in the strange position of rooting for the Yankees to win, because at least that way the standings won't change. If it's the other way around and San Diego wins, then that helps Boston but hurts LA. One of the only things that can make me happy about a Yankee victory is if it somehow helps my Dodgers, and this is one of those rare occasions.
Of course, I won't get my way. The Yankees are down to their final 3 outs as I type this, and the Padres are winning 10-2 after scoring 5 in the top half of the ninth. Maybe I should just not look at the scores for a weekend, and come back Monday and check out the damage...
Matthew Namee cofounded The Hardball Times in 2004, when he was working as the assistant to baseball author and Red Sox executive Bill James. Matthew still lives in Kansas, where he is currently pursuing a law degree. He can be reached at mfnamee [at] gmail [dot] com.
All New Statistics
Posted by Dave StudemanThe individual batting and pitching stats have been updated. Win Shares will be updated later this weekend.
Here's a list of each league's top Runs Created leaders. First, the American League:
Player Team RC Guerrero V. ANA 55 Mora M. BAL 55 Ramirez M. BOS 53 Rodriguez I. DET 50 Thomas F. CHW 49 Young M. TEX 49 Ortiz D. BOS 46 Rodriguez A. NYY 46 Guillen J. ANA 46 Suzuki I. SEA 45 Beltran C. KC 45 Guillen C. DET 45And the National League:
Player Team RC Bonds B. SFG 61 Rolen S. STL 59 Casey S. CIN 57 Berkman L. HOU 55 Abreu B. PHI 54 Pujols A. STL 49 Gonzalez L. ARI 49 Griffey Jr. CIN 49 Lowell M. FLO 48 Alou M. CHC 47 Wilson C. PIT 46 Dunn A. CIN 45 Estrada J. ATL 45Reminder: our Runs Created stats include the impact of clutch hitting. I'll have a further breakdown of clutch hitters in an article this Monday.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
Team Graphs ‘n Stats
Posted by Dave StudemanThe Team graphs and stats have been updated through games of June 10. Here are a few observations:
- The Expos continue to be very good at preventing runs and terrible at scoring runs, messing up my NL graphs. Actually, the run prevention part is interesting. Their FIP is slightly below average, but their DER is the best in the league. This would normally lead you to believe that their fielding is most responsible for that good run prevention record.
However, Expo pitchers have only given up lines drives at a .153 rate, which is way low -- twenty points lower than the next team. So their pitchers do deserve a lot of credit for preventing those runs.
- Six teams in the American League -- Chicago, Oakland, New York, Boston, Texas, and Anaheim -- are actually very similar in terms of runs scored and allowed. I've circled them on the AL Runs chart to point this out.
- In the American League divisional races, three teams have collided for the AL West lead, and the Twins and White Sox have met again atop the AL Central.
- In the National League divisional races, the Central continues to be a mess, while the other two divisions have not changed much recently.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.