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Monday, August 17, 2009Are the Yankees trying to hit more fly balls?The title of this post posits an intriguing question, and although we cannot truly get to the answer (apart from delving into the minds of the players), the numbers are interesting. The new Yankee Stadium has turned out to play like a bandbox, and the Yankee players may not just be taking advantage of it serendipitously. Below are some of your 2009 New York Yankees accompanied by the relevant stats: Player 2009 FB% 2008 FB%Career FB%2009 IFF%Career IFF% Teixeira 45.5% 36.5% 39.5% 9.4% 10.1% Damon 44.6% 34.2% 35.0% 14.6% 15.9% Swisher 44.2% 44.5% 45.1% 10.9% 10.7% Posada 43.4% 39.7% 37.8% 7.1% 6.6% Matsui 41.8% 34.5% 35.9% 13.2% 7.3% Molina 41.0% 33.0% 33.7% 4.0% 5.8% Rodrigue 38.1% 39.9% 40.1% 8.6% 10.7% Cano 32.7% 33.2% 31.0% 6.9% 8.1% Cabrera 31.7% 34.9% 32.2% 10.2% 12.4% Jeter 25.4% 23.8% 23.8% 0.9% 2.9% There are a lot of things you can take away from this, and by no means does one of the things have to be that the Yankees have a conscious effort to try and hit more fly balls in hopes of getting more homers. While these players definitely stood out, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, and Melky Cabrera have all seen drops in their FB% from last season. However, it is hard to ignore the numbers, especially when the jumps from last season for guys like Damon, Matsui, and Teixeira are so big. It could be that the lefties are trying to get as many big swings as possible thanks to the hitter-friendly dimensions, and to be honest, it seems to be working. All three are seeing improvements in their slugging, with Damon and Matsui up about sixty points each from last year. Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter are up less from last year, but these are fly ball frenzy years for them relative to the rest of their careers. Posada is slugging eighty points better than last year and better than he did from 2004-06. Jeter is up about sixty points from last year and has a better wOBA than he did from all of 2001-2008 in all but one year. The new Yankee Stadium has become a haven for fly balls to leave the park, and the Bronx Bombers are certainly taking advantage of it. I can't say for sure if the Yankees are purposefully trying to hit more fly balls, but if they were, could you blame them? Thanks to Fangraphs.com for the data. UPDATE: The great Tom Tango, over at his The Book Blog, wrote that I should include all the data when doing something like this. I agree, and I assume he meant to include all the Yankees, so I'll include the rest of the starters/players with enough service time for the numbers to mean anything, and update the list to include the player's career FB%, which is right after last year's mark, along with their 2009 and career infield fly numbers. UZR and TeixeiraThis is a post worth reading: David Appelman of Fangraphs responds to Tyler Kepner's criticism of UZR and other advanced fielding stats. I don't think fielding stats are perfect, by any means, but I go nuts when mainstream writers just dismiss them out of hand. I took Buster Olney to task for this a few years ago. Some things never change. Today’s random factUntil 2003, Brian Kingman had a niche for himself: the last man to lose 20 games in a season. He became a bit of a celebrity, and would get a series of interviews each year (most notably with Jayson Stark) about two-thirds the way through the season as some pitcher somewhere lost his 12th or 13th game. Mike Maroth lost 20 in 2003, ending Kingman of his notoriety, but in one way Kingman can claim a distinction: he is the last man to lose 20 games for a team with a winning record. Yup, the 1980 A's, for whom Kingman went 8-20, were 83-79 overall. (They just completely forgot to hit on days he pitched). Question: Before Kingman, when was the last time a pitcher lost 20 for a team with a winning record? Answer: Dolf Luque in 1922. He went 13-23 for an 86-68 Reds team. Luque actually had one of the team's better ERAs, too. If you go back before WWI, you can find a slew of times a pitcher lost 20 for a team that won most of its games, but those are the only pair to do it in the last 90 years. There have been exactly 100 20-game losers since WWI. Honorable mention: Robin Roberts went 10-22 in 1957 for the 77-77 Phillies. Suffice it to say, I like Kingman's odds to hold this claim to fame for quite a while longer. Draft signing deadline loomsTonight at 11:59 PM is the deadline for major league teams to sign their selections from the 2009 MLB Draft. Baseball America has an updated status on all remaining unsigned picks from the top 10 rounds. Among these players are number one selection Stephen Strasburg (Washington), number two Dustin Ackley (Seattle), number three Donovan Tate (San Diego), number six Zack Wheeler (San Francisco) , and the ninth pick Jacob Turner (Detroit). Overall there are still 17 unsigned picks from the first round (including supplemental picks). Strasburg is expected to command a record signing bonus (well above Mark Prior's $10.5 million bonus in 2001) and the rumored asking price has been around $50 million. Agent Scott Boras has a history of holding his clients out and waiting for them to become draft eligible the following season, but the desperate Nationals are in a position where they really need to sign him. Negotiations are expected to last right up until the final minutes. Also still unsigned is pitcher Aaron Crow. Crow was a 9th overall pick by Washington in 2008 but could not reach an agreement. After re-entering the draft and being taken 12th by Kansas City, he is still trying to sign his first professional contract. THT Daily: Four for fourDavid Wright may be done for the year, the fourth Met batting star out of action. Click for more... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||