The Hardball Times -- John Barten http://www.hardballtimes.com/main Baseball. Insight. Daily. en studes@hardballtimes.com Copyright 2013 2013-05-20T08:09:15+00:00 THT Awards http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards051413/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards051413/#When:06:06:15
All stats are for Monday, May 6 through Sunday, May 12. Please see the week one column for category explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

Phil Hughes got the win in a game in which he was punished to the tune of six runs in five and two thirds by the Royals. But Wade Davis was crushed by Lyle Overbay and the Yankees, giving Hughes the easy path to victory.

Mark Buehrle was hammered for seven runs in six innings on nine hits and two walks. Six of the seven runs came on home runs by Evan Longoria and Luke Scott. Longoria’s was a grand slam. Buehrle avoided the loss when Fernando Rodney and the Rays bullpen allowed five runs in four innings and blew the lead.

Pedro Hernandez avoided the loss despite making it through only two innings for the Twins. Hernandez allowed six runs on seven hits and a walk. The loss went to Red Sox starter Allen Webster, who was shelled for eight runs. Felix Doubront chipped in with another six runs allowed in his five and a third. Hernandez made it out of there with a no-decision.

Dan Haren allowed four runs in six innings on nine hits and a walk, striking out three. But Doug Fister was touched up for five runs in three and Haren got the win.

Mat Latos was hammered for seven runs in six innings on nine hits and three walks. He got the win as the Reds lineup took Hiram Burgos behind the woodshed for 12 runs in three innings.

Jason Vargas avoided the loss despite allowing five runs in five and two thirds on 10 hits and two walks. Hector Ambriz blew the hold for the Astros.

Barry Enright didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, yielding five runs on four hits and two walks, striking out two. But the Angels bullpen took it the rest of the way and Dylan Axelrod allowed six runs in his six innings and Enright avoided the loss.

Jason Hammel allowed six runs in four frames on eight hits and two walks. The Orioles bullpen threw six scoreless innings against the Twins and the Baltimore lineup forced extra innings before eventually winning the game.

Burch Smith and Jeremy Hellickson combined to allow 12 runs in seven and two thirds. The majority of those innings were thrown by Hellickson as Smith failed to record an out in the second before he was sent to the showers. Neither took the loss.

Vance Worley got the win for the Twins despite yielding five runs in five and a third to the Orioles.

Bad luck division

Matt Harvey pitched nine scoreless innings, allowing only one hit, walking nobody, striking out 12. He didn’t get the win. Hector Santiago was the opposing starter. He shut out the Mets for the first seven frames, allowing four hits, walking two, striking out eight. You probably can figure out for yourself that he joined Harvey in the no decision club.

As I write this, James Shields has a 2-3 record with a 2.48 ERA. He pitched in two games this week. On Monday he threw eight scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and two walks, striking out nine. He was lifted for closer Greg Holland, who allowed a run to the White Sox, ensuring that Shields would not receive the win. He posted an 85 game score and didn’t get the win because the Royals lineup tallied only one run and because of his bullpen, which generally is one of the better ones in the American League.

Then, on Saturday, Shields pitched eight innings against the Yankees, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks. He took the loss as the Kansas City lineup scored two runs. All three of his losses this season have come in quality starts. In eight trips to the mound this season he only has one start that doesn’t count as a quality one.

In the Monday Shields start, opposing starter Chris Sale went seven and a third, allowing just one run to the Royals on six hits, walking none, striking out five. He was in line for the loss when Holland blew the lead and ensured that he would only take a no-decision in the contest.

In Harvey’s second start, he threw seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks, striking out four Pirates. He failed to get the win.

Tommy Milone gave the A’s seven innings, allowing one run on five hits, walking none, striking out five. He took the loss as Zach McAllister and a pair of Cleveland relievers shut out the white elephants.

Craig Kimbrel’s third blown save of the season wiped out Kris Medlen’s chance of getting the win after the Atlanta starter threw seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking two, striking out six.

Lance Lynn pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking one, striking out eight. He took his first loss of the 2013 campaign as Travis Wood and the Cubs held the Cardinals to one run.

Hiroki Kuroda went seven innings, gave up two runs on seven hits and a walk in Coors Field. He took the loss.

A.J. Burnett also pitched seven, allowing two runs. He posted a game score of 70 with two hits allowed, walking four, striking out nine. He took the loss, as Felix Hernandez is good at baseballing.

Ricky Nolasco took the loss in a game that ended 1-0. So despite Nolasco’s seven innings, yielding one run on four hits and one walk, striking out nine, he had no chance at the win.

Barry Zito lost the win when Sergio Romo blew the save. Zito had pitched seven innings, had allowed one run on four hits and no walks to the Phillies.

Ian Kennedy stuck with the theme of this category and threw seven innings. He allowed two runs on six hits and three walks. The lineup didn’t score enough runs early enough to get Kennedy the win, which went to reliever Tony Sipp after the Phillies bullpen allowed a run and the Diamondbacks pen did not.

Courtesy of a Drew Storen blown hold, Gio Gonzalez’s seven scoreless innings went to waste. Gio allowed only two hits and one walk, striking out six.

Brandon McCarthy and Kyle Kendrick combined to allow two runs in 15 innings on 13 hits, walking none, striking out nine. McCarthy was on track for the win until Heath Bell blew the save.

After Buehrle threw an awful game and didn’t take the loss, he pitched a very good one and didn’t get the win. On Saturday, he combined with Clay Buchholz to throw 15 innings, allowing three runs on 11 hits and five walks, striking out nine. Neither got the victory.

Vulture Award

In the Buehrle/Buchholz game, Darren Oliver blew the lead only to watch as an Adam Lind home run in the next half inning made him a winning pitcher.

Justin Wilson blew the lead for the Pirates and walked away with the win over the Mets.

Wes Littleton Award

In protecting a three run lead in extra innings, Jim Johnson faced Ryan Doumit, Oswaldo Arcia, Chris Parmelee and Wilkin Ramirez.

Please hold the applause

Upon entering the game with a three-run lead, Jake McGee proceeded to allow a double and a home run before settling down against the murderer’s row that is Maicer Izturis, Mark DeRosa and Brett Lawrie and ending the inning. McGee got the hold.

Preston Claiborne recorded two outs and allowed three to reach base. He was credited with a hold.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Most of the time I use this category to highlight pitchers who are abnormally lucky on batted balls but from time to time I feel it necessary to run counter to that and highlight a game where a pitcher saw abnormally bad luck on batted balls. You will have to try very hard to find a performance more fitting than Alex Cobb's this week. If you were paying attention at all, you already know he struck out 13 while going only four and two thirds. You know he allowed a run in an inning in which he struck out four batters. I will add to that the fact that he didn’t record a fly ball out and he allowed two home runs.

He allowed only seven fair balls and five of them, including the two home runs, were hits.

Only 10 batters he faced didn’t strike out. Two of those plate appearances were the home runs. Two were walkso. Cobb hit another batter with a pitch. Two others grounded out. The other three all reached base via single.

So he was preposterously unlucky on fly balls and unlucky on balls in play. He compounded that by throwing a wild pitch, by balking, and by hitting Nick Hundley with a pitch. That is just insane even without the historical weirdness documented elsewhere on the net.

Getting back to the conventional theme of the category, Jason Marquis struck out only one of the 28 Marlins he faced. But he was fortunate, as out of all of those balls in play, only five managed to find open pasture and Marquis ended up with the win] after eight innings of shutout baseball.

Hiroki Kuroda struck out one of the 30 Royals he faced on Sunday and still managed to avoid a lot of damage, watching only six batted balls in seven and two thirds land in play for hits. He took the win.

Joe Carter Award

Mark Trumbo and Ian Desmond each drove in six runs this week. Trumbo did it while hitting .200/.231/.360 with two extra base hits and one walk in 26 plate appearances. Desmond did it while hitting .389/.450/.833 with four extra base hits and two walks in 20 PA.

Jonny Gomes received only 14 PA and managed to drive in five runs. Upping the degree of difficulty even more is the fact that he hit .083/.143/.333 in those 14 appearances. Indeed, four of the five runs came on a grand slam and the other was the result of a sacrifice fly in the same game, a game the Red Sox lost handily.

Jimmy Rollins and Lyle Overbay each plated five. Rollins ended the week with a .267/.273/.433 line while Overbay went .261/.292/.478.

Sanchez Award

Salvador Perez struck out only twice in 24 PA, which tells you that the seven hits he collected were no fluke. Unfortunately only two of those hits went for extra bases and he did not walk, leading to an empty .292/.292/.375.

Andre Ethier batted a limp .273/.292/.364 in 23 PA.

Harmon Killebrew Award

Shin-Soo Choo reached via hit only four times in 27 PA. On the other hand, three of those four hits were for extra bases and two of those were home runs. He also walked six times for an improbable .193/.393/.524.

Dan Uggla did what Dan Uggla has been known to do and smashed, walked, and flailed his way to a .240/.345/.560 week.

Uggla’s teammate Justin Upton went .227/.393/.364. He reached base by way of a hit five times in 28 PA and by way of base on balls six times.

Prince Fielder posted a .211/.348/.474 in 22 PA.

Steve Balboni Award

Ryan Howard struck out 13 times in 29 PA and that resulted in a .148/.207/.259 week.

Brandon Moss fanned 12 times in 28 PA and batted .148/.179/.296.

B.J. Upton, Colby Rasmus, and Derek Norris each struck out 11 times. They ended the week batting .150/.320/.150/, .150/.292/.450, and .200/.273/.400 respectively.

In the battle to decide which Astro could strike out the most this week, J.D. Martinez did yeoman’s work in whiffing in eight of his 14 plate appearances but was outmatched by Jimmy Paredes, who was called out on strikes 10 times in 23 PA. Oh, and since you are probably wondering how they did with those strikeout rates in mind, they ended the week at .071/.071/.143 and .182/.217/.318 respectively.

Alfonso Soriano fanned nine times in 21 PA. He lacks the secondary skills to make that work most of the time. .250/.286/.350.

Drew Stubbs fanned nine times in 21 PA and went .143/.143/.143.

Oh, and Adam Dunn had a rough week, batting .071/.188/.071 with seven strikeouts in 16 PA.

Among other notable batters who struggled with high strikeout rates and associated poor overall lines were Yonder Alonso, Ike Davis, Michael Morse, Josh Willingham, John Buck, and Dexter Fowler.

Three true outcomes

Choo TTO’ed his way into the Killebrew category above. He smacked two home runs, walked six times, and struck out seven times in his 27 PA.

Jason Kipnis posted a two-three-eight TTO line in 33 PA this week.

Uggla and Mark Reynolds each went two-four-nine. Uggla did it in 29 PA, Reynolds in 23.

B.J. Upton failed to homer, but zero-five-11 in 25 PA is impressive. His brother went zero-six-seven in 28 PA.

Rasmus gave the Blue Jays a two-four-11 in 24 PA.

The anti-TTO

Michael Brantley posted a zero-one-one in 27 PA.

And Marco Scutaro posted a very rare one-zero-zero in 30 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Joe Mauer reached base 21 times this week in 35 PA. He collected 16 hits and six walks. His .533/.600/.833 monster of a week improved his 2013 line from .286/.364/.400 to .341/.418/.496.

Also of note, Longoria went .464/.531/.964 with five singles, five doubles, and three home runs in 32 PA.

NL: Scutaro rode a contact-heavy approach to a brilliant week, going .467/.467/.767 with eight singles, four doubles, a triple, and a home run in 30 PA.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2013-05-14T06:06:15+00:00 THT Awards http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards050713/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards050713/#When:07:12:15
All stats are for Monday, April 29 through Sunday, May 5. Please see the week one column for category explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

The A’s started Dan Straily on Monday. He was smacked around for six runs in four and two thirds. Oakland’s lineup came back to even the game in the ninth inning, taking Straily off the hook. Then the teams played 10 more innings.

Jon Lester gave up six runs in six frames on six hits and two walks. He was in position for the win at one point as David Ortiz and friends scored three runs in the seventh to put the Red Sox up by one. But Junichi Tazawa blew the save and Lester wound up with a really ugly no decision instead of an ugly, undeserved win.

Matt Magill failed to make it out of the second inning, allowing five runs. He walked four batters and was smacked around for six hits despite facing only 14 batters. Ryan Vogelsong was the opposing starter. He allowed seven runs of his own. Neither starter took the loss.

James McDonald and Marco Estrada combined to allow 12 runs in 10 innings of work on 15 hits and six walks, striking out nine. Each bullpen took its turn blowing the lead and neither starter walked away with the loss.

A Jake McGee implosion took Luis Mendoza off the hook after the Royals starter was peppered with six runs in four innings. Mendoza allowed home runs to Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist and Luke Scott.

Dillon Gee posted a game score of 32 and got the win. Gee allowed four runs in five innings to Miami on nine hits and two walks, striking out only one. His counterpart, Wade LeBlanc avoided the loss as well despite the fact that he was touched up for four runs in five and two-thirds.

Tim Lincecum continued his struggles, getting shelled for five runs in five innings. No decision as David Hernandez blew the lead for the Snakes.

Pedro Hernandez and Justin Masterson combined to throw 12 innings, allowing 10 runs on 16 hits and six walks, striking out seven. Neither took the loss.

Adam Wainwright allowed five runs in five and a third on 11 hits, striking out five. A blown save by Tom Gorzelanny ensured that Wainwright would not receive the loss.

Bad luck division

Jeremy Hefner had thrown eight scoreless innings for the Mets, allowing only four hits, walking none, striking out eight. When the first two Marlins he faced reached base in the ninth inning, he was lifted for Brandon Lyon, who allowed both runners to score, ending the game. Lyon did not retire a batter. Hefner took the loss despite a 74 game score. On the other side in that game, Kevin Slowey put up eight innings of his own, allowing one run on four hits and no walks, striking out eight. He took the no-decision.

Trevor Cahill gave the Diamondbacks eight innings of work, allowing one run on four hits and one walk, striking out five. J.J. Putz blew the save in the ninth inning and Cahill took the no-decision.

Hiram Burgos went seven frames, allowing two runs to the Pirates on four hits and a walk, striking out six. John Axford blew the save.

Paul Maholm gave the Braves a good start, going eight innings, yielding two runs. He took the loss as Jordan Zimmerman and Rafael Soriano shut out Atlanta.

It should be acknowledged that Bud Norris held the Tigers to two runs in seven frames only to watch Jose Veras blow the lead in the ninth with an Alex Avila two-run homer.

Clayton Kershaw failed to receive the win despite providing the Dodgers with seven innings of work allowing one run. The Dodgers were held to one run in the game by the Giants and Kershaw was not among the pitchers of record.

Vulture Award

In the Jon Lester start above, Steve Delabar allowed a three-run double, blowing the lead for Toronto. Two of the runs were charged to Aaron Loup. An Edwin Encarnacion two-run home run handed Delabar the victory.

Wes Littleton Award

With a two-run lead, two out, and none on in the bottom of the ninth, Grant Balfour was called on to retire Eduardo Nunez. This is the same Eduardo Nunez who currently sports an 83 OPS+ in 576 career plate appearances.

Jonathan Papelbon’s fifth save of the year came with a three-run lead. He retired Rob Brantly, Adeiny Hechavarria and pinch-hitter Chris Coghlan.

Please hold the applause

Shawn Camp faced four batters in the seventh inning. Those four plate appearances went single, single, ground out, walk. At that point, Camp was replaced with James Russell, who helped the Cubs escape from this bases-loaded, one-out situation without yielding a run. Russell and Camp were each credited with a hold despite the fact that Russell was a magician and Camp was wretched.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Bronson Arroyo failed to strike out any of the 27 Cardinals batters he faced. Despite this, he allowed only five hits on balls in play and the only two runs he allowed were on a two-run home run by Matt Holliday.

Madison Bumgarner struck out two Diamondbacks out of the 24 he faced. With 21 balls in play, only three found their way safely to pasture and Bumgarner made it through his seven innings with no runs allowed.

Dylan Axelrod and Jeremy Guthrie combined to allow only 12 hits and two runs despite striking out only three of the 67 batters they faced. Just let that wash over you for a second. There were three strikeouts in the game and 12 hits combined between the two teams. The xFIPs for the two starters were 7.01 and 4.60 in the game.

Joe Carter Award

Brandon Belt popped two home runs and drove in six runs. He was a few singles shy of a good week. Instead, he posted a line of .176/.263/.529.

Edwin Encarnacion went .208/.240/.458 while driving in five runs.

Victor Martinez also plated five. He went .258/.258/.419.

Sanchez Award

Jhonny Peralta gave the Tigers eight hits in 27 PA. Unfortunately, only two of the eight went for extra bases, he drew only one walk, and was caught on his only stolen base attempt. .308/.321/.385.

Howie Kendrick went .303/.303/.394 in 33 PA.

Austin Jackson posted a .286/.310/.357 line in 29 PA.

Denard Span collected five singles and two doubles in 26 PA and that’s about it as he went .280/.308/.360.

Brandon Inge is back in the majors and he hit .278/.278/.333 in 18 PA for the Pirates this week.

Harmon Killebrew Award

Josh Willingham posted a very unconventional line for the Twins at .176/.391/.412 in 23 PA. He reached base by way of base on balls six times and via hit three times.

Michael Morse rapped out only five hits for the Mariners but two of the five were home runs and he also chipped in by drawing four walks in 25 PA for a .238/.360/.524 line.

Ryan Howard posted a .222/.333/.667 line in 21 PA.

Matt Joyce gave the Rays a line that was similar to Howard’s for the Phillies, but with two fewer doubles. He went .222/.333/.556 in 21 PA.

Nelson Cruz went .200/.360/.500 in 25 PA. Half of his four hits were home runs.

Steve Balboni Award

A.J. Pierzynski fanned seven times in 17 PA and as a result went .118/.167/.118.

Jay Bruce’s strikeout rate this year has jumped from a career rate (2008-2012) of 23.4 percent to 31.9 percent. The only thing that has kept his batting line above water this season is a jump in BABIP from .290 before this season to .379 in 2013. This week he struck out 11 times in 27 PA and posted a .222/.222/.370 line.

The Josh Hamilton strugglefest continued unabated this week: The Halos outfielder went .172/.219/.207 and whiffed nine times in 31 PA.

Jason Castro is this week’s Astros leader in strikeouts, which is quite an achievement when you are competing with Chris Carter and Carlos Pena. He struck out 12 times in 28 PA and gave Houston a .222/.250/.444 line.

Three true outcomes

Justin Ruggiano homered three times, walked four times, and struck out 11 times in 31 PA for the Fish.

For one week, Justin Upton didn’t homer, but he did walk five times and strike out eight times in 25 PA for the Braves.

Carlos Santana went two-seven-eight in the TTO categories in 27 PA.

Mark Trumbo gave the Halos a stout TTO performance with a five-seven-nine in 35 PA.

Willingham’s one-six-eight in 23 PA deserves mention here.

The anti-TTO

Robinson Cano gave a very atypical TTO line in that he homered once, walked once, and went the whole week without striking out in 26 PA.

Yadier Molina went zero-zero-three in 28 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Miguel Cabrera had a nice week, even by Miguel Cabrera standards, with six singles, two doubles, three home runs, and six walks in 32 PA. This all added up to a .432/.545/.846 line.

NL: Carlos Gomez had a nice week by anybody’s standards. Half of his 12 hits went for extra bases. He also chipped in with three walks and he was five for five in stolen bases. He posted a filthy .462/.533/.962 line for the Brewers.

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All stats are for Monday, April 22 through Sunday, April 28. Please see the week one column for category explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

Max Scherzer was knocked around by the Royals for five runs in five frames on seven hits and three walks. He was credited with the win as his Detroit teammates pounded Wade Davis to the tune of seven runs in three and two thirds.

Thanks to a Dane de la Rosa blown save, Derek Holland managed to avoid the loss after getting shelled for six runs in five and two thirds on six hits and four walks, striking out seven.

Josh Stinson gave up four home runs to the Blue Jays. He was punished with five runs in five and two thirds and is back in the minors as I write this. He did not receive the loss thanks to Brandon Morrow and Aaron Loup.

Tyler Chatwood escaped with a no-decision thanks to Craig Kimbrel’s blown save. Chatwood had yielded five runs in six innings on nine hits and three walks, striking out three.

Barry Zito and Eric Stults combined to allow 11 runs in seven and two thirds on 10 hits and two walks. Neither took the loss.

Miguel Gonzalez and Bartolo Colon combined to yield nine runs in 11 and a third on 16 hits and two walks, striking out seven. They each avoided the loss as six different relievers allowed runs.

Bad luck division

Mike Leake threw seven innings, yielding two runs on eight hits and two walks. He took a no-decision as the Reds lineup waited until the 12th inning to score its third run off Travis Wood and the Cubs.

Patrick Corbin allowed only two runs in seven and a third on six hits and no walks, striking out seven Giants. He was denied the win when J.J. Putz blew the save.

Homer Bailey allowed one run in seven innings on five hits. He struck out six, walked none, and took the loss as Jordan Zimmermann shut out the Reds.

Ian Kennedy and Madison Bumgarner combined to allow only two runs in 13 and a third, yielding only nine hits, walking three, striking out 11. Neither got the win.

Justin Verlander’s impending victory was denied when Bruce Rondon allowed a run for what we all agreed earlier in the season would be termed a blown hold. Verlander yielded only one run in seven innings on eight hits and one walk.

Jeremy Hefner and Hyun-Jin Ryu combined to allow two runs on six hits and six walks, striking out 12 in their 14 innings of work. Neither received credit for the win.

Tim Lincecum went seven innings, allowed two runs on six hits and three walks, striking out nine. He took the loss as the Giants could manage only one run against Andrew Cashner and a quartet of San Diego relievers.

Jake Westbrook went six innings and allowed no runs. He allowed only six base runners and only one of those base runners touched second base. He struck out six and walked none. All six hits against him were singles. And he got the no-decision because Joe Kelly blew the hold and ended up taking the loss when Trevor Rosenthal allowed both of the runners inherited from Kelly to score.

Jason Vargas held the Mariners to two runs on Sunday, posting a 67 game score but still ending up with the loss. Hisashi Iwakuma held the Angels scoreless and posted a game score of 72 in only six innings, having struck out eight and walked none. He also did not get the win.

Kyle Lohse went seven innings, allowing only two solo home runs to the Dodgers. He had no chance for the win, as Clayton Kershaw was brilliant, throwing the first eight innings of a shutout, striking out 12 Brewers and walking none.

Vulture Award

Carlos Marmol blew his second save of the season by allowing an inherited runner to score on a single by Joey Votto, the first batter Marmol was brought in to retire with two on and one out. Darwin Barney hit a solo home run and the Cubs added another run for good measure in the next half inning to hand Marmol his second victory of the season.

Wes Littleton Award

In protecting a three-run lead, the three batters retired by Addison Reed for the save were Matt Joyce, Kelly Johnson, and Jose Molina.

Aroldis Chapman’s fifth save of the season came in a game where he was charged with defending a three-run lead. The three batters he retired were Kurt Suzuki, Jhonatan Solano, and Denard Span.

Please hold the applause

J.P. Howell walked the first two batters he faced and retired only one. He was charged with a run as one of the two base runners he bequeathed to Ronald Belisario came around to score. Howell received a hold for his work.

Tim Collins entered the game with a four-run lead, two on and two out and Michael Brantley at bat. He retired Brantley and picked up the hold in a game where the final score was nine to zero and where he contributed a 0.03 WPA.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

In a reverse of the low BABIP games I usually highlight here, Phil Hughes struck out nine of the 26 Blue Jays he faced and still wound up with seven hits against him for a .428 BABIP against.

In the more traditional context, Kevin Correia struck out two of the 30 Rangers he faced and managed to tiptoe his way through eight scoreless innings for the win, seeing only six hits fall safely in play for a .222 BABIP.

Things John likes

So Blue Jays prospect Griffin Murphy has taken to growing an old-timey waxed mustache. I have long been a supporter of the reliever mustache concept and facial hair for players in general. Beyond that, this is even more contrived and silly than the beards of Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson. It also seems like he has put some thought and effort into it as opposed to whatever it is that Carlos Villanueva is doing with this handlebar and the unconnected full beard combo.

Joe Carter Award

Nick Markakis and Ben Zobrist each drove in seven runs. Markakis batted .233/.242/.333 in 31 plate appearances. Zobrist went .233/.250/.400 in 32 PA..

Seth Smith plated six runs and posted a .150/.292/.450 line for the Athletics.

Oswaldo Arcia went .227/.261/.500 and drove in six.

And Lance Berkman went .208/.296/.375 and somehow managed to collect five ribbies.

Sanchez Award

Alex Gonzalez singled five times in 16 PA. That was the extent of his positive contributions to the Brewers offense. He did not walk or smack any extra base hits or even lean in and get hit by a pitch. He ended the week at .313/.313/.313.

Denard Span went .290/.290/.355 in 31 PA, though he did go two for two on the base paths.

Victor Martinez and Justin Morneau posted similar lines this week, Martinez going .286/.273/.429 in 21 PA. Morneau went .286/.286/.476 in 21 PA.

Juan Pierre is still doing Juan Pierre things. .278/.278/.333 in 18 PA.

Harmon Killebrew Award

Josh Willingham singled only once all week. Unlike Gonzalez, he contributed by lacing a double and a pair of home runs. He also walked twice in his 19 PA and stole a base.

Half of Matt Joyce’s four hits were home runs and he walked four times, resulting in a tidy .222/.364/.556 line.

Paul Goldschmidt went .240/.387/.520 in 30 PA. He homered twice, walked five times, and stole a base.

Stephen Drew aided the Red Sox by posting a solid .222/.364/.444 line. Interestingly, he tripled twice.

Steve Balboni Award

Dan Uggla walked twice, doubled, and homered. And that still wasn’t enough to keep his batting line for the week from looking unsightly at .158/.238/.368 in 21 PA. The reason is that he struck out 11 times. He fanned in more than half of his plate appearances.

Welington Castillo was set down on strikes 10 times in 22 PA, leading to a .182/.182/.227 week.

Alejandro De Aza has been striking out a lot more than he ever has, fanning in a full 30 percent of his PA as opposed to career rate of 20.4 percent. This week, he whiffed nine times in 25 PA and posted a .217/.280/.261 line in 25 PA.

Mark Trumbo struck out 12 times in 28 PA and went .214/.267/.357.

Desmond Jennings went down on strikes nine times in 24 PA and ended the week at .182/.308/.364.

Among others who put up terrible lines while not being able to make consistent contact were Brandon Laird, Mike Trout, Carlos Pena, Rickie Weeks, Brett Gardner, Matt Weiters, Fernando Martinez, Freddie Freeman, Carlos Gonzalez, B.J. Upton, and Anthony Rizzo.

Three true outcomes

Chris Davis was a TTO hero this week with two home runs, four walks, and 10 strikeouts in 28 PA.

Adam Dunn went yard twice, walked six times, and struck out four times in 25 PA.

Nelson Cruz went two-five-six in 30 PA.

Jose Bautista went three-two-eight in 29 PA.

The anti-TTO

Brandon Phillips went zero-one-one in 29 PA.

Dustin Ackley also posted a zero-zero-one. He did it in 26 PA.

Elvis Andrus went zero-zero-two in 28 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Josh Donaldson was out of his mind this week. Donaldson reached base safely 12 times via hit and another seven times by way of base on balls. Seven of his 12 hits were doubles. He posted an R-rated .545/.633/.864 line in 29 PA. He posted a .864 slugging percentage without hitting a home run all week.

Nate McLouth also had a good week, going .545/.615/.818 in 26 PA. He also went four for four stealing bases.

NL: I’m calling three-way co-MVPs here with Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton, and Justin Upton doing quite well. Harper went .333/.481/.810 in 27 PA. Stanton gave the Fish a .364/.462/.818 25 PA. Upton went .333/.440/.810 in 24 PA.


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All stats are for Monday, April 15 through Sunday, April 21. Please see the week one column for category explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

One thing about games in which your teammates throw up 14 runs in the first two innings and 19 in the game is that you can get shellacked for six runs and fail to make it out of the fourth and you still don’t get a loss. Take a bow, Scott Kazmir.

Lance Lynn got the win despite allowing four runs in five innings of work on seven hits and three walks. Pittsburgh starter James McDonald was much worse, failing to make it out of the second inning.

Because Barry Zito was hammered for nine runs in two and two thirds, Wily Peralta was able to yield six runs in four frames and not take the loss.

Jeff Francis was rocked to the tune of eight runs in four and a third. But the Mets bullpen ended up blowing the lead and losing the game. Francis received a no-decision.

David Price and Miguel Gonzalez were touched up for five runs each, Price in six frames, Gonzalez in five and two thirds. Darren O'Day and Jake McGee each blew a save and neither starter took the loss.

Julio Teheran and Jeff Locke posted game scores of 38 and 35 respectively and each managed to avoid the loss.

Hyun-Jin Ryu was punished with five runs in six frames but was let off the hook by a Pedro Strop blown save.

Gio Gonzalez was shelled for five runs in four frames. His opposing starter, Jeremy Hefner also lasted only four innings, allowing three runs. The bullpens took turns giving up runs and neither starter was given the loss.

Bad luck division

Homer Bailey and Kyle Kendrick threw 15 scoreless innings between them, allowing only four hits, walking two, and striking out 14. Neither was credited with the win.

Max Scherzer and Felix Hernandez combined to allow just two runs in 16 innings on 10 hits and one walk, striking out 12 each. Neither received the win in a game that went 14 innings.

The day after Scherzer pitched his gem and failed to win, Justin Verlander gave the Tigers a nice start, going seven frames, allowing two runs, walking one, striking out 12. Detroit was shut out and Verlander took the loss.

Cliff Lee pitched seven innings, holding the Reds to two runs on five hits and a walk, striking out four. He was denied the win as Bronson Arroyo and Aroldis Chapman held the Phillies to two runs.

Jeremy Guthrie and Kris Medlen combined to allow just four runs in 14 innings on 11 hits and one walk, striking out 11. Neither was credited with the win, which went to reliever Eric O'Flaherty because of Kelvin Herrera’s implosion.

Pat Corbin held the Yankees to one run in seven innings, striking out seven, walking three. He posted a game score of 73 and was denied the win by a J.J. Putz blown save.

Hiroki Kuroda posted a 74 game score for the Yankees, going seven and a third, allowing one run with seven strikeouts to one walk and was denied the win by a David Robertson blown save.

Mat Latos gave the Reds seven innings allowing one run on six hits, striking out 10, walking one. Cincinnati scored only one run and Latos was left with a no-decision.

Vulture Award

Andrew Bailey blew the save for Ryan Dempster, wasting his 77 game score
only to watch Mike Napoli send Dustin Pedroia home to win the game for him.

Hector Santiago pitched an inning and two thirds. He was lifted after having retired the first two batters of the inning in succession for Matt Lindstrom. After Lindstrom threw three pitches to retire J.P. Arencibia, Dayan Viciedo plated a White Sox base runner to break the tie. Santiago had retired five batters. Lindstrom retired one and was given the win.

Sean Doolittle blew the save for the A’s by allowing a solo home run to former Oakland first baseman Carlos Pena only to watch his teammates score another run and hand him a victory.

Wes Littleton Award

Andrew Bailey’s first save of the season was of the three-run variety. He retired Cord Phelps, Lonnie Chisenhall and Drew Stubbs.

Please hold the applause

Tom Gorzelanny allowed as many home runs as he recorded outs. He got the hold.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Tommy Hanson struck out two of the 26 Tigers he faced and still wound up with six scoreless innings and the win. He walked twice as many as he retired via strikes.

Hiram Burgos struck out one of the 19 Cubs he faced and recorded five scoreless innings and the win.

Things John likes

I know I’ve been using this exclusively as a platform to recognize the relatively rare times when a manager has given a reliever long outings and I promise I will come up with something different soon. Either that or I will rename this category. But let me just point out that I like what Ron Gardenhire did on Tuesday with Anthony Swarzak.

After Mike Pelfrey scuffled through five innings, allowing four runs but still making it out of the game with a lead thanks to Jason Vargas and his own shelling, Gardy put Swarzak in to protect a three-run lead and didn’t lift him until the ninth inning, when he had put a couple of men on base with the heart of the Halos' lineup coming up. Glen Perkins was the new pitcher, and while he allowed Mike Trout to drive in a couple of runs charged to Swarzak, I can’t fault anybody too much and I can’t minimize the leverage of coming into the game with two on and Trout and Albert Pujols coming to bat.

This is how middle relievers and swing men are supposed to be used. Instead of using five different bullpen pitchers who may or may not have their good stuff on that day, use the one guy who seems to be doing well and will keep you ahead with little fuss until he runs into a problem and then you bring in your bullpen ace to shut the other guy's big, scary monsters down. And that is what happened here.

To that same end, I will also say it was cool to see the Orioles give the three-inning save to Tommy Hunter, closing out the Dodgers with three scoreless after entering with a five-run lead. I’m not sure I think that should be counted as a save, but I like what Buck Showalter is doing there. And the same goes to the Rangers and Michael Kirkman, who went three innings against Seattle after entering with an eight-run lead.

Joe Carter Award

This week, Pablo Sandoval drove in seven Giants, tied for fourth in the majors and one more than Joe Mauer, who smacked the ball around for a .588/.667/.824 week. Sandoval batted .273/.292/.455.

J.J. Hardy inexplicably plated five runs for the Orioles while hitting .143/.208/.333 in 23 PA.

Allen Craig collected six RBI in 21 PA but batted an uninspiring .263/.333/.368.

Sanchez Award

Jeff Francoeur singled six times in 20 PA this week and did very little else. No extra base hits and no walks lead to an empty batting average. He ended the week with a .300/.300/.300 line.

Similarly, but not exactly, Brandon Belt went .294/.300/.294 and Michael Young went .292/.320/.292.

Ryan Howard struggled along to the tune of .278/.263/.278.

Harmon Killebrew Award

Ryan Braun singled only once all week. On the other hand, he homered three times and drew five walks in his 25 PA for a .200/.360/.650 line.

Steve Balboni Award

At this point, we all know to expect Adam Dunn to show up here from time to time just because of his strikeout rate. The Big Donkey fanned in exactly half of his 22 plate appearances and ended the week batting .048/.130/.190.

Dunn’s teammate Alejandro de Aza had a bad week as well with 10 strikeouts in 23 PA and a .227/.261/.409 line.

Stephen Drew fanned nine times in 18 PA and went .118/.167/.176.

Chris Carter continued to strike out at staggering rates and continued to post horrendous triple slash lines with nine Ks and a putrid .053/.208/.053 line.

Josh Hamilton whiffed eight times and went .048/.130/.048 in 22 PA.

Justin Smoak posted a .182/.280/.182 with 10 strikeouts in 25 PA.

Will Middlebrooks fanned 11 times in 26 PA and ended the week at .080/.115/.080.

Three true outcomes

Kelly Johnson smacked two home runs, walked five times, and struck out nine times in 24 PA.

Braun posted a three-five-nine TTO line in his 25 PA.

Justin Upton went two-four-eight in 25 PA.

Arencibia is missing a category, but four-zero-10 in 28 PA is worthy of mention.

Joey Votto went two-five-seven in 31 PA.

The anti-TTO

Eric Young Jr. did not hit a home run or walk. He struck out once in 25 PA.

Ben Revere posted a zero-zero-three three true outcomes line in 25 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Napoli went .345/.406/.690 and boosted his season’s line for the Red Sox from .217/.234/.413 to .267/.304/.520.

NL: David Wright reached base 14 times, seven via hit and seven more via walk. He did not strike out all week. He also added two triples, two home runs, and two steals while putting up a .350/.519/.850 line for the Mets.

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All stats are for Monday, April 8 through Sunday the 14. Please see the week one column for category explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

Juan Nicasio and Tim Lincecum combined to allow 10 runs in 11 innings of work on nine hits and nine walks, striking out nine. Lincecum was on the hook for the loss until Adam Ottavino and Matt Belisle combined to allow enough runs to blow the save for the undeserving Nicasio.

Lincecum came back on Sunday and was involved in another game that fits the criteria. He paired up with Edwin Jackson to allow a combined nine runs on 10 hits and four walks. A series of three blown saves ensured that neither starter would take the loss.

Mark Buehrle and Rick Porcello combined to yield 10 runs in nine and a third. They were knocked around to the tune of 15 hits, striking out only three batters between them. Neither took the loss.

Tommy Milone posted a 39 game score and still got the win thanks to his teammates, who blasted Joe Blanton for six runs and tacked on five more against the Angels bullpen. Milone yielded four runs on seven hits and three walks in five frames.

Ryan Vogelsong was shelled for five runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings against the Cubs. With help from the Giants lineup and bullpen, he collected the win.

Jon Niese allowed five runs in five innings on five hits and four walks, striking out one. He got the win as the Mets bullpen tossed four scoreless innings in relief of Niese and the Mets lineup tallied 16 runs off Vance Worley and a quartet of Twins relievers.

Phil Irwin avoided the loss despite getting touched up for five runs in four and two thirds. He allowed six hits and issued four walks, striking out four. Jonathan Broxton allowed six runs to blow the save and eliminate the threat of the loss for Irwin.

Bad luck division

Josh Beckett threw eight and a third and allowed only one run on six hits and one walk, striking out nine. The Diamondbacks shut out the Dodgers. Beckett was the victim of a walk-off single by Paul Goldschmidt. Trevor Cahill, who pitched the first seven and a third for the Snakes also failed to take the win. Beckett took the loss.

Carlos Quintana gave the White Sox seven scoreless against Cleveland. He allowed only one hit, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out seven. The bad news is that he failed to get the win as Justin Masterson threw a complete game shutout for the Indians.

Carlos Villanueva was denied the victory when Kyuji Fujikawa blew the save. Villanueva shut out the Giants for seven and a third, allowing only three hits, walking one.

Ross Detwiler went seven frames, allowing only one run on four hits and two walks, striking out five. But Drew Storen blew the save and Detwiler went home with a no-decision.

James Shields pitched a complete game, allowing three runs to the Blue Jays on two hits and three walks, striking out six. He took the loss as the Royals managed only two runs off R.A. Dickey and four Toronto relievers.

David Price and Jon Lester combined to throw 13 innings, allowing two runs between them on nine hits and three walks, striking out 13. Neither received the win in a game that went into extra innings.

Jose Fernandez pitched six scoreless and was denied the win. Fernandez struck out five, walked two, and limited the Phillies to two hits. His game score was a sparkling 71.

Joe Saunders allowed one run in seven frames on three hits and two walks, striking out two. No decision.

Ervin Santana pitched eight innings for the Royals, yielding two runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out four. He did not get the win. That went to Kelvin Herrera, who pitched the final inning before Alex Gordon’s walk-off single.

Jaime Garcia received a no-decision despite pitching seven scoreless at home against the Brewers.

Vulture Award

Jeanmar Gomez entered the game on Monday with a runner on first, a two run lead, and one out in the third inning, relieving Wandy Rodriguez, who left with a tight hamstring. Gomez proceeded to give up a single and a walk, loading the bases. Subsequent batters drove in a runner with a sacrifice fly and another with a single to tie the game. After Gomez pitched a clean fourth inning, the Pirates took the lead on an Andrew McCutchen sacrifice fly. They would hold that lead for the remainder of the contest and Gomez got the win.

Paul Clemens was credited with a relief win that makes Gomez look deserving by comparison. Astros starter Erik Bedard went four scoreless innings. Those scoreless innings, coupled with a beat-down of Mariners starter and reliever Brandon Maurer and Kameron Loe, gave Clemens an 11-run cushion to work with.

It was nearly impossible for him to fail, though he gave it a solid shot, yielding home runs to Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez, and Michael Morse. By the time he left the game, the Astros were up 16-5. Clemens’ line was four innings pitched, six hits, five runs, one walk, zero strikeouts. He got the win because he was the first reliever out of the pen in an absurd blowout. Due to the complete lack of leverage, he had a zero WPA.

When Fujikawa allowed three runs to blow the save, the Cubs lineup came back to score two more runs off Sergio Romo to gift Fujikawa the win.

Tony Watson blew the save for A.J. Burnett, denying him the win and taking the ineffective Mike Leake off the hook for the loss. Watson received credit for the win after Andrew McCutchen’s solo home run gave the Pirates a lead that more effective relievers would maintain for the remainder of the game,

Wes Littleton Award

Brandon League got the save, but made it very, very interesting on Wednesday. He entered in the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a Nick Hundley double, an Everth Cabrera single, and a Will Venable single, driving in Hundley. Cabrera scored on a passed ball by A.J. Ellis.

With a three-run lead to work with, Ernesto Frieri retired Matt Dominguez, Rick Ankiel, and Justin Maxwell to end the game.

Please hold the applause

Charlie Furbush faced only one Astros batter for his first hold of the season. That batter was Ankiel, who ended the day with a .071/.071/.286 line. Furbush was protecting a three-run lead with two out and nobody on base.

Kenley Jansen allowed a Martin Prado solo home run, a Miguel Montero single, and an Aaron Hill RBI double. Despite the two earned runs, he was credited with the hold as he entered the game with a thre- run lead.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Kevin Correia appeared here last week and he is back again with one strikeout among the 29 Kansas City batters he faced. He was punished with only three runs on eight hits and a walk. He took the loss because Ervin Santana went eight innings, allowing only one run and showing Correia what actual dominance looks like with seven punch-outs.

Kris Medlen fanned one of the 26 Marlins he faced in seven innings of work for the win on Tuesday. He allowed only one run on three hits despite all those balls in play.

John Lannan and Ricky Nolasco allowed one run each when they combined to strike out three of the 48 batters they faced in the game. In their 12 innings of work, they allowed 10 hits despite 42 strikes in play.

Roy Halladay struck out only two of the 29 Marlins he faced. He was punished with only five hits and only one of those base runners turned into a run. Halladay received the win.

Things John likes

I like that the Blue Jays used Aaron Loup for the three-inning save in Kansas City. Well I don’t like it as a Royals fan, but given that Loup gave the Jays three scoreless innings with a four-run lead, there’s a lot to like from a tactical perspective. Given that Loup isn’t the stereotypical long man out of the pen, having been used primarily as a one-inning reliever in the minors, this is somewhat out-of-the box thinking.

Joe Carter Award

If you had looked only at Elvis Andrus’ RBI total for the week and seen a six in the column, you might be surprised to pan over to look at his overall line and find a .231/.310/.231. He had the same number of total bases as runs batted in. It is also worth noting that he stole three bases in three attempts on the week. Without going through and finding every one of his at-bats, I would venture to say that he was probably unlucky on balls in play, as he struck out four times in 29 plate appearances.

It seems weird that Mark Reynolds plays the same sport as Andrus, let alone is a co-winner of the same award this week, given how different they are in size, appearance, and approach. But here we are, talking about both of them. Unsurprisingly, Reynolds went about his six ribbies in a different manner than we saw with Andrus. Reynolds had half of his four hits go for extra bases, one being a double and the other a home run. He posted a .222/.211/.444 line for Cleveland.

Alcides Escobar drove in the same number of runs as Brandon Crawford. The two of them plated five runs. Escobar posted a .250/.240/.333 line while Crawford went .364/.517/.545.

Sanchez Award

Shane Victorino collected six hits in his 20 plate appearances this week. None of those six were of the extra base variety. Victorino did walk, but only once. This all added up to a .316/.333/316 line.

With only one strikeout in 22 PA, Omar Infante did a great job at putting the ball in play. Unfortunately those balls in play didn’t do much for the Tigers as he went .286/.273/.286.

Carlos Gomez went .294/.294/.353 in 17 PA for the Brewers.

Chris Getz posted a .294/.294/.412 in 17 PA.

With 153 strikeouts last season, Mark Trumbo’s forte is not slapping out singles or posting empty batting average lines. This is a week of surprises though, which leads you to his .280/.308/.360 in 26 PA.

Harmon Killebrew Award

With a .200/.360/.550 line in 25 PA, Dexter Fowler put on a clinic for how to get on this list. Three of his four hits went for extra bases. Two of those three were home runs. He also chipped in five walks.

You could do a lot worse than Josh Willingham’s .235/.381/.471 line in 21 PA, and the Twins have a host of players who routinely do much worse than that.

Travis Hafner held up his end of the bargain in his platoon with a .231/.412/.692 week for the Yankees in 16 PA.

Jason Bay went .235/.350/.412 in 18 PA.

Steve Balboni Award

Rickie Weeks had a very rough week, striking out 11 times in 23 PA and scuffling to a .048/130/.095 line.

The week after I was thwarted in my attempts to trade for Anthony Rizzo in my keeper league, the Cubs first baseman fanned 10 times in 26 PA and posted an anemic .136/.269/.364 line for that other fantasy owner’s team.

Aaron Hicks might just be in way over his head at this point. He had a scary week: He struck out nine times in 18 PA and went hitless, ending the week at .000/.056/.000.

Tyler Flowers whiffed in half of his 18 PA and ended the week at .056/.056/.111.

Asdrubal Cabrera went .167/.250/.333. His eight strikeouts in 20 PA go a long way toward explaining that.

Three true outcomes

Chris Davis continued to do what Chris Davis has done this season, belting a pair of home runs, walking five times, and fanning nine times in 24 PA.

Fellow large humanoid named Chris, Chris Carter posted a TTO line of four homers, three walks, and eight strikeouts in 28 PA.

Dexter Fowler went two-five-seven in his 25 PA.

Joey Votto’s TTO line is overly weighted in walks, but one-12-four in 29 PA is a little ridiculous.

The anti-TTO

I mentioned Alcides Escobar above. The Kansas City shortstop went 25 PA without a home run, walk or strikeout.

Marco Scutaro went zero-zero-one in 26 PA.

And David Murphy posted a zero-zero-two in 28 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Prince Fielder found his way on base 22 times in 30 PA. He was hit by a pitch once, walked nine times, and reached on a hit 12 times. Half of those hits went for extra bases, two of those six were home runs. .632/.733/1.158 is special.

NL: Votto collected six hits and 12 walks and ended the week with a stellar, though unique .353/.621/.588 line in his 29 PA.

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All stats are through Sunday, April 7. Given that this is the first column of the season, we will reintroduce you to the awards and what it means when I give somebody a Carter, a Littleton, or a Sanchez.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

In his first start as a member of the Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle was torched for six runs in five and a third on seven hits and a walk. He allowed solo home runs to Carlos Santana and Mark Reynolds and still escaped without the loss because his teammates made Brett Myers look ridiculous.

Marco Estrada and Jorge de la Rosa combined to throw nine and a third, allowing eight runs on 14 hits and three walks. Neither took the loss.

C.J. Wilson yielded four runs in six frames to the Reds. A Jonathan Broxton blown hold* took Wilson off the hook.

*I think last year we decided that it was unfair to call a blown lead for a setup man or middle reliever a blown save and that a blown hold was a fairer way to show that the save wasn’t coming anyway.

Baltimore’s bullpen blew the lead that took Jeremy Hellickson off the hook for the loss after he had been punished by the Orioles lineup for five runs in six and a third.

Lance Lynn and Brandon McCarthy got bombed to the tune of 10 runs in nine frames. They combined to allow 15 hits while striking out only four batters. They received matching no-decisions.

Wade Davis didn’t make it to the fifth inning and posted a game score of 30 yet still avoided the loss thanks to an offensive explosion by his Kansas City teammates against the Phillies bullpen.

Neither Jake Arrieta nor Liam Hendriks took the loss despite combining to allow nine runs in nine and two-thirds.

Blake Beavan and Jose Quintana combined to allow 11 runs in nine innings. They each took home a no-decision.

Vance Worley and Chris Tillman yielded 10 runs in eight and two thirds on a staggering 17 hits and five walks, striking out six. Neither starter got the big demerit and nobody was sent to his room without dinner.

Julio Teheran was the benefactor when Carlos Marmol blew his first save of the season. Teheran had been shelled by the Cubs lineup for five runs in as many innings. He had allowed three of those runs on home runs hit by Luis Valbuena and Anthony Rizzo.

Bad luck division

Johnny Cueto threw seven frames for the Reds, allowing one run on three hits and a walk, striking out nine. The lone run came on a Chris Iannetta home run. But Cueto took a no-decision as the Reds lineup managed to score only one run off Jered Weaver and the Halos bullpen in 13 innings.

In Monday’s season opener for both teams, James Shields, Aaron Crow, and Kelvin Herrera held the White Sox to one run on eight hits and a walk, striking out nine. But Shields took the loss as Chris Sale and three of his friends shut out the Royals.

Matt Cain shut out the Dodgers for six innings, allowing only four hits and a walk, striking out eight of the 23 batters he faced. He received no decision, as Clayton Kershaw was brilliant, tossing a complete game shutout of the Giants.

Brett Anderson gave Oakland seven innings, holding the Mariners to two runs on four hits and four walks, striking out six but he took the loss as Felix Hernandez was rolling and the White Elephants got shut out.

Ubaldo Jimenez and Brandon Morrow combined to throw 12 innings, allowing two runs on nine hits and four walks, striking out 14. Neither managed to grab the win and the game went into extra innings.

Vulture Award

Fernando Rodney became the season’s first vulture on Wednesday when he allowed a walk and a double in a one-run game. Matt Joyce followed in the next half inning by smacking a walk-off solo home run off Tommy Hunter. Rodney got the win.

Junichi Tazawa gave up the lead but his teammates picked up the slack with their bats and his successors in the bullpen held the lead. Tazawa got the win.

Wes Littleton Award

In 2007, Wes Littleton was credited with a save in a game that he entered with a 14-3 lead. The Rangers scored another 16 runs while he was in the game. This award recognizes the ugliest or least deserving saves. A few times every year we also look at who has the highest save total while not actually being a valuable pitcher.

Joel Hanrahan entered the game with a three run lead and protected that by facing Eduardo Nunez, Francisco Cervelli, Brett Gardner and Ben Francisco. These are not your older brother’s Yankees.

Jason Grilli’s first save of the season was one where he pitched the ninth inning with a three-run lead and faced Anthony Rizzo, Alfonso Soriano and pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz.

Carlos Marmol’s first successful save of the season was still horrifically ugly as he allowed the first four batters to reach base and yielded two runs before barely escaping the mighty Pirates.

Grant Balfour recorded the save by retiring Justin Maxwell, Jason Castro and J.D. Martinez with a three-run cushion. I have a feeling I will be citing a lot of three run saves against the Astros this season. You can make almost any combination of three hitters in their lineup sound non-threatening, mostly because they are non-threatening.

Please hold the applause

Owing to conventional wisdom that you have to have one guy with a capital “C” closer job title and you always go to that guy at the top of the ninth, Marmol was handed the ball against the Pirates on Monday. After striking out Garrett Jones, he hit Andrew McCutchen with a pitch, allowed McCutchen to steal second and then score on a Pedro Alvarez single before walking Gaby Sanchez and consequently being lifted from the game in favor of James Russell. He turned a three-run lead with nobody on and nobody out into a two-run lead with runners on first and second and one out. Russell and Kyuji Fujikawa cleaned up his mess and Marmol walked away with a hold. He decreased his club’s win probability by 14 percent and he was rewarded with a statistical pat on the back.

Drew Smyly faced 10 batters. He struck out one. He walked three. Three more got a hit. Two of the six he put on base scored. The first of those two runs scored when Smyly put one past Alex Avila for a wild pitch. Despite all of this ineptitude, Smyly was credited with a hold.

Joe Smith tallied his first hold of the season by shutting down Toronto’s seven-eight-nine hitters, Colby Rasmus, Maicer Izturis and Emilio Bonifacio. Teammate Vinnie Pestano got a hold too, but he was tasked with retiring Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Kevin Correia struck out two of the 28 Tigers he faced on Thursday. Only seven hits fell in play and none went for extra bases. He allowed two runs in seven innings and received no decision.

The day after Correia’s game, rotation-mate Mike Pelfrey struck out only one of the 23 batters he faced and managed a win as he allowed only two runs on five hits and two walks in five and a third. It helps that Rick Porcello and Brayan Villarreal each had bad days at the office.

Jordan Zimmerman fanned one of the 27 Marlins he faced and managed the win with only one run against on eight hits and two walks.

Not only did Jake Westbrook strike out only one Giants batter, but he also walked six of the 32 he faced. He took the loss but allowed only one run on six hits along the way. It could have been much, much worse.

Things John likes

I like that in the season opener the Astros brought in Erik Bedard with a two run lead, two out, and two on in the top of the sixth and kept him in for three and a third to finish out the contest. Following the Giants' use of Tim Lincecum for multi-inning relief appearances in last year’s playoffs, I hope that this is an indication that teams are willing to try some more traditional usage patterns in the bullpen instead of mindlessly wandering through with one inning per reliever, lefty specialists with less than an inning, a setup man who comes in only at the top of the eighth with a lead of one to three runs, and a closer who comes in only at the top of the ninth with a lead of one to three runs.

There are good relievers out there who could easily give you two frames per appearance. Don’t give me one inning of Aroldis Chapman, Glen Perkins or Trevor Rosenthal. Give me two. These guys can handle it. It wasn’t that long ago that they were starting the game. Why is it that the minute a guy gets shuffled off to the back of the bullpen, he magically loses the ability to go more than one inning?

So using Erik Bedard or Tim Lincecum in a way that actually gets some use out of them instead of trying to shoehorn them into a generic late relief role or marching them out to the mound every fifth day to watch them get shelled is something that I like. It gets my seal of approval.

Joe Carter Award

The Joe Carter Award recognizes the hitter with the largest disparity between his RBI total and his overall value. This isn’t to say that Joe Carter was a terrible player, but he did drive in 102 runs for the Blue Jays in 1997 with a .234/.284/.399 line and a 77 OPS+ and 115 in 1990 while hitting .232/.290/.391 with an 85 OPS+. A few other seasons stand out for their high RBI totals despite pedestrian overall production.

Billy Butler had one day where he was great. He was magnificent on Sunday. Butler drove in seven runs in a game the Royals won 9-8, smashing a grand slam along the way. Going into Sunday’s game, he had a .133/.235/.133 line and one RBI. Even after going two for four with a home run and a walk, he still sits at a modest .211/.318/.368.

Mike Napoli has driven in seven runs in 28 plate appearances while batting only .179/.179/.429. He has the same number of RBIs as Justin Upton, who homered five times.

Like Butler, Prince Fielder plated eight runs but disappointed in other areas of the game. He walked once and ended the week batting .261/.280/.565.

Sanchez Award

This recognizes the batters who have the largest disparity between their batting averages and overall value. This was originally named after Rey Sanchez, who retired with a .272/.308/.334 line. Freddy Sanchez has demonstrated his own ability to post empty batting averages, notably his .271/.298/.371 performance in 2008. His .344/.378/.473 in 2006 was remarkable in that while his batting average gave him value, it was still about as bad a line as you can post while winning a “batting title”.

A common complaint of mine last year was that it has become very difficult to correctly spot and attribute this award as batting averages and other rate stats have slumped over recent seasons. One thing you can count on is Placido Polanco to try his hardest to wind up on this list. This week he hit a nearly perfect Sanchez line of .286/.286/.286 in 21 PA.

Professional hacker Jeff Francoeur is off to a Sachezian start with his own .292/.320/.375 in 25 PA.

Martin Prado went .281/.273/.469 in 33 PA. Yes, that is a lower OBP than batting average you see. There was no misprint.

Starling Marte went .261/.292/.261 in 24 PA.

Harmon Killebrew Award

This is the anti-Sanchez, for a player who posts a low batting average (I don’t really look at a hitter for the award if he isn’t at .250 or under) but demonstrates secondary skills that give him an overall positive value, like Killebrew himself.

Joey Votto is still out there doing Joey Votto things, like drawing eight walks in a week to make up for a relative paucity of singles as he ended the week with a .238/.467/.333 line.

Trevor Plouffe collected only four hits in 24 PA. However one of those two hits was a double and another was a home run. He also walked three times, was unbelievably hit by three pitches, and stole a base with no caught stealing. I have a feeling the Twins would love to see him carry something as productive as a .235/.417/.471 line through the season.

Albert Pujols went .211/.429/.579. Three of his four hits went for extra bases and he walked eight times against only three strikeouts.

It seems as though Dan Uggla hasn’t changed much over the six months he’s been gone from our lives. .211/.348/.526 in 23 PA.

A somewhat extreme Killebrew this week belonged to Lucas Duda, who went .176/.417/.412 in 24 PA.

Josh Willingham rode seven walks to a .211/.444/.474 line in 26 PA.

Steve Balboni Award

While you can overcome a propensity to strike out and the low batting average such a tendency brings, there is a breaking point where your secondary skills aren’t sufficient or you’re simply not demonstrating secondary skills because you are too busy hacking at sliders in the dirt to slug home runs or draw walks. Balboni had some nice moments, slugging a team record 36 home runs for the 1985 Royals. But he did not walk a lot, had very little defensive value, and his power was accompanied by a lot of flailing at pitches he shouldn’t be swinging at. In the end, the strikeouts ate his career and he was finished as a regular by the time George Herbert Walker Bush took office.

Brett Wallace struck out in 13 of his 18 PA leading to the inevitable .059/.111/.059.

Wallace’s teammate Chris Carter fanned in 11 of his 23 PA and ended the week with the pathetic line of .091/.130/.182.

Adding a third member to the hopeless, fanning Astros club is Carlos Pena, who struck out seven times in 19 PA and went .158/.158/.158.

Pedro Alvarez was retired on strikes 10 times in 22 PA and ended the week batting .091/.091/.091.

Josh Hamilton struck out 10 times in this opening week and ended up batting .160/.276/.200 in 28 PA.

Aaron Hicks is new here, which kind of explains how he went whiffed 11 times in 28 PA and went .077/.143/.077.

Three true outcomes

Willingham accumulated a home run, seven walks, and 10 strikeouts in 26 PA.

Justin Upton went five-two-11 in TTO categories in 24 PA.

B.J. Upton went one-three-nine in 23 PA.

Ike Davis posted a one-four-nine in 26 PA.

I mentioned Duda above as he went one-six-seven in 24PA.

Michael Morse was a little light in the walks category, but five-one-11 in 30 PA feels worth mentioning.

Uggla posted a two-four-seven in 23 PA.

The anti-TTO

No batter who accumulated at least 25 PA this week did so without striking out at least once. Of the six who struck out only once, only Adam Jones stands out as he went zero-one-one in 28 PA.

Angel Pagan went zero-one-two in 25 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Chris Davis is batting .455/.500/1.136 with three doubles and four home runs in 26 PA. He is my MVP, but here are two players who should also be acknowledged for their work this week.

Davis’ teammate Adam Jones actually outranks him in WPA at 1.13 versus 1.05. They are the only two in the majors who have broken the one win barrier this season. Davis is deservedly getting a lot of attention for tearing the cover off the ball but Jones is doing well too at .538/.556/.692 in 27 PA

The American League leader in times on base is Jed Lowrie. Lowrie is batting .500/.567/1.000 with 13 hits and four walks. If you had offered up a bet in Vegas that the major league leaders in OPS a week into 2013 would be Davis and Lowrie, you likely would have received some pretty insane odds, not that a casino would ever offer up such a ludicrous wager.

NL: Todd Frazier posted a .480/.519/.920 in 27 PA for the Reds.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2013-04-09T07:26:15+00:00 Five questions: Kansas City Royals http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-kansas-city-royals8/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-kansas-city-royals8/#When:07:05:15 Baseball America’s number eight and nine overall 2011 prospects Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer. The Royals advanced from fourth place in the American League Central to third place only because Cleveland dropped 12 wins off its 2011 record.

James Shields and Wade Davis worth 600 more plate appearances of Jeff Francoeur?


There were many spectacular, insightful articles written about the trade that sent Wil Myers and various supporting acts to Tampa for James Shields and Wade Davis. You should read those articles if you are at all interested in the Royals or Rays. They take a broad and often long term view of the trade. For the purposes of this discussion, I will concentrate on just how this transaction affects them in 2013.

In 2013, the question can be boiled down to the analysis of how much better Shields and Davis are than the alternatives and how much worse Francoeur is than Myers.

So who would have been pitching for the Royals had this trade not happened? Well that is hard to say. Nathan Adcock, Luke Hochevar, Luis Mendoza and Will Smith would have entered spring training with the best chances. Jake Odorizzi, who was sent to St. Petersburg with Myers in the deal, would have had a chance in spring as well. Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino should return at midseason. Adcock, Hochevar and Smith are all replacement level fodder and little more.

Mendoza did some league average work in 25 starts last year. He is still in the running for the fifth starter role, where Bruce Chen is currently penciled in.

The Royals certainly needed starting pitching. Their starters combined to allow opposing batters to hit .283/.347/.456, good for a 117 OPS+. Just chew on that sentence for a moment before moving on.

Now let's return from that kick in the shins to move on to analyzing the right field situation. This move basically cements the idea that Jeff Francoeur will play right field every day unless he dies of dysentery some time before the All-Star break. At this point Francoeur has 4,703 plate appearances in the major leagues and is a career .266/.310/.426 hitter. He hit a new low last season by being more than a win under replacement level. ZIPS projects him as a .261/.305/.413 in 609 PA. Oliver has him at .259/.314/.422 in 576 PA.

The alternative to Frenchy is some combination of Lorenzo Cain, Jarrod Dyson and David Lough. The only advantage in that would be a defensive payoff given that Francoeur’s range in the outfield has dwindled to the point where he is a major defensive liability in spite of a strong arm.

So let's just say that this team really could have used Myers. This trade might give the Royals a small bump in 2013. But opening up one hole to plug another isn’t really solving problems. It is just shifting the problems to other parts of the roster.


What the hell was that?


This question refers to Hosmer, who streaked through the minors and ended up hitting .293/.334/.465 in 128 major league games as a 21-year-old. Then in 2012, he posted a putrid .232/.304/.359, good for a 82 OPS+ in 598 PA. His ZIPS projection going into last year was .304/.354/.474 with a 123 OPS+. So you can say it was a disappointment. The Royals finished 12th in the American League in runs scored. If their starting first baseman doesn’t rebound from that wretched line, then they won’t improve that by much.

Fortunately for the Royals, the projection systems seem to be relatively optimistic, with ZIPS giving him a .273/.336/.435 and Oliver going with a .285/.347/.462.

Even with a comparatively stable and successful rotation in tow, the hope for the present and future for the Royals continues to be the core of position players starting with Alex Gordon and Billy Butler and continues with Hosmer and Moustakas. If the Royals are going to be relevant, it isn’t going to be with Hosmer and Moustakas carrying sub-league average wOBAs.

Sal Perez: Great catcher or the greatest catcher?


Everybody loves Salvador Perez, but then how could you not love a 22-year-old catcher with a spectacular defensive reputation and a career .311/.339/.471 major league line? He was limited to 305 PA in 2012 by a knee injury but still ended up 13th in fWAR among catchers with 2.6 wins.

I phrased the question in a farcical manner, but it really does seem likely that we are talking about a very good young player who is signed to a long-term, team-friendly contract. The only thing that is likely to limit his long term value is the prospect that he could end up being prone to injuries. Being a large catcher, listed at 6-foot-3, 245 pounds, doesn’t help his chances of making it out of his 20s as a healthy catcher. On other hand, let's not blow a meniscus tear out of proportion. He hasn’t sustained any catastrophic injuries in his career.

Can anybody play second base or center field?


We spent some time talking about right field, first base and the rotation but the other problem areas for the organization proved to be second base and center field.

Kansas City second basemen hit a combined .256/.289/.359 while center fielders hit .255/.314/.357. The fans' hopes for these positions hinged on Johnny Giavotella and Lorenzo Cain. Giavotella was advertised as a good hitter and a poor fielder and lived up to only the bad part of that reputation: He had the bat knocked out of his hands by big league pitchers to the tune of .238/.270/.304 and a -5.3 FRAA in only 53 games.

It would be foolish at this point to expect Chris Getz or Elliot Johnson to provide much help given their now well-established histories and skill sets. So if Giavotella can’t manage to be the offensive whiz that he is supposed to be, it might be a rough year at the keystone again in 2013.

Cain was average with the bat and graded out as above average with the glove, but was no savior. Jarrod Dyson is the kind of slap and dash speed merchant who doesn’t often help a team in any significant way but also tends to look good enough in streaks that he steals attention and at-bats from better players.


Can somebody draw a walk?


Kansas City batters drew only 404 walks in 2012, fewest in either league. They actually finished 24 behind Boston and 40 behind Pittsburgh. The Rays led baseball with 167 more walks than the Royals. The franchise hasn’t finished higher than 20th in any year that begins with a two. And in those 12 seasons, the Royals have finished dead last three times.

Part of this trend is likely their habit of deploying a largely punchless lineup. The likes of Ken Harvey, Scott Podsednik and Mark Grudzielanek aren’t going to scare many pitchers into three-ball counts. But part of it is having a real fondness for hackers like Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Guillen. In this respect, this year’s squad seems like a good bet to be more of the same: Only Butler, Hosmer, and Gordon have demonstrated histories of being able to consistently draw walks from big league pitching. Even promising youngsters like Moustakas and Perez are impatient batters who have never taken walks at a better than average rate.

When you combine this impatience with last year’s 26th place finish in home runs, you have one of the most batting average-dependent offenses you are likely to find.

Bonus question: Is Alcides Escobar a good defensive shortstop?


Escobar came up through the minors with a sterling reputation at shortstop. He was billed as a premium defensive force, getting annual rave reviews from everybody who does prospect analysis.

He regularly reinforces this perception with some aesthetically pleasing plays but rating systems soured on him in 2012 after being very happy with his 2011 season. Baseball Reference cites him at 0.6 dWAR in 2012; he was rated at 1.9 in 2011. FanGraphs had him plummeting from 10.2 to -12.0 in FRAA.

So what is happening here?

Jeff Zimmerman had an interesting theory at Royals Review concerning Moustakas being the beneficiary of the Royals relying more on the shift. But I’m unconvinced given the scale of the collapse in his numbers. Several teams have employed the shift more frequently in the past season or two and I don’t recall anything like the Escobar/Moustakas effect being reflected in the numbers.

Escobar went from being the third ranked shortstop in the game as reflected in his FRAA to being second to last, ahead of only Derek Jeter. It will be fascinating to see how Escobar’s—and by extension Moustakas’—numbers fare in 2013. Right now I really don’t know what to think of Escobar’s glove work.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2013-03-06T07:05:15+00:00 THT Awards 2012 Season Finale Hitters Edition http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards-2012-season-finale-hitters-edition/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards-2012-season-finale-hitters-edition/#When:08:40:15
Please see the week one column for award definitions and explanations.

Joe Carter Award

Hunter Pence drove in 104 runs for the Phillies and Giants, one more than his teammate Buster Posey and good for 14th in the Major Leagues ahead of batters such as Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, David Wright, and Robinson Cano. Durability and the ability to smack some extra base hits are qualities to be valued in a player, but they were the two signature abilities of Pence this season. The right fielder posted a 103 OPS+ and in order to get to him on the WAR leaderboard at FanGraphs, you have to go to the fourth page among qualified batters because his WAR was only 1.8. He hit .253/.319/.425.

Posey ended the season with an OPS 89 points higher than Pence, a slugging percentage 124 points higher, and with much more defensive value. So how did Pence drive in so many runs? Well that’s a funny story. You see after he was traded from Philadelphia to San Francisco, he was in the lineup every day behind some guy named Posey who posted an OBP over .400.

Hanley Ramirez drove in the second most runs of any season in his career despite posting the second lowest OPS, OPS+, or WAR of his career. It was a bad enough season that the Marlins dumped him for what would have been considered pennies on the dollar just two seasons ago and nobody really thought it was a terrible idea. Hanley drove in 92 runs with a 106 OPS+. He is striking out more than ever, up to 22 percent of his plate appearances. He is walking less than ever, down to 6.3 percent of plate appearances. And he is hitting more ground balls than ever.

Annual THT Awards whipping boy, Delmon Young went .267/.296/.411 for the Tigers and drove in 74 runs

Finally, Carlos Lee drove in 77 runs despite hitting .264/.332/.365 as a first baseman.

Rey Sanchez Award

Michael Young posted a superficially acceptable 169 hits in 651 plate appearances. He actually finished fifth in the American League in singles. Unfortunately, the only other AL leaderboards he can be found on are his ninth in outs made with 476 and second in double plays grounded into with 26. His power has completely disintegrated and his ability to draw a walk was never really that great to begin with. His only remaining ability on a baseball field is to smack a single and that only got him to .277/.312/.370. He was more than a win below replacement.

Jordan Pacheco had a very Coors Field season. First, his road OPS was 232 points lower than his home OPS. Also note that because he only drew 22 walks in 132 games and 107 of his 147 hits were singles and only eight were triples or home runs, his offensive abilities only amounted to a single here and there with little risk of something more dramatic happening. .309/.341/.421 only produced a 91 OPS+ and roughly replacement level ratings by both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

Pacheco’s season was reminiscent of some of Juan Pierre’s classic empty batting average seasons, only without the speed. So why not acknowledge the original Juan Pierre’s 2012? .307/.351/.371 qualifies, even in this run-scoring era.

In a season partially spent in the International League, Scott Podsednik did what a Scott Podsednik does. He hit .302/.322/.352 for the Red Sox, absorbing playing time for a team that had nothing better to do with those at bats.

Podsednik wasn’t the only temp filling in for the Red Sox with an empty batting average after the wheels had fallen off. Pedro Ciriaco went .293/.315/.390 in 272 PA.

Harmon Killebrew Award

Adam Dunn rebounded from a nightmare 2011 to put up a pretty good 2012. In doing so, he didn’t dial back the three true outcomes. He cranked it up even higher than ever. He set a new personal high water mark for strikeouts and hit the second highest number of home runs he’s ever produced. He doubled down on his Adam Dunn-ness. .204/.333/.468 was good for a 112 OPS+ and a .348 wOBA.

Chris Carter has the classic Killebrew skill set. He struck out a little more than once per game in eight seasons in the minors. But he also slugged .535 and drew walks in 12 percent of his plate appearances. In 67 games with Oakland this season, he went .239/.350/.514. 54 percent of his hits went for extra bases. He walked in 15 percent of his plate appearances. His OPS+ was 137.

Jose Bautista continued to turn in good performances with sub-.250 batting averages. This year he went .241/.358/.527 in an injury-shortened year.

Mike Napoli went .227/.343/.469 for the Rangers.

It wasn’t quite what Yankee fans were hoping for, but they’ll take .232/.319/.492 and two and a half wins above replacement in center field from Curtis Granderson.

Steve Balboni Award

Drew Stubbs fanned 166 times in 544 PA and ended the season with a .213/.277/.333 line because of it. Making enough contact to allow the rest of his game to make him into an above average player has always been the issue for Stubbs. His skill in center field and on the bases kept him from being below replacement according to FanGraphs. But unless he cuts down on the strikeouts, it will always be a tightrope walk for him as he doesn’t have the power or patience that a Dunn or a Bautista has.

Ryan Howard’s 99 strikeouts in 292 PA were too much to overcome in his season shortened by his recovery from Achilles tendon surgery. He hit a measly .219/.295/.423, good for only a 91 OPS+ and a .303 wOBA. He was a win below replacement.

Brent Lillibridge struck out in 34 percent of his plate appearances. You know how I said that Stubbs had some struggles overcoming a problem with contact? Lillibridge had a much bigger problem as he doesn’t have the secondary skills that even Stubbs has and he went .195/.250/.274.

Three true outcomes

Dunn gets the nod here in what was the most obvious award I can remember. His 41 home runs were surpassed by only four other batters and his 105 walks and 222 strikeouts led baseball by comfortable margins. His strikeouts were the second most ever in a season, trailing only Mark Reynolds’ 2009 all time record by one. The opposing defense had nothing to do with 56.7 percent of his plate appearances.

Granderson finished tied for second in home runs with 43, tied for 14th in walks with 75, and second in strikeouts with 195.

Pedro Alvarez posted a 30-57-180 TTO line in 586 PA.

Mark Reynolds was down in home run rate and strikeout rate, but close to a career high in walk rate, which leads us to his 23-73-159 in 538 PA.

Mike Napoli went 24-56-125 in only 417 PA.

Jonny Gomes went 18-44-104 in 333 PA.

Carter was mentioned in the Killebrew and the reason is because of his 16-39-83 in 260 PA.

The anti-TTO

Pierre is a constant in the anti-TTO category. This season he smacked one home run, walked 23 times, and struck out 27 times in 439 PA.

Ben Revere is a kind of a Juan Pierre for a new generation. So it makes sense that he went zero-29-54 in 553 PA.

Ichiro’s Yankee Stadium power surge undercuts his candidacy here a little bit, but his nine-22-61 in 663 PA bears mentioning.

Brayan Pena went two-nine-24 in 226.

Pena’s teammate Yuniesky Betancourt went seven-nine-25 in 228 PA. If this is goodbye for the Yuni Bomber, then let it be a joyous goodbye from this Royals fan.

Parity watch

The Nationals won a league high 98 games this season after losing 103 games as recently as 2009. Obviously their 2008/2009 run of horror show teams played a role in their rebound as those two terrible teams yielded back to back number one draft picks and Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper played big roles for this season’s team. But just as importantly, they have developed a lot of supporting players and have acquired a cast of stars such as Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman.

In last place were the Astros, who completely blew up the team and ended the year with 107 losses, the most since the Diamondbacks lost 111 in 2004.

In comparison to the NFL, the much longer season still gives a compressed table. No baseball team will ever lose 87.5 percent of their games like the Rams and Colts did last year. No team will ever win 93.8 percent of their games like the Packers did. The schedule is too long. The sample size is too large. And the differences in the talent levels between the teams is too small. Bad teams beat good teams all of the time and nobody bats an eye. The Marlins lost 93 games, but went nine and nine against the Nats.

The story was similar in basketball, where a season shorted by a labor stoppage still resulted in the Bulls and Spurs winning the equivalent of winning 123 games. Only once in the history of Major League Baseball has a team won more than 75 percent of its games, but in a random year of NBA action, two teams best the 1906 Cubs.

This year in franchise milestones

Since the Phillies made headlines by becoming the first professional sports franchise to lose its 10,000th game back in 2009, we have tracked significant franchise milestone wins and losses in the season finales and highlighted upcoming milestones for the next season. I use the numbers listed by Baseball Reference on their teams page.

The big news was the Cincinnati Reds winning their 10,000th game back in April. They sit at 10,091 wins.

The Twins lost their 9,000th late in the season. Of those, 4864 losses came in the 60 years they were the Washington Senators.

The Marlins and Rockies each won their 1,500th games late in the season.

The Mariners lost their 3,000th as a franchise and stand at 3,043.

2013’s first milestone will come early as the Astros stand at 3,999 wins at this moment.

The most significant will be the Pirates, who are 39 wins away from becoming the seventh team to 10,000.

The Red Sox will win their 9,000th. They are at 8,978.

The Yankees will lose their 7,500th. They are at 7,493.

The only other significant milestone within reach is the 9,000th loss for the Athletics, but that would take a big regression as they need 92 losses to get there.

The last order of business in this subject is distance from .500. The Yankees unsurprisingly are the winningest franchise at 2,369 games over. The only other franchise more than 1,000 above is the Giants at 1,514 over .500.

The team that inspired this feature, the Phillies are still 1,055 below .500. If they won 91 games per season, every season, they would get over .500 late in the 2065 season. In 1947, their record sat at 3,949 and 4,858, or .448. The worst winning percentage for any current franchise is .454 by the Rays.

The Angels and Diamondbacks are the closest to .500. They are each 10 games under. The only teams that are within a season of .500 are Atlanta, who are 33 games over and Toronto, who is 51 games under and would obviously need something historic to happen to see .500.

Best Player

AL: I am slightly offended by the tactics of the section of the baseball media that backs Miguel Cabrera for MVP over Mike Trout. I am offended because they are stealing what has traditionally been my job. I’m the guy who is supposed to be the stat geek who disregards the entire rest of the game in favor of two or three cherry picked stats. I’m supposed to be the one who doesn’t care about defense and base running.. And the only way you can come to the conclusion that Miguel Cabrera was a better baseball player than Mike Trout is if you completely throw out everything but batting average, home runs, and RBI.

I have a friend I was arguing with this about and I asked him if it would have made a difference if Trout had 186 hits instead of 182 and had beaten Cabrera out for the batting title and prevented him from winning the triple crown. Would he still see Cabrera as the clear MVP. He said he would get back to me and I haven’t heard from him.

My ballot would go Trout, Cabrera, Cano, Adrian Beltre, Justin Verlander, Austin Jackson, Alex Gordon, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter.

NL: Going by WAR, you can throw a dart at the collected masses of Posey, Andrew McCutchen, Ryan Braun, Yadier Molina, David Wright, and Chase Headley and not come out with a bad result. Posey seems like the guy who will win the writer’s vote, but you know we don’t really care who the writers think is the best story of the season. Then again, I think he is likely the best player by a small margin. Braun was great with the bat but doesn’t have the defense value that you find in Posey and especially Molina. By the way, when did Yadier learn to hit like that and how weird is that anyways?

So your mileage may vary but I will put them in this order: Posey, Molina, Braun, Headley, McCutchen, Wright, Aramis Ramirez, R.A. Dickey, Clayton Kershaw, and Ian Desmond.

This year has been great. Thanks for reading and for commenting. The awards will start again next spring.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2012-10-16T08:40:15+00:00 THT Awards 2012: season finale, pitchers edition http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards-2012-season-finale-pitchers-edition/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards-2012-season-finale-pitchers-edition/#When:08:24:15
Please see the week one column for award definitions and explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

Amongst qualified starting pitchers, Lance Lynn was 35th in the National League in ERA, 56th in the Major Leagues at 3.78. His xFIP was a little brighter at 3.60 but that still only placed him 19th in the NL. But thanks to run support, only Gio Gonzalez, R.A. Dickey, and Johnny Cueto exceeded his 18 wins. All three of those starters had sub-3.00 ERA’s. He was lucky several times. He won a game where he allowed six runs and another where he allowed four in five and a third. He salvaged no decisions in games where he allowed four in two innings, four in five innings, three in four and a third, four in six, and one where he was pummeled for six in five and a third. Meanwhile, the only quality start he took a loss in was one where he allowed three in six innings and he only carried no decisions in two games where he posted a quality start.

Felix Doubront went 11-10 for the Red Sox with a 4.86 ERA. To be fair, much of that ERA damage came in games he has reflected in his loss column. But it could have been so much worse, especially given how bad the Red Sox ended up being this season. He won a game where he allowed five runs and two more where he allowed four. He was saved from more losses when he received run support necessary to get no-decisions in a game where he allowed five runs in five frames and in two more where he allowed four in five innings. He went seven and two with three no decisions in his starts where he went at least six innings and allowed three or fewer runs.

Ivan Nova was 12-8 with an ERA over 5.02. He had bad luck on balls in play, but not in terms of decisions. Nova never lost any of the 15 games in which he allowed fewer than four runs. He also won games where he allowed five runs in six and two thirds and four in six. That goes with the no decisions he received where he allowed six runs once, five runs once, and four runs once.

Finally, Derek Holland went 12-7 for the Rangers with a 4.67 ERA. He had some of the best run support in the business. He never lost a start where he allowed three or fewer runs, going nine and oh in those games. Meanwhile, he won a game where he was shelled for seven runs by the Angels and won another where he allowed five runs to the Rays. He salvaged no-decisions in games where he allowed six runs in six innings and five in five and two thirds.

Bad luck division

On the other side of the scale was Josh Johnson, who took the loss in eight quality starts, including one where he allowed only one run in eight innings to the Phillies and another where he went seven and two thirds against Atlanta, allowing only two runs. He had five more games where he was stuck with a no-decision when he allowed two or fewer runs and went six or more innings. He had seven starts where he went at least six innings and allowed exactly three runs. He had only one win against six losses in those games.

Cliff Lee owned a 3.16 ERA and an unfathomable 6-9 record. The number of well-pitched no-decisions is staggering. He took a no-decision in a game where he threw 10 shutout innings. He took no-decisions in two games where he went eight innings, allowing one run, another where he threw seven innings with one run allowed, one where he went six innings with one run allowed. He lost a game where he went eight and allowed two runs and another where he went seven and two thirds and allowed two. He lost two where he went six innings and allowed three runs. And he took no-decisions in five games where he went at least six innings and allowed two or three runs. He never won a game where he allowed more than two runs.

Jeremy Hellickson had only five starts where he allowed four or more runs out of 31 total times on the mound. He finished the year with an 11-10 record despite a 3.10 ERA for a team that finished with 90 wins. That is especially rotten luck. He had a start where he went seven innings, allowing one run and still took the loss. He had another one meeting the same inning and run count where he received no decision. He lost three separate games where he went six innings twice and six and two thirds once, allowed two runs in each, and took the loss. He had two wins all year where he allowed three runs. By my count, he took the loss in five quality starts and a no-decision in five more.

In keeping with tradition, Felix Hernandez is here. His case is a little softer than usual but it still bears mentioning. King Felix really only had one true hard luck loss this year when he lost a game where he allowed two runs to Oakland in seven frames. On the other hand, he had a lot of no-decisions that were hard to take. He had one game where he held Cleveland scoreless for eight innings and didn’t get the win. He had another where he went eight, allowing one run to the Orioles, another with seven and two thirds and only one run allowed, a seven inning, one run, and two eight inning, one run starts, all with neither a win or a loss. He had two more, one where he went seven frames and allowed two runs and another where he went six innings and allowed two runs. Two more no-decisions.

Clayton Kershaw’s season was similar to Hellickson’s. He had three lucky no-decisions, but only six total starts where he allowed four or more runs. Meanwhile, he took a loss in five games where he went at least six innings and allowed two or fewer runs, including one where he held the Diamondbacks to one run in seven frames and two separate games where he went eight innings against the Giants, allowing two runs in each and took the loss. He had two separate no-decisions where he went eight innings and allowed one run and two more where he went seven and allowed one run. His 14-9 record was very unlucky given that he was one of the best pitchers in baseball with a 2.53 ERA, a 2.89 FIP, a 3.25 xFIP, and a 5.5 fWAR.

Vulture alert

Between July first and July 18th, Santiago Casilla pitched in six games. He entered all of them in a save situation and was only successful in holding the lead in two of them. In one, he took the loss. In another, he was removed and got a no decision in what would later be a Giants win. And in the remaining two, he walked away with the win, two of his seven on the year.

Pedro Strop blew the lead in seven games this season and walked away with exactly zero losses and one win. He has taken two losses this season, but none of them were in games where he was given a blown save.

Wes Littleton Award

Every season there is a closer who puts up a large number of save despite not being a particularly good pitcher. This year everybody agrees that John Axford was terrible but he still accumulated 35 saves for the Brewers. Hitters batted .229/.330/.387 against him. He wasn’t quite as awful as Joe Borowski in 2007, but he was a horrible pitcher who played a large role in sinking his team’s playoff hopes by being a leading figure in one of the worst bullpens in the league.

Chris Perez saved 39 games for a terrible Cleveland club despite a 3.59 ERA, which was not a fluke as demonstrated by his 3.67 xFIP. Most of the other pitchers in the top 10 in saves were pretty dominant. Perez now has 107 career saves and a WAR of 1.9, just over half that of Craig Kimbrel just this year and less than the 2012 figures put up by Fernando Rodney and Aroldis Chapman. According to WPA, he added a quarter of a win all season. Nine of his saves came with a three or four run lead.

Please hold the applause

Axford’s teammate Francisco Rodriguez was credited with a hold in 32 games this season. He carried a negative win probability and a 4.38 ERA. He no longer has the velocity he once did and he has junked the slider that used to be his signature move in favor of a curve that doesn’t provide much value anymore.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

For the first year ever, I have tried to isolate the pitchers that have some manner of demonstratable luck on batted balls in play from those who seem to have been genuinely lucky. This is why you will not see Jered Weaver, who had the best BABIP against of any pitcher with at least 110 innings this season. He has had an xFIP more than a run higher than his actual ERA in three of the last four years.

Jason Vargas has no such record in his performance history. His .254 BABIP was significantly lower than his career figure of .276. It is unclear to me how much this might have had to do with Safeco Field as his BABIP was .245 in his home starts and .264 away.

Ross Detwiler seems to be another good bet to be a fluke as his .263 BABIP is 19 points lower than his career norms and nine points lower than his 2011 figure. You don’t often put up a 3.40 ERA with 5.8 strikeouts per nine.

On the other end of the equation, Ivan Nova had what appears to have been an aberrant BABIP year. His .331 far exceeds what he had done before. His two pervious campaigns featured BABIP’s under .300. This led to his 5.02 ERA compared to his 4.16 xFIP. His strikeout rate actually climbed by nearly two points from 2011 but his ERA rose by a run and a third.

This year in trends

Just for this occasion, I flipped through some league data on Baseball-Reference, which is not my strong suit and not something that I have a history of doing. But I wanted to see where we were with certain statistical trends in baseball. I will leave it to other, more qualified individuals to make a more advanced statistical study and build graphs and solid conclusions. I just wanted to present some interesting numbers.

The first piece of news I have is that run scoring was up slightly from 2011 (4.32 runs per game up from 4.28) but is still down from 2010’s 4.38, way down from 2009’s 4.61, and not even in the same area code as the most recent peak of 2000 at 5.14. The three areas I was curious about leading into the raw run scoring figures were the percentage of batted balls turned into outs, the number of home runs hit, and the number of strikeouts.

In the first category, balls in play were slightly less likely to be turned into an out than they were last year. B-R lists this year’s defensive efficiency at .691, down from .694. This is less of a long-term trend than I had anticipated before I actually looked it up. The figure was actually the same or higher in every season from 2001 through 2005, when more runs were scored per game than there are now and the most recent peak was .695 in 2002, when 4.62 runs were scored per game.

In the second category, I took the number of home runs hit as a percentage of total plate appearances in baseball. This year’s figure of 2.68 percent was down from last year’s 2.75 but up from 2010’s 2.49, which represents the lowest figure since the peak 12 years ago when it was 2.99 percent of plate appearances.

The last of the three things I wanted to look up is the one with the clearest trend. Strikeouts as a percentage of total plate appearances have been going up consistently for some time now. This year’s 19.78 percent was as high a number as I could find and was more than one point higher than last year’s 18.62 percent. It has risen every year since 2005. There are now likely fewer balls in play than at any point in recent memory.

Best Pitcher

AL: Justin Verlander was the best pitcher in baseball this year, just like last year. He will not win this season because Jered Weaver and David Price have similar ERA’s and more wins. His 2012 was nearly a carbon copy of his 2011 except for one thing, wins. Nearly every other statistic is exactly the same except for the fact that his teammates scored fewer runs for him. B-R lists his 2011 run support as 4.73 and his 2012 as 3.98. He receiver three or fewer runs of support in 17 of his 33 starts.

Felix Hernandez was also great and had worse run support. He wasn't quite as good as Verlander, but he was still, on the whole, a special pitcher.

Price had a better ERA and FIP than Felix, but 21 more innings have value.

NL: I’m going with R.A. Dickey here but any choice from among Kershaw, Cueto, Gio Gonzalez, and Matt Cain and I won't have a significant problem with it. There were a lot of very good pitchers in the NL this year and none that matched Verlander in the AL.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2012-10-09T08:24:15+00:00 THT Awards http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards100212/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-awards100212/#When:08:26:15
All stats are for Monday, September 24th through Sunday, September 30th. Please see the week one column for award definitions and explanations.

This week’s proof that assigning wins and losses to a pitcher is an archaic practice that must stop

Good luck division

Ricky Romero scuffled to a 34 game score, allowing four runs in five innings on eight hits and four walks, putting another on base via HBP. He was credited with the win as Wei-Yin Chen and Jake Arrieta were trashed by the Blue Jays offense for nine runs.

Jeanmar Gomez was shelled to the tune of six runs in three innings by the Royals. But Greg Holland blew the save for Kansas City and that took Gomez off the hook for the loss.

Roy Halladay only made it through five innings, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks, striking out seven. But the Phillies threw up five runs on Ricky Nolasco and Halladay grabbed his 11th win of the season.

Aaron Loup’s blown save took Phil Hughes off the hook after the Jays tallied five runs in four and two thirds.

Tim Lincecum was tagged for five runs in six innings by the Padres but was fortunately bailed out by his teammates as they scored three runs off Huston Street in the ninth inning to win the game and remove the threat of another loss on Lincecum’s 2012 record.

Bad luck division

Lost in Homer Bailey’s no-hitter was A.J. Burnett’s good start against a lineup that was far better than the one that Bailey faced that day. That isn’t to say that it was more impressive than what Bailey did as Bailey struck out 10 and walked only one, giving the Reds a 96 game score, but just that it is hard to hold down a lineup with Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips, and Todd Frazier. Burnett tossed eight innings and gave up one run, limiting the Reds to seven hits and a walk, striking out five. He had a good game and would have deserved a win had the other pitcher not been amazing and his own lineup not contained the likes of Clint Barmes, Jordy Mercer, and Rod Barajas. This was the very picture of a hard luck loss.

Mat Latos tossed seven innings, allowing only one run on three hits and a walk. He was denied the victory though as the Reds offense waited until the ninth inning to score a run off of the Brewers.

Jake Peavy gave the White Sox a good start, going seven frames, getting tagged for only two runs on four hits and a walk, striking out six. But his 67 game score wasn’t enough for the win as the Rays limited Peavy’s teammates to two runs in the game. Peavy took a no-decision.

Jason Vargas went seven frames, allowing one run on five hits, walking none, striking out seven. But Oakland battled back against the Mariners bullpen and Vargas was denied the win.

Cliff Lee and Mark Buehrle combined to throw 15 innings, yielding two runs on nine hits and no walks, striking out 13. Neither took the win.

Liam Hendriks held the Tigers scoreless for seven innings only to watch it go to waste as Jared Burton blew the save at Target Field.

Vulture Award

Joaquin Benoit surrendered the lead to the Royals on a ninth inning Billy Butler solo home run. Shortly after that, the Tigers lineup scored a run off of Tim Collins and Kelvin Herrera to hand Benoit the win.

Casey Fien entered the game for the Twins tasked with making sure a 2-1 deficit to the Yankees didn’t get out of hand. He was successful in as much as he only allowed a solo home run before inducing enough weak contact to end his one inning, but he did not really help the Twins much with a WPA of -0.09. However the next half inning involved the Twins plating four runs and gifting Fien his second career victory.

Tommy Hunter blew the save on Saturday by allowing inherited runs to score but he still was credited with the win as the Orioles scored more runs off Felix Doubront while Hunter was in the game.

Drew Storen’s first blown save of 2012 produced his third win of the season.

Wes Littleton Award

In protecting a three run lead in the ninth inning, Jim Johnson faced J.P. Arencibia, Yunel Escobar, and Anthony Gose. Each of the three batters ended the day with an OBP between .263 and .298. Then on Sunday, he protected a three run lead against the likes of Scott Podsednik, James Loney, and Ryan Lavarnway for his 50th save of the year.

In protecting a three run lead, Jonathan Papelbon retired Austin Kearns, Gorkys Hernandez, and Bryan Peterson.

Please hold the applause

Steve Delabar faced four Yankees. Three of the four reached base and two of them scored. He still was given a hold.

Donnie Veal entered the game for the White Sox at the start of the ninth with a two run lead. He struck out Ben Francisco and was pulled when the Rays brought in Ryan Roberts to pinch hit for Matt Joyce. So he had a two run lead and he faced one batter with the bases empty and he got a hold for that. Presuming that they were going to pull him when the Rays brought in the pinch hitter, it was actually impossible for him to not get the hold.

Bryan Shaw was credited with both a loss and a hold on Sunday as he left the game with the lead but with runners on base who later scored off Matt Albers to put the Diamondbacks down a run, a deficit they would not rally to overcome in the game.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Aaron Laffey went five and two-thirds shutout innings and was credited with the win in Baltimore despite not striking out any of the 21 Orioles he faced on Tuesday.

Miguel Gonzalez tossed seven innings, allowing only two runs on five hits and a walk. He only struck out one of the 26 Blue Jays he faced and only threw seven swinging strikes.

Scott Diamond gave the Twins seven and a third innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He did this despite striking out only one of the 29 Tigers he faced in the game. His game score was actually lower than that of Drew Smyly, who only went five and a third but struck out five.

Joe Carter Award

Josh Donaldson drove in six runs for the Athletics in 29 PA. Two home runs this week explains a lot of that but it doesn’t completely mitigate the damage done by his inability to reach base by methods other than a home run, leading to a .214/.241/.429 line.

Curtis Granderson went .148/.226/.370 and still found a way to plate six runs in 30 PA.

Jeff Francoeur drove in five runs for the Royals. Like Donaldson, he had problems getting on base via single or walk. He smacked two home runs and two doubles but only collected one single and no walks, leading to a grim .179/.207/.464 line.

Sanchez Award

Allen Craig went .286/.286/.286 in 28 PA for the Cardinals. That was an entire week with no extra base hits, no walks, no hit by pitch, and just eight singles.

And a week after talking about how great Ichiro has been, he goes .278/.270/.333 for the Yankees in a barely believable 37 PA. Eight singles, two doubles, no walks, three of five stealing bases.

Harmon Killebrew Award

The secondary skills that Allen Craig forgot this week? Maybe they were transferred to teammate Carlos Beltran. Half of his four hits were home runs and he walked five times in 23 PA, accounting for a .222/.391/.556 line.

Chris Iannetta posted a .200/.368/.400 line in 19 PA thanks to a home run being one of his three hits and the four walks he drew.

Ian Kinsler went .222/.364/.370 in 33 PA.

The slugging is very lacking, but Carlos Santana reached base 14 times in 26 PA. Only three times were by hit. The other 11 were by base on balls. .200/.538/.200 is a very odd looking line, but an effective one.

Steve Balboni Award

He had the slugging down with two home runs. And he had the walks down with four. But when you strike out in 13 of your 25 at bats, your average is going to suffer. Adam Dunn was in this predicament this week with a .120/.241/.360 line coming as a side effect of a league leading strikeout total.

Jonny Gomes fanned nine times in 17 PA, leading to a .250/.294/.313 week.

Drew Stubbs has a habit of striking out a lot and did so this week with nine of them in 18 PA and a .111/.111/.111 nightmare of a line.

Seth Smith went .077/.077/.077 with seven whiffs in 13 PA.

Other batters who had notable strikeout totals and iffy bating lines to match were Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa, B.J. Upton, Francoeur, Desmond Jennings, Justin Maxwell, Jay Bruce, Colby Rasmus, Matt Holliday, and Andre Ethier.

Three true outcomes

I mentioned the Big Donkey above, leading off the Balboni. Two homers, four walks, and 13 strikeouts in 29 PA is heavy TTO territory.

Mike Napoli went three-two-nine in 25 PA.

Brett Lawrie posted a two-five-nine in 36 PA.

Mike Trout went two-six-eight in 29 PA.

Iannetta’s one-four-seven in 19 PA qualifies.

Carlos Santana is missing the home runs, but zero-11-five gets you a mention here, as does Jason Kipnis and his own zero-nine-four in 33 PA.

And finally lets take a moment to nod at Ike Davis and his three-four-seven in 25 PA.

The anti-TTO

Ichiro did not homer or walk and only struck out once in 37 PA.

Aaron Hill posted no home runs, one walk, and one strikeout in 25 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Call it a copout if you wish, but I am going to hand a shared award to Chris Davis and Robinson Cano. Davis had a huge week in hitting for power, posting an awesome .423/.483/1.038 line in 28 PA. His five home runs topped baseball.

Cano did not hit any balls over the fence this week, but he did smack 10 singles and five doubles for a .536/.548/.714 line.

NL: You know what? I’m going to hand out a joint MVP here too because Matt Kemp and Bryce Harper were each preposterously good in the National League this week. Kemp went .458/.519/1.083 with four singles, three doubles, four home runs, and two walks in 26 PA.

Harper posted a very impressive .481/.533/.963 with seven singles, two doubles, a triple, three home runs, three walks, and a perfect three for three in stealing bases.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> John Barten 2012-10-02T08:26:15+00:00