THT Awards

Welcome to the awards, back for the sixth season at the Hardball Times.

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

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

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.


14 Comments
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Jim
10 years ago

So, you don’t care for the rule book?  Go watch football!!

John Barten
10 years ago

I’m not sure what you mean, Jim.

Jim
10 years ago

You think the save rule is stupid, you probably find the whole rule book dumb, in your opinion.  Baseball rules are sacred, like our laws.  Never mind, no one follows those either, anymore.

Ian R.
10 years ago

As if his Houston teammates weren’t bad enough, Rick Ankiel has 12 strikeouts in his 14 plate appearances for an awesomely Balbonian .071/.071/.286 line. Wow.

Jim G.
10 years ago

Looks like we have our first “troll” award winner.

John Barten
10 years ago

Ian: Yeah, that factors in as well. Really the Astros as a team is striking out in more than a third of their at bats.

John Barten
10 years ago

Jim: I’ll just say that if not having a proper appreciation for the save rule makes me an anarchist or a hippy or whatever it is supposed to make me, then point me to the proper drum circle because the save statistic is really awful at achieving its stated goals of identifying valuable relievers and it has done preposterously bad things for bullpen usage patterns.

Jim G.
10 years ago

John: Furthermore, the save has blown contracts out of proportion. The disparity of paying a closer over a setup man doesn’t help the matter.

Also wanted to point out Drew Smyly’s 4 inning save v. the Yankees last week. The score was only 8-3 and he didn’t allow a baserunner, so I don’t think he deserves a Littleton, but how many 4 inning saves do we see? And has it ever been a pitcher’s first career save since we’ve been counting them?

Randy
10 years ago

Brett Myers *always* looks ridiculous.

Dan Rosenbaum
10 years ago

Appropos of “vulture” wins, I thought you’d be interested to know that on Saturday, Josh Edgin of the Mets pitched to one batter, gave up a hit that tied the game (and got an out when Juan Pierre wiped out John Buck and was called for interference when the other runner tried to advance) and although the Mets took the lead in the next half inning the official scorer awarded the victory to the next pitcher who came into the game.  Apparently, the scorer has that discretion.  Perhaps we should petition for that discretion to be exercised more often against other “vultures.”

David
10 years ago

Let’s start including the official scorer’s name in this column.  We’ll shame them into making better decisions.

John Barten
10 years ago

Jim G: Holy crap, I forgot to mention a 3 inning save. I guess I need to work out the kinks in the early season columns.

Dan: Thanks for the heads up on that. I didn’t know about that.

Neil: I hadn’t noticed. I will pay attention to that in the future. The FanGraphs linking tool we use has some quirks for things like that. David Robertson always comes up with the link for David Roberts. You always have to correct that. I’ll add it to the list of names I watch for.

Ian R.
10 years ago

@Dan – It’s not unheard of for an official scorer to refuse to award a reliever a win because he “didn’t pitch effectively.” The issue is that, sometimes, the scorer has no choice.

Consider this scenario: Starter goes 7 2/3, leaves in the 8th inning with 2 out, none on and a one-run lead. Setup man promptly serves up a game-tying home run before getting the final out when the next batter tries to stretch a single to a double. Team takes the lead again in the top of the ninth, closer comes in for the save.

Now, clearly the setup man didn’t pitch effectively – he gave up hits to both of the batters he faced, including a home run. But if not him, who can get the win? The starter is out because his lead didn’t hold up, and the closer can’t get it either because he’s already getting the save.

I mention this mostly because it’s a case in which the horrible win rule and the horrible save rule combine to create a perfect storm of statistical madness.

Neil
10 years ago

So I noticed Jordan Zimmerman, spelled with only one “n,” had a link on his name, so I clicked it. I consider myself a big baseball fan but I have no recollection of the Canadian Jordan Zimmerman who pitched 8 innings in 1999. So not only does current National Jordan Zimmermann have to deal with similarly named teammate Ryan Zimmerman, there’s another pitcher named Jordan Zimmerman!

Jordan Zimmerman’s Fangraphs page even has a few recent articles linked to it. Of course they’re all in reference to Jordan Zimmermann. Whew.