THT Awards

Welcome to the awards.

All stats are for Monday, July 30th through Sunday, August fifth. 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 arcane practice that must stop

Good luck division

Edinson Volquez went five innings, gave up five runs on six hits and three walks, got the win over his former Cincinnati teammates.

Jose Quintana and Cole DeVries combined to allow 11 runs in 12 frames on 17 hits and two walks, striking out three. Neither took the loss as the Twins bullpen blew the save for DeVries.

Kyle Lohse was touched up for five runs in six innings. He got the win at Coors Field as the Jeff Francis 2.0 experiment is not going well in Denver.

Chris Tillman went five innings, gave up five runs on eight hits. He came away with the win. Three Oriole relievers combined to toss four innings with no runs allowed on three hits. They came away with no decisions, no holds, no saves.

Homer Bailey escaped with a no-decision despite being charged with six runs on nine hits and two walks in three and two thirds. Fellow starter Jason Marquis was shelled for seven runs and took the loss for Bailey.

Garrett Richards and Yu Darvish were pummeled to the tune of a combined 12 runs on 13 hits and seven walks in 10 and two thirds. Neither took the loss.

Jake Westbrook allowed five runs in six frames to the Rockies and still got the win.

Corey Kluber barely escaped with a no-decision after allowing six runs to the Royals on nine hits and a walk, striking out four in four and a third.

C.J. Wilson and Ryan Dempster continued the very offensive Rangers/Angels series by combining to yield 16 runs on 19 hits, walking six, striking out 13. Four of the hits were home runs. They were charged with eight runs each and took no-decisions.

Brian Duensing and Felix Doubront allowed a combined 10 runs in 11 frames on 18 hits. Neither took the loss.

Zack Greinke and Philip Humber allowed six runs each. Greinke did it in seven frames, Humber in five and two thirds. Neither took the loss, which went to poor Hisanori Takahashi, who only faced one batter who went on to score on a two-run home run yielded by David Carpenter.

Derek Holland and Luke Hochevar each have an ERA over five so it was of little surprise when they combined to allow 11 runs on 12 hits and three walks. An Aaron Crow blown save ensured that neither of them would take the loss.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Jordan Zimmerman allowed five runs in five frames to Miami. No-decision.

Gavin Floyd struggled to the tune of five runs allowed on eight hits and three walks in six and a third. A LaTroy Hawkins blown save let Floyd off the hook for the loss.

Bad luck division

Miguel Gonzalez and David Price each pitched brilliantly. Gonzalez went seven frames, allowing only two hits, walking four, fanning four. Price threw eight shutout innings, striking out five, walking three, yielding only two hits. Their game scores were 73 and 80 respectively.

Dan Straily’s first career Major League start was a no-decision because of Ryan Cook’s blown save. Straily allowed one run over six innings on five hits, walking one, striking out five.

Ricky Romero tossed seven innings, allowing only one run to the A’s on three hits and four walks, striking out five. But the Blue Jays offense was anemic and he exited after 99 pitches to a tie game. Romero‘s game score was a pretty good 68.

Clay Buchholz gave the Red Sox seven innings with only one run allowed on seven hits and a walk. An Alfredo Aceves blown save robbed him of a win.

Vulture Award

In case you weren’t aware Livan Hernandez was still employed by a baseball team to play baseball, he gives us a reminder, giving up three runs to blow the save against Houston, but watching as his teammates rally to give him an undeserved victory.

Josh Edgin’s first career blown save led to his first career win.

Kenley Jansen blew the save against the Cubs with a solo Anthony Rizzo home run. He still walked away with the win after the Dodgers scored off Shawn Camp.

Wes Littleton Award

In what has to go down as one of the worst saves of all time, Jerome Williams entered the game in the bottom of the sixth with the Angels up 12-3. He proceeds to throw four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and a walk, striking out one Rangers batter. He threw 14 more pitches than Ervin Santana did in starting the game and going five frames. But he got the save in a game that ended with a 15-8 final score because he reached the three-inning threshold and ended the game. It is my understanding that the pitcher has to pitch “effective” relief to get the save, but the definition of effective is at the mercy of the official scorer. You have to deal with a pretty broad definition of effective to want to give Williams a save for his efforts here.

Greg Holland’s first save of the season came in a game on Wednesday where he entered in the ninth inning protecting a three run lead. The first batter he faced was Carlos Santana, who admittedly is on a bit of a hot streak, having smoked the ball to the tune of a .296/.377/.685 in his last 61 PA. The next two up were Jose Lopez and the current version of Johnny Damon with a giant fork sticking out of his back. If they had reached base, the next two up would have been the non-existent dangers posed by Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan. But it was never going to come to that. Holland had a routine 1-2-3 inning as you would have expected.

Frank Francisco was brought on to relieve Bobby Parnell with one out in the ninth, a four run lead, and runners on first and second. He induced a double play grounder from John Baker, who ended the game with that at bat and drove home with a .296 slugging percentage.

Please hold the applause

With one out in the eighth and a runner on first, Eric O’Flaherty was brought in to protect a three run lead against Houston. He retired Brett Wallace and J.D. Martinez.

Any sufficiently advanced defense is indistinguishable from pitching

Nick Blackburn went eight innings, allowing only two runs on five hits. The five hits allowed stand in stark contrast to the mere two strikeouts he managed while facing 31 White Sox.

Joe Carter Award

Dan Uggla drove in seven runs in 28 plate appearances for Atlanta. This happened despite his batting .192/.276/.308.

Todd Frazier also plated seven. He did show some power as three of his four hits went for extra bases and two of them were homers. But when you only manage four hits in a week, you end up with ugly stat lines like Frazier’s .174/.208/.478.

In the same vein, only even more extreme, Nelson Cruz went .185/.281/.556. Three of his five hits were home runs and another was a double. He drove in six.

Josh Reddick collected six RBI and ended the week at .156/.176/.344.

Sanchez Award

Michael Young is looking kind of done this year after hitting very well in 2011. This week, he went .310/.290/.345 in 30 PA.

Asdrubal Cabrera smacked eight hits in 28 PA. But they were mostly singles and he didn’t reach base via walk all week, giving him a .286/.286/.357 line.

Harmon Killebrew Award

This week Stephen Drew did not get traded. He also only collected four hits. But most of those hits (three of them) went for extra bases. Drew also walked four times and ended the week with a perfectly acceptable .200/.333/.450 line.

Chris Carter really had a strange week. This hulking first baseman produced only four hits in 30 PA. On the other hand, one of those hits was a double. Another was a home runs. He also chipped in with nine walks. .190/.433/.381.

Brian McCann went .176/.391/.412 in 23 PA. Fellow catcher Chris Iannetta went .154/.421/.385 in 19 PA for the Halos.

And finally, Todd Helton rode three doubles and five walks to a .231/.444/.462 week.

Steve Balboni Award

Ryan Howard was dominated this week, striking out 10 times in 23 PA and ending the week at .190/.261/.190.

Mark Trumbo fanned 11 times in 26 PA, going .130/.286/.261.

Alfonso Soriano went .208/.240/.292 with 10 K’s in 25 PA. No further comment.

Ben Francisco was terrible this week, striking out eight times in 17 PA and producing a pathetic .188/.235/.250 line.

Reddick struck out a league-leading 13 time in 33 PA this week, leading to his poor line listed above.

Others deserving mention: David Wright, Kelly Johnson, Danny Espinosa, Jason Kubel, Josh Hamilton, Curtis Granderson, and Kelly Shoppach.

Three true outcomes

Mike Trout smacked three home runs, walked five times, and struck out 10 times in 35 PA.

Chase Headley posted a three-six-five TTO line in 30 PA.

I have already documented Chris Carter’s week. One-nine-eight in 30 PA.

Josh Willingham gave the Twins a one-five-seven in 26 PA.

The anti-TTO

Alejandro De Aza went zero-zero-two in 27 PA.

Derek Jeter went zero-zero-two in 25 PA.

Ichiro Suzuki posted a one-zero-zero in 28 PA.

Finally, Jose Reyes went zero-one-one in 36 PA.

This week’s MVP

AL: Albert Pujols had a classic Albert Pujols week, smacking 14 hits, five of the doubles, six home runs. He walked two times, struck out only thrice, and he stole a base. .424/.444/1.121 in 35 PA is pretty valuable.

NL: Buster Posey reached base via hit or walk 18 times in 30 PA. Three times he kept on trotting around the bases, not stopping to chat with the fielders as he had just smacked the ball over the fence. He ended the week at .500/.600/.958.


4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
John M Barten
11 years ago

Dunn in the time period covered: 0 HR, 3 BB, 6 K in 27 PA. Not good enough.

Mark it on the calendars. Doesn’t happen often.

Marc Schneider
11 years ago

I think you meant “archaic” rather than “arcane.”

John M Barten
11 years ago

I changed that a long time ago in my template I keep for the awards. Not sure how it got changed back. It will return to archaic next week.

MikeS
11 years ago

There must be some mistake. I don’t see Adam Dunn in TTO.