They’re for the whole season, according to Baseball Reference.
Well, OBP in the AL this year is .329, which is slightly down on previous years.
SLG is .395.
In the previous ten seasons, overall AL SLG has never been below .420 for the season.
As the weather warms up, those balls might travel further, leading to more homers and better slugging percentages. I don’t know what the comparisons are for equivalent points in the season.
Ahh, here we go (subscription only). The relevant portion:
Well, my prediction the Jays would be shut out again was sort of true; they didn’t score for nine innings, but Marcum was great and they won it in the tenth.
Things can’t really get any worse than hitting into triple plays. I even had a bad feeling Overbay might hit into a triple play, though I assumed it’d be a 5-6-3 job.
[QUOTE=RickJay, do those numbers on previous years’ offensive levels refer to entire seasons, or are they “this time last year” numbers? As I’m sure you’re aware, HR-rates in April are not the same as HR rates in August.
I read a BP article a few days ago (that I can’t now find for the life of me) that addressed this issue, and determined that runs are down so far this year, even though OBP and SLG are basically the same. I forget the supposed reason why, if there was one. I’ll do some more digging.[/QUOTE]
Interestingly, since that article, AL run scoring has gone down even more. The OBP and SLG are declining now too.
I’d ink it up to steroids, but if that’s it, why is the NL scoring so many more runs than the AL? It’s weird. Maybe the AL just has a lot of awesome pitchers.
Eric Gagne says he is ready to return to the closer’s role.
Hopefully, Ned Yost does not agree. Perhaps Gagne should take time to count each and every dollar bill from that ten million, then return to closing…should take until at least the end of October…
The fact that the Brewers didn’t see by his performance in Boston last year that he was finished, is stunning. The fact that then overpaid to sign him is insane.
More from BP on the drop in offense in the AL. The article does not require a subscription if read it today. Some excerpts (the charts may make this look like more than “fair use” because of the space they take up, but this is actually only a small percentage of the article – about two paragraphs worth of text out of 22 paragraphs in the article):
A fascinating thing just happened during the Blue Jays game. A Blue Jay batter (Matt Stairs) struck a ball with such force that it went over the outfield wall on the fly. I do not remember a Blue Jay hitter ever having done such a thing. The announcers referred to this as a “home run.” This moniker seemed ill-chosen, as the batter in fact did not run, but rather jogged around the bases. Evidently the act of hitting a fair ball beyond the outfield fence results in the automatic award of four bases.
I wonder if other teams achieve this remarkable feat as well.
A question for anyone else who follows the Mets: does Jose Reyes look like he has a somewhat different batting stance this year? Specifically, he’s breaking his wrists a ton while holding the bat, tapping it on his shoulder and tilting it below parallel. Maybe I’m misremembering and he always did it like that, but the impression I’m getting is that his stance is different in that the bat has a longer distance to cover to get to the ball, which ultimately hurts his pitch recognition by forcing him to commit sooner, and that this may be the cause of his slow start.
But I don’t know. I could be completely mistaken.
Before asking complicated questions about his stance (which may have changed, as you suggest), it’s worth questioning the underlying assumption in your post: that Reyes has had a “slow start.”
I just don’t see it, really. He seems to be pretty close to last year’s numbers, although down on the numbers from his standout 2006 season.
His batting average is down a little from last year, but this early in the season that is literally a difference of 2 hits. He has 38 hits in 143 at-bats, for an average of .266. If he had 40 hits, his average would be .280, exactly the same as it was for last year.
His on-base percentage is down by a similarly small margin, but his slugging percentage is up a little over last year (helped by 5 triples already), making his OPS almost exactly what it was last year. His OPS+ last year was 103 (100 = average), and so far this year it’s 104.
There may be something new or bad about his stance, but i really don’t see much in his numbers to indicate an exceptionally slow start.
Well, he’s doing a little worse than last year, and significantly worse than what you could reasonably expect given that this is his age 25 season and he’s still improving. PECOTA, for example, had him pegged for .288/.347/.431 (actual: .266/.335/.434).
Granted, it’s early enough in the season that it could be a statistical aberration, and he has been coming out of it lately (he definitely had a slow start, though I guess it’s an open question as to whether he’s still having one). It’s largely a subjective impression I get. He just seems to be swinging at some bad pitches that he was taking last year. Then again, his #P/PA is the same as last year’s (it’s actually been almost identical every year since 2005, when he had an OBP of .300 – how has he managed that?).
Tribe pitching has been outstanding. Our starters have gone 34 straight innings without giving up a run. If our offense could have just scored 1 run in the second game on Monday, we would have 4 straight shutouts. (the runs we gave up were in the 10th).
If our offense would just wake up, we could run away with the Central.
In fairness, Gagne was having a decent season in Texas before the trade, even after his operation. In Boston, the consensus was that he’s just one of those fragile souls who can do fine in a low-pressure environment like SoCal or Texas but can’t take it in Boston or New York. It happens. He may yet regain his mojo now that he no longer has millions of people expecting him to be a Cy winner again.
Indeed. However, in the case of the Cardinals, the apparent custom is to follow a game-tying 8th-inning home run by your best player with a bullpen collapse in extra innings. And the 'pen was looking like such a bright spot earlier in the year. Curses!
Another remarkable item this morning: I go to check the American League standings, and in reviewing the figures for the East, I see that not only is there (apparently) an AL team based in Florida, but it has somehow appeared at the top of the rankings in its division. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I trust the commissioner’s office will be investigating this mystery shortly.
This is the first time that both Florida teams have ever been in first place at the same time, quite remarkable. (Especially considering that their two salaries together probably don’t equal the next lowest team in the AL East or nay NL east except the Nats.)
It should of course correct itself as eventually the Yanks & Red Sox will start hitting like the are suppose to. I am beginning to believe that Tampa can finally finish over .500 though.
Jim
Gagne’s back!
He got the save last night even though he did his best to try to blow it again.
Randy Johnson got real lucky to get a win last night. Johnson hasn’t been consistant at all. When Doug Davis gets back, it will be real interesting to see if Johnson stays in the rotation.
The Orioles just took a two-game series against the Red Sox, winning 5-4 last night on the back of a three-run homer, and 6-3 today after a Jay Payton grand slam gave them the lead.
Daniel Cabrera gave up 10 hits, but they were pretty well spread out and only resulted in 3 runs, two of them solo homers. He also didn’t issue a walk. He has now given up more than 3 walks only once in his last seven starts, which is huge for him.
Manny made an amazing catch in left field, and actually appeared to high-five a Red Sox fan in the crowd before turning and gunning the ball back to the infield for a double play. Just Manny being Manny.
The Red Sox have dropped 4 in a row, and the Rays remain at the top of the division.
Yanks only scored two runs last night, making four for the first three games against Tampa. Despite this the Yanks actually won last night and Moose pitched another befuddling game where the hitters had to be saying to each other, “But he is so hittable.” If Moose is really turning into the right-handed Jamie Moyer, it is very good news for the Yankees.
I believe Ian Kennedy returns and pitches today against Scott Kazmir who is also returning, though he from injury. The game should be at 4pm.
Jim
Oakland got shut out again against Cleveland. Looks like the A’s are coming back down to earth. However, the Mariners are struggling and the Rangers will fizzle out after the All Star game, so my prediction of Oakland as the second place AL West team should come true.
I looked up at ESPN this am when I was in the gym (no sound). As soon as I saw the clips from the Brewers game, I was thinking another Gagne blow save. I know I’m real hard on the guy, but he can’t be blamed for that one last night.
Speaking of ESPN, they actually had a game last night without the Yankees or Red Sox! I can’t believe that FOX doesn’t have the Yankees/Mets as their Saturday game, either.
They also ran into red hot Cleveland pitching. The Cleveland starters have not given up a single run in their last 48 innings. The C.C. Sabathia doomsayers of April were also a bit premature, i think. He has looked very good over his last five starts, giving up 6 runs in 36+ innings, including a complete game shutout last night.