Making the Royals one of just four teams to come into 2013 having won their most recent postseason game.
Hey, it’s not much, but it’s SOMEthing.
Adam Dunn. Yes, he played for the Pirates for a spell, and I remember his JR to RBI total was also bad.
But can you answer my question? How many runners did Alverez strand this year? You have all of these HR stats, which are great, by the way, so I assume you have the LOB stat as well?
This was my recollection.
Kingman was the first guy that came to my mind in comparing Alverez to someone from the past.
Is your statement about power hitters of the past having lower strikeout totals a true statement, or something you are guessing at based on a small sample size? Because I remover Reggie Jackson and Willie Stargell, two great HR hitters of their day striking out at a record pace.
I guess if you can live with a guy swinging for the fences at each at bat, then there will always be a place for the Dunns or Alverez’s of the world.
Baseball Reference. You have to do some addition but they’ve got a full log.
My point is that 23 out of 36 solo homers IS a bit high, but there’s nothing to suggest Pedro is particularly prone to hitting solo homers. I didn’t mean it was a result of his batting sixth; it’s just chance. On average, home runs are a bit over half solo (the number goes up and down a bit proportional to league on base percentage.) So you’d expect Pedro to normally hit 19 solo homers, not 23. No biggie. In 2012, out of 30 homers, 15 were with men on, 15 solo, a normal split.
I cannot find that number, to my frustration.
And, well, yeah, but that’s because Pedro ONLY hits home runs. Hitting home runs is pretty much the extent of Pedro’s offensive skills. If you look up guys with really few skills aside from home runs who hit 35 dingers or so you’ll find they don’t usually pile up huge numbers of RBI. 36 homers to 100 RBI isn’t bad when you don’t have a lot of singles, doubles, and triples.
I note Edwin Encarnacion, a far better hitter than Pedro (Here’s a trivia question for you; name the only player in the major leagues in 2013 who hit more than ten homers and walked more than he struck out. Yes, it’s Encarnacion, who’d have seen that coming?) drove in 104 RBI with his 36 homers. Mark Trumbo, who’s a lot like Pedro, went 34/100. Evan Longoria was 32/88 and he’s a hell of a player. Brandon Moss was 30/87. It’s not that unusual, really.
Pedro Alvarez hit a pretty big home run in the NLDS today… 2/2 with a 2B and HR so far.
I’m a big Royals fan (it’s me and cmkeller on the boards, and that’s about it). I was just more impressed with the fact that the other 30 teams have cycled through so quickly, not that the Royals have been so bad for so long (I’m well aware of how bad and for how long).
Here are Pedro’s splits this season. Only half of his PAs have been batting 6th.
Not exactly. He was at the plate 300 times with men on base, and hit .242/.317/.434. Compare that to his .233/.296/.473, and it’s about the same. Without having watched him much this season, I’d say that he has more of a green light to swing for the fences with no one on, and he chokes up a bit more with men on (more doubles, more walks with men on).
Well, if we’re gonna talk about Kingman:
Maybe sorta NSFWish
Ya think?
Indeed he did! Big day for Pedro and the. Bucs. He almost had a second HR, as the double he hit was off the centerfield wall. He keeps this up, and he’ll carry the Pirates into the next round with his bat.
Maybe Hurdle is smarter than I give him credit for. Garrett Cole over the second half of the season was much more consistent and dominant than Burnett. But he may not have been able to out duel Wainwright in game 1. So, he gets game 2, pitches well against Lynn, and now the Pirates go back home with the split and Liriano on the mound.
I never heard this before, and it was embarrassing for Lasorda. Was he drunk?
I would just like to say thank you to Wil Myers.
Are you implying there are times Lasorda isn’t drunk?
I don’t think so, just profane. It’s considered a major classic in Los Angeles amongst the fans.
It was quite advantageous, wasn’t it?
For one thing, Tommy knew they couldn’t use his answer on the air.
I thought it was funny as hell. Sometimes I think baseball is so PC it’s no fun any more.
I’m still trying to figure out why Mattingly brings in Paco, then has him intentionally walk the first batter. Is that really what you want a new pitcher to do, especially one with no post-season experience? Bring him in with the bases loaded to throw four straight balls to start things off? Why not have the last pitcher do that?
Predictably, Paco then has trouble finding the strike zone with the next hitter, who proceeds to knock in two runs. Without those two runs scoring, the Dodgers win.
Sometimes, Mattingly amazes me.
Paco wasn’t brought in to do that. He was brought in to face LHB PH Jose Costanza with runners on second and third. Then Fredi pulled Costanza back (burning a substitution) and sent up the more dangerous, right-batting Reed Johnson. First base is open, and the next batter is Heyward, another lefty, but more dangerous still. At that point, with Paco on the hill and required to face at least one batter, Mattingly chose to bet on lefty-lefty with bases loaded, rather than pitch to the righty with 2 RISP–neither of these were attractive, neither were what Paco was brought in to do, and either course would give the Braves a good shot at taking the lead. Which of course was exactly the point.
Fredi had the pieces in place to make a good move there, and it worked. Mattingly was outmaneuvered, but (not being familiar with Paco or the other bullpen options), I wouldn’t say he was necessarily a bonehead.
Good game.
What is the postseason rotation now? I take it that it’s no longer a 3 man? The Pirates have Morton starting Game 4, so that means Burnett for Game 5? Or Cole again?
Is there at least a 3 man rotation in a 7 game series so that your ace can pitch 3 times in a full series or is this another example of pussification of pitchers?
Jesus the BoSox with 12 runs…
He was because Paco has been every bit as dominant against righties as he has lefties, and walking the bases loaded to get to JASON HEYWARD is idiotic.
Heh. Well, all right. I didn’t know Paco’s numbers. But bonehead it is. 