I’m looking at just his last 7-10 starts. The guy is hardly walking anyone and he’s striking them out. He’s pitching well… but he’s giving up base hits. I’m convinced he’s just been unlucky with the hits.
He always pitched well before, for years and years. I don’t know what happened to him to start this season, but it’s not a blown arm or he wouldn’t be fanning four guys for every walk.
The BAbip of hitters facing Lackey this year is .337, which is almost 50 points above MLB average, and almost 30 points higher than Lackey’s career average.
Now, it’s possible that there’s something about his pitching this year that is easier to hit, and hit hard, but a dramatic rise or fall in BAbip is generally seen as a product mainly of luck, and as something that likely to regress to the mean.
On another subject, it’s been interesting following Albert Pujols this year. The guy is hitting .288/.353/.544 with 29 home runs, and an OPS+ of 149. And he’s having his worst season ever!
One interesting stat is the intentional walks Pujols is drawing—or not drawing—this year. He has led the NL in IBB for the last three seasons running, but this year has only 6 for the whole season. This is, of course, because Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman have been tearing it up behind him, meaning that a walk for Pujols now just brings up another incredibly dangerous hitter. The decline in IBB over a typical year almost exactly accounts for Pujols’ reduced OBP this season.
I am watching the Dodgers hit Randy Wolf well so far in the first three innings. And yet, thanks to a double-play and a mother-lovin’ TRIPLE PLAY, the Dodgers have absolutely nothing to show for it. Two runners thrown out at the plate already tonight.
sigh
Pujols’s 29 homers leads the NL.
How many player have won a home run title having what was, by their standards, a clearly subpar season? The only one I can think of offhand is Dave Kingman, who led the leaue in homers in 1982 but had a bad year even for him.
Thome hit 599 tonight, so ESPN2 showed his next AB and I got to see him hit 600 live.
Still a big Thome fan. I’d like to see him get into the Hall at the same time as Omar Vizquel.
Good for Thome. Though it is funny, I never considered him a great player but the 600 HR club is pretty exclusive.
Jayson Stark on Twitter:
-Thome first to hit HR #'s 300 400 500 & 600 with different teams.
-Only members of the 600 HR Club with a higher OBP than Jim Thome (.403): Babe Ruth (.474) & Barry Bonds (.404).
Verlander won number 18 today. I am sure there will be someone else winning the Cy Young. He still -pitches in Detroit.
That hair shirt fit OK? God, but you whine a lot.
White Sox have 5 triples against the Indians tonight. They came into the game with 8 all season. First team to hit 5 triples since Philly in 1986.
Triples are great; exciting stuff.
I watched the last few innings of the Dodgers/Brewers game tonight. What a disaster for Mike MacDougal and the Dodgers. It was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 9th. Kuo gave up a hit, so MacDougal came in with a man on first and no outs.
His first pitch was hit for a single, putting men on first and second. His next four pitches were balls to load the bases, and his next pitch was hit by Kotsay for a game-winning single. 6 pitches, 2 hits and a walk.
Tim Wakefield fails again in his bid for win #200. Same script: left in too long, starts to give up runs, bullpen comes in as he’s teetering on the brink and blows it. This is becoming annoyingly elusive.
Of course, the lineup was pretty weak sauce as well and we’ll be treated to the same deal tomorrow, since Ortiz is still stuck in the bursitis boot and Francona just said he won’t let Ellsbury play. That means the entire bench will be just a backup C and a backup IF.
Ubaldo Jiminez…has not looked too great on the road.
Astros have the longest current winning streak in the National League. I’m not going to bother checking, but I wouldn’t be surprised if 4 games was their longest of the year.
More seriously, Jose Altuve might be an actual plus value player in the long run, if he can pick up even the smallest amount of plate discipline and increase his power a bit.
Wow, that was the worst Anthem performance I’ve heard since Carl Lewis…
ETA : Referring to the Astros-Giants game.
Joe
Checked for you: 4 games is indeed their longest winning streak of the year. They’ve done it twice (since it’s now over).
I tend not to actually look at the standings very much: I have a general idea of who’s good and who’s bad and keep track of where the Red Sox are, but that’s about it. So I looked for the first time in awhile just now, and holy moly, Houston is AWFUL. I knew they were terrible, but I didn’t realize they were below .400. And Baltimore is not all that much better. 18-41 on the road! Those two teams are in their own little bubble of suck and will be lucky to win 60.
The Rockies just won a game on Sunday for the first time since April 17th.
Barring rainouts, there is a game every Sunday.
End-of-year awards, anyone?
Bautista for AL MVP is obvious.
NL MVP is hard to call; there are five or six guys in a near-tie at the top. I’d probably vote for Matt Kemp for plus-value defense at CF to go with near-top-level offense, but the award will probably go to whoever of Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder has more of a reputation as a team leader.
CY AL comes down to Verlander and Weaver; Weaver is marginally better on run prevention (8 fewer earned runs allowed in 14 fewer innings) but Verlander sweeps the field in all the secondary stats (k/9, bb/9, innings pitched, k/bb, WHIP, BA/OBA/SLG vs.); I’d vote for Verlander at the moment.
CY NL I’m not even going to call it; five or six guys who are nearly identical in ERA/IP (plus Johnny Cueto who’s way behind on innings but ahead on ERA) and it will probably come down to who gets the magic 20th win.