MLB: July 2010

The Game Room
241

What the hell?

I’ve always thought that Verlander was excellent pitcher, because he is an excellent pitcher. I did not undertake this exercise to demonstrate that Greinke is better than Verlander. In fact, the main purpose of the exercise was to find a pitcher whose numbers were close enough to Greinke’s to be comparable, but who played for a team that provided more run support.

If Verlander’s numbers had been dramatically better or dramatically worse than Greinke’s, i would have kept looking until i found someone closer. The main thing that surprised me was that i happened to find someone close on the first try, and that Greinke and Verlander’s numbers were so close in just about every single area.

The reason i made the comparison was to point out how silly it is to make an evaluation of Greinke’s pitching ability based on his W-L record, which is what you did back in post #229. And i think the figures demonstrate quite clearly that, despite having vastly different winning percentages, Greinke and Verlander are pitchers with reasonably similar career performances.

Right. So why post his W-L record as a reason to be cautious about him?

Actually, you don’t really need to see that at all. The numbers i gave in my previous post should make it quite clear that Greinke has had less run support.

We have two pitchers who have started an almost identical number of games; they’ve given up hits and walks at a similar rate; they’ve given up runs at a very similar rate; and yet one has a dramatically better winning percentage than the other. The obvious conclusion here, based on simple deduction, is that run support has been the main difference.

But, in case you don’t believe that conclusion, i rolled out my mad OpenOffice Calc skillz in order to find out how many runs the Royals scored in Greinke’s 156 starts, and how many the Tigers scored in Verlander’s 152 starts. Here are the numbers:

Greinke:

Starts: 156
Total runs scored by Royals: 616
Runs scored per game: 3.95

Verlander:

Starts:152
Total runs scored by Tigers: 776
Runs scored per game: 5.11

That seems like a reasonably significant difference in run support to me.

Or, to put it a different way:

Greinke’s run support exceeded his ERA by 0.24 runs per game. Verlander’s run support exceeded his ERA by 1.21 runs per game. Who’s likely to have the most wins, in that scenario?

242

Greinke is the only pitcher I would want the Reds to try to go after now that they missed out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes.

243

Fox Sports Arizona just reports that Haren has been traded to the Angels.

Story on MLB.com

244

Haren to the Rally Monkeys. Rather surprising given how far out they are. Also kind of surprised that the package is so light.

245

Arod came up in the 8th inning, bases loaded and one home run away from 600. Could have been sweet. He got hit in the hand by a pitch and taken out of the game.

246

Slight edge to Verlander.

247

  1. If people don’t learn how to use the quote function properly, and continue to put huge fucking multi-post quotes like yours in posts, they’re going to disable the function. Did you really need to quote all of that in order to post a 4-word response?

  2. I don’t even know what your response means. I tend to assume that people in these threads are actually interested in discussing baseball in a meaningful way, rather than trotting out platitudes and unsupported speculation. If you don’t want to do that, then fine; i won’t waste my time and effort in future.

248

Maybe i can participate better if i simply make non-controversial observations about stuff that anyone can find out simply by looking at the standings.

So…

The Padres are 7-2 since the break, and continue to hold a 3-game lead in the West. The Dodgers ahve dropped from 2 back to 4 back since the All-Star Game, and the Giants are now in second. Colorado has taken a real dive recently, going 2-8 over their last 10.

Big series coming up between the Dodgers and the Padres this week, and i’m hoping the D-Backs can take a couple from the Giants to help San Diego out.

249

It’s SIX back you fool! :stuck_out_tongue:

I am hoping that Kenley Janson is just what the Dodgers bullpen needed, since his two games so far have both been impressive. Maybe Coletti won’t feel like he needs to sell in order to get garbage middle relievers now that Jenson seems to be working out (and I know it’s too early to say he is working out, but I am trying to be optimistic going into this series with San Diego.)

250

Oops! Six back it is!

251

He looked dominant, though I’m not sure shutting down the Mets is any great feat at the moment.

252

Wow. When you decide to get into something, you really get into it don’t you?

253

I don’t do things by halves. :smiley:

Though I did spell Jansen’s name wrong, and it bugs me every time that post is quoted.

ETA:
And I have to admit I am a tad nervous about talking Baseball with other actual people and not sounding like a total idiot about it.

254

Garza trying to finish off the 173rd no hitter of the year, give or take a few.

255

Jays win another one against Baltimore 9-5 on 80s Night at Rogers Center. I wish they’d stop with the powder blue pyjamas and start using the home whites from the 1989-96 era.

And congratulations to Matt Garza for his no-no against the Tigers, the first in Rays history.

256

Interesting no-hitter. For the first four innings, he could only throw his fastball with any kind of confidence. Kudos to him for placing it well and keeping it up until everything came into focus, and shame on the Tigers for not taking advantage of it.

257

Mmmmm, payjama girl thread…

258

Joe Mauer had himself a night, going 5-5 with 7 ribbies as the Twins win a cliffhanger over the Royals 19-1.

259

The year of the No Hitter. This is getting almost crazy now.

260

I probably could have guessed that. Heaven help us if you ever play fantasy baseball.

Sounding like an idiot doesn’t stop anyone else here. As an aside whatever happen with your potentially moving to Boston thing?