The problem last fall wasn’t not having Carp, it was that Scott Rolen went 0-for-World Series and that Jim Edmonds only had one hit. The middle of the lineup didn’t hit, and if the heavy hitters aren’t making contact, the Cards don’t score.
Also, Jeff Suppan showing a lack of baserunning skills mastered in Little League didn’t help. I swear, even T-ball players know when to run in that situation.
Mulder’s got a 4.30 ERA. Not exactly ace material…especially in the NL. He’s being outperformed by Haren, they guy they traded for him.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can’t remember. World what?
I’m not in agreement with your “outperformed” claim.
Haren’s 4-7 with a 4.14 ERA. He went 1-7 before winning his last three due to a total of 28 runs scored in those three games by the A’s.
Mulder is 7-4 with a 4.30. He went 7-1 before losing his last three due to a total of 4 runs scored in those three games by the Cards.
We’ll see who ends up with the better Stats.
Well…
Mulder has a slightly worse WHIP (1.36 vs. 1.30 for Haren), fewer Ks and a worse K:BB ratio.
I say this as a Phillies fan (well, they’re my NL team, anyway), but isn’t leading the NL East kind of like, I don’t know, leading the league in attendance or something? Nobody in the division seems particularly sharp or exciting, and by September (I see this happening to the Phils in particular, as is their wont) everybody is going to be under .500.
The Nats are definetly coming down. They are enjoying the rarified air, but their hitting sucks. They are definetly helped by the funk the Marlins are in at the moment. I’m not sure what is up with that.
The problem is that everyone is in it in the East. I don’t think the Braves will continue their run. Too many holes and too many people are injured for too long. The Mets and Phils definetely have a chance after Florida to make a run to the top. There are problems all around, but Florida has seemed to be pretty smart with roster decisions lately and Minaya on the Mets will make far smarter moves than Phillips used to. And with Pedro on the roll he’s on, anything is possible.
Right. If you’re going to make excuses like that, should we compare the general offensive levels of the Cardinals and the A’s over the course of the season so far?
Here are the facts. Haren’s got a better ERA, pitched more innings, has a better K/9, and a better K/BB. Opponents are hitting .246/.315/.375 against him, compared to the .276/.330/.410 they’re putting up against Mulder. All this while having to go up against the DH and not the pitcher 3-4 times per game.
Haren is outperforming Mulder any way you want to slice it and he’s getting paid $6 million less this year. The only reason Mulder has more wins is because he’s got an offensive juggernaut behind him while Haren is being “supported” by the fourth worst offense in all of baseball.
Oh, also in the East, some players to look out for in the 2nd half
Braves: Marte, which Chipper gone, he has to step up and be the player he’s been said to be.
Marlins: Beckett, young ace has to right the ship. The tailspin has to end and he’s gotta do it.
Mets: Beltran, he’s a 2nd half hero and if he can do what he did for the Astros last year, the Mets will win this thing.
Nats: Vidro, the Nats hitting sucks, Vidro was doing well before he went on the DL. He needs to come out hitting for the Nats to have a chance.
Phils: Thome, he has to pick it up for the Phils to make some noise this year.
Which is why I said trading Haren was a mistake when it happened. Danny Haren could have been a 20 game winner with the Cards.
Mulder’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, but I think he was the third of the Big 3 in Oakland. If he gets us a Series win, though, I’ll be glad to have him.
Both Mulder and Zito seemed to be in a sort of free fall since late last season. Only Hudson of the ‘Big 3’ seems to be the pitcher he was 3 years ago. It’s wierd, like they hit a wall. Perhaps it has to do with pitching coach Rich Peterson leaving Oakland for New York when Art Howe went to the Mets (Peterson is still there, and I think he is the reason that Benson is doing so well). Perhaps not, but it seems that Billy Beane traded Mulder at the right time, but he should have dealt Zito and not Hudson, then again, maybe no one wanted Hudson (and they can’t pay 2 out of the 3).
I think he waited a year too late to trade Zito and wasn’t going to get value for him.
I’m not completely disagreeing with you, I just think they’re more or less even right now. (If you take away the salary comparison, of course). I wasn’t a fan of the trade either, but I’m not writing it off just yet.
That’s probably correct. Perhaps he had a mental block in that he didn’t want to breakup the ‘Big 3’ until he had to, but it bit him in the ass.
Hudson from 2001-2003 (a three year average spread around “3 years ago”):
3.02 ERA, 2.55 K/BB, 1.18 WHIP, 6.25 K/9, with a .645 OPS against. The best single year was actually two years ago, but the stats for all three of the years are in the same range.
Hudson this year, in the National League instead of the AL (so theoretically should be doing better with no DH), in a division arguably more conducive to pitching (that three year stretch included the 116 win Mariners team, the WS champion Angels team, a bunch of bad Rangers teams that still hit the crap out of the ball, and a AL West that was often referred to as “the best division in MLB”, while this year’s NL East has a number of weak offenses as described above):
3.78 ERA, 1.31 K/BB, 1.52 WHIP, 5.36 K/9, .792 OPS against
Now that isn’t a catastrophic drop, and it’s only half a season… but he has fairly clearly not been an “ace” this year, and one can easily argue that his ERA is artificially lower than it should be due to luck on his part and will rise if he continues pitching like this. His main problem is simply that he’s walking a bunch more people than he was three years ago. Leo and Bobby best get that under control, because you can make a statistical argument that Hudson is actually pitching the WORST out of the big three so far this year.
Hudson just got placed on the 15-day DL, which is notable both to the post I just made as well as the more general NL discussion. This adds one more spot where the Braves are going to have to scramble for at least a little while.
You could also make an argument that the Big 3’s numbers were all a little inflated by playing in Network Associates Coliseum. Sure, it’s just 330’ down the lines, but it’s somewhere between 400-410’ in center, and the alleys are deep too. It’s almost identical to Busch Stadium, which is still somewhat of a pitcher’s park (although McGwire proved you could hit the ball out.)
Looking at Mulder’s numbers, his home stats from last year look like his season stats this year, but his home ERA this year is almost a whole run lower than overall, and is relatively close to his 2002 home ERA.
The big thing I notice is that his BAA has increased every year since 2002, and his WHIP is a quarter-point higher than during the height of Oakland’s success.
The reason Oakland’s such a good pitcher’s park is the foul territory. It’s vast, easily the biggest ion baseball, and it turns two or three foul ball strikes into outs every game.
As a long time Braves fan, I have to say, don’t count them out yet. Even though most of the team seems to be on the DL, and we are currently fielding most of a AAA team, our record is still better then it was last year at this time. Once we get a couple of our main players back, like Chipper Jones and Hampton, the Braves will hopefully go on a hot streak and end up winning the division.
Probably one of the biggest things going against the Braves this year is our schedule, most of the teams we are facing in interleage play are the first or second place teams in their division, while the other teams in our division are mostly playing worst teams, for example, the Marlins are playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 6 times this year, while we are going against Boston and Baltimore.