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peter MLB – St. Louis Cardinals/Chicago White Sox Box Score Wednesday June 21, 2006 – Yahoo! Sports
That’s what Jason Marquis is doing tonight, dragging down my Tout Wars NL pitching staff, which went into tonight with the second best ERA and Ratio in the league. Amazingly, after 12 runs in four innings I’ve still got 12 points in both categories, though the margin of error is significantly smaller now.
This week’s column is out, taking a look at Alexis Rios’ hot start and a high-powered trade, examining whether it’s a good idea to load up on Twins this week, deciding whether it’s better to hold onto Rodney than jump for Julio, plus chatter about Matt Kemp and Joey Gathright.
Presents evidence that A-Rod is having a really crumby season when the Yankees are trailing by one or two runs, but it’s only 54 plate appearances. Everybody seems to have an opinion about whether A-Rod is always so bad in the clutch (though it should be noted, as the writer here does, that A-Rod has four hits after the seventh inning that put the Yankees ahead, while Justin Morneau leads the league with five).
Last year A-Rod had a couple of game score situations in which he didn’t hit nearly as well as in all other situations. One of them was down by two runs, but the other was up by two runs. He had a 1.096 OPS when down by one run.
In 2004 he was incredible in down by one run (1.416 OPS), fair when down by two runs (.910 OPS), sucked when down by three or up by two (.701/.556) and not so hot when the team was up by five runs (.724).
My conclusion? I love baseballmusings.com and David Pinto’s amazing database. Unconvincing attempts to impugn A-Rod’s clutchiness? Not so much.
I saw Lastings Milledge play two games in the Arizona Fall League last November, and the observation I came away with was that he was not as fast as advertised. Obviously a couple games here, another game there, with the youngster getting caught stealing and thrown out at the plate a couple times will shape your opinions. And maybe he did spend too much time spectating on this play. But I think anyone expecting five-category production out of Milledge is going to be disappointed. He’s not as fast as he looks like he should be.
The new one is online. What are the prospects of Roy Oswalt, Ben Sheets, Mark Prior and John Patterson as they threaten, at least, to return from the DL. Got too much of a category? How should you decide what to deal? Will Bobby Abreu, Marcus Giles and Carlos Lee be dealt before this year’s trading deadline? Chatter about Chad Billingsley and the schedule, round out this week’s issue.
Jeff Passan does the heavy lifting
This is a most readable survey about the medical and legal status of hGh, by a very good sportswriter. No hysteria, no overblown conclusion, mostly facts and arguments that simply put it all in perspective.
We’re certainly living in strange times when a story predicated on the Runs Expected Matrix attributing “runs” to isolated events (stolen bases) appears in a publication that isn’t published by SABR or Baseball Prospectus. Just a few years ago such a story as this one would have been so mind blowing that it might have been possible not to quibble. But, quibble we must.
I think he should have put in context the number of runs attributed to Patterson this year that didn’t come from steals, and referenced the league and team leaders so that we had some idea what it all meant. Maybe Patterson shouldn’t be running, but it’s really hard to argue against stealing when you’re safe nearly every attempt.
In the press to close this year’s Fantasy Football Guide 2006 Professional Edition, I neglected to plug this week’s Ask Rotoman column. It has been up since Wednesday over at mlb.com, with contemplation of a Jim Thome for Miguel Cabrera trade, a look at what’s happening with Andy Pettitte, and thoughts about catchers, most notably Josh Bard and Mike Piazza.
Tim Dahlberg must live a pretty clean life. The sharp edge of his argument here seems to suggest that the government should get into everything, because they have subpoena power. I’m very afraid. And not by the thought that Albert is going to be outed.
Dahlberg isn’t afraid. Good for him.
I didn’t mean that.
BostonHerald.com – MLB Coverage:
Clever stuff, and makes me feel a little dirty.
BTW, does baseball really need to save itself? Haven’t these steroid allegations been out there for a few years now? Did anybody think that testing was going to make the game totally clean? Aren’t millions of people going out to the ballyard in every major league city? Isn’t everyone making so much money they aren’t even discussing the possibility of a strike/lock out when the basic agreement expires after this season?
That’s all. For now.
Ps. I found the Boston Herald link through deadspin.com.