We are at the quarter pole of the 2009 MLB season and so far this year is filled with amazing stories. And what better way to represent those stories with a “By the Numbers” for each division, beginning with my beloved AL East.
0 – Home runs by David Ortiz, which puts him on pace for ZERO for the season. No worries, though, I hear the Red Sox are thinking about adding a Yovani Gallardo (2 HR), Carlos Zambrano (2), Pat Maholm (1) or Micah Owings (1) to get some pop in the three hole. Even Chan Ho Park has a home run this year!
I think it’s time to grab the shovel and tie Big Papi to a tree. The dude looks completely lost at the plate – he cannot catch up to good fastballs, he flails hopelessly at sliders in the dirt and even when he hits a ball hard, it would barely make it out of Williamsport.
Then I read this quote – “Guys, I don’t feel like talking today. Just write ‘Big Papi Stinks’”. Wow, talk about heart breaking! I tell as a fan I get caught up in how much money these guys make and how they should be perfect all the time, but the reality is these guys are still human, even though one could argue that 2003-2007 Papi was superhuman. The best analogy for Papi right now is if Superman was not only covered in kryptonite, but ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very sad!
.333 – The Orioles winning percentage against the AL East. That includes the magical 4-2 run to start the season. Take those six games out and the Orioles a putrid 3-12 against their division rivals. The good news – the O’s get six games against the Nationals!
.440 – Tampa Bay’s winning percentage against all teams except the Red Sox and Yankees (.600 against those two). After watching the Rays against the Sox and Yankees, they’re the most talented team in the division and should win it by a fair margin. However, they are exhibiting signs of “World Series Loser” hangover by failing to get up for games against lesser opponents.
1 – Pretenders in the AL East. Yep, that’s right count me among the bunch that thinks Toronto will go up in flames faster than the Hoopa in Meet the Parents. Don’t get me wrong they have what you need to win a division – an ace (Halladay); young effective starters; a solid manager who won’t lose games and offensively they have a solid combination of speed and power.
But here is the deal – they have four guys who if they keep up this pace a career year. Look for those guys to regress to their mean. They have played a mere six games against the AL East and only three against the “Big Three”. So they have gotten fat against the AL Central (24 total games – 16-8) and AL West (11 games – 7-4). Talk to me July 12th after they finish a 15 game stretch against Tampa Bay, NY Yankees, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
5.42 – Bullpen ERA by the Yankees, which basically equates to two runs given up for every 10 outs or 2 runs given up in every outing. Yikes and that includes Rivera and Swisher (the two best relievers for the Yanks this year)! Looks like Cashman forgot about the bullpen when he was out spending all that Legend seat money this off-season.
5.69 – Combined ERA by Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and Dice-K Matsuzaka. Yep, there are the three aces that made up the best and deepest pitching in baseball. Funny how those things work out. The good news – Japan won the WBC and Dice-K salvaged national pride. Seriously, the Japanese play the WBC the way the Atari 2600 basketball computer player would play if you got up by four points!
10.22 – The difference in ERA between Tampa Bay’s James Shields starts against the Red Sox at Fenway Park and at the Trop. If I didn’t know any better I would think that Shields is afraid of the “Montsahh”, oh yea, Shields is afraid of the “Monstahh“! Check out his numbers at home against the Red Sox:
Game 1: Win, 7 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits/Walks Allowed
Game 2: Win, 9 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits/Walks Allowed
Game 3: Win, 6 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits/Walks Allowed
Now his games in Fenway:
Game 1: Loss, 6 IP, 5 ER, 11 Hits/Walks Allowed
Game 2: Loss, 3 2/3 IP, 7 ER, 13 Hits/Walks Allowed
Game 3: Loss, 1 IP, 4ER, 3 Hits/Walks Allowed (The Coco Crisp brawl game)
Game 4: Loss, 5 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 12 Hits/Walks Allowed
At his point if you’re the Rays skipper don’t you have to consider messing with the rotation, in order to keep Shields away from pitching in Fenway? Joe Maddon did it last year in the ALCS, Shields started games 1 and 6 at the Trop (ironically the Rays lost both games).
26 – RBI’s by Mike Lowell since I cut him in my fantasy league. I get that no one cares about my fantasy teams, but humor me! I left Lowell for dead on 4/10 for a couple of reasons – grounding into double plays are not part of our scoring and his bat was slow and feet slower. Basically he had no value! That’s all right; however, he has only 2 RBIs in his last 44 at-bats and no home runs over that period. More importantly he is a statue at third base, adding it all up and my guess is the Sox will go get a first basemen in the trade market and move Youks over to third, which will put Lowell in a DH platoon with Ortiz.
50 – Percent chance the presently constructed Orioles could win the International (AAA) League title. If you’re an Orioles fan you’re probably excited about the future, except when you realize the Rays are younger and the Sox/Yankees have the money to be as young as they want to be.
75 – The number of front row “Legends” seats in the New toilet, ah, Yankee Stadium that are empty every game. Out of roughly 100 available! A couple weeks ago the Red Sox were in town and the only fan behind the plate was Tony Soprano’s brother-in-law, Bobby Baccalieri, the model train enthusiast. Now granted the Red Sox were in process of putting a fifth straight whipping on the Yanks, but come on where are the Billy Crystal’s and Jack Nicholson’s of the world, they can certainly afford it.
What Yankee fans aren’t willing to pay $2500 a seat to watch the Twins crap themselves? What gives? Plus, those aren’t any seats they’re a luxury few could pass by without running their fingers over the posh, rich Corinthian leather.
Oh, but the amenities don’t stop at the fancy seats, for your $2500 you also get a “in-seat” waiter, an all inclusive food and beverage buffet and concierge services. Concierge services? For what – A taxi out of the place, late night entertainment or pillow/blanket? Maybe the “concierge” can grab a fan an auto-graphed A-Rod syringe.
The single best amenity – private restrooms! Very under-rated perk, especially if you had to endure heading to the public restroom with thousands of Neanderthals at the old stadium.
121/158/183/187 – The points above career OPS numbers for Rod Barajas, Marco Scutaro, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind, respectively. And to think, Vernon Wells and Alex Rios are both below their career OPS numbers. That lineup would be downright scary if both of those guys improve the norms and the four mentioned above do not regress. Fat chance.
Barajas and Scutaro are both 33, so they are flukes and by season end will be back close to their norm.
Aaron Hill is only 27, but if he were to post a season OPS of 954, well that is HOF territory. Coming into this season his career high in home runs was 17, he has 11. Now I’m not going to suggest he will fall off the face of the earth, but if he is on your fantasy roster you might consider selling high.
Adam Lind is 25, so this might be his breakout year, but my guess is once the others come back to earth, Lind will also fall back.
25,832 – Total Tampa Bay Rays home attendance for a recent two game home stand with the Baltimore Orioles. Look I know there was a two-day bingo tournament happening at the same time and the O’s suck, but 33% of capacity for the defending AL champs? That is pathetic Tampa!
