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Post by kaybli on Sept 22, 2024 13:39:34 GMT -5
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:40:57 GMT -5
Let's get all the other stuff out of the way first...
Now comes The Saturday Sunday Leaders™ for September 22nd.
Among AL hitters...Aaron Judge leads the AL in bWAR at 10.0. Bobby Witt, Jr. of the Royals is 2nd 9.4. Gunnar Henderson of the O's is 3rd at 8.8. Jarren Duran of the Red Sox is 4th at 8.5. Juan Soto is 5th at 7.8.
Witt leads the AL in BAVG at .334, Vlad Guerrero of the Jays is 2nd at .324, and Judge is 3rd at .321. At this point it would take a small miracle for Judge to pull off a Triple Crown. He’d have to outhit Guerrero by about 50 pts the last 7 games to pass him for 2nd, and outhit Witt by about 300 pts to win the batting title. Think: Judge hits .450 and Witt hits .150. Yordan Alvarez of the Astros is 4th at .305. Juan Soto is in 9th at .288. In between are Alvarez' teammates Yanier Diaz at .300, Brent Rooker of the A's at .299, Jose Altuve of the Astros at .296, Steven Kwan of the Guardians at .294. Kwan is hurt and might be done for the season, so he might slip behind Soto because of that alone.
Judge still leads in OBA at .456, Soto is 2nd at .418, and Guerrero is 3rd at .398.
Judge still leads in slugging at .688; Witt is 2nd at .599, Rooker is 3rd at .575, and Soto is 4th at a lower 575.
Obviously, Judge still leads in OPS at 1.144, and Soto is still 2nd at 0.993, but Witt is 3rd at 0.989
Witt is first in games played with 155. Anthony Volpe is in a 4-way tie for 2nd at 153 with teammate Judge, Henderson and Jose Ramirez of the Guardians.
Jarren Duran or the Red Sox leads in plate appearances with 699; Henderson is 2nd with 693. Soto is 3rd with 686, Marcus Semien of the Rangers is 4th with 684, Witt is 5th at 683, Judge is 6th at 681m Guerrero is 7th at 666 (speak of the Devil), and Volpe is 8th with 665. He might just hang on to a top 10 spot with just one week to go, even batting low in the order
Duran has leads in at bats at 638. Semien is now 2nd at 621, and Volpe has dropped to 3rd at 6616.
Witt leads in runs scored with 124, Soto is 2nd at 122, and Judge is 3rd with 116, and Henderson is 4th at 115, and Volpe is tied for 9th with 90. In between are Jose Ramirez of the Guardians (109), Duran with 104, Gurrero with 97 and Semien with 95.
Witt still leads in hits with 205, Guerrero is 2nd at 191, Duran is 3rd at 182. Altuve is 4th at 181. Judge is 5th at 174 and Soto is 10th with 153.In between Judge and Soto are Henderson (172), Diaz (169), Alvarez (168) and Ramirez (166)
Judge still leads in total bases with 373, but his cold streak has made getting to 400 total bases extremely unlikely, he’s now on pace for just 390. (“just 390”; heh) Soto is 5th at 319. In between are Witt (368), Henderson (327) and Guerrero (325) Duran and Witt are now tied for the lead in doubles with 46. Judge is 6th at 35. In between are J.J. Bleday of the A's (43), Guerrero (42), and Ramirez (36)
Duran still leads in triples at 13, and Witt is still 2nd with 11. Volpe tied for 4th with Henderson and Daulton Varsho of the Jays. Kyle Isbel of the Royals is all alone in 3rd with 8.
Judge still leads in HR with 54, and Anthony Santander of the O's is 2nd at 43. Soto is 3rd at 40.
Judge still leads in RBI with 137, Jose Ramirez of the Guardians is now 25 behind at 112. Brent Rooker of the A's is 3rd with 110. Witt is 4th at 108, Josh Naylor of the Guardians is 5th at 105 and Soto is 6th at 104.
Judge and Soto are still way out front, 1-2 in walks with 127 and 124. Henderson is a distant 3rd at 74.
Zack Gelof of the A's leads in batter K's with 177, Adolis Garcia of the Rangers is 2nd with 170. Cal Raleigh of the M's is 3rd with 168. Brent Rooker is 4th with 166 and Judge is 5th at 165.
Jose Caballero of the Rays still leads in steals with 44, 4 ahead of Ramirez.
Randy Arozarena of the Mariners still leads in HBP with 22, Willi Castro of the Twins is 2 behind.
Vinnie Pasquantino leads with 13 sac flies. Alex Verdugo is 2nd at 10. Alejandro Kirk of the Jays is 3rd with 9. Gleyber Torres is in a 4-way tie for 4th with 8, together with Diaz and Taylor Ward of the Angels and Witt. Austin Wells is tied for 9th with Adley Rutschman of the Orioles with 7.
Diaz and Judge are tied for the AL lead in GIDP with 22. Giancarlo Stanton is tied for 8th with Freeman. In between Judge and Stanton is a 5-way tie for 5th, including Jorge Polanco of the Mariners and his teammate Justin Turner, Guerrero and his teammate George Springer all at 16. In between are Naylor and Sal Perez of the Royals at 17
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:41:36 GMT -5
In the NL:
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers leads the NL in bWAR at 8.1. Matt Chapman is now 2nd at 7.1. Francisco Lindor of the Mets is in 3rd
at 6.7, still ahead of Ketel Marte of the D'backs at 6.4.
Luis Arraez of the Padres has the lead in BAVG, as he should, as .317, now just 7 points ahead of Marcell Ozuna of the Braves.
Ozena has a bare lead in OBA at .385. Jurickson Profar of the Padres is 2nd at a slightly lower .385. Ohani is 3rd at .380 and his teammates Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are now 4th and 5th at .379 and .378.
Ohtani still leads in slugging at .634, Marte is a distant 2nd at .563
Ohtani leads in OPS at 1.014, Ozuna is 2nd at 0.945
Pete Alonso is one of four players tied for first with 155 games played, along with Ozuna, Nick Castellanos of the Phillies an Ozuna’s teammate Matt Olson. Elly De La Cruz of the Reds and Willie Adames of the Brewers are tied for 5th one game behind the leaders.
Francisco Lindor’s back injury has dropped him out of the lead in game played, plate appearances and at bats. Ohtani now leads in plate appearance at 698 and De LA Cruz is 2nd at 671. Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies leads in at bats with 624, and Arraez is in 2nd at 616.
Arraez still leads in hits with 195, 5 ahead of both Ozuna and Ohtani..
Ohtani still leads in runs scored with 126, Corbin Carroll of the D'backs is still 2nd at 117.
Ohtani has blown up the race in RBI with his 10 RBI game earlier this weeks, he’s now at 122, and Adames is now 14 behind.
Ohtani still leads in total bases with 384 and now it’s Ohtani, not Judge who has a legit shot at breaking 400 total, the first player to do so in 23 years. Ohtani is now on pace for 401 total bases. He’s now 59 ahead of Ozuna, who is 2nd.
Alex Bohm of the Phillies continues to leads the NL in doubles with 44 (Duran and Witt has now passed him for the MLB lead), but is tied with Tovar.
Corbin Carroll of the D'backs still leads in triples at 14, Mike Yastrzemski of the Giants is 2nd at 9, but is tied with De La Cruz
Ohtani has still leads in HR with 52, and that race is over, he’s now 14 ahead of Ozuna.
Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies still leads in BB with 192, Ohtani and Freeman are tied for 2nd at 78. De La Cruz of the Reds continues to be way out front with 207 strikeouts with 207, 17 ahead of Tovar and 18 ahead of Schwarber. De La Cruz is also still well ahead with 65 steals; despite Ohtani’s big steals week, he’s still 12 behind.
Profar leads in HBP with 17, one ahead Joe Pederson of the D'backs and C.J. Abrams of the Nationals, who isn’t like to get any more this year, have been punitively sent to A-ball for staying out until 8 am at a casino when his team had a 1 pm game later that day.
Eugenio Suarez of the D'backs leads in sac flies with 11, 2 ahead of teammate Ketel Marte, who's tied with Bryson Stott of the Phils for 2nd.
Manny Machado of the leads the NL and all of MLB with 26 GIDP, Josh Bell of the D'backs is 2nd with 22, but now tied with Ozuna.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:42:06 GMT -5
Among AL pitchers:
Tarik Skubal of the Tigers leads in pitcher bWAR at 6.1. Seth Lugo of the Royals has jumped back into 2nd at 4.8
Skubal leads in ERA is 2.48. Framber Valdez of the Astros has been hot for months and is now 2nd at 2.85.
Skubal is leads in wins with 17, one ahead of Lugo, Jose Berrios of the Jays are and Carlos Rodon Corbin Burnes of the Orioles and Pablo Lopez of the Twins are tied for 5th with 1t. Luis Gil, Brayan Bello of the Red Sox and Valdez are tied for 7 with 14.
Brayan Abreu of the Astros is tied for the lead in games pitched with 75, together with T.J. McFarland of the A's.
George Kirby is by himself for the moment, Carlos Rodon is one of 11 pitchers tied for 2nd at 31.
Kevin Gausman of the Jays is still the only AL pitcher with 2 complete games; 10 others are tied for 2nd with 1. Gausman is one of five pitchers in the league with a shutout; the other four are today’s A’s starter Joey Estes, Ronel Blanco of the Astros, and Tanner Houck of the Red Sox, and Keider Montero of the Tigers.
Lugo leads in innings pitched at 197 2/3. Logan Gilbert of the Mariners is 2nd at 197.
Skubal leads in K's with 221; Cole Ragans of the Royals is 4 behind.
Ragans has gained the lead in K/9 innings at 10.83, Skubal is 2nd at 10.75.
Logan Gilbert leads in WHIP at 0.904, Skubal is 2nd at 0.941.
Ronel Blanco is back in first with just 6.26 hits per 9 innings. Gilbert is 2nd at 6.49.
Zack Eflin of the O's leads in BB/9 at 1.65; George Kirby of the M's is 2nd at 1.07
Kirby has the lead in K/BB ratio at 7.86, Eflin is 2nd at 7.0 Nestor Cortes is 9th at 4.15. Skubal, Gilbert, Yusei Kikuchi of the Astros, Lopez and his teammate Bailey Ober, as well as Tanner Bibee of the Guardians are in between Eflin and Nestor.
Tanner Houck of the Red Sox still leads in fewest HR per 9 innings at 0.57. Valdez is 2nd at 0.63.
Gil leads the league in walks allowed at 73. Marcus Stroman is tenth at 60. In between are Tyler Anderson and Griffin Canning of the Angels, Blanco and teammate Spencer Arrighetti of the Astros, Bello, Chris Flexen of the White sox, Ragans and Chirs Bassitt of the Jays.
Emmanuel Clase of the Guardians still leads in saves with 46. Josh Hader of the Astros is 2nd with 33 and Kirby Yates of the Rangers is 3rd with 31. Clay Holmes is still 4th at 29. He might drop behind Kenley Jansen and Mason Miller before the season ends.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:43:14 GMT -5
On the NL side:
Chris Sale of the Braves now leads in bWAR at 6.4 Hunter Greene of the Reds is 2nd at 5.7.
Sale leads in ERA at 2.38, Zack Wheeler of the Phils is 2nd at 2.56.
Sale leads in wins with 18, 2 ahead of Wheeler.
Wheeler leads in WHIP at 0.954, Sale is 2nd at 1.013.
Greene no longer has enough innings to qualify for the lead in all the rate categories, Wheeler now leads in H/9 innings at 6.22. Sean Manaea of the Mets is 2nd a 6.42.
Sale res now leads in K's at 224, Dylan Cease of the Pad is 2nd at 220, Wheeler is 3rd at 205.
Sale leads in K's per 9 innings at 11.40; Ex-Yankee Sonny Gray of the Cards is now 2nd at 10.98 and Cease is now 3rd at 10.74.
Logan Webb of the Giants continues to lead in games started with 32, but he's tied with Cease.
Webb still leads in innings with 198 2/3. Aaron Nola for 2nd at 188 1/3. Wheeler is 3rd at 186 2/3.
Miles Mikolas of the Cards of the Cubs again leads in fewest BB per 9 innings at 1.296. Shota Imanaga in 2nd in BB per 9 at 1.515.
Imanaga still leads in K/BB ratio at 6.071 and Sale is 2nd at 5.789.
Sale leads in fewest HR/9 at 0.456; Webb is 2nd at 0.498. Christopher Sanchez, is 3rd at 0.508.
Joining Gausman, Max Fried of the Braves and Sanchez share the lead in the NL and MLB with 2 complete games this year, and there are still 11 NL pitchers who've thrown 1 shutout.
Tyler Rogers of the Giants now leads the NL with 75 games pitched, two ahead of his teammate Ryan Walker.
Ryan Helsley of the Cards leads the NL and tied for the MLB lead in saves with 46, 8 ahead of Kyle Finnegan for the NL lead.
And that wraps up the "Saturday" Leaders™
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:44:08 GMT -5
And now, The Sunday Standings™ for Sunday, September 15th:
In MLB and the AL overall: the Yanks have the best record in the AL at 91-64, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Guardians. They’re one game behind the Dodgers and Phillies for the best overall record in baseball. They hold the tiebreakers against the Phillies and Guardians, but not the Dodgers. The Yanks’ Magic Number for clinching homefield from the Astros is down to 1, because they swept all six games from Houston early in the season, before the Astros got their starting pitching in order.
In the East:
The Yanks lead the O’s by 5 games with 7 to play. The Magic Number for clinching the East is down to 3. The Red Sox, Rays and Jays have been eliminated from winning the division.
In the AL Central:
The Guardians clinched the Central title this week, going 5-2 while the Royals fell down. They’re 90-66 on the season, 1 ½ back of the Yanks. The Royals lost all 6 games this week to fall to 9 games over .500, getting eliminated from the division race and barely clinging to the 2nd Wild Card. KC has now lost 15 of 21. The Twins split 6 games and are 8 games over .500, ½ game behind KC. The Tigers stayed hot, winning 5 of 6 and are now 7 games over .500, ½ behind Minnesota, and 1 game behind the Royals. They’ve won 10 of 16 and 26 of 37. The White Sox continue their dance with destiny, they won 3 straight last Saturday through Monday to put history in jeopardy, but have since regains the “upper hand” by losing 4 in row. They’re now 36-119, with 7 to play, two losses from passing the 1962 Mets for the most losses in MLB history, and if they win no more than 2 of their remaining 7 games, they’ll set the post-1900 record for lowest winning percentage as well.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:44:50 GMT -5
In the West...
The Astros had a strong week, winning 5 of 7 to get to 85-70, and now lead the Mariners by 5 with 7 to play. Houston’s Magic Number for the division title is the same as the Yankees in the East: 3. The M’s hurt their Wild Card chances by dropping two to the Yanks, but won their other 4 games this week, and are 5 games over .500. The Rangers cemented their dethroning as champions by losing 4 of 6, eliminating them from the Wild Card race despite the very poor play of the Royals and Twins. Texas is back down to 9 games under .500. The A’s also lost 4 of 6 and are now 21 games under, 500 before today’s game against the Yanks. The Angels gained no ground on Oakland, also losing 4 of 6, and their tragic number for finishing last in the West is now 3.
The current AL Wild Cards...The O's still have the leading Wild Card, and their Magic Number for clinching a playoff spot is now 3, technically. They won the season’s series from the Royals, but the Twins might tie that head-to-head up by sweeping the O’s in Minnesota later this week (the Twins series against the O’s is the Royals’ ace in the hole). The O’s would win the 2nd tiebreaker because their record against KC and Minnesota would be 7-5, while the Twins would be 10-9, and the Royals would be 8-11. The 2nd and 3rd Wild Cards are still the Royals and the Twins. The Royals are still the 2nd Wild Card and the Twins are 3rd, but both are desperately clawing to stay ahead of the Tigers (1/2 game behind Minnesota, 1 behind KC) and the Mariners (1 ½ behind the Twins, 2 behind the Royals). The Rays and Red Sox are still alive, but their tragic number for elimination are both 4. If the Rays are to do it, they at least have the advantage of a head-to-head series with the Tigers in Detroit and a series at Fenway.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:45:48 GMT -5
Over in the NL...
In the East, the Phillies haven’t quite clinched the East year, losing 4 of 7 to drop to 29 games over .500 and are tied with the Dodgers at 92-63, one game ahead of the Yankees for the best record in MLB. They lead the Mets by 6 and their magic number for the division title is down to 2. If they beat the Mets (♪ beat the Mets, step right up and defeat the Mets!! ♫) today, they clinch the East. The Mets had another good week, winning 5 of 7 to get to 17 games over .500, and open a bit of ground for the last Wild Card. The Braves had a poor week at the wrong moment, dropping 4 of 7, losing two games to the Mets, and are 13 games over .500. Unlike New York, they’re already eliminated from winning the East. The Nats continued to gain experience and maturity for their young talent, dropping 5 of 7 to fall to 17 games under .500 and sending starting shortstop C.J. Abrams back to A-Ball as punishment for staying out all night at a casino when the team had an afternoon game. The Marlins continue to stagger to the finish as if they were a team manifestation of marathon runner Gabriela Anderson-Scheiss at the 1984 Olympic Games. They dropped 6 of 7 this week, are now 40 games under .500, and are 3 games “ahead” of Colorado for worst team in the NL.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:46:44 GMT -5
In the Central: The Brewers went 2-5 and clinched the Central title despite that poor record. They’re 88-67 on the year and will almost certainly play in the Wild Card series. The Cubs are the only other Central team at all in the Wild Card hunt, but their Tragic Number is down to 1. They went 4-3 this week and are 3 games over .500. The Cards won 4 of 7, and are 1 game over .500 but are eliminated from the post-season. The Reds split 6 games and are still 4 games under .500. Their only remaining race is to stay out of the cellar. The Pirates went 2-5, and are 11 games under. Their tragic number for finishing last is now 4. They’ve lost 29 of 45 to fall out of contention into elimination.
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Out West: Buoyed by Ohtani’s monster week, the Dodgers took 5 of 7 to maintain a cushion in the race for the West; they’re tied with the Phillies at 92-63 for the best record in MLB, 1 game ahead of the Yanks. The Padres went 5-1, picking up just ½ game on LA. They’re 23 games over, and their Magic Number for clinching a Wild Card is down to 3, but their tragic number for the division title is down to 5. At one point, the Diamond backs had lost 4 of 5 earlier this week, putting their Wild Card spot in a bit of danger, but they’ve since won 4 in a row to get to 21 games over .500. Their magic number for a Wild Card spot is 5, and their tragic number for elimination is 3. They trail the Padres by 1 game. The Giants won 4 of 6, including crippling the Royals Wild Card chances and the O’s chances to tin the East, and are now 3 games under, but their eliminated from the playoffs. The Rockies had a who cares 3-3 weekend are still 35 games under .500. They’re 3 games ahead of the Marlins to avoid being the worst team in the NL.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:47:11 GMT -5
The NL Wild Cards are held by the Padres, D'backs and the Mets. The Mets have a 2-game lead with 7 to play, but the series in Atlanta starting Tuesday is enormous. One win for the Mets might prove to be enough; but they also have a tough series in Milwaukee to close the season. The two teams are 5-5 in the season’s series, so even if the Braves take just two, they hold the tiebreaker. The Braves last series is at home vs. the collapsing Royals. If KC is still fighting for its life, that could be an interesting series. The only other team with a mathematical chance at a Wild Card is the Cubs; but one more Mets win or Cubs loss eliminates Chicago.
And that concludes The Sunday Standings™ for this week.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:48:31 GMT -5
Now, the game preview stuff..
The A’s send rookie righty Joey Estes to the mound to try to salvage the final game of the series avoid being the first team the Yanks have swept a series from in almost 3 months. Drafted by the Braves in the 16th round of the 2018 June Amateur Draft, the fact that Estes is a starter in a major league rotation is a testament to the Braves scouting department and the A’s player development people. He didn’t pitch in the minors that year, and in 2019, the Braves didn’t let him play in their organization until July, when the sent him to rookie ball, where he made 5 brief and unsuccessful starts, before they shut him down for the season in late August. Like all other prospects, Estes saw no minor league action in 2020; because of COVID, he was in the his organization’s developmental camp. For the first month of 2021, Estes was held in instructional camp, and the Braves sent him to low-A ball in early May. He made 20 starts there, and pitched very well: 3-6 with a 2.91 ERA, 127 K’s and 29 BB in 99 innings. In March of 2022, the Braves, having lost Freddie Freeman to the Dodgers in free agency, decided to use Estes, catching prospect Shea Langeliers, and OF prospect Chirstian Pache to close that huge hole at 1st base by acquiring Matt Olson. The trade was terrific for the Braves; Matt Olson has been an All-Star caliber player, but the A’s got a solid starting catcher and a rotation starter.
In 2022, the A’s had Estes open the season at high-A, where they had him on the one-start-a-week plan. He pitched poorly, going 3-7 with a 4.55 ERA in 20 starts. Last year went much better. Estes started at AA, making 17 starts and 3 relief appearances and pitched well: 6-6 with a 3.28 ERA, so the A’s moved him up to AAA. In 6 starts at Las Vegas, his performance suffered, 3-0 with a 5.23 ERA, but Las Vegas is an extreme hitter’s park in a hitter’s league, so the A’s called him to the majors anyway, and he made two poor starts in September, going 0-1 with an ERA of 7.20. This season, he started back in AAA, and again pitched poorly, going 2-3 with a 6.06 ERA. But the A’s had to fix their very poor rotation, so they gave Estes a real shot at taking a rotation job. He’s been able to hold his own: in 23 starts, he’s 7-8 with a 4.78 ERA. In 118 2/3 innings, he’s allowed 118 hits, 65 runs, 63 earned, 19 HR and 24 BB, with 89 K’s. His WHIP is a decent 1.197 because of his low walk rate. He is one of only five starters in the AL to throw a complete-game shutout: Kevin Gausman, Keider Montero, Tanner Houck and Ronel Blanco are the other four. Today is Estes’ first game against the Yanks.
Repertoire: Estes is notionally a 6-pitch righty, but he rarely uses his sinker and cutter, just 65 combined this season. The 4-seam has average rise and good run; the sweeper has below average drop and average break, The slider has average drop and well below average break, and the change has below average drop and slightly above average break. In run values, the change and slider are sizeable minuses, the FB is a decent plus, and the sweeper is a small plus. His FB velo is well below average, but the spin is well above average. His chase rate is high, but his extension is bottom 20% in MLB. The average exit velo is near MLB average, but the barrel and hard-hit rates are somewhat higher than average. The line drive rate is a bit high, the ground ball rate is very low, and the flyball and popup rate are way above average (56% flyball rate). The swings strike, called strike an CSW rates are all far below average: if he had enough innings to qualify, it would be the lowest among all MLB starters, and not by a little. His BABIP is 5 pts below average, the strand rate is quite low but so is the HR/FB rate. The luck factors cancel each other out, and his ERA should 4.66 instead of 4.78. The current pitch mix for this season: FB averaging 92-3 about 52% of the time, sweeper 78 about 21%, slider 81-2 about 13%, change 85 about 11%, Sinker 91 about 3% and he’s throw 14 cutters all season averaging 86-7.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 14:59:23 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: Way too man Joes and variants to go through, so I’ll stick to just the Joeys. We hit the name before when the Yanks faced Guardians’ starter Joey Cantillo; Re-Playing that name game: limiting it to just "Joeys"…Just under 30 of them in MLB history, the best hitter is long-time Reds' 1st baseman Joey Votto, who has a decent but far from certain Hall of Fame case after a brilliant 17-year career apparently maybe coming to an end this season. He signed with the Jays in March, but got injured (what else is new?), missed a couple of months, and is trying to play his way back into shape in the minors. The Jays promoted him to AAA in early August, but it's not working, he's just 6 for 39 with 20 strikeouts, in 39 AB and just 1 HR. Updating: it took another 65 plate appearances, but Votto finally gave in to the inevitable and announced his retirement a month ago. His final AAA slash line: .143/.275/.214/.489. The last HR of his professional career was a 2-run shot of Red Sox’ AAA reliever Yohan Ramirez in the 6th inning of a 10-1 Buffalo win over Worcester on August 4th. Resuming the repeat: For pitchers, Joey Jay edges out Joey Hamilton for most bWAR. Jay won 99 games in 13 years in the NL from the early-1950's to the mid-1960's, and pitched for three pennant winning teams and one title winner: the 1957-8 Milwaukee Braves and the 1961 Cincinnati Reds, for whom he won 21 games, making both All-Star teams and finishing 5th in the MVP voting. Joey Hamilton pitched 10 seasons, 1994-2003, won 74 games for the Padres, Reds and Blue Jays, including the 1998 Padres who got swept by the great '98 Yankee team that won 125 games and the World Series.
One other oddity I forgot to note about Joeys a month ago when the Yanks faced Cantillo; there’s another great hitter named Joey (well, at least for a while) who could challenge Votto for best hitting Joey: Albert Belle, who was known as Joey his entire professional career until 1991. Joey was a diminutive for his full middle name, Joaquin, but at the end of the 1990 season, he asked to be called by his legitimate first name: Albert. It is possibly related to the fact that at more or less the same time, he spent two months at The Cleveland Clinic receiving treatment for alcohol abuse. Perhaps it was part of the idea of creating a new self-identity as a person in recovery. Whatever the change post-recovery, he was still a troubled man. The notorious incident where he ran over Fernando Vina to break up a double play; few remember that Vina tried the same play earlier in the game and afterward, Belle warned him if he did it again, he’d knocked Vina down. And he did. Belle had repeated incidents with media people; not giving interviews at all, throwing a baseball at a photographer, getting caught corking a bat, and asking a teammate to crawl through the ceiling panels to break into the umpire’s room to exchange a “clean” bat for the corked one. In his autobiography, former teammate Omar Vizquel said of his tools of the trade, "all of Albert's bats were corked.". However he did it, Belle was a great hitter for 10 seasons, from 1991 through 2000. He was also the highest player in the game, and the first player to be paid more than $10 million per season. He was the first player to hit 50 doubles and 50 HR in the same season, and he did it while missing 19 gamers. Belle led the AL in RBI three times, in slugging twice and in OPS once. He knocked in over 100 runs for 9 straight seasons, compiling over 1100 RBI total. He made five straight All-Star teams from 1993 through 1997 and was 2nd or 3rd in the MVP vote from 1994 through 1996. He didn’t really last long enough as a great hitter to challenge Votto for the title of best hitting Joey, but for those 9 seasons, he was as feared as any hitter in the game.
Belle’s time as an elite player was 10 full seasons, short for a Hall of Famer. So…is he? The writers gave his Hall of Fame Candidacy short shrift, he was off the ballot after two years, and they were probably right, regardless of personal animus between them and Belle. He does pass two of the four James measuring sticks, the Black Ink test and the Hall of Fame Monitor, just misses on the Grey Ink test and the Hall of Fame Standards. Two of his top 10 stat comps are in the Hall: Hank Greenberg and Ralph Kiner. Mike Trout seems a lock to make it three, and Nolan Arenado seems to have a good chance to make it four. The Jaffee Jaws system has Belle as the 41st best left fielder in MLB history; only 2 of the 10 left fielders above him are in the Hall, none of the 10 below. But there’s a subsection of the system called Jaws7, which is basically the total bWAR of a player’s top 7 season, his peak, in other words. In the Jaws7, Belle is 30th and then 5 of the top players above him are in the Hall, including the three right above him: Joe Kelley, Fred Clarke and Heinie Manush, but none of the 10 below, and both Kelley and Clarke were turn of the 19th-20th century players. In most cases where a player doesn’t get voted into the Hall, he has a long solid career, but not the peak of a Hall of Famer. Albert Belle is an example of the opposite case: he has the peak of a Hall of Fame career, but not the longevity, staying power and cumulative record associated with most Hall of Fame careers. Belle’s career and Hall of Fame candidacy is similar to Don Mattingly’s; back injuries derailed Mattingly and a degenerative hip condition (osteoarthritis) did the same to Belle. Of course, Mattingly didn’t have the same personal issues as Belle, and is much better loved by fans and the media because of it; he got enough support to stay on the writer’s ballot all 15 years, even though he never got anywhere near the 75% needed for election. Fair? Maybe not, but if you spend your career deliberately shutting out others, for whatever reason, you have to expect they might reciprocate.
Oh, almost forgot: Joey is just the 2nd Estes in MLB history. The only other Estes is pitcher Shawn Estes, a left-handed starter of modest stuff who nevertheless survived 13 seasons in the majors, going 101-93 with an ERA of 4.78. His best year, by far, was his first full season with the Giants, 1997, in which he was 19-5 with an ERA of 3.19 and made the NL All-Star team for the 1st and only time of his career. He started the 2nd game of the NLDS against the Marlins team that went on to win the title in the year between the Yankee dynasty team titles, and Estes started game 2, got shelled and left after 3 innings. The Giants rallied to take him off the hook in the 9th, but Roberto Hernandez gave up a walk-off single to Moises Alou in the 9th, and the Marlins went on to sweep the series in 3. Estes started game 2 of the 2000 NLDS against the eventual NL Champion Mets and didn’t do much better, 2 runs in 3 innings, but again, the Giants got him off the hook for the loss with 3 in the 9th, but Jay Payton knocked in a run in the 10th, and went up 2 games to none, on their way to a 3-1 series win and an eventual 4-1 loss to the Yanks in the World Series, the last of the 4 Dynasty title winners. 24 years ago. Really, no foolin’.
Oh, almost forgot: Joey is just the 2nd Estes in MLB history. The only other Estes is pitcher Shawn Estes, a left-handed starter of modest stuff who nevertheless survived 13 seasons in the majors, going 101-93 with an ERA of 4.78. His best year, by far, was his first full season with the Giants, 1997, in which he was 19-5 with an ERA of 3.19 and made the NL All-Star team for the 1st and only time of his career. He started the 2nd game of the NLDS against the Marlins team that went on to win the title in the year between the Yankee dynasty team titles, and Estes started game 2, got shelled and left after 3 innings. The Giants rallied to take him off the hook in the 9th, but Roberto Hernandez gave up a walk-off single to Moises Alou in the 9th, and the Marlins went on to sweep the series in 3. Estes started game 2 of the 2000 NLDS against the eventual NL Champion Mets and didn’t do much better, 2 runs in 3 innings, but again, the Giants got him off the hook for the loss with 3 in the 9th, but Jay Payton knocked in a run in the 10th, and went up 2 games to none, on their way to a 3-1 series win and an eventual 4-1 loss to the Yanks in the World Series, the last of the 4 Dynasty title winners. 24 years ago. Really, no foolin’.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 15:00:01 GMT -5
Luis Gil starts for the Yanks, looking for his fourth straight good start since coming off the IL with a back strain. He’s 2-0 in the 3 starts, just 2 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings, 10 hits, 17 K and 7 BB. On the season, Gil is 14-6 with a 3.14 ERA. In 27 starts, he’s pitched 140 2/3 innings, allowing 93 hits, 50 runs, 49 earned, 14 HR, and 73 walks, leading all pitchers in MLB, and struck out 161. His hit rate is so low, that despite all those walks, his WHIP is a solid 1.180. He’s not going to have enough innings to qualify, but if he did, he’d be top 10 in fewest hits per 9 innings, fewest HR per 9 innings, most K’s per 9 innings. As it is he’s still tied for 7th in wins, and a win today will move him into a tie for 5th. This will be Gil’s first ever start against the A’s.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 15:00:56 GMT -5
Yankees' lineup vs. Estes: He’s never faced the Yanks and none of them have faced him, so here’s the starting lineup…
1. Torres (2B)
2. Soto (RF)
3. Judge (CF)
4. Wells (C)
5. Stanton (DH)
6. Chisholm (3B)
7. Dominguez (LF)
8. Rizzo (1B)
9. Volpe (SS)
On the bench: None
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A’s Lineup vs Gil: One of several games this year when no one in either lineup has faced the opposing pitcher, so here’s the A’s starting lineup instead:
1. Butler (RF)
2. Rooker (DH)
3. Bleday (CF)
4. Langeliers (C)
5. Soderstrom (1B)
6. Gelof (2B)
7. Brown (LF)
8. Schuemann (3B)
9. Wilson (SS)
On the Bench: None
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 22, 2024 15:01:32 GMT -5
Yesterday: the Yanks scored early and often: 2 in the 1st, a solo HR by Volpe in the 2nd, a 3-run bomb by Stanton in the 3rd, and they coasted to a 10-0 rout of the A’s. Torres had 3 hits in the leadoff spot, scored a run and drove in 2 more, Judge hit his 54th dinger, and Carlos Rodon and two relievers combined on a 5-hit shutout. Even Mark Leiter, Jr. was effective, throwing back-to-back 1-2-3 innings, one more than he had in 16 games for the Yanks before last night. The win was the Yanks 2nd in a row, and their 10th in 14 games. It pushed them back to 27 games over .500 at 91-64 and reopened their lead over the O’s to 5 games with 7 to play.
At Camden Yards, Orioles and Tigers traded deuces: the Tigers got two in the 2nd to take a 2-0 lead, the O’s tied it with one in the 2nd and another in the 6th. The Tigers got two more in the 8th to lead 4-2, but the O’s fought back in the 9th: single, single, walk to load the bases with nobody out. Gunnar Henderson doubled in two to tie it at 4 and had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Beau Brieske came in (again!) his 5th appearance in 7 games, and got Mullins to ground to 2nd with the runner on 3rd staying put, Santander to hit a short pop back of 3rd, and ex-Yankee farmhand Trey Sweeney materialized from his infield in position to make a brilliant over-the-shoulder grab as he fell over leftfielder Riley Greene’s feet (Green was playing outfield in as a sac fly would’ve won the game as well, and his sliding attempt was going to come up short, it was either Sweeney, or nobody) for the 2nd out. Cowser’s fly to center got the Tigers out of the jam still tied at 4. In the top of the 10th, the Tigers struck for another pair on Greene’s RBI single and a sac fly by McKinstry. Brieske stayed in and got the Orioles, allowing a walk to put the tying run on base with 1 out, but struck out Kjerstad and got a grounder from Johnson to end it, 6-4 Tigers. Brieske saved his own win (no, he doesn’t get both a win and a save, just a win; it’s a baseball figure of speech) and gets to 3-4 on the season. Cano gave up the 2 runs in the 10th and took the loss, dropping to 4-3 on the year.
At the LameDome™ in Tampa, the Rays eliminated the Jays from the playoff with a 3-2 win. Taj Bradley got the win, breaking a long losing streak (0-7 in his last 9 starts) he’s now 7-11, Yariel Rodriguez lost again, his 4th straight, he hasn’t won in 12 starts going back to July 6th, when he got his only win of the season against the Mariners, he’s a miserable 1-7. Rasmussen got the save, his 1st since 2021.
The Giants put the Royals playoff chances in further jeopardy with a 9-0 whitewash in KC. Rookie Landon Roupp threw 5 scoreless innings for the win, getting to 1-1; Brady Singet gave up 6 in 5 1/3, taking the loss to drop to 9-12. The Giants hit 5 home runs, a three run shot by Yastrzemski his 18th, 2 solo HRs by Wade, who now has 8 and 2 more solo HRs by Matt Chapman who has 26 this season.
Julio Rodriguez stayed red-hot, knocking in 4 runs with a leadoff HR, a two-run single and one-run single, and rookie Emerson Hancock threw 5 solid innings of 2-run ball, and the Mariners kept pace with the Tigers, beating the Rangers, 8-4. Hancock evened his record at 4-4 with the win, reliever Andrew Chafin left two runners on base in the 6th, and watched as Jose LeClerc gave up 3 straight hits to score both runner and one of him own, breaking a 2-2 tie and sending the Rangers to defeat. Chafin got the loss and is now 4-3.
The Red Sox and Twins were rained out at Fenway and were forced into a double-header today.
The Yanks moved back to 5 games ahead of the O’s with 7 to play, lowing the Magic Number for the East title to 3. The Royals still have the 2nd Wild Card, but by just ½ game over the Twins. The Tigers are still rising fast, and are now ½ game behind the Twins for the 3rd Wild Card, and 1 behind the Royals for the 2nd Wild Card. The Mariners have won 3 in a row since the Yanks beat them twice earlier this week, and are 1 behind Detroit, 1 ½ behind Minnesota and 2 behind KC. The Rays are 3 behind Seattle; the Red Sox are ½ game behind Tampa, but both have the same number of losses, so both have a tragic number of 4.
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