SB Nation User Blog: Benne

Dave Allen on Aardsma

Benne — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:15:49 -0000

Dave Allen on Aardsma

Pretty fascinating look into how he suddenly turned a corner this year.

Fangraphs adds Speed Score

Benne — Sun, 10 May 2009 05:41:13 -0000

Another one of Bill James' newfangled number thingies. Here's David Appelman's simple, non-numbers description:

We’re using the 4 component version, which is an average of Stolen Base Percentage, Frequency of Stolen Base Attempts, Percentage of Triples, and Runs Scored Percentage.

For the hardcore number geeks, here's David's description of the formula in the same thread:

Stole Base Percentage = (((SB + 3)/(SB + CS + 7)) - .4) x 20

Frequency of Attempts = Square root of ((SB + CS)/(1B + BB)) / .07

Percentage of Triples = 3B/(AB-HR-SO) and then put on a scale based on this chart:

< .001 = 0
.001 - .00231 = 1
.00231 - .00392 = 2
.00392 - .00583 = 3
.00583 - .00804 = 4
.00804 - .01055 = 5
.01055 - .0136 = 6
.0136 - .01587 = 7
.01587 - .01898 = 8
.01898 - .02239 = 9
> .02239 = 10

Runs Scored Percentage = (((R - HR)/(H + BB - HR)) - .1) / .04

Then anything one of the components that is below 0 you make 0, anything about 10 you make 10. Then take the mean of the 4 components.

As for how good or bad a Speed Scale is:

The scale is 0-10, The higher the better. Average is around 5.

Now, I don't know if this is a very useful stat in terms of predictive value, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Top 5 Speed players so far this year:

Carl Crawford--8.9

Michael Bourn--7.7

Coco Crisp--7.6

Matt Kenp--7.4

Chone Figgins--7.1

Pretty much your usual suspects there.

As for the top 5 leadfoots in the league:

Ramon Hernandez--0.6

Dan Uggla--0.6

Mike Jacobs--0.6

J.J. Hardy--0.6

Pat Burrell--0.6

At first I was a bit surprised to see Hardy at the bottom, as I've always assumed he was at least competent on the basepaths, but the numbers proved me wrong; he is 5-for-5 on stolen bases. In his career. In four years. There goes my theory that guys who play SS well (and he is very solid at SS; career 11.9 UZR/150) have good baserunning speed.

So what about the Mariners?

As a team, the M's are a 4.1 at Speed. This ranks them 26th in the league, and 12th (out of 14) in the AL. This probably isn't too surprising, as aside from Ichiro, Beltre and maybe Endy, we don't exactly have a group of hellions on the basepaths.

The bottom Speed guys among M's players is rather predictable: Jamie Burke at 0.1, and Sweeney and Griffey at 1.3 both.

As for our top Speed guys, the top 4 goes, uh, mostly predictable:

Ronny Cedeno: 4.1 (PETR!)

Adrian Beltre: 4.3 (his inexplicable decision to steal third earlier tonight will probably affect this rating)

Ichiro!: 4.7

And our number one Speed player, is......

Rob Johnson?

Rob motherfucking Johnson?

Rob MotherFuckingCockSucking Johnson has a 5.0 Speed Score?

No wonder Wak continues to keep him on the major league roster while Clement rots in Tacoma. Rob Johnson is a speed demon, who strikes fear into the hearts of opponents with his baserunning prowess, whose clubhouse grit would make Griffey say, "yeah, he's the leader here."

Rob Johnson: your basepath demon.

Ladies and Gentleman, your 2009 Seattle Mariners!

Angels @ Mariners Game Thread, Part 2: Extra Innings Edition

Benne — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:19:54 -0000

Somewhat decent outing by Silva, much much shitty offense, Morrow and Aardsma still can't find the strike zone. Just another excellent day of M's baseball.

Must get to 75 words. So Burnett's no-hitter got broken up, and the Rays are now kicking ass. So that's pretty awesome.

Goddammit Corcoran, throw some strikes. Johjima, Yuni--please stop sucking. Gutz, please never leave us.

This game is starting to piss me off. I fucking hate Torri Hunter.

Slowly but surely, Huskies gaining national attention....

Benne — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:58:18 -0000

And it couldn't come a day sooner.

The recent AP poll has Washington at #23. Feels good to finally be back in the rankings again, even if the ESPN voters continue to ignore them (they have Washington with only 41 votes, behind some imposing powerhouses like Baylor and Utah State).

Another encouraging sign: Andy Katz actually showed some love to the Huskies.
The notorious Gonzaga fanboy deigned to make Washington the lead story in his latest article, a pleasant surprise in itself.

There is still some progress to be made, but people are starting to come around to the fact that the Dawgs are back on the national basketball map. But the real test is coming up next. Sweep the Arizona schools (on the road, no less) and we're sitting very pretty, with a Sweet 16 run not out of the question.

While 2008 was a miserable year for Seattle sports (awful Mariners, awful Seahawks, Sonics gone, awful Dawgs football), 2009 is quickly shaping up to be an awfully hopeful year (new Mariners regime, new Dawgs football regime, new Seahawks regime, and a Dawgs hoops team set up to make some noise in March). The worst is behind us, and I forsee great things in the future for our local teams.

Now THAT is change we can believe in.

New Year's Day Bowls Open Thread

Benne — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:38:40 -0000

I know it's early, but whatever.

I'm sure the one game everyone here is focusing on will be the Capital One Bowl, featuring Matthew Stafford. This is the first time I'll be getting a good look at Stafford, and I'm hoping he'll be a good second option in the draft should Seattle miss out on Sam Bradford (Knowshon Moreno should be fun to watch as well.)

As for the other games, I'm rooting for Clemson because fuck Nebraska. The Rose Bowl should be an entertaining matchup (I'm rooting against USC, of course). Cincy/Virginia Tech should also be a fun game (hopefully more fun than the Georgia Tech crapfest earlier tonight).

Bryan Bullington

Benne — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:57:43 -0000

Hey guys,

Just popping in here hoping for a little help. I've been working on a year-by-year reveiw of all 1st-round draft picks for another site, and upon looking over 2002, I came across Bryan Bullington, #1 pick. I had never heard of Bullington until doing this little project, and att first glance it seems like a horrendous pick, what with guys like B.J. Upton, Prince Fielder, Scott Kazmir, and Cole Hamels all on the board.

So what happened to Bullington? Was it injuries that did him in? General ineffectiveness? Did he have massive upside at the time of the pick, or was this just another disastrous move by the Littlefield regime?

Thanks for any information you can provide. As a Mariners fan, I can sort of sympathize with the long-suffering Bucs fanbase. Hopefully the new front office can resurrect this once-proud franchise, baseball will benefit greatly from it.

Once again, thank you.