SB Nation User Blog: DaleCoop14

Lorenzo Cain added to camp as NRI

DaleCoop14 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:32:16 -0000

Lorenzo Cain added to camp as NRI

I didn't see this anywhere yet. Glad to see him get a chance to hang out with the big club for a bit.

B.J. Upton - BABIP

DaleCoop14 — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:04:33 -0000

Below are MLB leaders in BABIP over the last few years. Jeter appears near the top of the list every year, and Ichiro is never far from the top, either. But other than that, there appears to be a decent amount of turnover at the top from year to year. In 2003, for example, the top 10 were: Jeter, Helton, Marlon Byrd, Podsednik, Koskie, Grudzielanek, Jacque Jones, Bill Mueller, Abreu, and Wilkerson.

It does not appear to be a common event for a hitter to have a BABIP of over .390 in consecutive years, considering that in most years, either one or zero players have achieved that number. Granting that it is still somewhat early, B.J. upton does not appear to have fallen off in terms of BABIP as most of us assumed he would.

Anyone have any thoughts on what it is about his approach, or Jeter's for that matter, that makes such excessively high BABIPs sustainable? LD% does not seem to be the determining factor for these two, at least. This year, Upton ranks at #108 with an LD% of 18.2% and Jeter is at #152 with 15.8%. Last year, they were both a bit better: Upton's 19.6% put him at #57 and Jeter's 19.9% placed him at #49. But this is not really satisfying me.

Is Bossman still due for a dropoff? Or is there something in his approach or skill set that has allowed him to maintain his ridiculously high BABIP for 1 1/3 seasons?

2008	BABIP	2007	BABIP	2006	BABIP	2005	BABIP
Jones, C	.422	Figgins	.399	Jeter	.394	Cabrera, Mig	.363
Kemp	.411	Upton, B	.399	Cabrera, Mig	.382	Young, M	.356
Rowand	.398	Ichiro	.390	Abreu, B	.375	Bay	.355
Berkman	.395	Posada	.389	Sanchez, F	.370	Jeter	.353
Upton, B	.394	Ordonez	.385	Mauer	.370	Jenkins	.352
Bradley	.393	Holliday	.380	Johnson, Re	.367	Helton	.350
Upton, J	.391	Renteria	.375	Cano	.363	Peralta	.349
DeRosa	.384	Crawford	.375	Howard	.363	Rodriguez, A	.349
Soto	.373	Jeter	.368	Guillen, C	.355	Lee, D	.349
Uggla	.364	Utley	.368	Holliday	.354	Hafner	.348

P.S. Another interesting tidbit. Chipper Jones is batting .418 with a .422 BABIP. I don't think anyone has ever finished a season with an actual BA that close to his BABIP. Anyone want to figure out what the record is?

Poll

Does B.J. Upton have inherent skills that help him to maintain a ridiculously high BABIP? Or has his luck just extended two months into a new season?

Inherent skills lead to his high BABIP

62 votes

He is lucky and is due for a drop-off.

20 votes

82 votes | Poll has closed

Geremi Gonzalez killed by lightning

DaleCoop14 — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:25:11 -0000

Geremi Gonzalez killed by lightning

He wasn't a Brewer long, but he did end his major league career with Milwaukee. Geremi was only 33 when he died.

Sort of OT: Keith Mitchell trivia

DaleCoop14 — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:23:48 -0000

I was aimlessly searching players on Baseball Reference and watching a game when the announcers mentioned Kevin Mitchell. This prompted me to look up Keith Mitchell. I was amused to find he played parts of four seasons in the majors, on four different teams, and never in two consecutive seasons ('91 Atlanta, '94 Seattle, '96 Cincinnati, '98 Boston.) His prolific career spanned all of 128 games.

So, for anyone with a better knowledge of baseball stat-finding than me: Has anyone ever played fewer games for more teams in a major league career?

Huntsville Box Score - 4/3

DaleCoop14 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:09:08 -0000

Huntsville Box Score - 4/3

Michael Brantley, Matt LaPorta, Matt Gamel and Steve Hammond all had very nice AA openers.

Hammond recorded 9 K, 0 BB and 0 ER in 6 IP.

Turnbow has just been unlucky?

DaleCoop14 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:27:57 -0000

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/story/2008/3/23/16447/2153

According to R.J. Anderson's reasoning, Derrick Turnbow has had two of the three unluckiest seasons of any pitcher since 2004. He concludes that Turnbow is, for whatever reason, significantly worse when there are runners on base.

I'm going to flash my ignorance here. Does Turnbow use a full windup with the bases empty? I guess nearly everyone does, except for a very few relievers. If he does, there could be a mechanical flaw when he pitches from the stretch.

Either way, it doesn't seem like "clutch pitching" is quite the same as clutch hitting since there are soooooo many other factors that come into play when runners are on than just nerves or strength of character or whatever... holding the runner, different motion, different pitch selection, different strategy (pitching to a groundball vs. a strikeout), etc.

Vargas out, Villanueva in for Crew

DaleCoop14 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:39:50 -0000

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/03/25/brewers-release-vargas.asp

A bit of a surprising move today by the Brewers, as they release Claudio Vargas, even with Capuano going down for the year. So what do you all think of Villanueva? He will be 24 for the whole season after floating around in the minors for the better part of five years. Really, he has seen nothing but success in the majors with decent K/BB (138/64), 117 ERA+, 1.238 WHIP in 168 innings. Of course, this includes only 12 starts, and a whole lot of relief innings.

What kind of year can we expect from Villanueva in his first year as a full-time member of the rotation? Ceiling?

Updated title: Vargas out, Villanueva in: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Anyone Else and Love the Mythical Beast

Terry Evans

DaleCoop14 — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:27:34 -0000

Does anybody know what kind of options Evans has left. I would love to see this guy get a chance to play regularly in the majors, but I don't see it happening anytime soon in Anaheim.

He seems like an ideal trade commodity. What is his ceiling if he gets a chance to start?

With limited research, I see AT LEAST a Scott Hairston-type player with more speed with the potential to be MUCH better. I think he could outperform Juan Rivera in LA right now. And for me, that is saying something, because I like Juan Rivera and think he probably deserves to be starting.

I'd love to hear what others think about him though.

Olsen and Bonderman

DaleCoop14 — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:31:01 -0000

Here are two guys with all the stuff to succeed but lacking results. In my mind, they are quite similar as well (possibly with the exception of attitude). Their progressions resemble one another, though Olsen's WHIP exploded last year amidst personal and legal troubles and Bonderman's K/BB has been better than Olsen's so far in the majors.

What are the outlooks for these two? What adjustments might they make that could help them harness their above average stuff? What are your predictions for either of them becoming a solid #2 or better? Or what are their ceilings at this point?

Poll

Will Olsen or Bonderman ever be a 3.50 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 2.5 K/BB pitcher?

Neither

35 votes

Bonderman

82 votes

Olsen

25 votes

Both

17 votes

159 votes | Poll has closed

Help me with a serious "joke trade"

DaleCoop14 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:24:19 -0000

In my dynasty H2H league, I usually send out some off-season trades in jest such as Joba, Ian Kennedy, and Damon for Johan with comments like, "If only the Twins could get so much from the Yankees..."

Well, one of my joke trades was Damon for Jason Bay, citing Damon's better 3-year averages. The offer was returned with a supposedly joke offer of Bay for Hafner. But I'm wondering if this is really a joke.

Here's some background. SBs are 1 pt, HRs are 4 + 1 rbi + 1 r, for 6 pts total. Position eligibility is easy in our league -- 5 games in the previous or current season -- so Hafner is easily eligible at 1B. In my lineup as of now are:

1B - Ortiz (Hafner, Damon)
OF - Sizemore, Ichiro, Sheffield (Damon, Bruce; also Juan Rivera, Stephen Pearce, who may be dropped for the draft)
DH - Hafner

The obvious reasons for turning this down are that two of my current infielders (Upton and Braun) may never play infield again, and then I will just have too many OFs.

But purely for this year, is it unreasonable to think Bay might out-perform Hafner in 2008? What about over the next few years?

Poll

Who is better now and in three years: Hafner or Bay?

Hafner in 2008 -- Hafner in 2010

83 votes

Bay in 2008 -- Bay in 2010

11 votes

Bay in 2008 -- Hafner in 2010

2 votes

Hafner in 2008 -- Bay in 2010

19 votes

115 votes | Poll has closed