SB Nation User Blog: Gdawg

The Rangers have reinstated outfielder Nelson Cruz from the 15-day disabled list, making room for...

Gdawg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:45:33 -0000

The Rangers have reinstated outfielder Nelson Cruz from the 15-day disabled list, making room for him on the active roster by optioning not outfielder Julio Borbon, whose play has made it impossible to send him out, but instead right-handed reliever Guillermo Moscoso.

From Jamey's latest news flash

According to multiple local reports, the Astros have claimed infielder German Duran from the...

Gdawg — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:58:05 -0000

According to multiple local reports, the Astros have claimed infielder German Duran from the Rangers off release waivers. He goes onto Houston’s major league disabled list.

From Jamey's newsflash

Yahoo article on Rangers pitching

Gdawg — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:25:54 -0000

Yahoo article on Rangers pitching

Talks about how the Rangers pitching has improved as well as the defense. Some good quotes there.

Holland to Get First ML start

Gdawg — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:00:52 -0000

Just got a newsflash from Jamey. Padilla is going on the DL with some shoulder discomfort while Francisco takes his roster spot. Holland is going to make the start in Padilla's place. I hate seeing Holland be forced into the rotation like this and Padilla's injury isn't supposed to be serious. On the other hand, I am excited to see Holland make his first Major League start and he should be able to dominate Houston tomorrow.

Fangraphs Gets Awesomer

Gdawg — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:09:17 -0000

Fangraphs Gets Awesomer

They've now added pitch type linear weights so you can see how good/bad pitchers are with their pitches.

Jamie's a d-bag. I know we got some other Mythbusters fans here that should enjoy this.

Gdawg — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:56:40 -0000

Jamie's a d-bag. I know we got some other Mythbusters fans here that should enjoy this.

Fangraphs on Kinsler

Gdawg — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:23:12 -0000

Fangraphs on Kinsler

Fangraphs takes a look at Kinsler's great start.

Pitch Sequencing

Gdawg — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:09:34 -0000

Pitch Sequencing

The Hardball Times has a nice article on pitch sequencing using Pitch F/X data.

You make your own luck

Gdawg — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:02:49 -0000

So after seeing Tricer and THE dirkatron go at it over Millwood and Padilla and hearing about how Millwood was actually decent this past year, I wanted to look up some numbers on them past just TRA, FIP, etc. Here is some interesting stats on both of these guys (stats are taken from FanGraphs and THT:

_______LD%_______BABIP____DER____K/9___BB/9

Millwood-25.3%_____.366______.645____6.67___2.61

Padilla-19.2%______.309______.697_____6.68___3.42

So from looking at that, its easy to see why Millwood has the better FIP, TRA+, xFIP, or whatever your defensive independent stat of choice is. But the LD rate makes things interesting. Millwood let a lot of line drives get hit against him which makes his BABIP and DER worse. His K rate also isn't greater than Padilla's which means that he simply can't be allowing that much contact to be made against him with a LD rate that high. When you look at Beckett or Santana, they're striking out enough guys to make up for the higher LD rate. Furthermore, the general rule with BABIP is that it should be about .120 higher than a LD rate. Padilla would then sit at around .312 while Millwood should be around .373. Here are some more stats to chew on:

_______Contact%_____O-Contact%______Z-Contact%

Millwood-85.6%_______74.4%__________89.7%

Padilla-81.6%________65.3%__________87%

This pretty much just shows that regardless of if the pitch was in the strike zone or out of the strike zone, hitters didn't have much trouble making contact with Millwood, holder of the 90mph fastball. High LD rate, high contact rates (16th highest overall contact rate out of all ML starters), and of course the unimpressive K/9 made Millwood have a poor ERA last year.

Minors 8/11

Gdawg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:35:22 -0000

Off day for the good guys today so lets get a minor league thread going instead.

Pimental starts today for Spokane

Michael Main tries to keep up with Beavan's amazing hot streak and starts for Clinton tonight. He had 6 Ks in 6 IP with 4 hits and 2 walks, 0 ER, in his last start.

The Shroomer has Kiker as being the starter for Bakersfield tonight and Henry for the AZL Rangers

Hodges is set to go in Frisco

Ballard is making his 5th AAA start