SB Nation User Blog: Matt Bishoff

Since the Cavaliers have already matched their 2008-09 home loss total, some are already wondering...

Matt Bishoff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:12:46 -0000

Since the Cavaliers have already matched their 2008-09 home loss total, some are already wondering if their high-profile acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal was the equivalent of attempting to put out a fire with Diesel fuel.

John Krolik with a great line

Video of Lebron Getting Dunked on is Out

Matt Bishoff — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:14:15 -0000

Video of Lebron Getting Dunked on is Out

Apparently the video is out and will be posted later tonight or you can watch TMZ TV....ya, your probably better off just waiting for the link later

Leon Powe

Matt Bishoff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:08:15 -0000

What do you think about getting someone like Leon Powe on the cheap. He averaged 10 boards/36 when he was healthy and would be a great guy to throw in at the end of the rotation when he is healthy. He is also only going to be 26 this season, which is another plus. He will likely not be back until the end of the all-star break, but that shouldn't matter too much.

We are building a team to compete in the playoffs. He plays good defense and would be a good change of pace at the 4 behind Lewis/Anderson if we have match up problems or just need to get more physical. Any thoughts?

Bullpen MVP's

Matt Bishoff — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:33:22 -0000

All-Star selections are coming out today and there has been much talk has been about the Rays possible representation. The average MLB fan would probably credit the Rays improvement in the bullpen to the acquisition of Troy Percival. While Percy has been great as our closer, he has not been quite as good as two other Rays relievers. J.P. Howell and Dan Wheeler have been the glue that has stuck this bullpen together and put the Rays in winning positions so many times. Many are even calling for Howell to represent the Rays in the All-Star game, but they should also be considering Wheeler's name.

Pitcher	K/BB	LOB%	OPS HLv
Wheeler	2	89	0.545
Howell	2.04	74	0.303

As can be seen in the chart above, both Wheeler and Howell have been outstanding up to this point in the season. Wheeler has been outstanding in terms of leaving runners on base. Expect some regression in this area from him in the second half, as the league average is around 75%. In the same regards you can expect Howell to get even better. The most impressive stat here has to be Howell's OPS against in high leverage situations. An OPS of .303 is not just impressive, but rather jaw-dropping. We have said before that "The Vulture" is a gamer, but it is even more evident after seeing this statistic. Wheeler's mark isn't too shabby either and he has seen 14 more high leverage plate appearances. You would expect Howell to show some regression in this category, but some pitchers have shown trends in the past to consistently pitch well in important situations. The difference between whether or not we become a playoff team may lay heavily on the performance of these two hurlers.

Do We Need to Make a Move?

Matt Bishoff — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:46:27 -0000

As the team has continued its success into July, the Rays name seems to find its way into more and more trade rumors. Every year you see teams that are making deadline moves to bolster themselves for a late-summer playoff run. With the Rays playing like they are, everyone is waiting to see what moves go down. I just wonder whether or not it is really necessary to make a deal.

Quite often in deadline deals you will see teams trading for bullpen help. After watching the Rays this season, do we really need to add any more arms to our bullpen. Even with Percival and Reyes out, we still have quite the formidable pen. Grant Balfour has come up from AAA and brought his success along with him. You also have to consider what we could get in return for our bullpen and at what cost. To add another big stopper to the bullpen, it is going to cost the Rays some of our farm depth, which we hold like Frodo and the ring. Would anyone we trade for really be an improvement over the likes of a Wade Davis, David Price, or Mitch Talbot?

I have also heard the idea floated around that we could use the help of a veteran starter to hold down the back end of our rotation. While the back of our rotation could possibly use some help, they have still been doing a good job thus far. With Garza coming on strong, this gives us a very solid 1,2,3 rotation to take into the playoffs, if the situations arises. Jackson and Sonnanstine have had their ups and downs, but as a pair have been above-average 4 and 5 pitchers. You also have to consider the possibility of seeing Price or Davis being added to the rotations late in the season. If Price continues to pitch like he has, he would most likely be an upgrade or equal in value to nearly anyone we would acquire. More importantly, it would allow the team to not shell out any of the guarded farm depth.

Position wise the team has been solid everywhere from 1-9. The one area where we could use help is possibly in the outfield. The need for a right-handed bat has become more and more clear. However, I do not think the situation is as pressing as it is made out to be. As I have noted in the past, we have received some of best production from the RF/DH slots. An upgrade for Gomes could definitely be found on the market, but we have to be cautious to not give up too much for a minimal upgrade. If the Rays do make a trade, this is where I feel they should look to upgrade, but they have to keep their eye on the future at all times.

I have read and heard many times that the Rays have to make a move and take advantage of their depth in the farm system. I think the best way to take advantage of our depth is to hold on to it and not share it with anyone else. If they can make a deal that improves the team by not risking any major assets, then they should absolutely make it. They should not make a deal just because they are in a playoff race. The team as is has won 52 games before Independence Day, and I think they have been doing just fine with the guys they've got.

Brutal Schedule

Matt Bishoff — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:06:18 -0000

This Rays team has been winning games like they never have before...and they have done it by going through the toughest route in all of baseball. Of the Rays 71 games this year, 60 have been against teams with a record above .500. The next closest are the Blue Jays and Mariners who have both played 51 games against teams with a record above .500. Through these 60 games against good teams, the Rays have gone a staggering 34-25. Compare this to the Blue Jays and Mariners who have gone 23-28 and 18-33 respectively.

For the record, the Red Sox have only played 42 "tough" games compared to the Rays 60. This shows the Rays haven't just been doing it in the toughest division in all of baseball, but also their out-of-division games have been against top teams as well. The difficulty of schedules doesn't always sort out evenly between teams, but a difference of 18 games with the Sox should at least tighten a little bit.

Looking at stats like these makes you realize how truly special this team really is. For a team that has this much young talent to lace up and bring it every night against top teams with no fear, shows you how exciting this team will be to watch for years to come. Any guesses as to our record if we had the Sox schedule?

We Like to Run

Matt Bishoff — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:50:08 -0000

The Rays have jumped out to a great start this season, but the best jump may be that of first to second. The Rays currently lead all of baseball in stolen bases with 72. The next closest team in the American League is the Red Sox with 58. The Rays are currently the only team in baseball that is averaging over one stolen base per game. Although we have the most stolen bases, we have also been thrown out more than any other team in the AL with 25. Our SB% is sitting at 74% which is right on the league average. The team has racked up the attempts by trying to run against a team as much as possible when they have a weak arm behind the plate.

The team has made four stolen base attempts in a single game five times this year. The chart above shows these five games. As can be seen, in three of these five games the catchers CS% was well below the league average of 26%. The only game in which the team ran poorly was against the Cardinals and the strong-armed Yadier Molina. This was by far our worst game on the basepaths, as this was the difference between a win and a loss. Through these five games we stole a total of 14 bases. The Detroit Tigers currently have 21 stolen bases through 63 games.

Although the team has been running like mad men, they have for the most part been taking calculated risks. Also, our leadoff guy only has three stolen bases and in the future we could possibly be running even more.

XM Radio Today

Matt Bishoff — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:37:57 -0000

I will be on XM Radio later today representing the site and talking Rays. It will be on MLB Homeplate channel 175. The host is Jeff Joyce. I am scheduled to come on at 2:25. If you are thirsty for some Rays coverage and have XM radio, tune in and check it out.

Pat is going to kill me for making a post while using a sentence for filler. Please spare my life Pat.

The Vulture is a Gamer

Matt Bishoff — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:49:49 -0000

Many people, including myself, wrote off J.P. Howell as someone who could be a contributing member to the ballclub this season. Coming into this season, Howell had a career WHIP over 1.60 and has never shown himself to be capable of pitching on the major league level. However, up to this point in the season Howell is sporting a WHIP under 1.15 and has vultured four wins like your fat uncle on the last piece of pecan pie at Thanksgiving. Has the switch to the bullpen caused this change, has he done something differently, or has he simply just been lucky?

If you ask any pitcher, they will tell you there is a different mental approach involved in coming out of the bullpen. Previously in his career, J.P. has been a starter who has been prone to give up the big hit at important situations. His OPS against for his career is .843 in high leverage situations, .792 in medium leverage situations, and .760 in low leverage situations. This shows he has not shown the ability to pitch well in high pressure situations throughout his career, but most of his career has been as a starter. Throughout this entire season out of the bullpen, we have seen a different J.P. who performs his best in high pressure situations. His OPS against for 2008 is .361 in high leverage situations, .422 in medium leverage situations, and .772 in low leverage situations. This guy is a stopper out of the bullpen. He has come in and gotten the big outs when the team has needed him most. Those that feel that the mental change from starter to bullpen has made him a better pitcher could make a valid argument based on these numbers.

Besides the obvious change from starter to the bullpen, what else has J.P. been doing differently to make himself better? When watching him pitch this season, it has been obvious that his best pitch was has been big breaking curveball. He has been deadly, when he has been able to spot that accurately. What will amaze you is that he has just recently begun throwing it on a consistent basis at the major league level. If you go back to 2005 when he was with the Royals, he threw his curveball only 1.3% of the time while lobbing up his fastball 61.3% of the time. However, this year he has thrown his curveball 20.7% of the time while only throwing his fastball 54.0% of the time. He went from not having his curveball as a viable pitch to having it be his go to strikeout pitch. This has also had an added effect on his fastball. Not only does throwing more offspeed make his fastball seem faster, but coming out of the pen has added more life to his fastball. The last two seasons his fastball averaged 82.7 mph while this season it has jumped up to 85.8 mph. He has also thrown his changeup much less, as it was never too effective before. His changeup was previously thrown 23.2% and has now dropped down to 9.2%. Instead of using an offspeed pitch with no movement, he now uses his curveball to mix with his fastball and has been quite deceptive for hitters.

For a pitcher to make such a great turnaround in just one season, any person who looks at stats must check to see how lucky they have been. The statistics show that Howell has been a bit lucky so far as his xBABIP has been .299 while his BABIP has been .254. Last season, his xBABIP was .348 with .391 as his BABIP. This shows he was unlucky during his stint last season. Although his luck has changed this season, it does not come close to covering the massive Ty Pennington-esque makeover. The fact that his xBABIP has dropped nearly .50 shows that he has been pitching much better with luck not being a factor. His small amount of good luck so far might lead to a slight regression in the future, but nothing major.

When wondering what is the reason that he has been so improved this year, I believe you have to account for all of the possible suggestions. The mental change from starter to the bullpen has suited him well. He has made changes in his approach and pitch selection. He also also been a bit lucky. When you add all of these things up, it explains how he has been able to transform into a great asset to the team. We can expect so see good production from Howell throughout the rest of the season in this capacity.

Ben Zobrist opted to AAA Durham as the Rays call up relief pitcher Grant Balfour. Hat tip to the...

Matt Bishoff — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:17:38 -0000

Ben Zobrist opted to AAA Durham as the Rays call up relief pitcher Grant Balfour. Hat tip to the always great Todd Kalas. Grant has a 0.38 ERA through 23.2 IP, while a K/BB ratio of 39/10.