SB Nation User Blog: SamYam

OTL Article about Billy's Legacy

SamYam — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:54:55 -0000

OTL Article about Billy's Legacy

long, but interesting read. sure to spark some debate here

NBA-TV Paul Westphal Interview about the Rookies

SamYam — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:16:03 -0000

NBA-TV Paul Westphal Interview about the Rookies

Nothing majorly new here, but some nice tidbits about Paul Westphal's thoughts on the rookies and summer league in general

"Oakland’s New Closer, the Anonymous All-Star"- New York Times

SamYam — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:48:10 -0000

"Oakland’s New Closer, the Anonymous All-Star"- New York Times

Nice story on Andrew Bailey in the New York Times

The Annual Questionable All-Star Post

SamYam — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:01:13 -0000

One year ago, I posted my first-ever fan-post on AN about my amazement that Jason Varitek was an All-Star. One year later, it's that time again.

The rules: Any player who is their team's only selection I cannot take issue with due to the fact that every team has to have at least one selection. Other than that, any stupid selection is fair game.

For the second year in a row, my "Questionable All-Star Selection" Award goes to a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Congratulations, Tim Wakefield! Come on down!

Let's play a little game. I'm going to give you the stats of 5 pitchers without any names. Then, we'll choose which selection should be the all-star.

W-L ERA WHIP K ERA+ K/BB

Pitcher A 6-7 3.13 1.260 67 130 2.39

Pitcher B 8-3 3.10 1.127 86 144 2.61

Pitcher C 10-3 4.30 1.354 53 108 1.47

Pitcher D 8-5 2.80 1.244 74 158 1.90

Pitcher E 6-4 3.10 1.304 49 131 2.19

Which one of these is not like the others???

If you guessed Pitcher C, then you'd be right! Let's take a look at that again, this time with names.

W-L ERA WHIP K ERA+ K/BB

Dallas Braden 6-7 3.13 1.260 67 130 2.39

Jered Weaver 8-3 3.10 1.127 86 144 2.61

Tim Wakefield 10-3 4.30 1.354 53 108 1.47

Kevin Millwood 8-5 2.80 1.244 74 158 1.90

Nick Blackburn 6-4 3.10 1.304 49 131 2.19

For the sake of expediency, I only included 4 other pitchers. But even a cursory glance at the stats seems to indicate that that Tim Wakefield is by far and away the worst of that bunch. You can exclude K/BB, because Wakefield is a knuckleball pitcher and isn't going to strike so many guys out. The only stat that Wakefield has an advantage over any of the others in is wins, which is probably the least helpful pitching statistic there is. In one of the more helpful stats, park-adjusted ERA+, Wakefield is a staggering 22 points below the lowest one of the other 4 pitchers. The other 4 pitchers are not All-Stars. Say what you want about Millwood or Weaver, but both of them, or Braden or Blackburn, easily gets the nod over Wakefield.

Let's put this into perspective. Wakefield is 29th in the AL in ERA and he did not even crack the top 50 in the MLB. Say what you want about ERA as a statistic, but it shows us that Wakefield is nowhere near the top of the list for pitchers who should be in the All-Star game.

It's pretty obvious how Wakefield made this All-Star team. Which brings me to the crux of what this selection tells us, which is that

Wins is still a way overrated statistic

While the other pitchers have much better overall stats, Wakefield does sport a nice 10-3 record, which is tied for the league lead. When I asked one of my friends how the hell Wakefield made the All-Star team, he replied "He's tied for the league lead in wins... you can't argue with that." Well, I can, I have, and I will. Wakefield's secondary stats make it look ridiculous that he's an All-Star... he's giving up over 4 runs a game! Kevin Slowey has 10 wins too, but I don't think anyone would make the case that he should be an All-Star... Wins tell you absolutely nothing about a pitcher's ability to get somebody out. A deserving pitcher lost out on an All-Star appearance because of a stupid obsession with wins.

Until next year...

!ברוך הבא עמרי (Welcome, Omri!)

SamYam — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:53:53 -0000

Omri Casspi is the talk of Israelis and Israeli Americans everywhere! As the lone Sacramentan amongst my group of Israel-loving friends, I have been inundated with congratulations on picking up the first Israeli player in NBA history. Friends of mine who know nothing about basketball messaged me to congratulate me on the pickup. It is a very big deal for a country so small. This past summer olympics, Israel won its first gold medal in its history (in windsurfing, of all things). To now get an NBA player is extremely exciting for everyone in the country.

For those of you who don't know, basketball is huge in Israel, and Maccabi Tel Aviv is the cream of the crop. They play in the EuroLeague and have actually won it five times. They last won the EuroLeague 2005, the same year they beat the Toronto Raptors in an exhibition game, which was the first time a EuroLeague team has ever beaten an American team on this continent. The country has a lot of American immigrants, but basketball more than any of the other sports really caught on there. Even in some of the deeply religious sections of Israel where they don't allow television or internet, the kids grow up on basketball.

I'm glad to see that StR fans are excited about the prospects of having Casspi on the team. I'm sure a large Israeli contingent well follow him wherever he goes, in much the same way that the Turkish fans show up whenever Hedo is playing. I'm very excited to welcome him to the Kings.

!ברוך הבא ומזל טוב

By the way, long time reader, first time poster. I enjoy the work Ziller and many of you do on the blog.

The Mysterious Case of Eric Patterson

SamYam — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:03:03 -0000

While I was checking minor league stats last night, I noticed that Eric Patterson had another great night at the plate, going 4 for 5 with a home run. When I looked into his stats, I discovered that over his last 10 games, he is 20 for 42 (.476) with 3 home runs, 3 triples, and 2 doubles; he's just absolutely mashing right now. On the season, he's batting .326 (with an almost .400 OBP), and an OPS of .918. All signs point to him being ripe for a callup, and soon.

However, Eric Patterson remains one of the most maligned players on AN, and for good reason. In 30 games with the A's in 2008, he hit .174 and only slugged .207. His numbers from the minors last year, however, were actually almost identical to this year's. Although the sample size is, admittedly, quite small, it seems that for some, unknown reason (I know that some on this site have suggested a slow, looping swing; I can't vouch for that), the guy dominates AAA pitching but just can't get the bat around on a major league fastball.

But with the tear that Patterson is on right now, it's easy to make the case to call him up and give him one last chance. However, there is another problem here: where to play him? The positions he has played in the majors are: LF, and 2B. 2B seems to be out; Kennedy has been playing extremely well and Ellis is due back from injury soon, giving us an impending logjam there already. The corner outfield positions are taken by Holliday and Cust respectively; and with Buck coming back from injury, and destroying the ball in his rehab starts, not to mention a major league track record (spotted as it might be), if he gets out of the A's doghouse it seems like Buck would be a much smarter decision than Patterson. That leaves little room for Patterson. In addition, Patterson has been worth -5.1 runs in the outfield, while Buck has shown himself to be an average, if not spectacular, fielder. Thus, barring injury, there seems to be no spot for Patterson to have a chance to prove himself.

My thought is that we flip Patterson for some value, or include him as a piece in a trade, while we can. As a 26 year old, it's not worth it to wait on him and hope he can figure out his major league woes. However, his impressive (and consistent) minor league stats might make another team bite, giving us a chance for help at a position of need. If we do call up Patterson and he struggles again, this will hurt his value in a trade while doing nothing for the club. He is good trade bait while his stock is high.

Thoughts?

Varitek an All-Star?

SamYam — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:35:30 -0000

We all know that the all-star starter vote will always be a popularity contest. This year was no different, with a full 2/3 of the starting position players for the AL coming from the Red Sox or Yankees. Seems strange for teams who are 4 games and 9 games out of their division's lead, respectively, but not unexpected.

However, we should expect the all-star reserves to be a little bit more fair, since this does not come down to the fans' votes. Yes, every team must have an all-star, so some underachievers will make the team. But this year one selection completely and utterly blew my mind, and I have yet to hear a valid explanation.

How in the world did Jason Varitek make the all-star team?

The man has a batting average of .219. You read that correctly. That's closer to the Mendoza line than to an all-star berth.

Yeah, anyone who has ever watched ESPN knows about Varitek's "leadership" and "heart", but how could they justify putting a man with a batting average lower than Rob Bowen on the all-star roster? There is only one possible arguments that people have given me, which holds no water.

Argument: Jason Varitek manages the Red Sox pitching staff, which is one of the best in the league.

I have always felt that people tend to overrate the catcher's overall effect on managing a staff, but even so, this argument does not make sense.

There are 5 AL teams with a lower staff ERA than the Red Sox, 4 of which are over 0.2 points lower. Only one of these catchers made the all-star game, Dioner Navarro of the Rays. I'm going to do a line comparison of each of these catchers on the 4 teams besides the Rays with lower staff ERA than the Red Sox, plus Jason Varitek's, and we'll see who should make the team.

#1 .299/.338/.447 7 HR

#2 .276/.336/.359 3 HR

#3 .256/.335/.394 5 HR

#4 .204/.308/.472 12 HR

#5 .219/.301/.360 7 HR

Which of these should make the All-Star team, considering, each had similar results with their pitching staff. #1 seems like the obvious candidate. The others have underwhelming stats; #5 seems to be the most underwhelming of all. Here are the 5 players.

#1- A.J. Pierzynski (CWS ERA 3.41)

#2- Our very own Kurt Suzuki (OAK ERA 3.43)

#3 Greg Zaun (TOR ERA 3.59)

#4 Mike Napoli (LAA ERA 3.76)

#5 Jason Varitek (BOS ERA 3.83)

It is obvious that the all-star selection should have been A.J. Pierzynski, who not only has far superior stats, but managed a staff with an ERA a full 0.42 points lower than Varitek's. It cannot be argued that Varitek's management of a staff makes him deserving of a spot on the team. Any of those 4 other catchers would have been a better candidate, as would many other catchers throughout the league. I would have some sympathy if Varitek was his team's only all-star, but 6 other Red Sox made the team.

This is just another example of ridiculously obvious Red Sox favoritism.

Ziggy getting some love from olney

SamYam — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:56:44 -0000

ziggy was the main item today on buster olney's blog on espn.com

i almost never agree with anything the guy has to say, but its nice to see brad getting some attention from a national sports source. heck, its nice to see espn talking about any teams other than the AL East or the Cubs.

in addition to the stats on brad, he gives some interesting anecdotes about his famous delivery switch. its a fun read

read the piece here