SB Nation Blog: elricsi

AL Projections

elricsi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:32:29 -0000

Based on current standings and run differential from 2007 and 2008. These are very accurate power rankings, I think. These are projected wins at the end of the regular season. I posted once before at the end of an old thread. I'm curious if you would like an update from time to time as the season goes along.

D-Mac goes Bat S**t

elricsi — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:15:43 -0000

Our old buddy cracked 3 HR's in a game yesterday. He is leading the PCL in HR's with 15, and is 6th in the league in OPS with a 1.056

Curiously 6 of the top 8 hitters in OPS in the PCL are third basemen. I think he'll make the Marlins proud when he gets a good shot to platoon in the NL.

Praise little baby Jesus we are in first place and Figgy was doing well at 3B and will be back soon, otherwise I might cry.

The 2008 Marlins biggest(?) problem

elricsi — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:55:52 -0000

In 2007 the biggest problem with the Fish was their awful D as hits were dropping in everywhere as measured by DER and team zone rating.

It's too early in the season to focus too much on any one player, as they don't have enough AB's to have a good sample. But the team stats have enough events that we can start to see what is going on with the whole team.

In 2008 the D is much better, as they are no longer worst in the league. Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and San Francisco are all arguably worse. Maybe Hanley's health and having a real 3rd baseman are helping.

But the one thing that jumped out at me is that they are 29th in all of baseball in team OPS versus LHP. As you guys see more games than me, what is going on there? I thought the Marlins were loaded with RH batters.

Your best $$$ guess

elricsi — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:01:37 -0000

How much money will the highest paid Marlin make in 2008? (best guess)

I figure this would be good to have on the right, it should be awhile before it drops off. You can post your guess as a comment, or vote too.

I think they still have a couple of guys up for Arbitration. Is Olsen scheduled for the most now?

Plus we're not getting Cliff Floyd, but at least he is returning to Florida.

I'll say 1.5M

dissing GA

elricsi — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:07:07 -0000

From the KLAW's chat today:

Jock Thompson, The OC: Keith, not that I disagree with you that Scioscia needs to find ABs for Willits, but with respect to Anderson, you obviously haven't checked the stats since the All-Star break. Among other things, Anderson is third in MLB RBI and completely healthy for the first time in four years.

Keith Law: Well, RBI are meaningless, so I'm not buying that argument. And I just saw the Angels for four games - Anderson's bat speed has slowed, he can't hit lefties at all, and he's limited in left. Trust me, there's no way they'll do anything to limit his time, but I think it's the rational move.

Mariners suck

elricsi — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:24:39 -0000

A few weeks ago there was a poll on what result we wanted from the 4 game Mariners / A's series, and I voted that I hoped the Mariners kill them. The A's tendendency to roll in the 2nd half concerned me more than the M's getting close to us.

Anyway, today everyone's favorite ESPN writer has a blog up on the Mariners, titled "M's success could be short-lived". Here is one paragraph:

"What's the point? The point is that the Mariners are incredibly lucky to trail the first-place Angels by only two games. So lucky, in fact, that if you were running the Mariners in a computer simulation, you might give up on this season and start thinking about next season and the seasons beyond. But this is a real-life team playing real-life games for real-life fans, so giving up on this season is actually the last thing the Mariners will do. Or should do. They have to try as hard as they can to win, as improbable as winning might actually be for them."

Let's start the 2nd half right!

elricsi — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:46:57 -0000

OK, with a few days off, I imagine the Angels are working on setting their rotation the best they can to open the 2nd half. After Black Magic's disaster in Yankee stadium, I hope they make an effort to maximize his home starts and minimize the road starts (especially in tough stadiums).

So after the break, we have this:

3 vs Tex
3 at TB
3 at Min
3 vs Oak
3 vs Det
3 at Sea
4 at Oak

Let's talk about D

elricsi — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:13:38 -0000

I imagine many of you may have already seen this article, but if you are interested in fielding then you need to see it:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/d-fence/

This is basically discussing the best fielding analysis that is publicly available. I guess it's not exactly Angel-centric, as not one of our players is amoung the 3 best or the 3 worst at their position. But every once in awhile it comes up here as to exactly which defensive stats are good, and this is the best one. (For day to day numbers you can use unadjusted zone rating, but you need to take that with a grain of salt.)

P.S. I still say the best defensive CF I have ever seen is Gary Pettis. He even won a gold glove in his 2nd full season, which is basically unheard of.

Side Salad

elricsi — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:43:51 -0000

We all know Nipples stared slow this year, but anything can happen in 100 to 200 at bats.

I wonder if we realize just how good of a hitter he is as a catcher.

Over the last few years I think there are 4 catchers that clearly stand out as the best hitting backstops and they are:

Jorge Posada
Victor Martinez
Joe Mauer
Brian McCann (my 7th cousin, 6 times removed)

Not sure what order they go in, but I think those 4 are clearly proven to be the best. Some other guys are almost in that group, but have shit the bed in at least one season recently (Varitek and I-Rod).

What should we do about 3B?

elricsi — Sat, 26 May 2007 21:45:52 -0000

It looks like the one position that is a mess for us is the hot corner. Everywhere else we have something going on at least. The Angels are 30 out of 30 in OPS by their 3rd basemen, more than 100 points behind the 29th place Dodgers.

It looks like Wood is about a year away from being MLB ready, Lord knows when D-Mac will ever be healthy, Figgins has completely forgotten how to hit, and Izturis is good for a utility infielder.

To give us some background I figure I would post a list of the 14 3rd sackers with a weighted OPS of over 800 over the last 3 seasons. (Triple weight for 2007, double weight for 2006, single weight for 2005):