Despite Quick Turnaround, Pettitte Well Rested

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 04 November 2009 02:32:49 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

[...]

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Giants Still Need Infield Help

post from The Giants Baseball Blog- A San Francisco Giants Blog and Fan Website on 04 November 2009 01:41:00 PM. © The Giants Baseball Blog- A San Francisco Giants Blog and Fan Website

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010.

I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in the lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indicate. However, I really can't say I'm too upset with the terms of his new deal. I think Sabean did the best he could given the situation in this case. Sanchez has shown that he's capable of hitting .300 if he stays healthy, and I think his gap power could translate into dozens and dozens of doubles for the second basemen here at the spacious AT&T Park. So, to sum this situation up in a sentence; I wasn't looking forward to having Sanchez back at 8.5 mill in 2010, but having him around at 6 mill is much more reasonable and in line with his value, and it also gives the Giants an extra couple of mill to use on more infield help.

With Sanchez (2b), Renteria (SS) and Sandoval (1B-3B) all penciled in for starting spots in the Giants infield, it would appear that their is still one opening in which the Giants may be able to store that big bat they so desperately need. Travis Ishikawa and Ryan Garko will be the returning options if the Giants fail to upgrade in that department, and they also have potential free-agent Juan Uribe who they appear to have sincere interest in keeping. I was stoked on the performance that Uribe gave the Giants last year, playing for the ML minimum, but being truly honest, I don't think he's an everyday player, and I'd hate to see Sabean give him something like a 2-year, 10 million dollar deal with the belief that he can be. I want Uribe back on this team next year, just not as a guaranteed starter, and I can't help but think that there are going to be other teams out there that are going to want Uribe's services after the year he put up for the Giants in '09, and I certainly wouldn't get into any kind of bidding war if that's the case. Uribe is especially valuable to the Giants because of his ability to play shortstop, where Edgar Renteria may need a caddy throughout the year.

Yankees Win World Series: The New York Yankees reeled in their 27th World Championship on Wednesday night, defeating the Philidelphia Phillies and Pedro Martinez to clinch the Series in 6 games. The Yanks' starting pitching was the superior of the two, and the Yankees were only using a 3-man rotation. What was really surprising to me though, was how well the Yanks bullpen threw. I think the pen was key for them in this series as they really held the potent Phills lineup in check. Offensively, everyone knew the Yankees would score enough runs, and they certainly did. Series MVP Hideki Matsui sported a ridiculous .625 batting average with 3 home runs and 8 RBI in the 6 game set. Mr. November, Derek Jeter, continued his November brialliance, hitting .407 with 6 runs scored and led both teams with 6 hits in November. The Yankees were definitely the best team in this postseason and as much as it pains me to say it, they certainly deserved to win this thing.

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Cubs LHP Lilly has shoulder surgery (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 04 November 2009 01:14:43 PM. © MLB News Blog

Chicago Cubs left-hander Ted Lilly, who's been one of the team's most consistent starters the last three seasons, had surgery on his left shoulder and no timetable has been set for his return. The Cubs said the arthroscopy and debridement procedure performed Tuesday by Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles revealed no major damage to [...]

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Swing and a miss! or- Jip Jip Jorge!

post from Purple Row on 04 November 2009 01:10:00 PM. © Purple Row

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Somebody swung and missed at this pitch.

Browse more photos »

Alas, poor Jorge: I knew him well...at least that's how we all felt when he left against the Dodgers with a left groin pull. Losing Jorge De La Rosa may have been a major part of the Rockies' 4-game loss in the NLDS against the 2009 NL Champion Phillies. However, at this point, what's done is done, and I feel we can look back on his season and be pleased for the most part.

Starting 2 weeks ago, Counting Rocks is looking at the Rockies' rotation and drooling over the good things they've done and finding ways to brush the bad things under the rug.

This was a promising season for De La Rosa. After bouncing through 2 professional leagues (MLB, Mexican League) and 5 MLB franchises (Arizona, Boston, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Colorado), it would seem that at least for the time being, Jorge has found somewhere to call home. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say how pleased I am that he's here.

DLR has brought electricity to the mound that we haven't really seen since Pedro Astacio and Bruce Ruffin. DLR came to the mound with a 4 pitch arsenal: a 92-95mph fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. This season, his fastball was really nothing terribly special (according to Fangraphs, as will the rest be), his curveball was roughly an average pitch, but his slider and changeup were remarkably positive pitches, and while nowhere near the top of the leaderboards, you can find his pitch values somewhere around the middle of the first page, anyhow.

No, what stands out about Jorge's pitches isn't how they rank in terms of run values in the majors, but rather what other batters were able to do with the pitches.

Join us after the jump as we look at Jorge's skillsets and how he's used them in the 2009 season.

Firstly, he's a strikeout machine. Now, he doesn't have the sheer number of punchouts that Jimenez and Astacio have/had, but that's mostly because they are/were more durable pitchers, more innings, etc. That said, DLR's 2009 season in terms of sheer strikeout totals ranked 3^rd in Rockies' history, tied with Pedro Astacio's 2000, at 193. Ranked ahead of him are: Ubaldo Jimenez' 2009, with 198, and Pedro Astacio's 1999, where he fanned 210 batters. Following is the Rockies' all-time leaderboard in terms of single-season strikeouts.

Rank

Player

Year

Pedro Astacio

210

1999

Ubaldo Jimenez

198

2009

Pedro Astacio

193

2000

Jorge de la Rosa

193

2009

Ubaldo Jimenez

172

2008

Pedro Astacio

170

1998

Jeff Francis

165

2007

Darryl Kile

158

1998

Jason Jennings

142

2006

Denny Neagle

139

2001

Secondly, past the total strikeouts, De La Rosa was able to get more people to swing and miss at his pitches than anyone on the staff, making batters look silly with 10.6% of his pitches. He ranked 14^th in the majors among eligible starters in this Swinging Strike% category. That's nasty right there. DLR also was 10^th in the majors in terms of % of pitches that resulted in balls in play, at 16.9%. Now with a guy like DLR, you almost don't want him to put it in play. He's not TERRIBLY home run prone, but he did allow an OPS of .745 this season (which means batters batted just a shade below average against DLR as a collective). But remember that only 1 pitch per plate appearance can be put into play, and even then, sometimes one ISN'T put into play.

I'd be remiss if I just presented the number of batters who swung and missed without presenting any of the downside. While we can cheer about DLR making guys whiff and not putting a lot of balls into play, DLR also ranked 17^th in the majors in Ball%, in the bad way. Yes, 38.9% of DLR's pitches landed outside of the zone, while 43.9% fell for strikes/balls. This is new, right, the revelation that he walks too many guys? Anyhow.

But all of these numbers are kind of meaningless without putting them into context. As you all know, I'm a big fan of component rate stats: K/9, K/BB, BB/9, and HR/9. DLR posted a 9.39 K/9 this season, which is a career best for him, beating last year's mark of 8.86. Check out DLR's components below:

Season

Team

K/9

BB/9

K/BB

HR/9

AVG

WHIP

FIP

2004

Brewers

1.99

5.56

0.36

0.4

0.312

1.9

5.17

2005

Brewers

8.93

8.08

1.11

0.21

0.287

2.03

4.04

2006

Brewers/Royals

7.63

6.15

1.24

1.59

0.267

1.71

5.88

2007

Royals

5.68

3.67

1.55

1.38

0.304

1.64

5.27

2008

Rockies

8.86

4.29

2.06

0.9

0.259

1.46

4.06

2009

Rockies

9.39

4.04

2.33

0.97

0.248

1.38

3.91

(Bolded numbers indicate career bests)

DLR took strides this season, and this really has been the best year of his career. He's 29 on opening day 2010, so while I don't anticipate him getting better, per se, I do see him being able to refine his BB9 while maintaining a high K/9. (It should be noted his 2009 numbers are very slightly skewed by his 1 relief appearance, his numbers as just a starter are slightly better overall, but not enough to post JUST his results as a starting pitcher.)

I'd also like to point out that that Jorge posted a 4.10 tRA* (the regressed and adjusted and lathered/rinsed/repeated version of tRA that takes everything into account) this season, good for 21st overall in the majors, and 2nd on the Rockies behind our boy Ubaldo.

So this is all nice and fun, but seeing how we're looking at DLR's numbers in terms of the Rockies' franchise, chew on this for a minute:

Jorge De La Rosa holds the top 2 marks in franchise history for strikeouts per 9. Yes, higher than Pedro Astacio. Higher than Bruce Ruffin. Higher than Darryl Kile. He tops them all.

Rank

Player

K/9

Year

Jorge de la Rosa

9.389

2009

Jorge de la Rosa

8.861

2008

Pedro Astacio

8.847

2000

Ubaldo Jimenez

8.174

2009

Pedro Astacio

8.147

1999

Bruce Ruffin

8.119

1993

Pedro Astacio

7.979

2001

Ubaldo Jimenez

7.792

2008

Shawn Chacon

7.537

2001

Byung-Hyun Kim

7.49

2006

Nothing's more fun for me than watching a pitcher amass strikeouts in a single game. This season, among his 32 starts (remember he missed that one at the ASB and pitched terribly in relief in one game just to give him a little work before a big layover), De La Rosa threw 3 games with 10 or more punchouts, 5 with 9 or more, 8 with 8 or more, and 11 with 7 or more strikeouts. It's hardly Lincecum-esque, but that's pretty awesome right there. Only Ubaldo really ranks about De La Rosa in this area of being a sheer lockdown pitcher, and that's simply because where Ubaldo lacks in the K9 department, he has a good 5-10% extra GB% as an insurance policy against the few scattered baserunners he allows.

So I've put my opinion on my sleeve pretty firmly here, I think DLR is a stud. His stuff is destructive. He's shown a lot of growth and maturity, especially in some games down the stretch where he allowed himself to be stretched an extra inning or two extra in some outings where they needed their starter to give some innings - specifically I'm thinking about his August 22 start against SF, where he got hit for 6 runs early, but still stretched out over 6 innings while the Rockies rallied and ultimately won the game 12-8.

Of DLR's 32 starts, he only had 7 starts where he allowed more than 4 runs (9 if you include the 4 run games), 2 games with 6 runs allowed, 4 with 7 runs allowed. Those 4 7-run starts have me disturbed, as well as the 2 6-run starts, because it's not as if we can just write them off to April shakiness or whatever - 2 came in May, 2 in August, 1 in June, 1 in September. The small "good" we can take out of those terrible 6 starts are 2 small-ish things: First, he was able to make it out of the 4^th in 2 of the starts, pitching 5 and 6 innings in 2 of these stinkers, so at least he mopped up a bit of his own mess; second, his walk totals aren't obscene in them. Out of the 6 stinker starts, only 2 of them featured more walks than strikeouts, and only 1 of them featured more than 3 walks - well, 2 if you count HBP, but I'm looking that as kind of a different thing, esp in how it factors into pitch count. What I'm trying to point out here is that DLR's biggest weakness may seem to be wildness, but BBs weren't what killed him in his worst starts. In 3 of his 6 stinkers, however, he allowed 2 or more long balls.

It's pretty obvious we're putting lipstick on a pig in these cases, because it's not as if the "not as bad as it could've been" factor suddenly makes the runs not count or something, it's more that it simply looks like he just had "those days" rather than "man this guy just sucks", as the losses didn't really show his weaknesses - at least in the form of his recurring lack of control. If we wanna talk about emotional issues, whew, that's not really my field, but I'll be happy to discuss it. (My stance is the feared Jekyll and Hyde nature of DLR is starting to fade, almost like an evanescent mist, as he finds himself in a more stable role with the team, especially a team as good as the Rockies. I imagine knowing that even if he gives up 3-4 runs, the game isn't over, so he can pitch a bit looser and with a bit more confidence.)

So to conclude this praise of De La Rosa's 2009 season, I'll just leave you with with one line from DLR's split stats:

Opponent Name

SO/9

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

ERA

WHIP

Arizona Diamondbacks

109

7.4

.172

.287

.258

.545

1.35

26.2

1.163

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Pregame talk: World Series Game 6

post from lenNY's Yankees - A Bronx Bombers Blog on 04 November 2009 01:10:00 PM. © lenNY's Yankees - A Bronx Bombers Blog

Tonight could be a good night. A very, very good night for Yankees fans. The stage is set. Two postseason poised pitchers, Andy Pettitte and Pedro Martinez, set to duke it out. For the Yankees, a World Series ring is on the line. For the Phillies, a[...]

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Phillies CF Victorino in starting lineup (AP)

All-Star center fielder Shane Victorino was in Philadelphia's starting lineup Wednesday night for Game 6 of the World Series despite a finger injury. "His finger is fine," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said before the game. "He already went down and took some swings and picked up a ball and he's been throwing it, and he [...]

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This is un-Yankee-like

Cobb loves it, of course.

---
Read more at www.theghostofbaberuth.com

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Colorado Rockies Top 10 Pitching Leaders

I forgot to look into this and/or mention this last time CR was published, but Jason Hammel is even more of a man than any of us realized.

If you scroll down to "Strikeouts / Base On Balls" (about 2/3 of the way down), take a quick look at the leaderboard there, and how much of a jump there is from 1st to 2nd.

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New York State of Mind

It’s fitting that an admitted cheater (Pettitte admitted he used HGH following a report citing his involvement with shady characters you wouldn’t bring home to meet your parents) will take the mound to make New Yorker’s proud. In the crowd will be I-Bankers, derivatives traders, corporate executives and hedge fund managers who are once again getting [...]

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