Game#153: Yankees at Angels

post from Zell's Pinstripe Blog on 23 September 2009 02:06:32 PM. © Zell's Pinstripe Blog

Yankees (96-56) vs. Angels (90-61)Pitching Matchup:RHP A.J. Burnett (11-9, 4.22) vs LHP Scott Kazmir (9-8, 5.08)LineupJeter SSHairston 3BTeixeira 1BMatsui DHDuncan RFCano 2BCabrera LFGardner CFMolina CGame News & NotesKazmir is 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA against the Yankees this year, both with the Rays, and 6-4 with a 2.53 lifetime ERA in 13 starts and one relief [...]

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Durability in the starting rotation wins
championships

post from Zell's Pinstripe Blog on 23 September 2009 02:06:03 PM. © Zell's Pinstripe Blog

The Yankees haven’t accomplished anything in recent years mostly because of their lack of starting pitching durability. They had veterans who broke down, one year wonders, injury prone players, etc. This year’s team has a different story to tell.The Yankees starting rotation has been healthy besides Chien-Ming Wang. The current team has 4 starters with [...]

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http://zellspinstripeblog.com/2009/09/23/durability-in-the-starting-rotation-wins
-championships/

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New York Yankees Clinch Playoff Spot

post from The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on 23 September 2009 01:56:45 PM. © The Ghost of Moonlight Graham

With the Texas Rangers losing to the Oakland A’s 9-1 last night, the New York Yankees became the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot. With that last sentence, at least 5,000 New York Mets fans just converted to Yankees fans just to be “cool.” Today, they all came into school with red [...]

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-playoff-spot/

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Yanks finally win in Anaheim and clinch playoff
berth

post from Zell's Pinstripe Blog on 23 September 2009 01:11:08 PM. © Zell's Pinstripe Blog

The Yankees finally won their first game in Anaheim this year. It’s been a constant struggle for this team to beat the Angels, so it was definitely a satisfying win for the team. They can go into the playoffs knowing that they can beat them.The Yankees didn’t pop any champagne last night, because the main goal [...]

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playoff-berth/

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The Rockies with 2 outs

post from Purple Row on 23 September 2009 01:00:00 PM. © Purple Row

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

2 outs? No fear!

Browse more photos »

Nothing is more gutwrenching than having a man in scoring position with one out and then watching your next batter pop out or something like that. You want the plate appearances to be productive, because we have a guy on base! We want that guy to score! If you aren't going to drive him in, at least ground out to the right side so the runner at 2B can at least advance to 3B, right?

But see, then we have 2 outs, and the inning is practically over. Because come on, we have 2 outs. We're gonna blow it. The Rockies are TERRIBLE at driving guys in with 2 outs.

Or are we?

Allow me to lay some learning on you.

Join me after the jump.

The Rockies are actually most successful with 1 out, posting an OPS of .806. That's pretty solid right there. They are least successful with 0 outs, posting a .758 OPS. We are mediumly successful with 2 outs, OPSing .782. It should also be noted that AVG/OBP/SLG are also ranked as such, so it's not like we slug 100 times harder with 2 outs or something, those all follow the rankings from above.

Split

OBP

SLG

OPS

0 outs

.256

.334

.424

.758

1 out

.267

.353

.453

.806

2 outs

.256

.340

.442

.782

So it's not as bad as the panicky selective memory may act. There are some concerns, however.

Split

GDP

0 outs

369

1 out

372

2 outs

431

The most disturbing number there is the huge disparity in the number of strikeouts we have with 2 outs. I thought about this for a second, and then thought "wait, but what about the pitchers? If we're getting Danny HarOWNED then there's a good chance we're going 1-2-3, which means the pitcher is gonna get pelted with that 2-out K pretty often. That's gonna skew our numbers. While we'd love our pitchers to be able to hit with 2 outs, we're not really factoring their production into our situational hitting (well, for the sake of this analysis I'm not). So looking at the numbers WITHOUT the pitchers:

Split

GDP

0 out

336

1 out

352

2 out

387

Well, that seems quite a bit more realistic, but the fact that we're less likely to punch out with only 1 out seems somewhat worrisome. It's like everyone gets into their own heads with 2 outs or something (don't think about an elephant).

The upside of our batters is that we're clearly experts on not grounding into double plays with 2 outs. Good to see us running everything out hard. At the same time, however, I want to see more fundamental baseball with 2 outs! Runner on 3B, you get that ball in the air! That's been insanely frustrating.

I'm totally kidding about that last part.

So with 2 outs, here are the batters we want to see at the plate:

Name

RBI

OBP

SLG

OPS

Jason Giambi

.750

.833

2.500

3.333

Dexter Fowler

117

.333

.419

.549

.968

Todd Helton

119

231

.323

.429

.518

.947

Seth Smith

.349

.417

.523

.940

Brad Hawpe

107

190

.284

.363

.544

.908

That's right, Whiffy McFailSuck is still our 2-out RBI leader. I really chalk that up to luck in the timing, but a .544 SLG is going to drive guys along the basepaths well one way or another. Those 9 dingers kind of make Hawpe still the 2-out guy. I mean, this doesn't really mean that much, maybe just something more to think about in lineup construction.

Obviosuly, the numbers are telling us that Dex is the best 2-out guy to have around, based on all the batting numbers. But based on the fact that Dex is typically leading off, he has the #8 and the pitcher batting in front of him, so I'm guessing that he doesn't get an awful lot of RBI opportunities. (Remember back in 2005 when Barmes had all them RBI as a leadoff hitter? That was kind of weird.)

Anyhow, because split stats are fun, we can get even clutcher and awesomer. We're going 2 outs with RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION.

Name

RBI

OBP

SLG

OPS

Jason Giambi

.667

.750

2.000

2.750

Paul Phillips

.500

.800

.500

1.300

Yorvit Torrealba

.438

.571

.563

1.134

Chris Iannetta

.212

.395

.667

1.062

Dexter Fowler

.319

.439

.553

.992

Todd Helton

.347

.515

.469

.985

Brad Hawpe

.264

.384

.556

.939

Garrett Atkins

.278

.400

.500

.900

I kind of hesitated to even include Phillips in this, simply because he hasn't had an AB since like June, but whatever, he had a good stint.

Hawpe still leads the RBI leaderboard, but Torrealba's numbers are just insane. Granted, it's almost entirely singles, but a 1.134 OPS is not to be ignored.

So while the situation is never really ideal, having to produce with 2 outs, it's good to know that we have guys here who can get the job done.

Because we're gonna need them.

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http://www.purplerow.com/2009/9/23/1051205/the-rockies-with-2-outs

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Yankees Clinch Playoffs

When Mariano Rivera shut the door on the Yankees 6-5 win over the Angels last night they clinched[...]

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HLP talks to Matt and Fred on ESPN Radio 97.5 @
2:35 CDT

HLP talks to Matt and Fred on ESPN Radio 97.5 @ 2:35 CDT

Should be a good time as there is a ton to discuss. Plans for 2010, Cecil Cooper's firing, possible replacements, ~~my secret recipe for a fabulous chicken almondine~~.

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http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2009/9/23/1051687/hlp-talks-to-matt-and-fred-on-espn

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Braves Cox to retire after next season (AP)

Bobby Cox will retire as manager of the Atlanta Braves after the 2010 season, ending a career in which he guided the team to 14 consecutive postseason appearances and the 1995 World Series title. The 68-year-old, a four-time Manager of the Year, agreed to a one-year contract extension for 2010, the Braves announced before Wednesday [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/09/23/braves-cox-to-retire-after-next-season-ap/

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No broken bones in foot of Yanks Posada (AP)

Yankees catcher Jorge Posada has no broken bones in his foot after fouling a ball off his toes. Posada played the entire game Tuesday despite fouling the ball off himself in the fifth inning of New York's 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees sent him for X-rays on Wednesday morning after his [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/09/23/no-broken-bones-in-foot-of-yanks-posada-ap/

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