RME JICO

Wow, Detroit just got swept by KC, now 16-25. That equates to a 3% chance to make the playoffs.

CQ leads the AL in OPS.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 14, 2008 -> 02:21 PM) Why not lead off with CQ? Certainly he has extra base ability and has been hitting the cover off of the ball lately. I actually like that better, he is also faster than AJ.

It makes sense, but that is the problem. Logic doesn't seem to always apply to Sox lineups.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ May 12, 2008 -> 06:29 AM) I never saw anywhere to enter a coupn code...? On the 2nd page.

Coop will fix em. His ever-increasing WHIP (and waistline) is alarming though.

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Ok, he may be heating up, he was 1-5 to raise his average to .167 but his OPS dropped to .608.

Wow, teams are eating more and more salaries each year. Eventually teams will have more money tied up in released players than they have on their active roster, lol.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 9, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) funny, i just asked that same thing in the al central thread. I can't tell if he's slumping or just overrated, but BBTN did a pretty comparison of his stance and swing, how it's changed this season. There are so many high OPS guys struggling, not only with average, but with power as well. I could see guys raising their average up about 60-80 points from where it is at right now by the end of the year, but Howard is 100 pts below last season where he batted .268.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ May 9, 2008 -> 04:00 PM) Howard started off real slow last year too. Then when it counted when second half started he lit it up. Yeah but he was playing injured and eventually went on the DL and missed 12 games in May. Also, he is batting worse in May .143 than he did in April (.168).

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 9, 2008 -> 03:49 PM) It's been a strange season thus far. A lot of big names under .775. Troy Tulowitzki - .464 OPS Robinson Cano - .523 OPS Andruw Jones - .543 OPS Orlando Cabrera - .543 OPS Jose Guillen - .556 OPS Khalil Green - .558 OPS Delmon Young - .612 OPS Nick Swisher - .636 OPS Travis Hafner - .640 OPS Austin Kearns - .641 OPS Geoff Jenkins - .641 OPS Tad Iguchi - .645 OPS Carlos Delgado - .670 OPS Gary Sheffield - .681 OPS Ryan Garko - .683 OPS Troy Glaus - .686 OPS Ryan Zimmerman - .687 OPS Carl Crawford - .691 OPS Ken Griffey Jr - .695 OPS Edgar Renteria - .696 OPS Derek Jeter - .699 OPS Bill Hall - .711 OPS Carlos Pena - .713 OPS Hunter Pence - .717 OPS Ichiro Suzuki - .718 OPS Carlos Gomez - .720 OPS Ryan Braun - .733 OPS Richie Sexson - .738 OPS Carlos Beltran - .745 OPS James Loney - .746 OPS Jeff Francoeur - .746 OPS Brian Roberts - .748 OPS Paul Konerko - .750 OPS Jose Reyes - .753 OPS Jeff Kent - .758 OPS Mark Teixeira - .760 OPS Corey Hart - .762 OPS Vlad Guerrero - .765 OPS Ian Kinsler - .767 OPS Jim Thome - .768 OPS Prince Fielder - .769 OPS David Ortiz - .774 OPS I didn't realize it was so many players. Hafner is a shock too, you have to wonder about Pronk.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 9, 2008 -> 02:41 PM) CQ is obvious for the hitter, I'm going with Gavin for pitching, Danks stats were a little better, I was more impressed with Gavin throughout april though. Danks only allowing 1 HR and 7 BBs is awesome. Floyd has the upper hand for May.

Pretty sad when Dye is listed on there with an OPS of .801 and 2 HRs. I went with CQ and Danks for April. They both exceeded my expectations the most.

He is batting .165, has an OPS of .615 and leads the MLB with 51 K's. Long slump? Injury? or something else?

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ May 8, 2008 -> 10:55 PM) 6-3 is very reasonable. We face the Mariners weaker half of the rotation. Angels will be the toughest challenge, if were hitting by then we could win the series. Giants, well they are just terrible, can't hit, their pitching is only worry since we haven't faced many of those guys. Are you predicting a rain out?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2008 -> 11:33 AM) Which is why you need to look at the K/BB ratio also. Here's the simple way to think about it. Assume for a moment that all pitchers have a roughly constant BABIP. They will give up a constant number of hits per times a batter hits a ball. Unless they give up an abnormal number of home runs, then their WHIP, which will translate to ERA, is determined entirely by the number of walks they give up. A pitcher who has a high K rate but also walks a lot loses the benefits of the high K rate. A pitcher with a low K rate who walks almost no one will still be average to above average because he'll keep the number of baserunners low. That's the other think you have to take in to account with K rate. The first obvious complication of that is the Brandon Webb complication. Assuming you have a constant BABIP doesn't work for all pitchers, because movement on your pitches can kill batters who put the ball in play. But to first order, K/BB ratio is going to show you a lot. Agreed. See below. QUOTE (RME JICO @ May 7, 2008 -> 10:54 AM) You can see the elite K pitchers have an advantage. If you think about it, based on probability, the opposing teams have less of a chance to score when the ball is not put in play. So there has to be some correlation. It would be interesting to see the correlation between K:BB ratio and ERA or TBIP and ERA. I like TBIP the best because it takes into account XBH's which have the higher probability of a run scoring.

QUOTE (SpringfieldFan @ May 7, 2008 -> 10:04 AM) ...unless you consider Matsuzaka (#4). His ERA was nearly the same as Trachsel, the lowest rated strikeout pitcher. But yeah, the top dozen or so seem to get the K's and prevent the runs as well. I guess if you can be an elite pitcher, strikeouts are worth your consideration. SFF There will always be exceptions. Cabrera of the Orioles always had a good K rate and a high ERA, but that is more of an exception than a norm.

QUOTE (SpringfieldFan @ May 7, 2008 -> 09:43 AM) So, is there a correlation between K's and ERA? If so you should see the line connecting the dots increase (higher ERA) as you move from left to right (lower K rates). As I look at it I can see a *slight* average slope up, but really it is not very regular. There seems very little correlation to me; that you cannot predict ERA based on strikeout ability. What do you all think? By the way, I did a similar graph plotting strikeouts vs. win percentage and it yielded similar (lack of) correlation. Unfortunately, the tables I had to work with did not have WHIP stats, so I could not test that. SFF You can see the elite K pitchers have an advantage. If you think about it, based on probability, the opposing teams have less of a chance to score when the ball is not put in play. So there has to be some correlation. It would be interesting to see the correlation between K:BB ratio and ERA or TBIP and ERA. I like TBIP the best because it takes into account XBH's which have the higher probability of a run scoring.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:02 PM) His WHIP is under 1 because his BABIP is INSANE. You think that's in any way sustainable? No it is not sustainable, but I could see his being lower than the average by quite a bit.

I am glad he is back in his body, because it would be very difficult to pitch like that from outside your body.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:40 PM) Rally Dolls. This years Rally Crede. Someone needs to work the dolls into the Soxtalk banner.

and everyone said he only pitches good against Detroit........ GF: 3-1, 2.50 ERA, 0.96 WHIP 5th in the AL in ERA, tied for 3rd in WHIP. Danks not far behind. Who could've imagined that our best 2 pitchers would be Floyd and Danks at this point in the season?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:30 PM) Ok, now heres the question. Gavin has flirted with it twice, but who gets a no-no first: Danks or Floyd? I would say Floyd. When he is on, he has some nasty stuff.

Gavin has arrived. Great game.